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Need to reform

somelabour laws inMalawi

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Why stability in private sector, instability in public service P6Fighting exploitation amid high unemployment rates P4


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Special pullout the nation 1 may 2013

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Need to reform somelabour laws in Malawi

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British American

Tobacco

Central Region

Water Board

Chingonga

Estate Agents

Ecobank

Escom

Illovo Sugar

Malawi

Lilongwe Water

Board

Malawi Revenue

Authority

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Water Board

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St tReaSuReD ReSouRce

Case of suspension, strikes and IRCT he Constitution providesfor a right to work anda right to fair and safelabour practices.

The State has a role toinitiate and implement lawsand policies that attainthe right to fair and safelabour practices. The actualrights in the industrialrelations are provided for invarious statutes such as theEmployment Act, LabourRelations Act, Pension Actand several others. Thegovernment has indeed passedseveral laws and policiesaimed at creating a conducivelabour environment.

Employments andEmployment Act

There are laws that regulatethe employment contracts byproviding minimum, in somecases, maximum requirementsfor the employer-employee

relationships. TheEmployment Act, for example,provides for such issues aspayments, non-discrimination,probation period, workinghours, leave entitlement,maternity provision andcessation of employment.

While prior to the currentconstitutional order,employment contracts were,by large, based on the law of contract, the current approachto employment is to subjectthe contracts to the provisionsof the Employment Act as wellas the Constitution generally

and particularly rights to fairlabour practices and right tofair administrative justice.

Suffice to say that theserights are well and betterpronounced in the statuteswe have talked about andothers. Terms of contract thatoverride the Employment

Act would be invalid to theextent of the inconsistencywith the Act. As an example,suspensions without pay area common labour practicein both public and privatesectors. However, suchsuspensions are not providedfor in the Employment Act.

Some suspensions takelong, pending investigationsby relevant authorities and,where pertinent, prosecutionsin the courts. A person wouldhave been told to go on suchsuspension by a mere letter.Is this not a condemnation

without a due process?Is the payless suspensionnot a violation to the legalrequirement that abhorswithholding of a pay as apunishment? Why shouldemployers hold an employeeon suspension pendinginvestigations and prosecutionby other agencies?

Surely, if there is adisciplinary issue, why not

just carry it out? Otherwise,depending on other agenciesfor the employer to proceedwith a disciplinary actionmay end up jeopardising theemployee. He might be on alengthy suspension, therebycontravening his right toeconomic activity namely aright to pursue a livelihood.It would be apposite toremember that criminalinvestigations and disciplinary

processes are mutuallyexclusive.

Even where the criminalprocesses are ongoing or yetto commence, the employercould still hold a disciplinary

process. Otherwise, if theemployer has no issuewith which to carry out adisciplinary hearing, it would

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ustifiable to hold theyee on suspension onound of the pendingcutions.st importantly, it isble for the labourings, be they employeesmployers, to acquaintelves with their rights,and the requirementslaw in regulating theyment relationships.

doing, the industrialonment would becive to the realisation,

action and developmenthuman resourcesthereasured resource in

bour relations.

e would argue that in thedays of the Employmentd the establishmentIndustrial Relations

s, most labour disputesbased on the ignorancenascent employment

Many practices wereon laws that were

nable prior to the newhrough court decisionsll as other means of edge dissemination,s to an employmentact should be muchaware and assertive of duties and rights under

w.important for partiesployment, and theirentative groups, totheir rights under the

nd be able to claim andse them. It is observable

most employees sit onights until the end of ationship.more ideal to claimfrom employers while

n the employment.wise, claims madedly may not beained in the courts.is a time-l imit withina claim has to be made

e the courts. In mostclaims have to bewithin three years of currence of the disputeclaim. Claims maded that period are said

barred by the statute.ation Act requires thats should be brought towithin a given period.

from that , claimslate may cause somential difficulties. Somemay be difficult todue to passage of time.gine a person making

m of an entitlementecame due to him orve or 10 years later. It even be difficult totangible testimonies ass calling witnesses tort the claims. In mostemployees do not claimntitlement as leave days

and overtime pay until theemployment is over.

Labour Relations Act The Labour Relations Act

is another important labourlegislation in Malawi. Amongother elements, it providesfor the establishment of theIndustrial Relations Courtand the issues of employerand employee organisations(freedom of association, theright to collective bargainingand withdrawal of labour).

