Cast in a Racial Mould by Edward Webster, Michael Burawoy

ISBN: 9781776149612

Publisher: Wits University Press, 1 May 2025

Paperback, 340 pages

A groundbreaking study examining worker resistance in South Africa's metal industry, analyzing how racial dynamics shaped labour control in foundries and how black workers' resistance transformed industrial relations, challenging both traditional craft privileges and state attempts at incorporation.

First published by Ravan Press in 1985, Cast in a Racial Mould was a pioneering book. It is now republished by Wits University Press with a new foreword by Michael Burawoy and with support from the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences.

This seminal work delves into the complex dynamics of labour relations and worker resistance in South Africa's metal industry, a crucial sector of the country's manufacturing base. Drawing on extensive research, the book challenges Harry Braverman's traditional view of mass production as an unstoppable force of worker control. Instead, it reveals two distinct forms of resistance that shaped South African foundries: white craft workers' resistance to deskilling and black workers' emerging collective bargaining power. Eddie Webster meticulously traces how white moulders used racial hierarchy to preserve their craft privileges, effectively becoming supervisors of semi-skilled black labour. However, this system faced unprecedented challenges with the rise of independent black unions and increasingly assertive black workers. The study particularly examines how township struggles post-1976 forced state reforms through the Wiehahn and Riekert commissions, attempting to incorporate black unions into a deracialized industrial relations system. This compelling analysis interweaves labour process transformation with broader critiques of racial capitalism, demonstrating how worker organizations resisted state incorporation while developing a distinctive working-class consciousness.