Paper short abstract:

This paper describes the shifting core tasks of Ethiopian unions and examines the factors leading to such shifts. It adopts a conjunctural and relational approach to explain how tasks have repeatedly been removed from and reappeared in union repertoire, in response to a changing balance of forces.

Paper long abstract:

This paper aims to address three interrelated questions. First, what are the core tasks of the trade union movement in contemporary Ethiopia? Second, what have its central tasks been in the past? And finally, why have the central tasks changed over time? The answer to these questions feed into a broader discussion of the determination and subversion of union strategies, that goes beyond a linear logic of tradition and innovation. Instead, when examining the shifts in union strategies in Ethiopia, a more fluid picture emerges, where similar low-risk strategies - such as entrepreneurism, consumer collectivism, and a range of social activities - have been adopted as core tasks in different historical conjunctures over the past five decades, but where higher-risk means of conducting open class conflict have also repeatedly been returned to when circumstances have permitted or compelled. It is argued that the Ethiopian example lends credence to a conjunctural and relational approach to the determination of union strategies, where tasks and methods are repeatedly removed from the union repertoires - by internal and external processes which reflect shifts in the overall balance of forces - but reappear when circumstances permit or compel.