Zambezia (1978), VI (i)ESSAY REVIEWWHITE MINE-WORKERS, THE DEQUALIFICATION OFLABOUR-POWER AND THE 'AFRICAN ADVANCEMENT' ISSUE INNORTHERN RHODESIAIN 1959 THE Northern Rhodesian Chamber of Mines and the Anglo AmericanCorporation commissioned the South African National Institute for PersonnelResearch to conduct two surveys into the attitudes of the White labour forceat Broken Hill and the Copperbelt in Northern Rhodesia. The reports, initi-ally regarded as confidential, were released in edited form in 1973 as thesixth volume in the African Social Research Documents series.* A reviewproduced five years after the appearance of the published text, and eight-een years after the initial research, could not, under normal circumstances,be explained save in terms of the sluggishness of the academic response tocommercially produced work in the social sciences. There is, however, cur-rently good reason to subject one of the very few forays into the field ofWhite worker consciousness in Central Africa to critical appraisal, and thatis the fact that in South Africa recent changes in the mining industry arecreating what are, in many respects, the very conditions to which the Whitemine-workers on the Copperbelt were reacting at the time the surveys wereundertaken. There are certainly differences in the nature of the presentSouth African and former Northern Rhodesian social formations Š at alllevels. But similarities in White 'working class' ideology are matched bysimilarities at the level of production in the (mineral) extractive industries.And developments in the technical division of labour consequent uponchanges in the production process itself were (in Northern Rhodesia) andare now (in South Africa) responsible for the managerial pressure on thejob colour bar that was, and is, fundamentally threatening to White labour.On the Copperbelt the middle and late 1950s saw the progressivemechanization of underground mining techniques, along with the introduc-tion of large-scale open pit mining. This had as a consequence the revisionof the technical division of labour in favour of a broad dichotomy betweenmanager and operative. In South Africa, with the recent changes in theposition of certain labour supplier states (Mozambique in particular), andin the light of the altered monetary role of gold, the South African Chamberof Mines has instituted a massively funded research programme to look intothe feasibility of mechanizing underground techniques. At the same timecertain of the mining groups (notably Anglo American) have been diversi-fying their mining interests away from gold and into both base metals andcoal Š with similar consequences. The common result is a call for African'advancement', and without exploring the parallels further it would seem* T. F. Holleman and S. Bicsheuvel, White Mine Workers in Northern Rhodesia1959-1960 (Leiden, Afrika-Studiecentrum, African Social Research Documents, Volume6, 1973), xi, 136 pp., 12,50 guilders.6970ESSAY REVIEWreasonable to suggest that the Northern Rhodesian experience has some-thing of value to offer to an understanding of current developments in theideology, the 'attitudes', of the South African White 'working class'.White Mine Workers in Northern Rhodesia does not, by itself, do muchto explain the worker perceptions that are its subject matter Š at least inthese structural terms. This is not, however, to suggest that in its own terms, asa piece of 'closed' empiricism, the work is devoid of interest Š merely thatit has itself to be interpreted if it is to be at all illuminating. It is in fact amarked feature of the surveys that both their content and methodology revealmore about the attitudes of the investigators than the investigated. The origi-nal questionnaires are not reproduced save for the survey of attitudes to Afri-can advancement (the central issue), but this hints at an extraordinary generalmethodological approach. In this section of the overall survey, White employ-ees were asked to indicate which of seven attitude formulations approximatedmost closely to their own views, the formulations being ranked on a scalethat moved from 'conservative' at one extremity to 'liberal' at the other. Inall formulations the questions of social intercourse and job allocation wereinextricably linked, the degree to which advancement was seen to threateneither job security or earnings establishing the place of the formulation on thescale. Strangely, only one formulation made explicit referrence to the possibleeffect of advancement on incomes, and this Š embodying the spirit of theprinciple of 'equal pay for equal work and responsibility' then supported bythe White union Š was ranked at the conservative end of the scale. Not sur-prisingly, the daily-paid workers were shown by the survey to be compara-tively 'conservative', and management was shown to be comparativelyliberal'. Also significant for the authors' own interpretation is that thenational groups which contributed most to the daily-paid category, the SouthAfrican and Rhodesian workers, likewise came out as comparatively more con-servative than those from the United Kingdom, who contributed most tomanagement. For although the authors state that 'economic factors must not beunderestimated as determinants of race attitudes' (p. 122), and although theyare careful to assert that their statistics do not