Today's Topics:
1. wsm.ie: Abandoned Dublin prison occupied by squatters who
want to open it as art / community space - State says NO!
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. France, Alternative Libertaire AL n° special - For a
revolutionary alternative (fr, it, pt) [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. 1-4 September 2016: 1st Camping Libertarian Trade Union of
Ioannina (ca) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. afed.cz: Al-Pride - A brief report of queer event, which has
become an alternative to the traditional, but somewhat commercial
Prague Pride. [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. France, Alternative Libertaire AL n° special -
Anti-fascism: In Strasbourg, no fascists in our demos (fr, it,
pt) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
6. wsm.ie: Protest to follow homophobic attack in Phoenix park
ignored by Garda by Andrew N Flood (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
7. Lucien van der Walt, 2015, BEYOND ‘WHITE MONOPOLY
CAPITAL’: WHO OWNS SOUTH AFRICA?, -- 'South African Labour
Bulletin', 39 (3): 39-42. (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
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Message: 1
What may have been the largest squat in Europe, at Grangegorman in Dublin, was recently
evicted for the second time. A major hardship for the 30 people living there but one that
was rapidly improved on when many of them moved a kilometre down the road and occupied a
long abandoned prison. ---- The Debtors Prison on Halston street was built in 1794 and
actually lies between Halston Street and Green Street. The ‘U’ shaped 3 storey building is
built of granite and limestone and was built as a luxury prison for the wealthy who had
run up gambling debts. There were 33 such rooms / cells which were rented either furnished
or unfurnished. If you weren’t rich you were thrown into the basement, Dublin at the time
had 5 debtors prison and this one alone could accommodate 100.
It later saw use as a police barracks, both the RIC and the Garda, and in the 1960s for
public housing. After that it was threatened with demolition in the period when many
historic buildings and indeed squares were pulled down to make way for ‘development’
before being leased by Students Against the Destruction of Dublin, a campaigning group
formed by architecture students in the 1980s and then handed back to the Office of Public
Works (OPW).
Ireland has a very hostile legal climate for squatting, which is a major part of the
reason why despite a severe housing shortage the centre of Dublin is full of both long
abandoned buildings and people sleeping on the streets. Property speculators rest safe in
the knowledge that if their muscle fails to illegally evict squatters judges will issue
injunctions to force them out, even if no intention exists to use the building.
In this case though the building is state owned but has still been allowed to remain
derelict for a number of years. Of course once it was being brought back into use outside
its control the state panicked and suddenly was concerned for the health and safety of a
group of people it had just evicted to the ‘health and safety’ of the streets. But
apparently without shame the Department of Public Expenditure and the Office of Public
Works told Mr Justice Michael Hanna that for a range of reasons running from the state of
the electricity supply to the presence of pigeon droppings this group had to be forced
back onto the streets for their own good.
The occupiers argued in court that the states claim to title was no better than theirs but
they needed time to demonstrate this. The judge gave them a week but ordered them to be
out by midnight Sunday.
The occupiers posted a statement to the Facebook page set up to resist the eviction of
their previous accommodations at Grangegorman which reads
“The Debtors Prison on Halston Street has recently been occupied by a collective of
artists. The prison has been left empty and has fallen into disrepair. The occupants are
currently seeking support and cooperation from the organisation responsible for the
maintenance of the building, the Office of Public Works, as well as the local community.
The occupants have stated that their intention is to restore the building and open the
ground floor for exhibitions and walking tours which would highlight social injustices
from the past until today. The occupants are hard at work preparing the space and
launching projects.”
Sh what happen’s if the state gets them evicted? Well according to the website site of An
Taisce, the National Trust of Ireland the prison is “Vacant with no identified new use”.
They go on to say “The building is suffering from major conservation problems. Most of the
external fabric remains, but there are obvious signs of deterioration such as slipped
slates, vegetation growth, broken windows and vandalism. There is no immediate danger of
collapse but condition is such that unless urgent remedial works are carried out the
building will sharply deteriorate… The building is of significant historic importance and
requires conservation works to prevent further deterioration.”
