From: Patrick Bond (pbond@MAIL.NGO.ZA)
Date: Thu Mar 09 2006 - 13:56:29 EST
----- Original Message ----- From: "Jerry Levy" <Gerald_A_Levy@MSN.COM> > Yes, but is there an agreed upon understanding of the meaning of > 'neo-apartheid'? > If it is thought of as a form of neo-colonialism (as understood, for > example, by Nkrumah), then I think it is apt. After all, when apartheid > officially ended that no more ended the economic relations > characteristic of apartheid than the success of anti-colonial movements > ended the underlying economic relationships that existed between the > former colonial power and the formerly colonized. While the > character of South Africa as a white colonial settler state has changed, > the wealth in South Africa hasn't been re-distributed and so the main > forces who owned and controlled the wealth in South African under > apartheid continue to control that wealth today. But, when you say > that all can see neo-apartheid around them, you seem to be suggesting > something else like brute repressive force by the state. So, is > neo-apartheid commonly understood in South Africa to be a repressive > policy by the state or a system of economic relations or both? Hi, it's definitely both... not to get hung up on semantics (for which people get bashed in sometimes silly ways), but the point is that notwithstanding decolonisation of a sort, much of the residual character of apartheid's class, racial, gendered, ecological oppression reproduces, and that requires the regime's repressive apparatus to hold in check. There are, after all, an average of 16 protests every day in SA, of which 13% are illegal. One of the statements on the combination of forces in play I did is here: http://www.monthlyreview.org/0304bond.htm but I strongly recommend these book-length studies (amongst others): Saul, J. (2005), The Next Liberation Struggle, Toronto, Between the Lines Press, London, Merlin Press, New York, Monthly Review Press and Pietermaritzburg, University of KwaZulu-Natal Press; Gumede, W. (2005), Thabo Mbeki and the Struggle for the Soul of the ANC, Cape Town, Zebra Press; Barchiesi, F. and T.Bramble (Eds)(2003), Rethinking the Labour Movement in the 'New South Africa', London, Macmillan; Kimani, S. (Ed)(2003), The Right to Dissent: Freedom of Expression, Assembly and Demonstration in the New South Africa, Johannesburg, Freedom of Expression Institute; Alexander, N. (2002), An Ordinary Country, Pietermaritzburg, University of Natal Press; Jacobs, S. and R.Calland (Eds)(2002), Thabo Mbeki's World, London, Zed Books and Pietermaritzburg, University of KwaZulu-Natal Press; Hart, G. (2002), Disabling Globalization, Pietermaritzburg, University of KwaZulu-Natal Press and Berkeley, University of California Press; Desai, A. (2002), We are the Poors, New York, Monthly Review Press; Bell, T. and D.Ntsebeza (2001), Unfinished Business, Cape Town, RedWorks; Adams, S. (2001), Comrade Minister, New York, Nova Science Publishers; and Marais, H. (2000), South Africa Limits to Change, London, Zed Books and Cape Town, University of Cape Town Press.
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