Mining Postsocialism: Work, Class and Ethnicity in an Estonian Mine

Mining postsocialism: work, class and ethnicity in an Estonian mine Eeva Kesküla Department of Anthropology Goldsmiths, University of London Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in September 2012 I confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. 2 Abstract My thesis is a study of what happens to the working class in the context of postsocialism, neoliberalisation and deindustrialisation. I explore the changing work and lives of Russian-speaking miners in Estonia, showing what it means to be a miner in a situation in which the working class has been stripped of its glorified status and stable and affluent lifestyle, and has been stigmatised and orientalised as Other. I argue that a consequence of neoliberal economy, entrepreneurialism and individualism is that ethnicity and class become overlapping categories and being Russian comes to mean being a worker. This has produced a particular set of practices, moralities and politics characterising the working class in contemporary Estonia, which is not only a result of its Soviet past and nostalgia, but also deeply embedded in the global economy following the 2008 economic crisis, and EU and national economic, security and ethnic policies. Miners try to maintain their autonomy and dignity. Despite stricter control of miners’ time and speeding up of the labour process, workers exercise control over the rhythm of work. The ideas of what it means to be a miner and ideals of a good society create a particular moral economy, demanding money and respect in return for sacrificing health and doing hard work. Increasing differences in consumption patterns are levelled with leisure activities such as drinking and sport that are available to all. New management practices such as outsourcing labour and performance reviews assist class formation processes that increase workers’ precarity and the differentiation between workers and engineers in a previously relatively equal community. Despite this, management practices often have unexpected outcomes in everyday situations in which actors with different worldviews and ambitions meet. Miners’ labour politics might not correspond to Western ideas of strong unionism, but show that trade unions can take different shapes depending on local context. 3 Table of Contents Abstract.....................................................................................................................................3 Table of Contents .....................................................................................................................4 List of Illustrations...................................................................................................................6 List of Maps..............................................................................................................................6 List of tables and graphs .........................................................................................................6 Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................7 Chapter 1. Introduction: Class, postsocialism and the changing miners .........................11 1.1. Changing and remaking the ‘Two Sober Ones’............................................................11 1.2. History of Kohtla-Järve and Ida-Virumaa.....................................................................13 1.3. Theoretical framework ..................................................................................................21 1.3.1. What is postsocialism and what comes next?.........................................................21 1.3.2. Workers in socialism and postsocialism.................................................................27 1.3.3. Postsocialism and class...........................................................................................33 1.4. Methodology .................................................................................................................38 Chapter 2. Into the mine: the nature and speed of work ...................................................46 2.1. Introduction ...................................................................................................................46 2.2. The labour process debate.............................................................................................48 2.3. The production process in the mine ..............................................................................50 2.4. Women’s work: processing plant and cart loaders........................................................51 2.5. Men’s work: a day with the First Production Department ............................................56 2.6. Miners’ work.................................................................................................................61 2.7. Piece rates, Estonian style: the system of remuneration in ‘Estonia’............................64 2.8. Of machines and men....................................................................................................68 2.9. Tempo of work..............................................................................................................70 2.9. Conclusion.....................................................................................................................77 Chapter 3. We are all miners? Changes in ethnic and class relations ..............................79 3.1. Introduction ...................................................................................................................79 3.2. Ethnicity, class and Estonia...........................................................................................79 3.3. History of migration to North-East Estonia ..................................................................84 3.4. Ethnic relations in the Soviet period .............................................................................87 3.5. Ethnicisation as a class project......................................................................................93 3.6. Creating ethnic boundaries............................................................................................96 3.7. Passports, class and migration.....................................................................................101 3.8. Ethnicity and class.......................................................................................................104 3.9. Conclusion...................................................................................................................109 Chapter 4. The moral economy of miners .........................................................................111 4.1. Introduction .................................................................................................................111 4.2. The framework of moral economy..............................................................................112 4 4.3. Complaining and moral economy ...............................................................................117 4.4. Work as the centre of the moral universe....................................................................121 4.5. Justifications for moral entitlements ...........................................................................125 4.6. Miners’ basic demands – respect and money..............................................................130 4.7. Gender relations and moral entitlements.....................................................................135 4.8. Conclusion...................................................................................................................142 Chapter 5. Stratifying spending, levelling leisure: miners’ consumption and free time ................................................................................................................................................144 5.1.Introduction ..................................................................................................................144 5.2. Income, education and consumption: the fragile differentiation of lifestyles.............145 5.3. Levelling leisure: mushrooms .....................................................................................151 5.4. Drinking ......................................................................................................................154 5.5. Sport – building moral persons and communities.......................................................159 5.6. Conclusion...................................................................................................................166 Chapter 6. Changing company, reshaping class and family............................................169 6.1. Introduction .................................................................................................................169 6.2. The border of civilisations...........................................................................................172 6.3. An attempt to make new engineers? The annual performance review .......................174 6.4. The annual performance review: creating the new class structure..............................182 6.5. Outsourcing as creating difference..............................................................................187 6.6. The company as a family or the company and the family?.........................................192

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