Papers > By author > Cross Hannah

[submitted to Africa working group panel on Class Analysis of Labour Struggles in Africa]

Samir Amin's contributions to Marxist political economy did not only theorise capitalist transformation in Africa and the world but also energised diverse movements and struggles. His 1972 articles on underdevelopment and dependence in Africa and subsequent work on migration showed how patterns of labour mobility developed in regional paradigms of European colonialism. Given the significance of neo-colonial relations in African societies, for example in monetary policy in the CFA franc zone, the scramble for resources and Western military interventions, it is unsurprising that unstable, over-exploitative patterns of migration persist within and beyond the continent. Far from the determinism with which dependency theorists are typecast, however, Amin's scholarship and activism also largely focused on geopolitical change and on alliances and strategies for the socialist alternative. This paper explores these principles and their significance to labour and migration activism in the 21st century.