This book offers a comprehensive history of the Ethiopian labour movement, exploring the impact of trade unions and workers’ militancy from the 1960s onwards. The author analyses the sharp variation in the orientation and vicissitudes of the labour movement over time, and how these have affected labour conditions and wages. Drawing from new data gathered through extensive archival research in Ethiopia and abroad, this book is the first of its kind. It presents new datasets on strikes, unrest and wage levels, shedding light on how capitalist labour and industrial relations have developed in Ethiopia. Addressing a huge gap in the literature on African labour movements, this book makes a significant contribution to debates on trade unionism, workers’ agency and wage determination in peripheral capitalist settings, and challenges existing assumptions through detailed investigation.

This book offers a comprehensive history of the Ethiopian labour movement, exploring the impact of trade unions and workers’ militancy from the 1960s onwards. The author analyses the sharp variation in the orientation and vicissitudes of the labour movement over time, and how these have affected labour conditions and wages. Drawing from new data gathered through extensive archival research in Ethiopia and abroad, this book is the first of its kind. It presents new datasets on strikes, unrest and wage levels, shedding light on how capitalist labour and industrial relations have developed in Ethiopia. Addressing a huge gap in the literature on African labour movements, this book makes a significant contribution to debates on trade unionism, workers’ agency and wage determination in peripheral capitalist settings, and challenges existing assumptions through detailed investigation.