Strikes and lockoutsStrikes and lockouts

are regulated by theLabour Relations Act. TheConstitution enjoins the Stateto take measures to ensure theright to withdraw labour. The quest ion is whetherthe Act provides for enoughparameters for the employeesright to withdraw labour. Theother question is whetheremployees act within theparameters of the laws inwithdrawing labour. The lawseems to be fluid in the area of strikes and lockouts. There isa requirement, under the law,to report to the secretary of Labour, a dispute which maynecessarily end up in a strikeor a lockout. See Section 43.

This requirement is couched

in such wording that connotesthat it is not mandatory toreport the dispute to thePS of Labour. Nonetheless,once the issue is with thePS, there would be a processwhich entails mediation andconciliation. Yet one of theconsequences of the processis that if the process fails, theparties may give a notice for astrike or a lockout as the casemaybe.

Apparently, the strikefollows failure of mediation orconciliation. The question iswhether strikes and lockouts

are fully regulated by the law.If the language used in Section43 is anything to go by, eitherof the parties may ignorethe reporting to the PS of Labour or bypass the processby merely giving a seven-daynotice of an intention to strike.Yet the reading of the veryprovision seems to suggestthat the notice of a strikewould be consequential tofailure to resolve a disputeSection 45.

At least, for the disputesin which one of the parties isthe government, or in whichgovernment has a stake, theparties have to agree on aperson to conciliate over thedisputeSection 44. So inthose scenarios there would bemandatory conciliation. Theother passages of the Act seemto suggest that no party mayengage in strike or lockout

where the conciliation processhas not been attempted.

Of course, the languageis not mandatory. But theconciliation ought to besubsequent to informing thePS of Labour. The problem isthat the wording of the Act

seems to be mandatory in onebreath and accommodating inanother. All in all, regardless,at the end of the day, partiesintending to go on a strike aresupposed to inform the PS of Labour.

The issue is whether

the Act may not lead toproblems of interpretationand implementation. Onewould say: you can onlygo on a strike after failedconciliation. Another wouldsay: you can choose not togo to conciliation or not bychoosing to inform the PSor not. On the other hand,for government and relatedinstitutions the conciliation ismandatory.

At the end of the day,significantly, the right to civil

immunity as well as the rightto return to employmentafter the strike are said toapply to strikes participatedin conformity with LabourRelations Act.

The quest ion is: What wouldmark conformity with the

Act? Has the State put in placesufficient mechanisms for theenforcement of the right towithdraw labour. The otherquestion is whether strikingemployees endeavour tocomply with the requirementsof the law. Or are the strikeslegally regulated? All thingsconsidered, there is need toseriously rethink the lawsand procedures in relation tostrikes and lockouts.

There would be need tocome up clearly with theprocesses to be followed for

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Conducive work environment creates job satisfaction

Civil servants block an office entrance during their recent strike in Lilongwe


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egnancy is supposedo bring joy and

happiness in a family.for a tobacco tenant,

Mwale, 41, it wase for worry. Thenng in Mchinji, his

pregnancy almostm a job at an estated worked for 10

January 2010, hisue to have a baby.ked him to arrange

ort to Kapiri Missional located about 20tres away for safey.

husiastically, thend approached hisyer for assistance aswale] had neither ae nor money to hiretake the wife to the

al.is shock, the landlordhear none of this.was told to chooseen caring for myr job. He reminded

at I had come aloneat he could not besible for intruders,said.fused and helpless,urned to his grass-ed hut where he

his wife lying in

r fear of losing my jobnnual payments, Idoice, but to assumele of a traditionalattendant, Mwalecently when briefingls from the Ministriesour, Agriculture andfor Social Concern

) during a reviewworking and livingons of tobacco and other workers

acco estates.wever, the goods that with the graced, my wife deliveredat the estate andild is still alive, he

ring her experience isa Chiteyeye, anothero tenant at Chiphasoungu. She revealed

pocrisy of employersengage the wholeas tenants, but pay

usband only as if n and children werentributed nothing toduction of the leaf.d we cant arguee that would mean

g our jobs at risk,

hiteyeye.also disclosed thatare no maternitytransport facilities,

al scheme, deathy, and otherments as is the caseere.two cases bring to

light the level of exploitationsome Malawian employeesare going through attheir workplaces. In fact,a recent report by CfSCrevealed that over 500 000Malawians are living underdehumanizing conditionsin tobacco estates.

