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

Class Struggles in Tanzania was first published fifty years ago, in 1975, to widespread acclaim both within Tanzania’s leftist circles and internationally. The book was released by Monthly Review Press in New York and Heinemann Educational Books in London, amplifying its global reach. At the time, debates at the University of Dar es Salaam—especially in the wake of the Arusha Declaration and TANU’s 1967 policy of Socialism and Self-Reliance—centered intensely on the role of class and class struggle in Tanzania, reflecting broader concerns across newly independent African nations and the Global South. In this 50th Anniversary edition, Issa G. Shivji returns with the same rigor and clarity to explore Tanzania’s political and economic evolution from nationalism to neoliberalism over the past four decades. His new, in-depth introduction, titled Class Struggles under Neoliberalism, offers a searing critique of how international monopoly capital and a complicit local comprador class have contributed to the deepening impoverishment of the Tanzanian masses. Shivji dissects the mechanisms of accumulation by extraction—a hallmark of Africa’s neoliberal political economy—and tracks the rise of new class formations alongside the decline of older ones. He maps out the composition of Tanzania’s class structure today: a comprador bourgeoisie that includes large, medium, and small capitalists, as well as a politico-bureaucratic rentier elite, contrasted with the working masses and a highly stratified petty bourgeoisie. This edition of Class Struggles in Tanzania is an essential text for anyone seeking to understand the political economy of neoliberalism in Tanzania, and by extension, in other African countries and the Global South. ISBN 978-9987-085-43-9 About the Author: Issa G. Shivji is Professor Emeritus of Law at the University of Dar es Salaam. A leading African scholar, he has authored over a dozen books, numerous academic articles, and co-authored the first comprehensive biography of Julius Nyerere (2020). Shivji also serves as Chief Editor of the Tanzania Yearbook of Public Law and is a member of the Pan-African Scientific Committee for the Encyclopedia Africana Flagship Project under the African Union. A prominent Marxist intellectual, Shivji challenges the myth of a classless African state and offers a compelling analysis of post-independence Tanzanian society. His work critically exposes the entrenched power dynamics of the ruling elite and argues for a development path rooted in class consciousness and political clarity.