Or in other words this building badly needs to be occupied and brought back into use to
prevent further deterioration. A large group of people are doing just this and this group
have already a proven record of hosting free artistic and community events in their
previous base at Grangegorman. We also understand that a small local business offered a
grant of 10k per annum towards restoration for the next decade if OPW allowed them a long
term zero cost lease.
The state which insists it doesn’t have the funds to fix the building up when faced with a
group of people willing to do so for nothing drags them into the courts and seeks to kick
them out on the streets.
Keep an eye on their Resist Grangegorman's Eviction pagehttps://www.facebook.com/resistgg
for updates, we took the photo used with this story from that page.
http://www.wsm.ie/c/abandoned-dublin-prison-occupied-squatters-halston
------------------------------
Message: 2
The questions asked by any and all revolutionary at the end of a social movement of this
magnitude: what new societal transformation prospects are possible now? ---- The
revolution is not a romantic whim. This is not to dream in Che Guevara or Louise Michel
leading urban guerrilla warfare on the barricades in Paris in flames. The revolution is
not a gala dinner as Mao said, and that - once will not hurt! - we agree. ---- This is
because capitalism is dying, linking economic and ecological crises, we must act. And it
is because he will look to extend his agony by wicked laws, to extirpate the proletariat
its last profits, that revolutionary action becomes urgent. ---- If there is a teaching of
this social movement, violence, unprecedented in recent decades, with which the State has
served the interests of capital. This is a common enemy that we have to cut down: we do
not fight the state by eternal teenager of romanticism - we still prefer it to
conservatism eternal patriarchs - but because the main function of state violence is to
maintain the hierarchy of social classes. Who can believe that lay off more, increase
working time, reduce wages, is in the interests of working people? No one. But once said
we do not want this society, a question arises: how revolutionary act?
The capitalist system can not be reformed
There are no key project or predetermined plan of action to disrupt social relations and
lead to a libertarian communist society. But if one does not know or paths - and there are
probably many - one can be sure, however, that some issues are dead ends. This is pseudo
election and Republican solutions. Consider the social transformation from the struggles
of the street and the concerns of the working classes. The capitalist system can not be
reformed: it is what we must convince those who are most victims of exploitation, and
false solutions which are left dangling.
Becoming aware of our collective strength
It is by multiplying the experiences of collective struggle that we will build a new
world. This is to popularize the revolutionary ideas with the project libertarian
communist society as horizon. We must continue to undermine the institutional political
game, to rout the allegedly socialist party, to show that elections are a charade to make
us believe that our opinion is important while it is only the law of profit. In parallel,
we need to develop in the struggles, assemblies, etc., direct democracy practices to
collectively develop a political project and move the lines.
The spaces of reflection and action created by the fight - boxes assemblies of industries,
town or district; pickets; occupations; events - are all places where reflect on another
company, the means and forces necessary to put in place: socialization of the means of
production, solving environmental problems, social ...
Action on three levels
As a revolutionary organization, AL proposes a policy on three levels:
1. The building of a libertarian communist organization visible, audible and identifiable,
whose reflections and proposals may refer, be in debate. A current inserted in the social
movements, in line with its boldest fractions. Today, this tool still modest, is AL.
2. The development of an independent and combative social movement. This means
contributing to the rise of revolutionary syndicalism, especially within Solidarity and
CGT, participate in the feminist movement, anti-racist, environmentalist, and participate
in various collectives that mount when moving.
3. Convergence, whenever possible, with other revolutionary currents in an anti-capitalist
front logic. These join forces to make our voices heard on issues where there is no
difference.
Fédérérer, radicalized, self-management
In social movements and trade unionism, it certainly is to gather Workers because unity is
strength, but not only. Defend social gains against their neoliberal destruction, that's
good. Pushing beyond mere defense to ask existing economic, social, societal issues that
upset the established order, is even better.
Same in the feminist movement, anti-racist and environmentalist. These struggles have
value in themselves, but it is vital to link to a more general change project of social
relations. We can not be content with a feminist and an anti-racism which would simply see
more women and racialized minorities to Medef, or ecology that militate for the taxation
of diesel!
