The Story of an African Working Class: Ghanaian Miners' Struggles 1870-1980

by Jeff Crisp, Doctor Gavin Hilson (Foreword by)

Overview

This seminal work tells the story of Ghana's gold miners, one of the oldest and most militant groups of workers in Africa. It is a story of struggle against exploitative mining companies, repressive governments and authoritarian trade union leaders.

Drawing on a wide range of original sources, including previously secret government and company records, Jeff Crisp explores the changing nature of life and work in the gold mines, from the colonial era into the 1980s, and examines the distinctive forms of political consciousness and organization which the miners developed. The study also provides a detailed account of the changing techniques of labour control employed by mining capital and the state, and shows how they failed to curb the workers' solidarity and tradition of militant resistance.

Combining lively historical narrative with original analysis, this book remains a unique contribution to the history of Africa and its working class.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781786990679
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	02/15/2017
Series:	African History Archive
Edition description:	2nd Edition
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.60(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Jeff Crisp is a research associate at the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford, and an associate fellow at Chatham House. He has previously held senior positions at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Global Commission on International Migration. He is also a respected historian who has written widely on African labour history and current affairs.

Gavin Hilson is a leading global authority on the environmental and social impacts of the small-scale mining sector and has published over a hundred jourbanal articles, book chapters and reports on the subject. He is currently professor and chair of sustainability in business at the University of Sussex.
Jeff Crisp is a research associate at the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford, and an associate fellow at Chatham House. He has previously held senior positions at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Global Commission on International Migration. He is also a respected historian who has written widely on African labour history and current affairs.

Gavin Hilson is a leading global authority on the environmental and social impacts of the small-scale mining sector and has published over a hundred jourbanal articles, book chapters and reports on the subject. He is currently professor and chair of sustainability in business at the University of Sussex.

Read an Excerpt

The Story of an African Working Class

Ghanaian Miners' Struggles 1870-1980

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By Jeff Crisp

Zed Books Ltd

Copyright © 1984 Jeff Crisp
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-78699-067-9

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CHAPTER 1

A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR AFRICAN LABOUR HISTORY

Without contraries is no progression.

William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.

This book tells the story of Ghana's mine workers, one of the oldest and most militant groups of wage labourers in Africa. For more than 100 years the mine workers have been struggling to improve their conditions of life and employment, encountering in the process enormous and frequently violent opposition from mining capital, the colonial and post-colonial state. This chapter provides a brief examination of the conceptual framework which has been used to describe and analyze the changing pattern of that struggle in Ghana's gold mining industry.

Labour Control and Labour Resistance

The conceptual framework employed in this book is based on the two central themes of labour control and labour resistance. The first, labour control, is used to denote those activities of the representatives, allies and collaborators of capital which are designed to assert authority over wage labour and thereby incorporate it into the capitalist mode of production. The second, labour resistance, is used to denote those activities of wage labour, its representatives and allies, which defy the authority of capital, assert the autonomy of the worker, and thereby obstruct the incorporation of labour into the capitalist mode of production. Labour control and labour resistance are integral and inseparable features of the capitalist mode of production. To rephrase Marx, they presuppose the existence of each other, condition the existence of each other, and reciprocally bring forth each other:

The directing motive, the end and aim of capitalist production, is to extract the greatest possible amount of surplus value, and consequently to exploit labour power to the greatest possible extent. As the number of cooperating labourers increases, so too does their resistance to the domination of capital, and with it, the necessity to overcome this resistance by counterpressure. The control exercised by the capitalist is ... consequently rooted in the unavoidableantagonism between the exploiter and the living and labouring raw material he exploits.

Labour resistance and labour control are, therefore, a necessary manifestation of capital's principal objective, the accumulation of the surplus value created by labour power. More specifically, resistance and control are a function of four characteristics of the process through which capital seeks to achieve that objective.

