Trade Union Imperialism: American Labour, the ICFTU and the Kenyan Labour Movement

Abstract

The paper seeks to examine the relations between the Kenyan and Western labour movements, particularly with the AFL-CIO and the ICFTU. It is shown that apart from the mere offer of financial inducements by these Western labour movements, on which many writers tend to dwell, the collaborative relationship between them and the Kenyan labour movement, which emerged from the early 1950s to the mid-1960s, was made possible by the remarkable ideological compatibility between these movements. This arose out of the conjuncture of internal contradictions of both movements and the process of decolonisation. It will be argued that while the Kenyan labour movement was not simply being 'manipulated', as is so often asserted by some dependency writers, its relations with the Western labour movements rein forced internal' trends towards deradicalisation.