In the report, CfSCexecutive director, Father

Jos Kuppens cites tobaccoworkers and families onestates in Lilongwe, Mchinjiand Mzimba as some of thetenant going through suchconditions despite effortsby the ministries of Labourand Justice, and other civilsociety organisations tocreate human environmentfor tobacco workers.

As a signatory to varioushuman rights treaties andconventions such as theConvention of the Rightsof Children (CRC), theUniversal Declaration of Human Rights, Kuppensobserves that Malawiis obliged to enforceconditions that ensure thatall its citizens, includingtobacco workers and theirfamilies, can enjoy theirrights and entitlements.

Tobacco workers livein extreme poverty andare often subjected tohigh levels of exploitationincluding sexualharassment for women bytheir supervisors. There arehigh human rights abusesand violations.

The situation hasbecome more serioussince the advent of marketliberalisation. The majority

of tobacco workers [tenantsand contracted workers]work without written ororal contracts.

Furthermore, manylandlords on tobaccoestates deny workersbasic necessities suchas medication and foodwhen they run out of their monthly allocation,safe drinking water andhousing, Kuppens isquoted as saying in thereport.

The CfSC directorfurther laments that,

despite the fact that mostof the countrys importedgoods are paid for inforeign exchange that isgenerated by the sale of tobacco, those who aremostly responsible for theforeign exchange have noaccess to proper housing,

potable water, schools fortheir children and medicalservices.

An official at theIndustrial RelationsCourt (IRC) in Blantyre,who did not want to benamed, concurred with thereport, saying this has alsoresulted in the increase inthe number of disgruntledemployees filing lawsuitsagainst their employers.

The official stated thatunlike in the past, a hugenumber of employees aretrekking to the courts toseek redress when they feeltheir rights and freedoms atwork have been violated.

A day hardly passeswithout registering alabour-related case, shesaid.

Records seen by TheNation showed that a weekbefore clocking the firstquarter of the year, the IRCin Blantyre had alreadyregistered 180 cases

[from January 7 and April22] bordering on unfairdismissals, unlawful salarydeductions, underpaymentand unpaid overtime.

This means that onaverage, the Blantyre IRCregisters 1.5 labour-relatedcases per day, which

translates into 547.5 cases

per year. And for a courtthat operates from Mondayto Friday, which are alsopunctuated with holidays,the number of cases istoo huge for the court tohear, analyse and pass itsdeterminations.

Malawi Congress of

Trade Union (MCTU) vice

president Ronald Mbeweattributed this to theawareness campaigns tradeunions are conductingacross the country tosensitise workers ontheir rights and globally-accepted labour practices.

Mbewe was, however,

quick to point out that there

is still a big populationof workers who allowtheir employers-turned-exploiters go scot-free forfear of losing their jobs.

He said the awarenesscampaigns trade unions

Kasese Health Centre in Dowa, a facility that offers treatment andpsychosocial support to people injured or exploited in tobacco estates

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Will the Malawi economy create employment for these childrenin 10 or so years to come?

ASONGU JNR

ter Fighting exploitation amid

high unemployment rates

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M alawisestimated120 000 civilservants, includingteachers andImmigration officers,have of late beenstriking, demandingwage increases tocounter rising cost of living.

Recently, airportswere forced toshut down andboth domestic andinternational flightswere cancelled, leavingpassengers strandedboth within andoutside the country.

Economiccommentatorsblame deterioratingliving standards onthe devaluation of the kwacha and itssubsequent floatation.

Malawians have beencomplaining that sincegovernment, throughthe Reserve Bank of Malawi, implementedthis economic policy,life has been tough asthe purchasing powerof the kwacha waseroded.

Th e st rikes st agedby some civil servantsonly ended whengovernment bowedto their demands andgave them a 61 percentpay rise which, someeconomic analystswarned that it maycreate inflation.

But why are thecivil servants theonly ones striking yetdevaluation of thekwacha has affected allemployees, includingthose in the private

sector?Civil Service TradeUnion (CSTU)president EliahKamphinda Banda saidMalawi civil servantsare the least paid inthis part of Africa,hence they do not fearto strike to improvetheir perks.

In the privatesector, a lot of employees get goodsalaries, hence, it israre for them to quitand join the publicsector.

In Africa, maybe itis only in Kenya wherethe civil servants arealmost at par withtheir counterpartsin the private sectorin terms of salaries,standard of living and

the general welfare,he said.