Unite against powers, when it is not hot in the fight, this can be done in self-managed
places for social assistance. Include the Barricade in Montpellier, the House of the
People in Rennes, the Spark in Angers, the Self Shooting Lievin, the CCC Nancy ... These
places of social solidarity struggles of migrants, undocumented, Palestine, Kurdistan,
Chiapas, etc. They can promote alternative culture (library, concerts, etc.) or even
genuine popular education through public meetings and trainings.
Converging anticapitalist
Fortunately, AL is not the only revolutionary organization and construction of single
frames of resistance and support for the struggles of anti-capitalist basis is a
necessity. According cities, convergence with other organizations is possible. When we
talk about convergence of anti-capitalist, we speak to various organizations - the CGA,
the CNT, CNT-SO, the FA, the NPA, VP, local groups ... We also address, of course, to many
people who are anti-capitalist sensibility, libertarian or independent and can be found in
this.
The challenge for us is to put ideological differences aside (eg participation in
elections) when it is possible and unite on major targets.
So if AL boycotts the republican institutions and does not participate in election
campaigns, it can be found alongside organizations which themselves are involved, when it
comes to be directly involved in struggles, strikes, blockades in times of heated battle;
social assistance, local-authority against any period of conflict.
This proposal seeks to break the sectarianism of the extreme left, pushing the debate and
unity of action.
It's multiplying, analyzing and uniting these experiences we will outline a new society.
The big night maybe not tomorrow, but we did not sleep, and you do not want to sleep! The
class struggle has taken quite a facelift through this inventive movement, despite the
media manipulation, intimidation cops and bosses. So hop hop hop, that bursts the old
world, the lucha sigue!
Elsa (LA Toulouse), Cedric (AL Albi), Matthijs (AL Montpellier)
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Pour-une-alternative
------------------------------
Message: 3
The Trade Union Libertaria of Ioannina organized the first free anarcosindicalista
camping: Four days Stavrolimenas Beach, between the towns of Pérdika and Parga. It is an
opportunity not only to disconnect from the intensification of modern life, but also to
meet, discuss and conspiring against a system that is crushing us. ---- Why camping and
especially why free camping? ---- - The holidays are not only relaxation, are claim. Free
camping is the choice of thousands of oppressed, who do not want to break the way we
impose patterns and trying to make holiday avoiding the more possible market conditions.
---- - Currently the holidays are a commodity, a means to profit from some (hotels,
owners), that is one way that the money of the workers and the workers return to anyway
stolen. Free camping remains a challenge in the practice of this commodification. It is
the choice of the poor, whose money does not reach them or to live or to vacation.
- Those who build on the coasts, who plunder nature and violate the environment, are not
what make free camping. They are entrepreneurs of all kinds. And they are the same as they
are always favored by laws, with fine timber and drag people to the trials. We're not
going to do the favor.
- The site of the Trade Union Libertaria work with self-organization and self-management.
No space is Vallara No, no permission will be taken to any institutional body, or be
asked, of course, pay for participating. It will be a meeting point for those who are
united by the love for nature, camping conscious and especially the fight.
Activities-Events
The program of this site will not be "loaded". Board games, the game Forest (night game
strategy), music on the beach at night. However, on Saturday , September 2 , at 18: 30h an
event-discussion will be held on the theme is "The historical evolution of the holidays
through the struggles of the working class".
During the camping there will be kitchen, cafe and bar. You need to know in advance how
many people will participate. Even if you want to participate by cooking your own food,
you better know.
What to bring with you
Store (if you have one, we the'll manage), utensils (plates, fork, knife, spoon, cup),
toilet paper, hygiene items where possible biodegradable, flashlight without fail, board
games, a musical instrument to display your talent, printed material on the movement of
your place of origin, to share experiences.
