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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Mineworkers' strategies in Zimbabwe: re-visiting migration and semi-proletarianization
Author:Dansereau, SuzanneISNI
Year:2002
Periodical:Labour, Capital and Society
Volume:35
Issue:1
Pages:104-130
Language:English
Geographic term:Zimbabwe
Subjects:working class
modes of production
miners
labour migration
Abstract:A recent study in Zimbabwe found ongoing patterns of migration among mineworkers and their families who, even when employed on a permanent basis and brought up in the mine village, retain links with the rural areas. Other elements that had been integral to the migrant labour system in the past were also found, that is the use of a labour system based on low wages and skill levels, and labour intensive production organized around low levels of capitalization. Is this persistent migration a function of ongoing semi-proletarianization or does the capacity to work permanently mean that it is time to take another look at the notion of semi-proletarianization? Based on a study of mineworkers conducted in 2000 and 2001 in six mines in different parts of Zimbabwe, the present paper asesses the proletarian nature of Zimbabwean mineworkers not as a function of their ongoing migration but within the context of the labour process by looking at their reliance on proletarian strategies and how their ongoing links to the rural areas fit into this. Fully proletarianized workers maintain links with rural subsistence production in order to provide security outside of wage employment, made necessary by an organization of production that continues to rely on low skill and wage levels, and temporary accommodation, as well as the absence of adequate mine-based pension programmes and government-based social programmes. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in French. [ASC Leiden abstract]
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