Paternalised migrants, policing and political economy: Highveld colliery strikes, 1925–49

It is argued that, in the period under consideration, 1925–49, black colliers employed in the Transvaal and Orange Free State coal industry were probably the most militant workers in South Africa. Specifically, it is shown that between 1939 and 1948, a decade for which we have comprehensive and reasonably reliable data, this industry, referred to here as highveld coal mining, experienced more than twice as many days lost per thousand workers than occurred in gold mining. The question is ‘why was this group of workers so relatively militant?’ Answers draw, firstly, from archival evidence of the 57 strikes that have been located, secondly, from aspects of the social history of the collieries, and, thirdly, from insights gained from Dunbar Moodie's work on ‘moral economy’ and existing theories of mining militancy in other countries. Several suggestions are advanced, and these include: the isolation of the main centre of coal production from large concentrations of police, the average size of the collieries, an extensive repertoire of contention, and a strong ethnic basis for mobilisation. Further, it is argued that Moodie's conceptualisation of ‘moral economy’ would gain greater depth if it were rooted in salient features of ‘political economy’.