You are here -allRefer - Reference - Country Study & Country Guide - Zaire >

allRefer Reference and Encyclopedia Resource

allRefer    
allRefer
   


-- Country Study & Guide --     

 

Zaire

 
Country Guide
Afghanistan
Albania
Algeria
Angola
Armenia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Belarus
Belize
Bhutan
Bolivia
Brazil
Bulgaria
Cambodia
Chad
Chile
China
Colombia
Caribbean Islands
Comoros
Cyprus
Czechoslovakia
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
Egypt
El Salvador
Estonia
Ethiopia
Finland
Georgia
Germany
Germany (East)
Ghana
Guyana
Haiti
Honduras
Hungary
India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Israel
Cote d'Ivoire
Japan
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan
Latvia
Laos
Lebanon
Libya
Lithuania
Macau
Madagascar
Maldives
Mauritania
Mauritius
Mexico
Moldova
Mongolia
Nepal
Nicaragua
Nigeria
North Korea
Oman
Pakistan
Panama
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Qatar
Romania
Russia
Saudi Arabia
Seychelles
Singapore
Somalia
South Africa
South Korea
Soviet Union [USSR]
Spain
Sri Lanka
Sudan
Syria
Tajikistan
Thailand
Turkmenistan
Turkey
Uganda
United Arab Emirates
Uruguay
Uzbekistan
Venezuela
Vietnam
Yugoslavia
Zaire

Zaire

The Working Class

This class includes employees of public and parastatal (see Glossary) entities, large private companies, small companies, rural plantations, and lumbering enterprises. The public-sector employees have been the least content, principally because many are not covered by civil service status and have known repeated layoffs, delays in pay, and insecure work conditions. Turnover in the work force of large corporations, however, including the large parastatal General Quarries and Mines (Générale des Carrières et des Mines--Gécamines), has tended to be low. Consistently paid salaries, company stores, and company medical services have been key elements in retaining the long-term loyalty of such employees. Turnover also appears to be rather low in rural enterprises, where isolation has resulted in localized recruitment patterns and little contact with other workers.

Workers have shown a sense of class consciousness in launching episodic strikes beginning as early as 1941, when at least sixty were killed at Élisabethville (now Lubumbashi). Unions, however, have been generally weak, and the postcolonial state has generally controlled similar episodes by coupling the offer of limited concessions with the jailing or intimidation of strike leaders. Whereas workers have shared a clearly articulated sense of who "they" are--namely, acquéreurs, politicians, abacost (see Glossary) wearers, Mercedes owners, and regime courtiers--"we" has been a less clear-cut category and has tended to be defined by place of work, city, and ethnicity. Still, the general consciousness of inequality and of social polarization has remained acute; fueling it has been the dramatic decline in workers' incomes (see Gross Domestic Product , ch. 3).

Data as of December 1993

Zaire - TABLE OF CONTENTS

  • The Society and Its Environment

  • Go Up - Top of Page

    Make allRefer Reference your HomepageAdd allRefer Reference to your FavoritesGo to Top of PagePrint this PageSend this Page to a Friend


    Information Courtesy: The Library of Congress - Country Studies


    Content on this web site is provided for informational purposes only. We accept no responsibility for any loss, injury or inconvenience sustained by any person resulting from information published on this site. We encourage you to verify any critical information with the relevant authorities.

     

     

     
     


    About Us | Contact Us | Terms of Use | Privacy | Links Directory
    Link to allRefer | Add allRefer Search to your site

    ©allRefer
    All Rights reserved. Site best viewed in 800 x 600 resolution.