Contact
Until August 25 you can contact us at (0030) 6947501367 or send an email to
eseioanninon@gmail.com.
http://verba-volant.info/es/1-4-de-septiembre-de-2016-1er-camping-de-la-union-sindical-libertaria-de-ioannina/
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Message: 4
In August, held in Prague traditional LGBT + Events Prague Pride finished off a
spectacular rainbow parade attended by several thousand people. At first glance
sympathetic action, however, he woke up after the experience of previous years and the
announcement of commercial supplements and resentment on the part queer "community" that
stood opposed to their celebration was commodified, built on money given exclusivity and
co-opted by capitalist logic, either He faces as he wants "friendly". ---- On the basis of
this outrage was parallel (not to be confused with the rival) alternative actions Alt *
Pride, in which a statement saying: "We want to show that queer identity not be a
commodity, subject to marketing or 'corporate social responsibility'. We want to draw
attention to neglected topics such as class, ethnicity, origin and role of social
inequality in exclusion and oppression inside and outside the queer community. We want to
reflect the influence of capitalism, economic globalization and the associated consumerism
to the queer community and offer an alternative to traditional events within the Pride.
"Organizers are themselves identified as" members and members of the feminist, autonomous,
anarchist, human rights, antirasistického and the environmental movement, who and which
they want another week of pride. "
Celebrate "diversity, solidarity and cooperation" decided to completely noncommercial and
without VIP status 10 to 13 August in the area of autonomous social center of Prague
Clinic rich program. Formed the basis for talks on neglected topics, such as the
representation of marginalized in pop culture, about the benefits and the harm LGBT, queer
identity and kolonialita, there is something queer Theological Ethics ?, HIV and stigma -
social death, pedophilia, pedophiles and their relationship to the LGBT ( this topic
caused nearly feast on nationalist websites, talk was of course like all the other
interesting). Also successful were also discussions about bisexuality or asexualitě.
During the workshops, the girls could try female urination device, and everyone,
regardless of gender could attend a crash course or discriminatory writing self-defense,
which enjoyed a really great interest. There were also performances, performances by
bands, and (un) decently run over queer party. Especially the last days of the program
enjoyed considerable interest among visitors, many of whom visited the clinic for the
first time. The event included the Clinic was also queer freeshop, possibility of printing
textiles with the help of feminist collective NemrAFKy makeup and drag the corner.
There was also to prepare the pickets and banners reading "Do not be conformed to chop
your company", which is the Saturday, August 13 appeared headed pink and black Alt * Pride
block on a shared pride march through the streets of Prague Pride capital. Several dozen
people, to which during the day added another, came out en masse already Clinic. When they
wanted to add to the rest of the parade on Wenceslas Square, trying to cordon them out of
their own bodies evidently avoided all of the colors of the rainbow disoriented police.
Eventually, though blunt force subsided and there was a fusion of the two events. Still,
it was pink and black block unmistakable, and this for several reasons: the slogans on the
picket chants of "Feminism lives, the struggle continues!", "A-anti-anti-capitalists" or
"Lollipops for all!" And especially intensive swirling undercover cops supervising
smoothness of the capitalist order.
https://www.afed.cz/text/6510/alt-pride
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Message: 5
On 21 May, thousands of people mobilizing against Monsanto, agrochemicals in general and
free trade treaties. In France demonstrations took place in 38 cities. 38? No ! A city
preferred not scroll rather than do without the fascists. EELV Alsace thank you! ---- For
the second consecutive year, the extreme right was invited to the big march against
Monsanto in Strasbourg. In 2015, two royalist activists deported by AL activists and NPA,
were being reinstated immediately in the demo by the organizers. Es galvanized by this
compassion, it is the elected representatives who this year wanted FN scroll with all
their local nebula. Facing our determination to exclude the demonstration "apolitical"
organized among others by EELV Lower Rhine has been canceled due to conflict situation
between certain groups. For us, the reasons lie elsewhere [ 1 ], particularly in the
glaring weakness of the originally planned to order service.
Depoliticization and drift complotiste
The event questions the future of struggles, both qu'antifascistes environmentalists. This
event means a common enemy, but the economy is a reflection on a common policy. But the
enemy of our enemy-es-es are not necessarily our friends are. The members of "New Ecology"
- FN of the satellite on the topic - do not turn into simple demonstrators when they
withdraw their stickers. But it fails and they remain behind their dark green varnish.
