Uneven and combined Marxism within South Africa’s
urban social movements:
Trancending precarity in community, labour and environmental struggles
Patrick Bond University of KwaZulu-Natal
School of Development Studies and Centre for Civil Society, Durban
with Ashwin Desai and Trevor Ngwane
presented to theCity University of New York
Center for Place, Culture and Politics and Socialist Register
CUNY Graduate Center
13 May 2011
‘overaccumulation’and GDP stagnation:
source of decline in finance-adjusted US profits
US corporate profits derived much less from manufacturing products;much greater sources of profits came from abroad;profits also came more from returns on financial assets.Source: Gerard Dumenil and Dominique Levy
crisis of surplus value extraction
‘temporal fix’
‘spatial fix’
context: US economy as core site of overaccumulation and financialisation
when crisis sets in, 3 displacement techniques:‘shifting’, ‘stalling’, ‘stealing’
the spatial fix, temporal fix and accumulation by dispossession
Source: John Bellamy Foster and Fred Magdoff, 2009
Financial profits as % of total profits
volatility and uneven
development inexorably
worsen(source: Unctad 2009)
limits of the ‘spatial fix’: amplified uneven development
Source: IMF, Global Financial Stability Report, April 2010
limits of ‘temporal fix’: uncontrolled financial markets
stock market volatility: all markets in ‘08
Source: Unctad
… widespread, dramatic loss of paper wealth
Source: Barry Eichengreen
Long waves of debt and default (by sovereign leaders)
Key feature of imperialism:Capitalist/non-capitalist relations
Rosa LuxemburgAccumulation of capital periodically bursts
out in crises and spurs capital on to a continual extension of the market. Capital cannot accumulate without the aid of non-capitalist organisations, nor … can it tolerate their continued existence side by side with itself. Only the continuous and progressive disintegration of non-capitalist organisations makes accumulation of capital possible.-- Rosa Luxemburg,The Accumulation of Capital, 1913.
South Africa’s ‘moment’ of Western Marxism, 70s-80sThe struggle against apartheid became at times a focus of the hopes of the revolutionary left around the world. It represents a missed opportunity for the left not only in the more obvious sense that it did not result in a real challenge to the power ofglobal capitalism.
It was also an opportunity to transform the historical relationship of Marxist theory and working class politics, and overcome the division which allows a dialectical Marxism to flourish in the universities and journals, while working class politics are dominated by the managerialism of Soviet Marxism or social-democracy.
• Andrew Nash, 1999
More than 50 independent left books since 2000
• H.Marais, South Africa Pushed to the Limit (Johannesburg, Jacana, 2011).• S. Buhlungu, A Paradox of Victory (Pietermaritzburg, University of KwaZulu-Natal Press,
2010). • B.Maharaj, A.Desai and P. Bond (eds), Zuma's Own Goal (Trenton, Africa World Press,
2010). • J.Handmaker and R.Berkhout (eds), Mobilising Social Justice in South Africa (Pretoria,
Pretoria University Law Press, 2010).• A.Desai (ed), The Race to Transform (Pretoria, HSRC Press, 2010).• B.Freund and H.Witt (eds), Development Dilemmas in Post-Apartheid South Africa
(Pietermaritzburg, University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2010).• Beinart, W. and M. Dawson (eds), Popular Politics and Resistance Movements in South
Africa (Johannesburg, Wits University Press, 2010).• N.Geffen, Debunking Delusions (Johannesburg, Jacana, 2010).• N.Mkhize, J.Bennett, V.Reddy and R.Moletsane, The Country we Want to Live In
(Pretoria, HSRC Press, 2010).• Daniel, J., P.Naidoo, D.Pillay and R.Southall, New South African Review (Johannesburg,
Wits University Press, 2010).• Death, C., Governing Sustainable Development (New York, Routledge, 2010).• P.Bond, R.Dada and G.Erion (eds), Climate Change, Carbon Trading and Civil Society
(Amsterdam, Rozenberg Publishers, and Pietermaritzburg, University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2009).
