ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the concept of classed identity, its importance for the process of unionisation and its relation to the broader concept of class-consciousness. Therefore the author examines mining culture and industrial relations at different locations (the Ruhr in Germany, South Wales, West Virginia, Alabama, Jharia in India, Enugu in Nigeria, the Zambian Copperbelt and Transvaal in South Africa). By de-centralising the analysis and including rural relationships, proto-unionism and anti-colonial politics, this chapter seeks to reconsider oversimplified associations between organisation, consciousness and identity.