Firstly, capital cannot accumulate surplus value unless it is able to purchase as much (or as little) labour power as it requires at any time, and bring it into connection with the means of production. It must, therefore, control the supply of labour to, and its occupational and geographical distribution within, the wage labour market. In advanced capitalist societies this form of control is the source of few problems for capital, as the vast majority of the population has been divorced from the means of production and can only subsist by the sale of its labour power. In contrast, in societies where the capitalist mode of production has not fully developed, and coexists with pre-capitalist modes of production, much of the population can subsist, and enter the cash nexus, without entering the labour market. In the absence of sufficiently strong ecological pressures or financial incentives to induce them into the labour market voluntarily, rural producers, traders and craftsmen must be forced to abandon their existing economic activities, to become dependent on wages as a means of subsistence, and to endure the rigours and uncertainties of capitalist employment.

Secondly, to maximize the surplus value which it appropriates from labour, capital must control, and thereby minimize, the wages paid to the worker, and habituate the worker to the unequal distribution of the product of their labour. Workers however, like capitalists, seek to sell the commodity at their disposal, labour power, for the highest price the market will pay. Indeed, they are encouraged to do so by capital, which makes new goods and services available to them. Consequently, workers must resist the efforts of capital to force down wages, and use whatever means are at their disposal to force them up.

Thirdly, capital can also maximize the surplus value appropriated from labour by controlling, and thereby maximizing, the productivity of the worker, and by habituating the worker to the unequal distribution of effort and authority in the workplace. Resistance to this aspect of the capitalist mode of production is again a particular problem for capital in societies where the wage labour force is rooted in pre-capitalist modes of production and has not internalized the norms and values ('ideology') of capitalism. Rural producers, traders and craftsmen who enter the labour market are accustomed to working at a self or communally determined rate. In their previous activities they have individually or jointly controlled the labour process, and have been free, within physiological limits, to sacrifice income for leisure. Consequently they have a marked tendency to resist the efforts of capital to realize their full potential as the creators of surplus value.

Capital's principal objective of accumulating surplus value is, therefore, threatened by the resistance of workers and potential workers to these three features of the capitalist mode of production. One function of the state, an administrative and juridical structure relatively autonomous of capital, is to minimize the impact of such resistance on the rate at which surplus value is created and appropriated. Inevitably, in the course of their resistance, workers come into conflict with the state, and participate in various forms of organization and action in an attempt to make it more susceptible to their interests. To protect capital, and to safeguard their own privileged status, the ruling elites of the state must control this political activity, and induce the wage labour force to recognize the legitimacy of their governing role.

Strategies of Control and Modes of Resistance

Having identified the features of the capitalist mode of production which give rise to the 'unavoidable antagonism' of labour and capital, it is now possible to examine the concrete manifestations of this antagonism. The methods used by capital to assert its authority over labour, and the means whereby labour asserts its autonomy of capital, are described in this book as strategies of control and modes of resistance.

In order to control the supply, wages, productivity and political activity of labour, capital and the state employ a variety of labour control strategies. Some examples of these strategies are listed in the matrix on the following page. As the matrix indicates, these strategies can be subdivided and classified in three ways.

Firstly, they can be grouped according to which of the four forms of capitalist control they are designed to reinforce. Taxation, for example, has commonly been used as a means of forcing rural populations off the land and into the labour market, and is therefore designed to control the supply of labour. The purpose of supervision, a universal feature of capitalist production, is to control the work-rate or productivity of labour. The majority of labour control strategies are more complex in motivation and are designed to assert more than one form of control over labour. To provide just one example, capital and/or the state might employ the strategy of importing labour in order to counteract local resistance to wage employment (supply), because foreign workers are cheaper to hire than local workers (wages), because they work harder (productivity), and because they are less likely to participate in movements which challenge the legitimacy of the ruling elites (political activity).