• A.Nash, The Dialectical Tradition in South Africa (London, Routledge, 2009).• J.Saul, Revolutionary Traveller (Winnipeg, Arbeiter Ring, 2009).• V. Satgar and L. Zita, New Frontiers for Socialism in the 21st Century (Johannesburg,
COPAC, 2009).• J.Cock, The War Against Ourselves (Johannesburg, Wits University Press, 2008).• M.Williams, The Roots of Participatory Democracy (London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2008).• J.Saul, Decolonization and Empire (London, Merlin Press, 2008).• H.Britton, S.Meintjes and J.Fish, Women's Activism in South Africa (Pietermaritzburg,
University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2008).• A.Kirsten, A Nation without Guns? (Pietermaritzburg, University of KwaZulu-Natal Press,
2008).• D.McDonald (ed), Electric Capitalism (Pretoria, Human Sciences Research Council, 2008).• A.Mngxitama, A.Alexander and N.Gibson, Biko Lives (London, Palgrave, 2008).• L.Ntsebeza and R.Hall (eds), The Land Question in South Africa (Pretoria, HSRC Press,
2007).• M.Legassick, Towards Socialist Democracy (Pietermaritzburg, University of KwaZulu-
Natal Press, 2007). • P.Bond, H.Chitonge and A.Hopfmann (eds), The Accumulation of Capital in Southern
Africa (Berlin, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung and Durban, Centre for Civil Society, 2007).• W.Gumede, Thabo Mbeki and the Battle for the Soul of the ANC (London, Zed Books
• V.Padayachee (ed), The Development Decade? (Pretoria, University of South Africa Press, 2006).• S.Hassim, Women's Organisations and Democracy in South Africa (Pietermaritzburg, University of
KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2006).• R.Pithouse (ed), Asinimali (Trenton, Africa World Press, 2006).• N.Gibson (ed), Challenging Hegemony (Trenton, Africa World Press, 2006).• A.Alexander (ed), Articulations (Trenton, Africa World Press, 2006).• R.Ballard, A.Habib and I.Valodia (eds), Voices of Protest (Pietermaritzburg, University of KwaZulu-
Natal Press, 2006).• P.Bond, Talk Left, Walk Right, 2nd ed. (Pietermaritzburg, University of Natal Press, and London,
Merlin Press, 2006). • P. Bond, Elite Transition, 2nd ed. (London, Pluto Press, and Pietermaritzburg, University of Natal
Press, 2006).• S.Buhlungu (ed), Trade Unions and Democracy (Pretoria, HSRC Press, 2006).• L.Ntsebeza, Democracy Compromised (Pretoria, HSRC Press, 2006).• D.Brutus, Poetry and Protest (Chicago, Haymarket Press and Pietermaritzburg, University of Natal
Press, 2006).• J.Saul, The Next Liberation Struggle (Toronto, Between the Lines, 2005).• P.Bond (ed), Fanon’s Warning (Trenton, Africa World Press, 2005).• P.Nel and J.van der Westhuizen (eds), Democratising South African Foreign Policy (New York,
Lexington Books and Cape Town, University of Cape Town Press, 2004).• P.Bond, Against Global Apartheid, 2nd ed. (London, Zed Books and University of Cape Town Press,
2003).• S. Kimani, ed, The Right to Dissent (Johannesburg, Freedom of Expression Institute, 2003). • K.vanHoldt, Transition from Below (Pietermaritzburg, University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2003).• J.Ossenbruegge and C.Haferburg (Eds), Ambiguous Restructurings of Post-Apartheid Cape Town
(Muenster, Lit Verlag, 2003).• A.Osmanovic (ed), Transforming South Africa (Hamburg, Institute fuer Afrika-Kunde, 2003).• S.Terreblanche, A History of Inequality in South Africa (Pietermaritzburg, University of KwaZulu-
Natal Press, 2003).• F. Barchiesi and T. Bramble, eds., Rethinking the Labour Movement in the 'New South Africa'
(Aldershot, Ashgate, 2003). • T. Bell, and D. Ntsebeza, Unfinished Business (London, Verso and Cape Town, RedWorks, 2003). • N. Alexander, An Ordinary Country (Pietermaritzburg, University of Natal Press, 2002). • S. Jacobs and R. Calland, eds., Thabo Mbeki's World (London, Zed Books and Pietermaritzburg,
University of Natal Press, 2002). • G. Hart, Disabling Globalization (Pietermaritzburg, University of Natal Press, and Berkeley,
University of California Press, 2002). • A. Desai, We are the Poors (New York, Monthly Review Press, 2002). • D. McDonald (ed), Environmental Justice in South Africa (University of Cape Town Press, 2002). • D. McDonald and J. Pape, eds., Cost Recovery and the Crisis of Service Delivery in South Africa
(London, Zed Books and Pretoria, HSRC Publications, 2002). • J. Duncan, Broadcasting and the National Question (Johannesburg, Freedom of Expression
Institute, 2002). • P.Bond, Unsustainable South Africa (London, Merlin Press, and Pietermaritzburg, University of
Natal Press, 2002).• S. Adams, Comrade Minister (New York, Nova Science Publishers, 2001). • J.Saul, Millennial Africa (Trenton, Africa World Press, 2001).• P.Bond, Cities of Gold, Townships of Coal (Trenton, Africa World Press, 2000).• H. Marais, South Africa Limits to Change (London, Zed Books and University of Cape Town Press,
2000).