necessarily prove any-thing, the reader is left in little doubt that national origin is a crucialfactor in determining worker attitudes to African 'advancement'. Thequalifications are, of course, necessary, since it may well have been thatSouth African salaried staff were not nearly as 'conservative' as South Afri-can daily-paid workers, although data on this is curiously omitted.In their wider treatment of the evolution of White employees* atti-tudes the authors lay heavy and repetitive emphasis on the importance ofthe South African connection. It is, for instance, argued that the Whitecommunity on the Copperbelt 'had almost inevitably adopted the essentiallyconservative and self-centred South African attitude pattern' (p. 8); andagain that 'the traditional and deeply entrenched South African attitudewith regard to race and the division of labour was firmly transplanted toSouthern and Northern Rhodesian soil' (p. 13). But if a racist ideology ofSouth African origin had been 'transplanted' to the White Copperbelt com-munity, the authors are quite clear that Š to pursue their agriculturalmetaphor Š the 'European' values of that community constituted fertileground. Thus 'there is ... in spite of different national backgrounds theexistence of a broadly similar way of living common to Western society,expressed through a common language medium. Above all there is thecommon heritage of a white skin, the ultimate source of social solidarityC. PERRINGS71overriding all sectional differences of whatever shade or dimension amongthe White minorities in the far-flung isolation of a predominantly Blackcountry' (p.28). And again, 'this affluent community has emphaticallyaffirmed its belief in, and loyalty to, the cherished values of the "Europeanway of life" ' (p.48).It is primarily through an assertion of the crucial role of race andSouth African racist attitudes that the authors divert attention from therelations of men in the process of production, but it is by no means theonly way. The 'character' of the mining community is argued to have beendetermined by 'two interpermeating situations: a work situation framed bya unitary structure with a clearly defined status hierarchy; and an off-work social situation governed by essentially egalitarian principles' (p. 32).And much of the report is devoted to an examination of the latter: the'attitudes' of White suburbia and clubland; the articles of faith of a highlyacquisitive society. As consumers White workers and managers on theCopperbelt were patently 'equal'. In the boom years of the middle 1950severyone had a large car, radiogram and refrigerator. Everyone fitted them-selves out with expensive sports equipment, took extensive coastal holidaysand entertained lavishly. And if, as producers, they were less equal, theauthors have taken elaborate precautions to obscure the fact. Supposedlyfor fear that analysis of the separate structures, functions and attitudes ofthe Mine Officials Salaried Staff Association and the Mine Workers*Union 'might well have been misinterpreted and therefore resented' (p. 49),they simply avoided the subject Š contenting themselves with a few briefallusions to inter-union relations and the internal divisions of the MineWorkers' Union. The ommission is the less extraordinary for the managerialbias of the work, but it is crippling to the authors* stated primary aim.African 'advancement' in Northern Rhodesia meant the promotion ofBlack workers to semi-skilled posts within a re-stratified labour force Šbut also within the old dual wage structure. Advancement took two forms.On the one hand certain skilled functions were fragmented or re-definedto provide more numerous semi-skilled jobs, which were then allocated tothe Black schedule. One the other, the lowest of the skilled positions in anunaltered production process were transferred directly to Black workers.In both cases 'advancement' was associated with a reduction in the totalwage bill which, even if accompanied by a drop in labour efficiencies, wascalculated to provide for a greater rate of surplus value. White workersin the semi-skilled and lower skilled categories were thus faced by a doublethreat. Most immediately, without some form of job reservation, they werein danger of being undercut in the market. And to guard against this in amanner consistent with the principles of worker organization, they admit-ted the concept of 'advancement*, but insisted that it could only takeplace within the context of a unitary wage structure. Thus 'equal pay forequal work* became part of the basic stand taken by the Mine Workers*Union. Under the first form of 'advancement', however, they were also indanger of losing the management functions which gave them access to aportion of the surplus itself. The full slogan accordingly read 'equal payfor equal work and responsibility'.It is increasingly recognized that where the technical division of labouris characterized by considerable complexity, the dual work of managementŠ the productive work of co-ordination and unity, and the non-productivework of control and surveillance Š permeate practically every level of the72ESSAY REVIEWlabour force. And where this technical division of labour is complicatedby the use of a racially distinct unskilled labour component involving addi-tional problems over the transmission of instructions, the