He also argued thatanother factor thatcauses employeesin the public sectornot to go on strike isweak trade unionism.

CSTU is wellorganised to theextent that itsmembers have nofear at all to strike.

If we agree tostrike to improve ourworking conditions,we go ahead. Thisis not the case inthe private secto rwhere employeesare afraid of losingtheir jobs, saidKamphinda.

LawyerChristopher Tukulasaid i t is diff icul tfor pr ivate sectoremployees to s t r ikebecause most of the t imes they havetargets to meetat the end of thef inancial year.

In the civi lservice, normallythere are notargets . Civi l

service is basical lyabout servicedelivery. Withoutset targets , peoplecan easi ly mobil iseeach other to f ightwhat they thinkshould change, hesaid.

United GeneralInsurance regionalmanager RobertBoyd Chirwa agreedwith Tukula thati t is diff icul t forthe pr ivate sectoremployees to s t r ike

because they areworking against settargets .

At the b eginningof every f inancialyear, you set targetsas a company. So, i f your target is K10mil l ion and youonly get K6 mil l ionat the end of theyear, a companycan s imply saythere are noincrements becausetargets were notmet , argued

Chirwa.If whatKamphinda, Tukulaand Chirwa say isanything to go by,then i t is real lydiff icul t for pr ivatesector employees tostr ike. n

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Why stability in private sector,instability in public serviceWith escalating cost of living resulting from the devaluationof the kwacha and its subsequent flotation, civil servantshave been striking and organising sit-ins, pressing for

wage rises. Although both the private and public sectorsare equally affected by the economic situation prevailingin the country, there seems to be stability in the formercompared to the latter. Why is this the case? Our ReporterCHRISTOPHER JIMU writes about this and other issues.

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Civil servants fighting for payrise in Lilongwe

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have also helpednlightening manyyees on channelscan use in seekings in the event thatights and freedomsbeen violated at the

workplace.This problem [failure

to report] emanates fromthe high unemploymentrates that we currentlyhave in the country. Dueto lack of alternative jobopportunities available,most workers choose to

sacrifice their rights to keeptheir jobs and this makes itdifficult for us to root outexploitation at workplaces,he said.

But in an exclusiveinterview with The Nation,labour commissioner HarlexNyangulu said he was

not aware of the rampantcases of exploitations andviolation of rights at variousworkplaces.

He said through a

series of visits to variousworkplaces, the ministryhas not recorded any case of violation of workers rights.

So far, theres noemployer who has floutedthe labour laws. Theresno employer who is payinghis workers below the

minimum wage and that tous shows that everything isfine, he said.

But when told about the

excruciating suffering someworkers are going throughin the commercial anddomestic sectors, Nyanguluexplained that the ministry

was currently reviewingthe Labour Act and thatsuch concerns would beconsidered. n

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Dealing with exploitation at workplace

suspensionithout paygal?

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sations both publicivate to engage ine.

ustrial Relations

court is alised tribunal withs to determineyment and laboures. The court, inajority of cases,ises member

ists who are drawnrade unions andyers organisation.me time, quarterssociety haved the tardiness byurt in determinings. Much of thesm has been thatmber of panellistshe lower side.w provided for 10ers, five on each of o sides.stakeholdersusly campaigned amendment of

w to drasticallyse in the numberellists. Theature amended

w and increasedmber of theists to be 10 onide. Not goodh, consideringcreasing numberour disputes. Theog is still high.question is

we did notdvantage of

mendment tolly increase the

ers of the memberists. Well, it ishe society andvernment tok the agenda andnamics of theOtherwise, the

nment would havebetter the last

time.During the debate

to amend the law,one member of Parliament, AlekeniMenyani, suggesteddoing away with thecourts panellists. TheMinister of Justice,then Henry Phoya,said that that idea hadnever crossed his mind.Perhaps, Menyani hada point. Other labourlaw experts argue thatthe member panellistsrequirement is aninternational labour lawstandard. Both pointsare valid. But surely,the number of panellistshas to correspond with theworkload. Inevitably, thenumber of the panellistsought to increase further.

Alternatively, as others havesuggested, the requirementof panellists ought to beoptional.

Conclusion There are still more issues

of concern and interest in

the labour law. We havetackled a very handful.We have tackled a fewproblems and questions.

The role of stakeholderswould be to rethinkthese issues critically.

