Changing economic needs of South African capitalism

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16 SOCIALIST ACTION MARCH 1990 South African society is not as simple as it was in 1948 when the ruling Nationalist Party began to vastly strengthen the apartheid system. Big changes in economic and social relations have forced the regime to modify some of its racist policies.

The recent mass reception given Nelson Mandela upon his release from prison shows that the consciousness and militancy of the Black population is higher than at any previous time.

At the same time, Black workers—integrated into a wide range of strategic industries—have shown that they have the power to bring the economy to a grinding halt. Close to a million workers have joined the mass Black trade unions.

This growth of a powerful and increasingly combative Black working class is a by-product of the expansion of the South African economy over the past four decades. A biweekly magazine published by the Fourth International.

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It has compelled the government to adopt a series of skillful political maneuvers—in combination with their time-tested variant of repression-to contain the enormous power of the Black majority. Loosening the iron grip of apartheid is the first step on this road.

Original capitalist development For centuries, Blacks in southern Africa engaged in cattle raising and farming. This all changed dramatically when diamonds and gold were discovered on their farm and grazing lands. White settlers poisoned the soil, slaughtered the cattle, and destroyed the indigenous handicrafts industry.

Expelling Blacks from the land occurred simultaneously with driving them into the mines. These two related economic features of capitalist development shaped the racist social character of South Africa-the minority white property owners and the Black majority workforce.

Oppression in the mines was staggering. [South Africa continues to have the highest record of mine accidents in the world.] Black miners suffered intolerable exploitation at sub-poverty level wages. As a consequence, until the last decade, capitalist investors in South Africa were realizing a profit rate twice as high as anywhere else in the world.

Why apartheid began

Driven off the land and super-exploited in the mines, Blacks began to drift into the cities in search of work. Beginning in the early years of this century, a series of laws were passed to keep large numbers of Blacks permanently dependent on working in the mines and in white-owned agriculture.

Pass laws were enacted which provided for the forced expulsion of millions of Blacks from "white" South Africa to artificially established "reserves" (later called "homelands" or Bantustans). These barren regions became nothing more than dumping grounds for the excess labor pool which the mine owners and wealthy farmers could tap as needed.

From 1916 to 1981, over 17 million Black people were arrested for escaping from these reserves.

After the Second World War, the system of racial separation was adopted to serve a growing industrial economy. From 1960 to 1983, 2 million Blacks were removed from "white" urban areas to the Bantustans. In the meantime, by 1986, unemployment among Blacks had grown officially to about 25 percent.

Why capitalists want it to end By the 1960s, the industrial and commercial sector of the economy was over twice as large as mining and agriculture. The new diversification of the economy was directly financed by the super-profits resulting from apartheid. But, paradoxically, once the economy reached its present state of advanced industrial development, the stringent rules of apartheid became obstacles to further development.

For example, a permanent and reliable workforce is needed by modern industrial firms such as auto, electronics, and chemical production. To achieve this stability, it is not practical to prohibit Black families from living together in the major cities, which were defined exclusively as "white areas."

Inevitably, illegal township settlements Soweto township where Nelson Mandela lives has well over one million residents.

By the same token, South African industry desperately requires a more educated workforce to increase productivity, an absolutely essential step needed to reverse the decline in their competitiveness in the world market. Once again, apartheid stands in the way. In 1984, 68 percent of the Black population was illiterate.

In addition, to compensate for the loss in their export earnings, South African capitalists want what all capitalists enjoy-the right to increase profits by expanding their own domestic market.

Already, seven out of every 10 rand spent in Johannesburg are spent by Black consumers. The potential national market is enormous with a Black population of 27 million. Cultivating a domestic market was not previously relevant to the mining and agricultural sectors, which were export oriented.

Reaching a political accommodation limiting the power of the Black masses while at the same time allowing a section to rise above their sub-human conditions to become "wage slaves" and consumers explains the dual, and delicate, nature of South African President F.W. de Klerk's negotiations.

Today, apartheid's brutally simple formula of racial separation is not only socially explosive but it is an obstacle to the needs of the complex South African economy.

The government is attempting to shift gears while it's still in the driver's seat. Abandoning certain aspects of apartheid is a cheap price to pay if the government can win major political concessions from Black leaders which legitimize the regime.

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