managerial basetends to be exceptionally wide. Under the conditions pertaining in NorthernRhodesia in the 1950s it was in fact a comparatively small proportion ofthe White work force which was not required to perform the work ofmanagement, and which did not get the associated perquisites (consistingof a 'salary' component over and above the basic wage, giving a highertotal cash income). And it was to this that the Union referred when demand-ing equal pay for equal responsibility. But given that the restructuring of thelabour force involved an increase in the semi-skilled operative component,and a reduction in the unskilled component, work of management at thelower levels was becoming less rather than more important. The new opera-tive grades, though performing productive work of the same character as theold artisanal, quasi supervisory grades, were devoid of any managerial ele-ment. The position of the Mine Workers' Union was accordingly highly ambi-valent. The Salaried Staff Association had no difficulty in aligning itself withtop management in the dispute over 'advancement', but in the ranks of thedaily-paid employees there was no such consensus. The conflict of interestderiving from their performance of the functions of both the collectiveworker and the global capitalist (to use Carchedi's terms) had historicallyrobbed the Mine Workers' Union of that solidarity which is essential ifcollective action is to be effective. As Holleman and JMesheuvel point out:'One major problem of the union was (and is), indeed, the lack of interestshown by its membership. It is a common complaint of Union leaders that,even in times of conflict, branch meetings had difficulties in raising aquorum* (p. 50). But their treatment of the causes of this problem is funda-mentally satisfactory. They argue that the birth of the union 'appears tohave been more the result of an afterthought than a deeply felt need5 (p. 50),and far from trying to understand why it is that the union had difficulty ingenerating much support, the question they set themselves is why the unionhad not actively collaborated with management. 'The mere fact that dailypaid labour has been given a share in the industry's profits (the copper-later metalŠbonus) should have made it possible for the Mine Workers'Union to see itself as a responsible partner in a joint industrial enterprise'(p. 51). They argue that it was only the union leadership, operating 'withoutthe guidance or close support of the mass of their fellow workers' (p. 51)which prevented this.A conspiracy theory of union opposition (with South African racialattitudes at its roots) is not, however, an effective explanation of the re-actions of White workers in the context of the complex relations applyingin the production processes of the mining regions of Southern Africa. Itwas the 1950s in Northern Rhodesia which saw some of the most intenseconflict between the White mine-workers and management, but by the timethese surveys were carried out the Mine Workers' Union had been effec-tively crushed. And although the union leadership was still seeking to rallyits diverse membership behind the 'equal pay for equal work and responsi-bility' slogan, the battle against 'advancement' was already lost. The Whiteworkers, as workers, were increasingly being squeezed out of a 'manage-ment [which] it is often said, has become more "remote" ' (p. 35). Thoseworkers who constituted the lower tiers of a (still) broadly based manage-ment were being bought out, whilst the union leaders were under constantC. PERR1NGS73call, as in the work of Holleman and Biesheuvel itself, to 'rise above .,.the dilemma presented by the unavoidable conflict of loyalties in the Africanadvancement issue' (p. 51).It is right that commercially produced work of this kind should receiverecognition from academics. In the historiography of the Central Africancopper mines the works commissioned by the various private companies(and in particular by the Union Miniere du Haut Katanga) have an extremelyimportant place. But it should be emphasized that they do present specialproblems deriving from their functions as managerial tools. In this, WhiteMine Workers in Northern Rhodesia is no exception. The form, focus andconclusions of the piece all stem from the role it had in support of a particularset of labour policies important to the Northern Rhodesian Chamber of Minesand the Anglo American Corporation during the decolonization of the terri-tory. As an empirical study of the social consciousness of the White mine-workers it is characterized by an extraordinary selectivity of data and, worse,by simple obfuscation of the most vital elements in the ideology of Whitelabour. There is no doubt that race is a central category in that ideology,but racism is not an 'attitude' that exists in a vacuum. It exists within andderives from a particular set of social relations, those relations governingmen in the process of production. And without an understanding of such re-lations it is impossible even to begin to understand the social consciousnesswhich they inform Š just as it is impossible to begin to understand the shiftsin the strategy of mining capital which gave rise to these surveys in NorthernRhodesia, and which currently menace the White workers of the SouthAfrican mining industry.National University of LesothoC. PERRINGS