From: Patrick Bond (pbond@MAIL.NGO.ZA)
Date: Wed Feb 14 2007 - 15:05:45 EST
(Apologies for cross-posting) THE ACCUMULATION OF CAPITAL IN SOUTHERN AFRICA NEW BOOK, FREE TO DOWNLOAD: http://www.nu.ac.za/ccs/files/RL%20Capital-africa.pdf HARD COPIES AVAILABLE: Berlin: at the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung head office, after 19 February Durban: at the University of KwaZulu-Natal Centre for Civil Society, after 22 February Joburg: at the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung office, after 22 February Cape Town: at the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung Seminar with AIDC, ILRIG and LRS, 28 February *** The Accumulation of Capital in Southern Africa: Rosa Luxemburg's contemporary relevance Edited by Patrick Bond, Horman Chitonge and Arndt Hopfmann The revived interest in Luxemburg's ideas about imperialism is not surprising. More than her contemporaries (Lenin, Bukharin, Hilferding), she pointed out the dialectical relations between markets and the 'non-market' spheres of life, to which we should add the environment. These relations are central to a new period of 'primitive accumulation' that has generated powerful resistance in many corners of the earth. Southern Africa is an especially important site to reconsider the dynamics of capital accumulation, given the reliance of regional businesses upon superexploitative systems such as colonialism, apartheid and neoliberalism. This collection is drawn from a collaboration between the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation and University of KwaZulu-Natal Centre for Civil Society, in which the Rosa Luxemburg Political Education Seminar 2006 overlapped with the Centre's Colloquium on Economy, Society and Nature. The event attracted some of the world's leading political economists alongside regional analysts. This volume features work by Luxemburg, Arndt Hopfmann, Jeff Guy, Ahmed Veriava, Massimo De Angelis, Elmar Altvater, Patrick Bond, Isobel Frye, Caroline Skinner, Imraan Valodia, Greg Ruiters, Leonard Gentle, Ulrich Duchrow, Ntwala Mwilima, S'bu Zikode, Salim Vally and Trevor Ngwane. *** /Capitalists have come to understand that to destroy the subsistence economy altogether would not be in their best interests for two reasons: fi rst, and most obviously, the employers are not prepared to absorb the entire subsistence sector; second, and more subtly, self-provisioning has provided subsidised wage labour. Luxemburg knew this as well as anyone, and Southern Africa is an exemplary case. For me, the Durban conference was an eye-opener. You had poor young people, who live in shacks constructed of the sort of materials that you could scrounge up in the nearby dump, going toe to toe with some of the smartest and most articulate academics you can imagine. There was mutual respect on all sides, as is evident in this excellent collection. /-- Michael Perelman, California State University and author of The Invention of Capitalism: The Secret History of Primitive Accumulation *** About Rosa Luxemburg Rosa Luxemburg, born in Poland on March 5 1871, was an eminent representative of European democratic socialist thinking and action. Along with Karl Liebknecht, she was the most important representative of internationalist and anti-militaristic positions in the German Social Democratic Party. She was a passionate and convinced critic of capitalism, as witnessed by her book The Accumulation of Capital, and from this criticism she drew the strength for revolutionary politics. After leaving the Social Democratic Party, Luxemburg co-founded the German Communist Party. She was assassinated on January 15 1919 by military men who later openly supported German Fascism. Contents Contributors Preface -- Arndt Hopfmann Introduction -- Patrick Bond and Horman Chitonge PART ONE: THE ACCUMULATION OF CAPITAL IN THEORY AND HISTORY Excerpts from The Accumulation of Capital - Rosa Luxemburg The Accumulation of Capital in historical perspective - Arndt Hopfmann 'No eyes, no interest, no frame of reference': Rosa Luxemburg, Southern African historiography, and pre-capitalist of modes of production -- Jeff Guy Unlocking the present? Two theories of primitive accumulation - Ahmed Veriava Enclosures, commons and the 'outside' -- Massimo De Angelis PART TWO: CONTEMPORARY ACCUMULATION OF CAPITAL Imperialism and new commodity forms -- Elmar Altvater Luxemburg and South African subimperial accumulation - Patrick Bond Two economies? A critique of recent South African policy debates -- Caroline Skinner and Imraan Valodia New faces of privatisation: From comrades to customers -- Greg Ruiters Black Economic Empowerment and the South African social formation -- Leonard Gentle PART THREE: SOCIAL STRUGGLES AGAINST ACCUMULATION Property for people, not for profit - Ulrich Duchrow The regional labour movement - Ntwala Mwilima The shackdwellers movement of Durban -- S'Bu Zikode Against the commodification of education -- Salim Vally Challenging municipal policies and global capital -- Trevor