SA’s recent marxism informedby Karl Polanyi’s‘double movement’The Great Transformation (1957): ‘the extension of the market organisation in respect to genuine commodities was accompanied by its restriction’via civil society activism
Frantz FanonThe national bourgeoisie will be quite content with the role of the Western bourgeoisie’s business agent, and it will play its part
without any complexes in a most dignified manner... In its beginnings, the national bourgeoisie of the colonial country identifies itself with
the decadence of the bourgeoisie of the West. We need not think that it is jumping ahead; it is in fact beginning at the end. It is already
senile before it has come to know the petulance, the fearlessness, or the will to succeed of youth.
Frantz Fanon, ‘Pitfalls of National Consciousness’
Practical anti-capitalism:case study of successful internationalist social movement solidarity: access to Anti-RetroVirals
- 1990s – US promotes Intellectual Property above all, monopoly-patented ARVs cost $15 000/person/year- 1997 – SA’s Medicines Act allows ‘compulsory licensing’- 1998 – US State Dept counters with ‘full court press’,Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) formed, death of Durban AIDS activist Gugu Dlamini due to stigmatization- 1999 – Al Gore for president, ACTUP! opposition,Seattle WTO protest and Bill Clinton surrender- 2000 – AIDS Durban conference, Thabo Mbeki denialism- 2001 – ‘PMA-SA v Mandela’ lawsuit w MSF & Oxfam,while TAC imports Thai, Brazilian, Indian generics
Gugu Dlamini
TAC’s Anti-RetroVirals campaign:2001 – Constitutional Court supports nevirapine,
major WTO TRIPS concession at Doha2002 – critiques of Mbeki, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang
2003 – ANC compels change in state policy2004 – generics produced in SA
2009 – nearly 800 000 public sector recipients 2010 threats – fiscal conservatism, Obama Pepfar cuts
strategic successes:* commoning intellectual property
* decommodification* destratification
* deglobalisation of capital* globalisation of solidarity
Zackie Ahmat, Nelson Mandela
Water in South Africantownships:
world-famousstruggle againstcommodification
South Africa’s right to water?• ‘everyone has the right to an
environment that is not harmful to their health or well-being... everyone has the right to have access to... sufficient water’– Bill of Rights, Constitution of the Republic of SA, 1996 – subject to
‘progressive realisation of rights’ and budget constraints clauses
• 2003-09 lawsuit by Soweto activists and SA Coalition Against Water Privatisation against Johannesburg government (and by implication, Paris-based Suez):http://www.law.wits.ac.za/cals
two core aspects of Mazibuko v Johannesburg case
• How much water?– City of Joburg and Suez (2001): 25 litres/capita/day– Phiri activists, CAWP, CALS (2003): 50 lcd– High Court (Tsoka in April 2008): 50 lcd– Constitutional Court (Sept 2009): ‘we don’t DO policy’
• What delivery mechanism?– Joburg, Suez: pre-payment meters– Phiri et al: credit meters (as in white areas)– High Court: pre-payment meters are discriminatory– ConCourt: no problem with pre-payment meters
South African rights talk has so been• individualist: private/familial instead of public/political• consumption-oriented, without linkages to production, ecology
• framed not to resist but to legitimise neoliberalism
• prone to leave in place society’s class structure (e.g. failing to press for cross-subsidisation of water by the rich, agribusiness and other corporations)
• couched largely as technicist discourse, which alienates the mass base and society in general
• depoliticizing for mass-based organisations which become the domesticated ‘client’(but could be instructed to halt protests during litigation in the interests of the case)
• watered down, because of Constitutional language specifying the acceptability of ‘progressive realisation’ of rights (i.e. very slow), ‘reasonable’ measures, ‘within available resources’, which are assessed and decided upon by neoliberal politicians and bureaucrats
• diverting into legal alleyways, away from a more transformative route to politics
• up for adjudication by judges, who are amongst society’s most conservative elites
lessons from Mazibuko• Use rights narrative purely for defensive
purposes (injunctions against disconnections), not to change policy (confirming Critical Legal Studies’ ‘contingency’ theory)
• Use rights narrative for education, ‘dignity’and mobilisation (Treatment Action Campaign) but beware demobilisation potential
• For real relief: reconnection, turning meters into ‘statues’, ‘commoning’ and mutual aid, social mobilization and protest
Durban’s COP17 Conference of Polluters
28 Nov-9 Dec 2011International Convention Centre
