96 BOOK REVIEWSin Shona but which are considered inappropriate in English. The authorattributes the transfer of rhetorical patterns from Shona to English to theinfluence of Shona culture and argues that the problem of rhetoricaltransfer cuts across all education levels in Zimbabwe. To demonstratethis point, she quotes from the O-level English Language examiners'report for the 1990 Examination, which documents awkward and ridiculousexpressions used by students which arose out of literal translations ofvarious expressions from Shona to English. Examples include: "the rainwas raining hard" an English rendition of Shona's Mvura yainaya chaizvo;"he rang a phone' from Akaridza runhare, and "the money was eaten bythe headmaster" from Mari yakadyiwa nahedhimasita (p. xiii). Althoughthe levels of rhetorical transfer differ from level to level, college anduniversity students, like school pupils, are also susceptible to problemsof rhetorical transfer. On the basis of this finding and from her own wideexperience as a teacher of both Shona and English, Tondhlana hasproduced a book, which is not only lucid and insightful but which alsomakes a very welcome and important contribution to the field of AppliedLinguistics.Contrastive Rhetoric in Shona and English Argumentative Essays is awell-written, well-packaged and professionally-edited book, which is highlyrecommended to English teachers at all levels, student teachers, lecturers,language and education policy makers, and all those involved with rhetoricas persuasive communication.JAIROS KANGIRA University of ZimbabweStriking Back: The Labour Movement and the Post-Colonial State inZimbabwe, 1980-2000, By Brian Raftopoulos and Lloyd Sachikonye (eds.),Harare, Weaver press, 2001, 316pp, ISBN 0-7974-2286-2.Although labour and labour movements have long played an importantrole in the political and economic history of Zimbabwe, as demonstratedby the Shamva Mine Strike of 1928, the ICU, the 1945 and 1948 strikes andthe involvement of labour activists in the birth and development ofZimbabwe's nationalist struggle against colonialism, they have not alwaysbeen accorded the importance they deserve in Zimbabweanhistoriography and have, especially in the post-independence retelling ofthe country's accounts of the struggle for independence, been relegatedto the margins of history. In their 1997 publication, Keep on Knocking: AHistory of the Labour Movement in Zimbabwe, 1900-97, Brian Raftopoulosand Ian Phimister demonstrated that, not only does the labour movementhave a rich history of organisation, mobilisation, and agitation for betterBOOK REVIEWS 97working conditions in colonial Rhodesia, but it also played a central andimportant role in the anti-colonial struggle.The marginalisation of labour's contribution to the struggle for justicein Zimbabwe was the result of a number of factors; not least the fact thatthe locus of the nationalist struggle from the 1960s onwards shifted fromthe urban areas, where it had first taken root and grown, to the ruralareas of Zimbabwe, where the armed struggle was, mostly, located.Labour's continued marginalisation after independence in 1980 was dueto the fact that, for most of the early post-colonial years, labour was,essentially, an arm of the ruling party. Its agenda was, thus, generally setby the government whose overriding concern was to ensure that workersremained loyal to the socialist, nationalist, one-party project that thegovernment then subscribed to. Thus, the Zimbabwe Confederation ofTrade Unions (ZCTU) had little room to act independently of thegovernment and the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union PatrioticFront (ZANU PF).From the late 1980s onwards, however, the ZANU-PF/labour alliancebegan to unravel, as labour became increasingly more assertive andcritical of the government, particularly in the years of the EconomicStructural Adjustment Programme (ESAP) and the Zimbabwe Programmefor Economic and Social Transformation (ZIMPREST) in the 1990s. Thechasm widened with the worsening economic situation as the decadeunfolded, resulting in increasing incidents of direct confrontation betweenthe Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions and the government, whilelabour progressively allied itself with several civic groups which wereincreasingly becoming dissatisfied with the way the country was beingrun, culminating in the formation of the Movement for Democratic Change(MDC) in 1999. Striking Back: The Labour Movement and the Post-ColonialState in Zimbabwe 1980-2000 documents and analyses these developmentsin the labour movement and what role it has played in the economic andpolitical life of post-colonial Zimbabwe. This is a particularly timely andtopical issue given the critical roles that labour movements, such as theZambia Congress of Trade Unions and the Congress of South AfricanTrade Unions (COSATU), have played in bringing about political changein Zambia and South Africa, respectively.The book is organised into ten chapters, each dealing with a specificaspect of the history and experience of the labour movement and workersin Zimbabwe. Raftopoulos sets the foundation for subsequent discussionin Chapter 1 by providing a historical analysis of the post-colonial labourmovement and the rise of opposition politics in Zimbabwe. He traces howcolonial restrictions and the "ruralisation" of the nationalist anti-colonialstruggle in the late colonial period resulted in a relatively weak labourmovement at independence in 1980; how in the 1980s, labour was relegated98 BOOK REVIEWSto the status of a supporting act to the ruling party, and how, eventually,it freed itself from the clutches of the state and found its own separatevoice. Raftopoulos proceeds to show how labour increasingly establishedalliances with other groups that were critical of government policies inorder to establish the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and howthis created new tensions in Zimbabwean society and led government toresort to what Raftopoulos calls a "radical