Ngwane Contributors Elmar Altvater taught at the Free University in Berlin for many years, and is a leading authority on political economy and environment. Patrick Bond, a political economist, is research professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal where he directs the Centre for Civil Society. Horman Chitonge is a doctoral candidate at the University of KwaZulu-Natal Centre for Civil Society. A Zambian, he holds degrees from the University of Zimbabwe and UKZN School of Development Studies. Massimo De Angelis is a Reader in economics at the University of East London. He edits The Commoner website and blog: www.thecommoner.org. Ulrich Duchrow is associated with the German prophetic faith organisation Kairos, and is based at the University of Heidelberg. Leonard Gentle directs the International Labour Research and Information Group in Cape Town. Jeff Guy is research fellow at the Campbell Collection in Durban, and has taught at universities in Southern Africa and Norway. He has published several books on the destruction of the Zulu kingdom, and Zulu resistance. Arndt Hopfmann holds a PhD in Development Economics, and was formerly senior lecturer at the University of Leipzig and the Free University in Berlin. He directs the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation's Regional Office in Johannesburg. Ntwala Mwilima is a researcher based at the Labour Resource and Research Institute in Windhoek, Namibia. Trevor Ngwane is a student at the UKZN Centre for Civil Society and general secretary of the Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee. Greg Ruiters holds the Matthew Goniwe professorship at the Rhodes University Institute for Social and Economic Research. Caroline Skinner is a research fellow at the UKZN School of Development Studies. Imraan Valodia is a senior research fellow at the UKZN School of Development Studies. Salim Vally is a senior researcher at the University of the Witwatersrand Education Policy Unit. Ahmed Veriava is conducting masters degree research at the UKZN Centre for Civil Society and works with the Anti-Privatisation Forum in Gauteng. S'Bu Zikode is a leader of Abahlali baseMjondolo, the Durban movement of shackdwellers. Preface Arndt Hopfmann Capitalist accumulation as a whole, as an actual historical process, has two different aspects. One concerns the commodity market and the place where surplus value is produced -- the factory, the mine, the agricultural estate... The other aspect of the accumulation of capital concerns the relations between capitalism and the non-capitalist modes of production which start making their appearance on the international stage. Its predominant methods are colonial policy, an international loan system -- a policy of spheres of interest -- and war. Force, fraud, oppression, looting are openly displayed without any attempt at concealment... - Rosa Luxemburg, The Accumulation of Capital, p. 432. Capital now devours human beings: it becomes a cannibal. Every human activity must now become capital and bear interest, so that investment-seeking capital can live: schools, kindergartens, universities, health systems, energy utilities, roads, railways, the post office, telecommunications and other means of communication, etc. The anarcho-capitalist dreams go even further. Even the police and legislation are to be transformed into capital investments. One receives a licence to live and to participate in any of the spheres of society only if one pays to capital the fees required in the form of interest. Capital becomes a 'superworld' to which sacrificial victims must be brought. - Ulrich Duchrow and Franz Hinkelammert, Property for people, not for profit, p.148. These two citations present in a nutshell the basic traits of capitalist accumulation from its origins to its current forms -- the dominance of the capitalist forms in the arena of material production, the continuous use of coercion, violence and theft in order to increase the rate of profit, as well as the intrinsic tendency of capitalism to subjugate all aspects of social life to the reign of profit. The 3rd Rosa Luxemburg Political Education Seminar, jointly organised by the Centre of Civil Society at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban and the Southern African Regional Office of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation in Johannesburg, was held on March 2nd -- 4th 2006 in Durban. The Seminar examined these general characteristics of capitalist accumulation within the global, regional and local context. That context is shaped, on the one hand, by the growing impact of a corporate driven globalisation, but also the expansion of South African capital into neighbouring countries, the emergence of new forms of 'primitive accumulation' under the label of Black Economic Empowerment, and the ongoing commodification and privatisation of public services. On the other hand, there is a growing movement which not only resists the commercialisation of all sphere of human life but