Should we be surprised by EELV Bas-Rhin who ecologist program similar to the FN, the word
"local" one being replaced with "patriot" in the other?
The reactions that followed the cancellation does not pose fewer problems. AL has produced
several articles to explain the ins and outs of this case. For their part, EELV and FN
were content brief press, the first is absolving the second requesting the dissolution of
the extreme left groups he would be the victim ... And yet it is to address that G
thoughts like "how much you paid Monsanto to derail the protest? ". That shows how
arguments against complotistes colonize minds. For some environmentalists, the FN should
not be excluded from the struggles and argued that a speech is not enough to convince, it
is a sign of decline of anti-fascism. It is necessary to update the statements and
analyzes, for a whole anti-fascist and anti-racist ecology. Let us remember that there are
supporters of Social Darwinism environmentalists called to converge with the fascists. But
the spirit of man's dominion over man also creates the domination of nature. Fascism and
ecology are incompatible. Drowned Pippin (nomadic AL)
[ 1 ] All these facts are stated in detail on the site of AL Alsace.
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Antifascisme-A-Strasbourg-pas-de
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Message: 6
An important demonstration against homophobia takes place tonight in Dublin in the
aftermath of a frightening mob attack on a Polish gay man in the Phoenix park at the end
of last month. The protest will take place on the steps of the Parkgate street court
complex because of its location close to the scene of the attack and because of the Garda
disinterest in investigating it. ---- As the organisers of tonights protest explain “On
30th July 2016 a gay man was viciously attacked in Phoenix Park by a gang of over 10 young
men. They made homophobic threats and insults, chased him, hit him with an iron bar and
made him fear for his life by beating him and attempting to run him over in a car. He ran,
screaming for help until he found someone and the gang finally fled. He was taken to
hospital and treated for his injuries.
Instead of Gardai seeking a statement from him following the attack, he had to insist on
it being taken. He felt like nobody wanted a statement from him. Gardai did not give him
confidence that anything would come from their investigation, citing the lack of CCTV
footage available within the park.”
“This incident was violent, premeditated and malicious. We do not think it is acceptable
to allow this violence against LGBTQ people to continue in Ireland and abroad. As well as
this, the ordeal conveyed by Marcin, of trying to give his statement to the Gardai, sadly
echoes the experiences of ourselves and our friends over the years. He was made to feel
that the cruel and traumatic assault he endured was not considered to be serious enough to
record officially."
The last Garda Inspectorate report shockingly revealed that of 1000 Garda across all ranks
none had ever recorded a homophobic attack.
After being ignored outside of the LGBTQ press the attack started to receive mainstream
media coverage after the protest was called. But most of this coverage has sought to
‘victims-blame’, i.e. invent reasons why the man ‘invited’ attack. Some of these have been
bizarre, for instance the fact that the attack happened around sunset, as anyone familiar
with the Phoenix park knows this is when it is at its most beautiful.
Again as the organisers have explained “There's a culture of blaming in Irish society
making it socially acceptable to ask whether or not a victim was at fault in some way
before condemning a violent attack that was obviously motivated by prejudice (as was
evident today in Adrian Kennedy & Jeremy Dixon's radio segment on Marcins attack). The
dynamics of inequality are clearly at play in the insistence that certain people put
themselves in danger by being alone in public places. Rather than mistrust or doubt, the
first reaction of the public when anyone is violently attacked should be outrage.”
The protest will take place at 7pm tonight on the steps of the CCJ on Parkgate street, the
LUAS runs within about 150m of the site so its easy to get to. A large turnout is
essential to indicate not only no tolerance for homophobia but also no tolerance for the
studied inaction and denial of Garda and media.