There would be need torelook into the law onsuspensions, the regulatoryframework of strikes andthe functioning of IRC.

Addressing these issuesmay assist in improving theoperations of labour lawsand awareness of rightsand duties under the law.

Doubtlessly, that wouldgo a long way in creatingconducive environment inlabour relations resultingin satisfaction anddevelopment of humanresources. n

*The author is writing in his personal capacity

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nment (1963) andendence (1964).had sufferedy, especially the 1959 State of ency.while unions

ed cordial relationshe Malawiess Party (MCP) the independencele, relationssour in 1964

sident Hastingscracked down.unions seemedport dissidentet ministers, 1419 were de-

ered. In 1965,s MCP placed

s under directcontrol, a step tong the one-partywith Banda asent-for-Life.

enated unionism980s IMF/

Bank-sponsoredural Adjustmentmmes (SAPs)ed by Malawisplus 1990s pro-racy strugglesAfrica,nated unionism.April 6 1992,n unionist,fwa Chihana,the country by

y challenginge-party State at

ka Airport, uponfrom South His arrestd a strike wave,g on May 5. Inthe civil serviceenced two mass in health,ion and transportter wages andions.str ikes met severesion, echoing theymarket events. In

and 1993, dozenskers were injured

ained by State

ty forces; otherskilled.lly, the MCP

e was forced fromto start respectingm of associationloosen its grip on.

awis May Daysthe one-partyMay Day was notic holiday norunions organisendent May Days.the first May Dayependent Malawi

1994. Held at theHotel in Blantyreo weeks before theultiparty generalns, and 11 monthsreferendum inof elections, itganised by theand Food Workers

Union. Held, however, ata luxury hotel, withoutpublicity and in the wakeof State repression of dissidents and strikers,the event was poorlyattended.

May Day became anofficial public holidayin 1995 under thenewly-elected UnitedDemocratic Front (UDF)government whichincluded Chihana asSecond Vice-President.

That year, the TradeUnion Congress of

Malawi (TUCM) held awidely publicised seriesof May Day activities atKamuzu Stadium anda peaceful march. Thethen minister of Labour,Ziliro Chibambo, waspresent, as were employerrepresentatives.

When the ministersaluted workerscontributions to theindependence anddemocracy struggles,promising to defendworkers, the mammothcrowd jubilantly ululated.

That same ministerwas, however, lambastedby the UDF government,after investorscomplained bitterly of hisspeech. By the 1996 MayDay commemorations, anew minister of Labourwas in office. And only

from 2004 did the StatePresident start attendingMay Day events.

Today, tomorrowWhile parliamentarydemocracy in Malawi andthe reintroduction of freeunionism, mark major

Role of trade unions inMWs democtratisation

advances for the workingclass, many problemsremain.

SAP-style neo-liberalpolicies remain; manywork for low wagesor on small plots, andhave in reality very littlesay over major issues;restrictions on freespeech remain; policeoften use excessive force.In the Sadc region andMalawi in particular, an8-hour day is still not areality.

Conclusion: May Daytoday The Haymarket

Tragedy remains asymbol of countlessstruggles againstcapitalism, the State andoppression. Freedomswon in recent times

rest on the sacrifices of martyrs like the IWPAanarchists, and theMalawian workers of 1959, 1992 and 1993.

May Day is a symbolof the unshakeablepower of workingclass solidarity, andof remembrance formartyrs. It can serveas a rallying point fornew anti-capitalist,participatory-democraticleft resistance.

We need to defendand extend the legacy

of the Haymarket affair,and to build the workingclass as a power-from-below for social change.

* For an in-depthanalysis of anarchismsroots and globalhistory: Schmidt, M.

ureS moSt treaSured reSource

& van der Walt, L.(2009). Black Flame: The Revolut ionary ClassPolitics of Anarchism andSyndicalism. AK Press:San Francisco, contactLuc ien .vanderWal [email protected]

Credits*Sian Byrne works

for the Congress of South African TradeUnions (Cosatu),South Africa. WarrenMcGregor is a lecturerat the University of

Witwatersrand, South Africa; Lucien van derWalt lecturer at RhodesUniversity, South Africa;Paliani Chinguwo is aresearcher at Southern

Africa Trade UnionCoordination Council,Botswana. n

A graphic artist gives the visual impression of the Chicago martyrs

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I c ihen we celebrateMay Day, we rarelyreflect on why it is a

holiday in Malawi orhere. We want to sharewerful struggles that lied its existence and thesations that created itpt its meaning alive.

