In this chapter, the antecedents of the Ethiopian labour movement, its formation on a countrywide scale, its development in the long decade that followed, and the divisions and conflicts that embroiled it are discussed. The chapter describes an increasing rift that developed within the movement on the one hand, and efforts by external agencies to control it on the other. The portrayal of the labour movement in Imperial Ethiopia as entirely subservient to the state is refuted, in favour of a more dynamic view of a movement whose relationship with that state was consistently tense, and in which different tendencies competed for dominance. They included a radical strand in opposition to the moderate leadership, which, from the 1960s onwards, gradually grew stronger and eventually became dominant.