strives to build alternatives -- to create 'another world' which is not only possible but necessary. The success of the Seminar is due to many contributors. Very valuable inputs were made by overseas guests including Elmar Altvater, Nicola Bullard, Massimo De Angelis, Ulrich Duchrow and Gill Hart. Other crucial interventions came from scholar-activists from the region including Jeff Guy, Ntwala Mwilima, Prishani Naidoo and Greg Ruiters. But this alone would not have been enough to make the seminar the thrilling event it was. The other factor was vibrant interaction from the floor. Contributions by activists from townships and social movements -- and the often forgotten inconspicuous work of the staff members of the organising institutions -- created an atmosphere of rigorous debate and mutual encouragement. This book contains some of the contributions to the 3rd Rosa Luxemburg Political Education Seminar. The materials gathered here will hopefully provide a valuable source of inspiration for activists and will encourage them to extend their studies on other important writings which form part of our huge theoretical heritage. However, these texts can never fully reflect the lively spirit of interaction and solidarity that prevailed throughout the event. To experience this unique feeling it was essential to be there. That is why I'm looking forward to inviting readers to the Rosa Luxemburg Seminar 2007 which will be held from March 1st -- 3rd in Cape Town. Arndt Hopfmann *** Introduction Patrick Bond and Horman Chitonge With the 2004-05 South African protest rate at 16 per day, of which 13 percent were illegal, it is evident that activists have returned to an earlier militancy which some worried would be forgotten or completely repressed in the post-apartheid era. This mirrors processes across the region, in the wake of post-independence betrayals of promised progress. If we take merely one case from the region, Zimbabwe, Simba Manyanya and Patrick Bond documented five stages over a twenty-year period (1980-2000): - a liberation movement which won repeated elections against a terribly weak opposition, but under circumstances of worsening abstentionism by, and depoliticisation of, the masses; - concomitantly, that movement's undeniable failure to deliver a better life for most of the country's low-income people, while material inequality soared; - rising popular alienation from, and cynicism about, nationalist politicians, as the gulf between rulers and the ruled widened inexorably and as more numerous cases of corruption and malgovernance were brought to public attention; - growing economic misery as neoliberal policies were tried and failed; and - the sudden rise of an opposition movement based in the trade unions, quickly backed by most of civil society, the liberal petit-bourgeoisie and the independent media - potentially leading to the election of a new, post-nationalist government. That trajectory appears inexorable for South Africa, as well, even if not on the same timescale, given the stronger ties between trade unions and the ruling party (especially in the wake of the rise and fall and rise and fall and rise... of Jacob Zuma). It is in this respect that we will continually have our ears tuned to regional dimensions, to learn as much as possible from prior episodes of exhausted nationalist capitalism, and from temporarily unsuccessful reactions by progressive forces in civil society. After all, for more than three centuries, this region has hosted some of the world's most intense contests between capitalism and non-capitalist social and natural life, with capital -- in mining, agriculture, industry and services -- taking full advantage of slavery, colonialism, neocolonialism, apartheid and neoliberalism. The result has been a continual 'primitive accumulation' in which capital's reach superexploits women, indigenous people, natural environments, workers and now consumers. To learn more about these regional, historical, theoretical and contemporary processes, the Centre for Civil Society opened thematic research projects on 'Economic Justice' in March 2006. We launched this theme by reviewing some of the finest traditions of South African, regional and international political-economic theory and contemporary analysis. Our focus was on market-nonmarket interactions and new forms of primitive accumulation. In addition to Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, we were supported in this effort by funding and intellectual partners also committed to these issues, including the SA-Netherlands Programme for Alternative Research in Development, Harold Wolpe Memorial Trust, Open Society Initiative of Southern Africa, Research Council of Norway, SA National Research Foundation and two leading journals, Capitalism Nature Socialism and Review of African Political Economy. By way of context, ideas about a supposed 'dual economy' in South Africa (and indeed the region and world) are now being debated at the highest political/policy levels. Early 2006 