Book Review from the October 1966 issue of the Socialist
Standard
As capitalism develops it brings into being the working
class—that social group made up of those who depend on their wage or salary to
live. In Africa capitalism dominates society, even if many are not yet
wage-workers or cash crop farmers. Primitive production for use is being
replaced by production for sale on the world market. Wage-workers in fact only
make up a small part of the working population.
The proportion of wage-earners ranges from 25 per cent in
the Congo to four per cent in Nigeria and the former French West African
territories.
In Britain the comparable figure is over 95 per cent. Many
of the workers in Africa are migrants who move between working for wages and
working their tribal lands. This depresses wages to a minimum level, sufficient
to keep an unskilled, single male worker. In some places, however, a permanent
urban working class has come into being and this is the trend. In the Katanga
copper mining area, for instance, there are second and third generation wage
workers.
As can be imagined trade union organisation in these
circumstances is difficult. Despite this trade unions, of varying degrees of
permanency and effectiveness, have appeared. Nearly all have been associated
with the nationalist movements. Not that, of course, independence has made much
difference. A new privileged bureaucratic and commercial caste has appeared and
the unions have been under pressure or turned into mere state agents for
increasing production. One of the Ministers of Labour in what was Tanganyika
has put it this way:
The union is required to educate wage earners in the need
for harder work and the need for discipline and efficiency at the place of
employment.
In all countries the new independent governments have come
into conflict with the workers and their unions. Strikes have been outlawed or
suppressed. Thus Ghana in September, 1961, suppressed a strike of dock and
harbour workers and in 1964 a general strike broke out in Nigeria. This shows
that nationalism is not in the interests of the world-wide working class.
Ioan Davies’ book is well worth the five shillings.
Adam Buick
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