The labour shortage problem in the sisal industry in Tanzania after the Arusha Declaration

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Periodical article

Title:	The labour shortage problem in the sisal industry in Tanzania after the Arusha Declaration
Author:	Lwoga, C.M.
Year:	1987
Periodical:	The African Review: A Journal of African Politics, Development and International Affairs (ISSN 0856-0056)
Volume:	14
Issue:	1-2
Pages:	51-64
Language:	English
Notes:	biblio. refs., ills.
Geographic terms:	Tanzania East Africa
Subjects:	labour shortage sisal Economics, Commerce Arusha Declaration Sisal industry Labor shortage
Abstract:	This paper argues that the labour problem that hit the sisal industry of Tanzania in the postindependence period and, even more seriously, in the period after the 1967 Arusha Declaration, was inherent in the plantation system. During the colonial period, migrant labour flow to the plantation sector was maintained through economic and political pressure. The postindependence State undermined the colonial labour supply mechanism, without establishing alternative means of labour supply. After the Arusha Declaration no structural changes were effected in the management of the sisal industry. Although the TANU (Tanganyika African National Union) guidelines of 1971 stressed the importance of workers' involvement in decisionmaking, workers such as sisal cutters or weeders had no possibility to participate in decisionmaking. Furthermore, a low status and low wage rates made this kind of work unattractive to job seekers. Notes, ref.