Abstract:
Develops an anthropological and historical explanation for various forms of violent, collective conflicts involving Black migrant workers on South African gold mines between 1973 and 1962. The study aims to account for a resurgence of conflict during this period, which represents the ten years preceding the historic advent of organised union representation for black workers on gold mines. Case studies are analysed by means of a model of the phases of conflict episodes to identify their patterned features. Three distinct kinds of conflict are identified, namely confrontations arising from dependence on migrant labour to the mines; internal crashes between worker groups stemming from certain communal and political tensions; and encounters between Black employees and White mine managements regarding wages and working and living conditions. These conflicts are discussed in terms of various theories of social conflict and collective action. Firstly, certain conflicts could be traced to changes in both the internal, institutional setting of mines and in the wider socio-political environment. Secondly, certain structural employment conditions generated tension between workers and employers, but the incidence of collective action arises mainly from reforms and changes to these work and living conditions which bring about perceptions of progressive deprivation. Thirdly, particular features of the social structure and organisation of individual mine communities could be associated with the mobilisation of factional groups. The thesis concludes by emphasising the importance of diachronic trends in conflict in revealing the underlying motives and characteristics of the participants and in accounting for the origin, form, intensity and outcome of collective action.