rhetoric for repressive politics".The strength of Chapter 1 lies not only in the comprehensive historicalanalysis of the labour movement in the Zimbabwean context that it soably provides, but also in the fact that it is able to situate the discussionin the broader global context in which neo-liberal economic prescriptionsboth challenge the strategies and rhetoric and limits the operationalscope of labour movements in Southern Africa.Chapters 2 and 3 by Patrick Bond and Paris Yeros, respectively, takethe issues raised in Raftopoulos in the first chapter further by analysingthe problems facing the ZCTU and MDC as they are compelled by theneed to appear respectable in a world of neo-liberalism by adopting boththe rhetoric and the economic practices emanating from the West in thepost-Cold War era. Thus, Yeros observes critically that the ZCTU hasshed some of its earlier radical rhetoric and has adopted "a more'legitimate' social democratic vision" in line with Western-basedinternational labour movements. In Chapter 4, Sachikonye traces theorganisational changes that the labour movement has already undergoneand the organisational and developmental challenges that face it in thefuture. Challenges include "the need for greater self-sufficiency in financialresources, building up the capacity of union affiliates, and gender equityin union structures". The legal framework governing labour activities areexpertly documented and analysed by Lovemore Madhuku, while thehistory of labour's use of the strike weapon since 1980 is the focus ofRichard Saunders' contribution in Chapters 5 and 6, respectively.Following up the issue raised in Sachikonye's chapter relating to theneed for trade unions to strive for gender equity, the next chapter byNaira Khan and Niki Jadowska explores the theme of "Women, Workersand Discrimination in Zimbabwe". Pointing out that, although women"constitute a significant proportion of the workforce in the commercialagriculture, agro-processing, textile and service sectors, they are under-represented in union structures and workers committees", the authorsattribute this to the persistence of "patriarchal attitudes" in Zimbabweansociety in general and in workers' movements in particular. This accountsfor the fact that women continue to hold poorly paid low-skill jobs and tobe subjected to sexual harassment in the workplace.Chapters 8 and 9, by Blair Rutherford and Yash Tandon respectively,focus on workers in the agricultural sector, showing that these workersBOOK REVIEWS 99remained some of the most exploited and under-represented workers inpost-colonial Zimbabwe. Meanwhile, the farm invasions that began in2000 further marginalised and brutalised farm workers, as they werebeaten up, driven off the occupied farms, and excluded from thecontroversial land distribution exercise. Lastly, in Chapter 10, SuzanneDansereau traces the experiences of mine workers in Zimbabwe since1980 and demonstrates that, while mine workers recorded some significantgains in the post-colonial period, they continue to earn meagre wages.Striking Back is, unquestionably, one of the most significant books onlabour struggles and labour history in Zimbabwe in recent years, whichtaps on the expertise of various scholars, who are specialists in theirfields who have already made their mark as respected scholars ofZimbabwe's social and economic history. Of particular note are PatrickBond, Brian Raftopoulos, Blair Rutherford, and Yash Tandon whose workson Zimbabwe's socio-political and economic experience have contributedmuch to Zimbabwean historiography and socio-political analysis. Notsurprisingly, therefore, the individual contributions to the book are well-researched, well-supported, and well-written pieces that are as informativeas they are enjoyable to read.The one chapter that could have been improved is the chapter onwomen workers whose organisation and coverage could have beenhandled differently. Because it is, in the words of the authors, a "thumbnailsketch", it does not provide the type of authoritative and insightful detailon the situation of women in Zimbabwe that would have been possiblewith solid on-the-ground research. In addition, the chapter is weakenedby the fact that it attempts to cover too much ground by examining threedistinct topics, each of which would sustain an entire paper on its own, inone chapter. The three areas are "the general overview of the currentsituation facing women workers in Zimbabwe"; "the effect sexualharassment in the work place has on women's development" and the"gender sensitivity of labour laws". Arguably, more original research andgreater focus would have improved the chapter considerably.This weakness notwithstanding, Striking Back is an invaluablecontribution to Zimbabwean historiography in general and labour historyin particular. The contributors, editors, and publishers are to becongratulated for producing such a well-packaged and professionallyedited book. The book is highly recommended to local and internationalworkers and labour activists who are interested in understanding thehistory of the struggle of labour in Zimbabwe, policy makers, students oflabour history, scholars of Zimbabwean history, university students,particularly in the humanities and social sciences, NGOs working withlabour movements and labour-related issues, and anyone who has aninterest in understanding the forces that have helped shape Zimbabwe's100 BOOK REVIEWShistorical experience and current developments in the country. Inconclusion, it is highly recommended that, if possible, Striking Backshould share a deserved position on one's bookshelf with two otherbooks, which, together with it, form a very useful trilogy of studies onlabour struggles in Zimbabwe. These are: Brian Raftopoulos and IanPhimister, Keep on Knocking: A History of the Labour Movement in Zimbabwe(Harare, Weaver Press, 1997), and Brian Raftopoulos and TsuneoYoshikuni, Sites of Struggles: Essays in Zimbabwe's Urban History (Harare,Weaver Press, 1999).PROFESSOR ALOIS S. MLAMBO University of Zimbabwe