Hemson, David (1979) Class consciousness and migrant workers : dock workers of Durban. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

Despite the enormous apparatus of control at the disposal of employers
and the state in South Africa, working class activity has not been eliminated
nor organization erased. African migrant workers, such as those employed
in the Durban docks, have held a leading position within the African working
class for decades, absorbing the lessons of past struggles and putting forward
demands which have led strike movements. These struggles demonstrate the
uncompromising hostility of African workers to their class and national oppres-
sion. With the growth of capital in South Africa an increase in class
exploitation has been accompanied by intensified national oppression; the
rule over African workers being enforced through vagrant, master and servant,
and pass laws wh ich reproduce a cheap migrant labour force.

Dock workers, for more than a century migrant workers, have shown a
capacity for resistance in the city equal or higher than the level of class action
by 'settled' urban workers. Their resilience is explained by their concentra-
tion and commanding position in the labour process of the docks. During
strikes the workers have laid claim to work and residence in towns in opposition
to the employer and state strategy of expell ing strikers from th e urban centres.
Decasualization has been introduced as a 'repressive reform' to reassert
the control of the employers over an increasingly active workforce. Ironically,
it has b~en accompanied by increasing priority to the development of contract
labour in the docks and has also not eliminated the high turnover of workers nor
the insecurity of employment.
The consciousness of the dock workers has been shaped by the harsh
discipline of capitalist production, national oppression, and the daily
experience of international communications. These factors, combined with
a long tradition of resistance, have encouraged the formation of a class con-
scious section of the African proletariat.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor H Social Sciences > HT Communities. Classes. Races
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Stevedores -- South Africa, Harbor personnel -- South Africa, Migrant labor -- South Africa, Social stratification -- South Africa, South Africa -- Economic conditions -- 1918-1961, South Africa -- Economic conditions -- 1961-1991
Official Date:	August 1979
Dates:	Date Event August 1979 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Sociology
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Extent:	752 leaves : illustrations
Language:	eng

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