presented an opportune time to discuss whether formal markets and the informal economy plus other aspects of society and nature are really as divorced as is often assumed. Before their deaths, several scholar-activists - Harold Wolpe in South Africa (1995), Guy Mhone (2005) and Jose Negrao (2005) in Southern Africa and Rosa Luxemburg in Europe (1919) - developed consistent arguments about the way markets systematically exploit 'nonmarket' opportunities, in other modes of production, in society (especially women's unpaid labour ) and in the natural environment. At three scales of analysis, we assessed their stories, reviewed past and contemporary contributions on their legacies, and considered whether current and future political-economic scenarios require new insights. Interdisciplinary social scientists debated intellectual problems associated with market exploitation of nonmarket spheres (society and nature) from 28 February through 2 March, and from 2-4 March, activists from across KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and the region helped move from analysis to praxis, with open discussions and strategy debates in the framework of the Rosa Luxemburg Political Education Seminar. While the Review of African Political Economy (March 2007) carries papers from days devoted to Wolpe, Mhone and Negrao, the main papers presented in honour of Luxemburg's ideas, and some of the key strategic insights, are found in this volume. We start with Luxemburg's own analysis of South and Southern Africa, in several revealing excerpts from The Accumulation of Capital. But by discussing Accumulation in historical perspective, Arndt Hopfmann maintains that not only do we encounter conceptual errors, but we can also acknowledge the brilliance of Luxemburg's insights for application to contemporary problems. By situating her work historically in KwaZulu-Natal, Jeff Guy reintroduces us to the 'pre-capitalist mode of production' and its interface with capitalist expansion at the turn of the 20th century. And to update the theoretical argument, Ahmed Veriava considers primitive accumulation by examining two directions in which we can pursue Luxemburg's main theme, that of David Harvey and Massimo De Angelis. With his notion of 'our outsides' (i.e., those terrains of social struggle that counteract commodification), De Angelis adds an important reminder about the power of agency. But when we evaluate the contemporary nature of imperialism, sobering evidence is to be found. In Luxemburg's spirit, Elmar Altvater surveys the many ways that a new petro-grounded imperialism has emerged, along with a variety of other new commodity forms that Luxemburg might have anticipated. Some such aspects of imperialism pit countries against each other, a prospect Patrick Bond argues is already in play with South Africa's accumulation model extending into the region. That accumulation model is currently being disguised by state rhetoric about how a 'second economy' can be drawn into the first, as if they are separate. The interconnections and systemic underdevelopment of the mass of informal workers are unveiled by Caroline Skinner and Imraan Valodia. Likewise, the deepening of the commodity form with respect to state services is disguised by a new rhetoric of serving 'customers', as Greg Ruiters shows. Part of the disguise is also the deracialisation of the commanding heights, an uneven, stop-start-stop process criticised by Leonard Gentle. What of resistance to these aspects of regional capital accumulation? In part by reminding us of the prophetic, radical, pro-poor voice of religious tradition, Ulrich Duchrow launches an overdue attack on the very foundations of accumulation, the property form. Ntwala Mwilima poses challenges for regional labour with respect to ideological challenges posed by foreign direct investment. The need for unity amongst oppressed people, especially the very poorest, is emphasised by S'Bu Zikode. In the specific case of fighting the commodification of education, Salim Vally sketches strategic arguments and reveals anti-capitalist practices. Finally, the more general relationship between locales, identities, protests and class struggles are dissected by Trevor Ngwane, as he ultimately counterposes one word as antidote to the accumulation of capital: socialism. This collection of texts, presented at our Colloquium on Economy, Society and Nature, is the first of many attempts to revive the political economic traditions that made South and Southern Africa amongst the most important laboratories for anti-capitalist analysis and praxis. But if academic comprehensions are typically six months or more behind the curve on so many such struggles, we will continue to offer interesting material only if we at the Centre for Civil Society and Rosa Luxemburg Foundation listen, quite explicitly, as intently as possible to the organic intelligentsia in the new movements for socio-economic and environmental justice. ***
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