The political potential of Ghanaian miners : a case study of the AGC workers at Obuasi

Abstract

A study based on fieldwork undertaken in 1975. Conclusion: Whilst an incipient working-class consiousness exists amongst the Ashanti Goldfield Corporation miners, the cumulative effect of the co-existence of various modes of production, the constant confrontation of miners with the value systems and ideologies of the dominant classes in society, and the absence of a radical or revolutionary leadership and ideology makes gradual and sustained mobilization of class consciousness exceptionally difficult and thereby limits working-class actions, collective action is likely to continue to take the form of local wildcat strikes, because economic actions often arise out of a deeply-felt resentment against the present inegalitarian status quo. Such action, however, can be broken by management through dismissals, and by the State through a show of force