The Political Economy of Agrarian Labour Relations in Zimbabwe after Redistributive Land Reform

Abstract

This article examines the reconfiguration of agrarian labour relations in Zimbabwe following extensive land redistribution since 2000. Based on field research, it shows that the new forms of labour utilization that have emerged are structured around new land ownership and material conditions, within a more diversified agrarian economy. The new agrarian structure is characterized by reduced supplies of wage labour, as more of the previously land-short peasants are now self-employed on the land they gained, while part-time wage-labour provision has grown in the differentiated capitalist farms, which have been largely unable to enforce labour tenancy relations. Agrarian politics are increasingly focused on class struggles between capital and labour, in general, and the competition for resources between the different modes of farming.