From reluctant slavery to a black flood: Black workers, mass production and cultural formation in South Africa's metalworks
Date
1982-08-02
Authors
Sitas, A.
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Abstract
In the first chapter of this thesis the problem of the
transition from absolute to relative surplus-value extraction,
of the changes in the social relations of production that
bring about the mass production of commodities in South
Africa's Metalworks, was discussed in some detail. There it
was shown that South Africa's bonded accumulation and
reproduction of capital, militated against such a transition:
The local Metalworks, subordinate on the one hand to an
international division of labour, on the other, to the needs
of the local mining industry, faltered in all their efforts
to effect this transition. Furthermore, through a discussion
of the economic role of the South African State it was
emphasised that the first pockets of mass producing
Metalworks, like Iscor and the African Metals Corporation
were created through State or para-statal corporations.
This entailed a vast reorganisation of the industry by the
late 19 30s. Finally, despite the favourable conditions for
growth engendered by the Union's 'war effort', the
dominance of these new relations of production was shown to
be tenuous and a continued juxtaposition of jobbing and
mass forms of production defined the morphology of the
industry by the 1950s.
The second chapter of the thesis addressed itself to the
transition itself, located in the era after 1964 and
consolidated by the crisis years of the mid-nineteen-seventies.
Primarily through a rapid concentration and
centralisation of the industry but also through the sudden
large scale involvement of Mining Houses and Transnational
Corporations, the 'universal worker' of machinofacture is
created. The absolute increase of operative African
workers turn from a quantitative flood to a qualitative
presence. This present chapter is an attempt to examine the
contradictory implications of this presence, in the words
of the author M. Dikobe a generation 'that is surprising
the world, fast very fast', in its combativity and political consciousness (1).
Description
African Studies Seminar series. Paper presented 2 August 1982
Keywords
Metal-workers. South Africa, Blacks. Employment. South Africa