Strategies of labour control can also be classified according to the nature of their target. One set of strategies, including promotion, bonus schemes and deductions from wages, are designed primarily to influence the behaviour of the individual worker, whereas another set of strategies, including supervision, paternalism and the lock-out, are designed to control groups of workers. A final type of strategy is represented by those designed to influence the institutional behaviour of labour. For example, the state is able to use a wide range of legislative measures to obstruct the unionization of workers, to restrict the financial and administrative autonomy of established unions, and to prevent workers from leaving weak trade unions to join or create a more militant organization.

The matrix also indicates that strategies of labour control vary in their method. Coercion forms the basis of strategies such as forced labour and corporal punishment, whereas bonus schemes, gratuities and promotion work on the principle of incentive. Another group of strategies seeks to control the behaviour of the wage labour force through the use of ideology. Paternalism, for example, is intended to encourage workers to adopt a loyal and deferential attitude towards their employer. Similarly, the state uses the ideology of 'national interest' to divert workers' attention away from the inequalities of capitalist society, and to persuade trade union members and officials to increase output, forgo wage increases and avoid disruptive political activities. Several strategies on the matrix combine more than one method of control. For example, a government which is trying to gain the cooperation of trade union leaders might do so by simultaneously offering them rewards of money or social status (incentive), by intimidating and threatening them (coercion), and by appealing to their sense of patriotism (ideology).

The means whereby workers express their antagonism and resistance to the objectives and strategies of capital are equally varied. As the matrix on the following page demonstrates, the concept 'mode of resistance' encompasses this wide range of activities and includes familiar forms of working class action such as strikes and go-slows, and less obvious forms of resistance to the capitalist mode of production, such as absenteeism, malingering and theft. For analytical purposes, this conceptual framework classifies the many modes of resistance according to their visibility, inclusiveness and duration.

Visibility refers to the extent to which a mode of resistance is visible to and perceived as a threat by capital and the state. Communal revolts against labour recruitment, strikes, demonstrations and rallies demand the overt participation of workers and potential workers, whereas they can participate in modes of resistance such as malingering and absenteeism in a covert manner. Overt modes of resistance require the conscious participation of workers, and therefore tend to be regarded most seriously by capital and the state. In contrast, covert modes of resistance might not even be perceived as forms of resistance by workers themselves, and therefore tend to be tolerated unless they become a serious threat to the economic and political objectives of capital and state.

As the matrix indicates, visibility is frequently (but not invariably) related to the inclusiveness or scale of resistance. Overt modes of resistance normally involve collective action, whereas covert modes of resistance are more often pursued on an individual basis. Some forms of resistance, such as theft, sabotage, bonus cheating and restricted output, are commonly undertaken by both groups of workers and individuals.

Finally, modes of resistance vary in their duration. Some manifestations of conflict between labour and capital, such as strikes and riots, are by definition of limited duration, whereas others, such as absenteeism, malingering or restricted output, represent intermittent activity. Other forms of resistance, such as membership of a trade union, political party or pressure group, require continuous commitment or participation.

Using the three criteria of visibility, inclusiveness and duration, it is possible to identify three broad types of resistance. Informal modes of resistance are usually pursued on an individual or small-scale basis, intermittently and in a covert manner. In Hyman's words, informal or 'unorganised' activity 'is not normally part of a deliberate strategy to remedy the source of grievance; indeed it may well derive from a generalized sense of dissatisfaction rather than consciousness of a specific grievance, and so may not be conceived as industrial conflict at all'. In contrast, collective modes of resistance are more inclusive, overt, and of specific duration. Such action 'normally involves a deliberate attempt to change the situation which gives rise to conflict; it is purposeful activity designed to achieve some concrete improvement'. Thirdly, institutional forms of resistance are collective, normally overt, and require continuous commitment. Workers participating actively in such modes of resistance recognize their exploitation and subordinate status, and seek, often in an incremental manner, to ameliorate their situation.

