SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This book uses a Gramscian perspective to examine the marginalization of trade unions, as part of the reconfiguration of civil society, in post-liberalization Tanzania. The liberalization of the Tanzanian economy, which started during the 1980s and was accompanied by a move to multiparty liberal democracy, has led to conflicts in the sphere of civil society. Since liberalization, influential donors have driven the state to reconstitute civil society, based on a consensual vision, where, in theory, a wide variety of associational groups participate freely in national policy-making processes. However, in practice, the donors have supported the rise to prominence of a few non-governmental organizations versed in a dominant discourse, which revolves around the concepts of partnership, participation and ownership. In contrast, trade unions, by organizing industrial action and rhetorically challenging the state’s treatment of the workforce, are regarded as a threat. They have consequently been marginalized. In responding to their marginalization, trade unions are hampered by two substantive problems: an ideological vacuum concerning perceptions of their role within civil society and structural constraints caused by lack of finance, falling membership and poor facilities.