Africana Periodical Literature 
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 Periodical article |
 Leiden University catalogue |
 WorldCat |
| Title: | Rebirth of resistance: labour and structural adjustment in Zimbabwe |
| Author: | Dansereau, Suzanne |
| Year: | 1997 |
| Periodical: | Labour, Capital and Society |
| Volume: | 30 |
| Issue: | 1 |
| Pages: | 90-122 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Zimbabwe |
| Subjects: | strikes economic policy |
| Abstract: | This article analyses the nature of the labour strikes which have taken place in Zimbabwe since 1994, in particular the civil servant strike of 1996 and the strike in the health sector in the same year. At first glance, these strikes might be explained in terms of labour conflicts due to increased wage demands. However, other factors, such as the socialist heritage of the ZANU-PF party currently in power, and its links with the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), as well as the present social context, which is marked by the introduction in 1990 of the government's economic structural adjustment programme (ESAP), also play an important part. The article analyses the struggle of the labour movement in the colonial period and its part in the struggle for independence. In exchange for the promise of a radical transformation, the labour movement abandoned its struggle and chose instead to join the effort for national development. However, the structural adjustment programme introduced in 1990, which effectively barred workers and unions from the decisionmaking process, provoked an upsurge in labour resistance. The question is to what extent this resistance is aimed at a social transformation and whether trade union resistance will further develop into an organized political challenge, in conjunction with other marginalized groups. Notes, ref., sum. in French. |