Those modes of resistance defined as 'collective' in this taxonomy vary so widely that it is necessary to refine the concept by introducing three secondary classifications. Firstly, collective modes of resistance can be classified according to the number of workers or potential workers participating. A general strike involving thousands or even millions of workers clearly represents a different order of resistance to a demonstration involving only 40 or 50 workers. Secondly, they can be classified according to the defining characteristics of the participants – whether the participants reflect or supercede cleavages of occupation, age, sex, ethnic origin, skill and status in the labour force. Thirdly, collective modes of resistance vary in the way they are mobilized. A strike, for example, might be mobilized by the representatives of a political party, by national or local trade union officials, or by certain groups or individuals within a labour force. The methods whereby workers are mobilized also vary, and include intimidation, persuasion, the offer of financial or other incentives, and appeals to class, party, occupational, ethnic or religious allegiances.

The Structure of Conflict in Ghana's Gold Mines

Hitherto, this discussion of labour resistance and labour control has focused on the conflicting interests of three abstract entities, 'labour', 'capital', and 'the state'. While they are analytically useful, reality is more complex than these concepts suggest. Strategies of control and modes of resistance are the product not of such clearly defined entities, but of specific individuals, groups and institutions, which vary from country to country, industry to industry, and enterprise to enterprise. At this stage of the analysis, therefore, it is necessary to move away from a purely theoretical disicussion of the conflict between labour and capital, and to examine the peculiar structure of conflict in the analytical unit of this study, the Ghanaian gold mining industry.

As the diagram on the following page indicates, the political economy of Ghana's gold mining industry can be conceptualized as a pyramidical, hierarchically structured network of authority relationships. At the top of this hierarchy (Level 1) are the representatives of international and metropolitan capital and the core states of the world capitalist system. This group includes the directors, senior management and large shareholders of expatriate mining companies, financiers and bankers, senior government decision-makers and the ruling elites of the colonial and post-colonial state. They are, in Cardan's words, the 'order-givers', those 'who really manage, in whose interests everything finally functions, who take the important decisions, who reactivate and stimulate the working of the system. At the bottom of the hierarchy are the mine workers, the 'order-takers' whose surplus value is appropriated by the superior components of the hierarchy, and whose exploitation and subordination is the principal objective of the order-givers who control it.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from The Story of an African Working Class by Jeff Crisp. Copyright © 1984 Jeff Crisp. Excerpted by permission of Zed Books Ltd.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Contents

Foreword by Gavin Hilson,
Preface to the First Edition by Robin Cohen,
Acknowledgements,
Abbreviations,
MEU General Strike Poster, 1954,
AGC Anti-Strike Leaflet, 1955-56,
Map of Ghana,
1. A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR AFRICAN LABOUR HISTORY,
2. THE LABOUR QUESTION AND THE CONTRADICTIONS OF CONTROL, 1870-1906,
3. FROM LABOUR SHORTAGE TO LABOUR SURPLUS: THE RECRUITMENT AND CONTROL OF A MIGRANT LABOUR FORCE, 1906-1930,
4. THE GROWTH OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE ORGANIZATION OF RESISTANCE, 1930-1947,
5. WORKER MILITANCY AND UNION RESPONSE, 1947-1956,
6. UNION ATROPHY AND WORKER REVOLT: THE CPP PERIOD, 1956-1966,
7. UNION ATROPHY AND WORKER REVOLT UNDER MILITARY AND CIVILIAN REGIMES, 1966-1980,
8. THE LIMITS OF MILITANCY: MINE WORKER RESISTANCE AND POLITICAL CHANGE IN GHANA,
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SOURCES CITED,
INDEX,

Editorial Reviews

“One of the most vivid and important works in the history of African labor and its struggles.” 

Richard Jeffries

“One of the best-written and most carefully researched studies of African labor history I have read.”

Robin Cohen

One of the most vivid and important works in the history of African labour and its struggles.” —Richard Jeffries, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

“One of the best-written and most carefully-researched studies of African labour history I have read.” —Robin Cohen, from the Preface

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