Author: Andrew N Flood
http://www.wsm.ie/c/protest-homophobic-attack-phoenix-park-garda
------------------------------
Message: 7
INTRO ---- South Africa is a morass of wretched inequality, racial tensions and class
conflicts, its transition limited & frustrating. Much blame certainly lies with ongoing
"white monopoly capital" power, but it’s essential to note major "denationalisation" to
foreign capital, and avoid blind-spots towards the state. The state is a key owner of
means of production (and of most means of coercion & administration), and a site of
centralised elite power. A single South African ruling class exists, of (mainly white)
private and (mainly black) state elites, which are structurally & programmatically allied
and entangled. Elections do not change this, raising the question of whether voting can
emancipate the oppressed black working class.
----
STARTS: The debate on ‘white monopoly capital’ has some blind spots as it omits the role
of the state in ownership and control of the means of production. The state also controls
the means of coercion and administration, writes Lucien van der Walt.
South Africa today is a morass of wretched inequality, racial tensions and class
conflicts. Despite real gains in basic rights and welfare, and the abolition of apartheid
laws, its transition remains limited and frustrating, 20 years on. Nelson Mandela’s South
Africa is profoundly better than P.W. Botha’s, but is no paradise; and the legacy of the
past remains everywhere in the present.
For many in the unions, Marxist, social democratic and nationalist left, the blame lies
primarily with ‘white monopoly capital’, i.e. the giant apartheid-and segregation-era
private corporations that remain central. These are seen as the main obstacle to radical
change, and the African National Congress (ANC)-led post- apartheid state’s main failure
is seen as failing to tackle ‘white monopoly capital’. The key strategic perspective then
becomes changing the state, the better to intervene, whether through higher taxes, or a
‘developmental state’, more black capitalists, some nationalisation, etc. This is really
what lies at the heart of calls for a ‘second transition’ (by sectors of the ANC and the
Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu)), or ‘socialism’ (by sectors of the
National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa), the United Front (UF) and Economic
Freedom Fighters (EFF).
But this analysis and strategy, I argue, ignores major changes in the political economy
associated with the 1990s transition – notably, the denationalisation of the economy with
massively expanded foreign ownership, and a growing black private corporate leadership –
and also rests upon a very weak analysis of the state apparatus – both in terms of its
class character and economic power. Claims that blacks have political power, not economic
power, or that white private corporations have a stranglehold over the economy, remove the
black economic and political elite from the picture, erasing it from strategic considerations.
Existing alongside vast private companies – not all of which fit the label ‘white monopoly
capital’ is another massive economic force, the state apparatus – the biggest single
employer, landowner, income earning institution, and by any reasonable measure, the
dominant ‘monopoly capital’ in electricity, rail, roads, forestry, television, sectors of
banking, higher education and elsewhere.
South Africa, I argue, is controlled by a single ruling class, divided into two sectors: a
(largely white) private sector elite, and a (largely black) state elite. This is united at
both a deep structural level, through common interests and interdependence, and at a more
conjunctural level, by current neo-liberal programmes and alliances, among which note can
be made of the Growth Employment and Redistribution (Gear) Strategy (1996) or the fact
that almost every single cabinet minister is a shareholder in one or more companies. It is
not held together by the corruption of a few people, or by incorrect programmes, not by
poor state leadership, not even by the ANC, all of which can be changed.
The state can no more be wielded against private capitalists than one brick in a wall can
fight another – and capitalism and the state can no more lose their character of
exploitation and domination than a wall can become an aeroplane. Efforts to capture the
state can, at most, lead to a few people, mainly party leaders, joining the ruling class –
nothing more.
The strategic task must then become one of building a movement outside and against the
private and state corporations and the state more generally, by the broad working class
(including the unemployed), which is both victim and potential destroyer of the system.
The black elite, whether in the state, or in the private sector, is an active part of this
system, and its beneficiary – not a bought set of black faces, not a ‘petty bourgeoisie’,
not a ‘comprador’ layer, but a powerful sector of the ruling class, in its own right, with
its own agenda. It cannot form a reliable ally of the working class, partly because its
class interests and very existence rest upon the ongoing subjugation of the working class,
partly because it is part of an elite pact of class domination with private capital, and
partly because its own agenda – survival and expansion – must clash with working-class
interests.
