Nigel Flanagan brings a distinct perspective to the problems of trade union organising. In this account he draws on his own experiences as an activist, shop steward, strike organiser and working for the global union UNI. The book has be very well received and after six impressions this revised and enlarged edition is also being published in a Kenyan version with our partners, Vita Books - Nick Wright. Nigel Flanagan's Our Trade Unions: What Comes Next? was first published in Britain in early 2023 at the height of the country's inflationary crisis, when basic food costs were increasing by up to 20 per cent and energy by far more. Workers were fighting, through their trade unions, to protect their living standards and local services from the biggest attack for a century. This new Kenyan edition of Flanagan's book is, therefore, doubly welcome because it provides real life substance to these links. The chapters from Shiraz Durrani, himself a veteran of these struggles, reveal how far the movements of resistance to colonial rule were rooted in, and largely sprang from, the trade union movement in the 1920s and 30s. The importance of the contribution from Shiraz Durrani is that he places this resistance squarely in the special circumstances required for capitalist exploitation to take place in Kenya... Resistance demands mass-based political trade unions. This is why Kenya's experience and that of other African nations is of relevance not just to workers in Africa but those who wish to rebuild the workers' movement internationally. But this process must be political. It cannot be simply that of 'organising'. As Shiraz Durrani stresses, 'without a vision of achieving equality and justice, unions remain merely to make capitalism more acceptable to workers'- John Foster

It is due to the success of the trade union movement in the national liberation movement that the colonial government suppressed prominent trade unions and attacked TU leaders like Makhan Singh, Fred Kubai, Pio Gama Pinto and Bildad Kaggia. It also passed on colonial laws to the independent Kenya government so as to ensure that future trade unions were forced to take the non-radical approach to meet worker needs. They thus created imperialist-oriented and led trade unions that bedevil working class politics to this day. There are valuable lessons to be learnt from the history of the militant trade unions in Kenya and also from understanding how colonialism and imperialism enforced changes that made the trade unions ineffective after independence. The selections in this book recall relevant events in the history of the militant trade union movement in Kenya and record the contribution that the trade union movement made to Mau Mau and to Kenya’s war of independence. The Kenya Resists Series covers different aspects of resistance by people of Kenya to colonialism and imperialism. It reproduces material from books, unpublished reports, research and oral or visual testimonies. The three aspects chosen for the first three publications in the Series – Mau Mau, Trade Unions and People’s Resistance – make up the three pillars of resistance of the people of Kenya.

This book examines the life and work of a remarkable trade unionist and revolutionary. Makhan Singh laid the foundation for radical trade unionism and influenced the liberation struggle in Kenya. He actively participated in the struggles of the working classes in India. For this, the colonial authorities in India and Kenya detained him for over 15 years. This collection, marking 101 years of Makhan Singh’s birth, explores different aspects of his life as a father, a trade unionist, a political activist, a poet and a communist committed to social, political and economic liberation from colonialism and imperialism. His vision, his action and his courage are as relevant today as they were in his time.

Study of the historical origins and evolution of the trade union movement in Kenya up to 1952 - covers political aspects, nationalist and labour movements, union membership, collective agreements, labour relations, leadership, strikes, grievances, aspects of social participation, etc.

Traditionally, studies of employment relations in Africa have been dominated by the role of trade unions and how they collectively influence relationships within the workplace. A contemporary African outlook into the state of employment relations shows that there has been a shift in the dominance of trade unions. This edited collection considers the role of government actors and workers’ experiences in both unionised and non-unionised organisations. It seeks to understand how international and national labour markets, including national and international employment actors and institutions, affect employment relations and the ways in which these relationships play out in different national contexts.Researchers, students, policymakers and practitioners working around employment relations in Africa will find this book an essential tool, particularly those with an interest in comparative and international programmes across areas such as employment relations, industrial relations, human resource management, political economy, labour politics, industrial and economic sociology, regulation and social policy.

he book has been out of print since it was published on December 12, 1963 — Kenya’s Independence Day. It is being reprinted by Vita Books in 2024. It was published at the end of one phase of Kenya’s history of liberation as colonialism was forced out of the country after long battles which culminated in an armed struggle under the Kenya Land and Freedom Army — Mau Mau. It was also the beginning of a new phase which was expected to bring land and freedom to people who had suffered massacres, murders, concentration camps, land thefts and all forms of torture under colonialism. The hope naturally was that all this will end with the gaining of independence. It was during this interim, hopeful period in the history of Kenya that Ambu H. Patel edited and published the book. It is no ordinary book. In days before the Internet, it carried the voice of 130 progressive personalities from Kenya and around the world. It was the anti-colonial and anti-imperialist voice of Kenya, as much as that of the progressive world. Their voice reflected the optimism that the colonial rule of injustice had ended and that a new, prosperous Kenya was about to be born. The hope was that there would be justice for people whose land and livelihood had been stolen and taken over by colonial looters. Their hopes were pinned on Jomo Kenyatta and his colleagues, detained and imprisoned by colonialism. Surely their release was the key issue at the time. Surely that group of people would ensure justice for the people. It was at this time that Ambu H. Patel started the Release campaign. Events proved that such hopes for justice were premature. A new world had not yet been born. The struggle had to go on and the children of Mau Mau fighters would have to continue their parents’ struggle. But that was in the future. Now, at the dawn of independence, there was hope.