Class Struggles in Tanzania: 50th Anniversary Edition with New Introduction

Fiftieth anniversary edition of Issa Shivji’s classic Class Struggles in Tanzania, with a substantial new introduction titled Class Struggles under Neoliberalism. The original was published in 1975 and received with great enthusiasm by the left in Tanzania and internationally, having also appeared from Monthly Review Press in New York and Heinemann Educational Books in London. Much of the debate at the University of Dar es Salaam during the days of the Arusha Declaration revolved around the question of classes and class struggles in Tanzania and other newly independent African countries. With the same extensive research and lucidity, the new introduction provides a critical analysis of the transition from nationalism to neoliberalism over the last four decades, exposing the complicity of the comprador class with international monopoly capital. Shivji narrates the rise of the local comprador bourgeoisie (big, middle, and small) and the politico-bureaucratic rentier class, alongside the working people and the differentiated petty bourgeoisie. Issa G. Shivji is Professor Emeritus in Law at UDSM and co-author of the first comprehensive Nyerere biography (2020).