Labour and the State in Zambia: Trade Union–State Relations from Colonial Copperbelt to the Multi-Party Era, and Their Legacy for Unionised Workers in Livingstone

This article examines how relations between organised labour and the state shaped trade unionism in Zambia, from the colonial era to the return of multi-party politics in 1991 and after, and asks how that history is reflected in the experience of unionised workers today. It combines a documentary analysis of recent historical and political-economy scholarship (2020–2026) with a 2025 survey of 170 unionised workers in Livingstone, Southern Province. Three arguments are advanced. First, Zambian unionism developed under a colonial state that repressed African worker organisation, favoured depoliticised unions and sustained racially differentiated labour relations. Second, after independence the state sought to subordinate labour, replacing the old federation in 1965 with an appointed Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), co-opting it in the 1980s and then confronting it when it resisted, although unions were never as firmly incorporated as in some other one-party regimes. Third, the alliance between the ZCTU and the Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD) delivered political victory but not durable labour autonomy: the former ZCTU leader became president, pursued privatisation, and unions entered what has been described as a second period of taming. Survey evidence suggests that this history persists as an institutional legacy. Respondents agreed, on average, that financial weakness, leadership, union size, management attitudes, lack of statutory support, illiteracy among members, multiplicity of unions and politicisation constrain their unions, and 73.5 per cent said these challenges adversely affect union performance. Two-thirds (67.1 per cent) said their union does not represent them well in bargaining, and 54.1 per cent gave mandatory membership as their reason for joining. These findings echo recent studies of Zambian local-council and teacher unions. The article concludes that present-day weaknesses in Zambian unions cannot be separated from a long pattern of political entanglement with the state, and that rebuilding union autonomy requires legal protection, internal democracy and financial independence.