y Day, internationalrs day, started asal general strikeemorating five anarchist

organisers executed7 in the US. Mountingaffold, August Spiesed:you think that byng us, you can stamp outour movement the

ment from which therodden millions, thens who toil and live innd misery the wage expect salvation if your opinion, thens! Here you will tread spark, but there, andand behind you and inf you, and everywhere,

will blaze up. It is aranean fire. You cannotout.

rchist* rootsy Days roots in thetionary workers

ment are often forgotten.e from the anarchist

ment anarchismn misunderstood.hists such as Spiesd society to be run bydinary workers ands, not capitalists or

officials. In place of sses being ruled andted from above, societyorkplaces should beough peoples councilssemblies, based onpatory democracy andanagement.rchism was a globalmovement from the

including in theIts stress on struggleelow for a radicallyratic socialist societyed to the oppressed in, Asia, the Caribbean,e and the Americas.1880s USA looked liketoday: massive factories,y, slums, and thesed working class underots of the powerful,y elite. Anarchistrs fought back. Theyentral to the US-widel strike of May 1 1886

Why May Day matters to M

history wit anarc ist ro

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Byrne, PalIanIuwo, warrenegor and

n van der waltnt

hour working day and justicefor the masses.

S m cChicago was the storm centre:the third largest US city wherethe elite flaunted its wealthin the face of poor Americanand immigrant workers.Chicago saw the largest 1 Maydemonstrations, against thebackdrop of terrible workingconditions and poverty,

worsened by economicdepression. The power of the Chicago

movement rested not juston numbers, but also onrevolutionary ideas. It was

march of 80 000 peoplethrough Chicago, growingduring the following days to100 000.

IWPA leadership includedblack women like ex-slaveLucy Parsons, immigrantworkers like Spies and

Americans like Oscar Neebeand Albert Parsons.

Its Pittsburgh Proclamationcalled for the destruction of class rule through energetic,relentless, revolutionary andinternational action andequal rights for all withoutdistinction of sex or race.

Internationalist in outlook,the IWPA and the Chicago-

poor people, regardless of raceor nationality. It published14 newspapers, organisedarmed self-defence and massmovements, and created arich tapestry of revolutionarycounter-culture like music.

Anarchists rejectedelections in favour of massorganising and education.Elections, the IWPA said,achieved nothing much: theState was part of the system

of elite rule; politicians werecorrupted into the ruling elite.Instead, most IWPA activistsstressed unions as the basisfor genuine workers andfarmers democracy: unionsh ld d k f

h m k m sOn May 3, Chicago strikersfought with scabs; police killedtwo strikers; the IWPA calleda mass protest against policebrutality at Haymarket Square.Here, an unknown personthrew a bomb at police, whothen shot dead many workers.

The Chicago elite usedthe clash to crackdown onanarchists. After a blatantly

biased trial, eight anarchistswere convicted of murder,falsely blamed against allevidence for the bombing.

Spies, Albert Parsons,George Engel and AdolphFischer were hanged in 1887.Louis Lingg committed suicideinstead. Samuel Fielden,Neebe and Michael Schwabgot life sentences.

Rebuilding, anarchistsand other socialists formedthe Labour and SocialistInternational in 1889. Thisproclaimed May Day asWorkers Day, a global generalstrike to commemorate theHaymarket Martyrs, fight foreight-hours, and build globalworkers unity.

So May Day began as anexample of globalisation-from-below. And it continues to bea rallying point for workerseverywhere, facing social andeconomic injustices 120 yearson.

S s i M iMalawians played animportant role in unionsin South Africa, Zambiaand Zimbabwe. Famously,Clements Kadalie spear-headed the anarchist-influenced 100 000-strongIndustrial and CommercialWorkers Union.

In Malawi itself, unions canbe dated to 1945, when thetruck drivers and anti-colonialactivists, Lawrence Makata andLali Lubani, set up a Transportand General Workers Union,the Magalimoto. This was inthe context of Blantyre Citystrikes by teachers, sanitationworkers, domestic servantsand rail workers.

While the British Staterolled out labour reforms in itscolonies from the 1940s, theaim was to contain unionism.Repression remained common,especially against politicisedunions. Unions heaved a sighof relief at Malawis self-

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