Activist paternalism: Mozambican mineworkers' practices of cross-border organisation

Situated at the intersection of studies of migration and labour organisation, this qualitative study of the Association of Mozambican Miners (AMIMO) reveals the complex workings of a non-union form of migrant labour organisation, shedding light on the possibilities of mobilising constituencies that have remained marginalised in trade union movements. Examining AMIMO's initial development in South Africa and its attempts to represent migrant mine-working communities vis-à-vis the Mozambican government, the article revisits E.P. Thompson's theory of the 'moral economy' where paternalism and contestation are not exclusive but mutually constitutive of workers' resistance. It then further develops Thompson's claim by proposing the concept of 'activist paternalism', wherein paternalism itself becomes constitutive of a mode of labour organisation at intersecting local, national and international levels. Looking beyond conventional notions of workers' collective action and focusing on mine-working communities' rather than shop-floor struggles, the article invites further studies to both uncover new worker solidarities and question the homogeneity of longer-standing African labour movements.