CHANGES IN CAPITAL STRUCTURE
The left and labour focus on ‘white monopoly capital’ has the very real merit of revealing
both continuities with the past, and part of the present problem – but it sidesteps
massive changes in the private sector, including denationalisation and Black Economic
Empowerment (BEE) and ignores the economic size and power of the state sector.
And, certainly, it is correct that ‘white monopoly capital’ has played a central role,
both past and present. By 1987, over 83.1% of all shares on the Johannesburg Stock
Exchange (JSE), now the Johannesburg Securities Exchange were owned by four giant
companies, with Anglo-American (despite the name, a South African company) owning 60.1%,
followed by Sanlam at 10.7%, argues Cosatu. With the 1990s transition, the Big Four were
not subject to any penalties, were largely exempted from the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission (TRC), and benefited massively from post-apartheid economic policies and state
contracts (for example, construction in preparation for the 2010 World Cup).
In all parts of the private sector of the economy, the pattern of a few giant companies,
persists: one effect is persistent price-fixing by cartels, exposed in sectors ranging
from concrete to bread, by the country’s Competition Commission over recent years. These
large private firms – mainly rooted in the pre-1994 period, historically white-owned and
dominated, with a corporate culture marked by the apartheid era – may correctly still be
termed ‘white monopoly capital.’
Several developments, however, complicate the picture. The first is that in the 1990s
‘white monopoly capital’ generally ‘unbundled’, i.e. focused on one industry. For example,
Anglo sold many of its holdings in banks and retail, in favour of a mining focus. They
also globalised aggressively. For example, Anglo moved its main share listing from the
JSE, to the London Stock Exchange in 1999. Its single biggest current project is Brazil,
not South Africa.
DENATIONALISATION
The second is that the South African economy has been progressively ‘denationalised’ from
the 1990s.The Big Four that dominated the JSE were all South African-based companies,
albeit owned by white South Africans. The onset of neo-liberalism in the late years of
apartheid under the National Party (NP) (from 1979) and the acceleration of neo-liberalism
under the ANC (from 1993) changed the picture.
Tough capital controls that previously made it almost impossible for South African
companies to move most of their assets outside the country despite political turbulence
and economic decline, writes David Kaplan, forced ‘white monopoly capital’ to develop into
giant conglomerates within the country. Despite limited exports of capital – Anglo had
more investments in the USA than Unilever, according to one estimate, argues Duncan Innes
– the strict capital controls meant Anglo evolved from being a mining house to having
massive holdings in agriculture, industry, retail and media. The existing monopoly
structure in mining (and state industry) was now systematised widely.
It was ANC-led liberalisation of capital and other controls that allowed Anglo to relocate
its primary listing to London in the 1990s. Looser regulations were part of growing
efforts to position South Africa as an attractive ’emerging market’, and growing global
flows of foreign investment have seen the JSE change. The NP had pioneered neo-liberal
measures in the 1980s, mainly through austerity, sales of major state companies like Iscor
and Sasol, and tax reforms.
The ANC continued these, but also opened the economic gates on a scale unseen since the
early 1920s. It became more attractive to invest – sometimes, some would say, primarily,
for short-term profits and speculation – but it also became easier: notably, from 2004,
foreign companies could list directly on the JSE.
A major effect is that while South African companies controlled 83.1% in 1987, in 2012,
foreign investors held 37% of all shares, and 43% of industrial shares, on the JSE writes
Gillian Jones. While this ‘foreign’ ownership does include some ‘off- shored’
locally-based capital, i.e. South African capital, re-entering via channels elsewhere, the
change is significant.
So, while 10 companies control 50% of JSE capitalisation, a substantial part of this
ownership is not traditional ‘white monopoly capital’, but also includes off-shored semi-
South African firms, South African- based firms, and other foreign firms, argues Roger
Southall.
BEE AND STATE CAPITAL
A third change is that, despite (white) private corporate hesitancy on BEE, around a
quarter of JSE- listed company directorships are held by people of colour (‘black’ in
South African law) according to M. Sibanyoni writing in the “City Press,” with the
proportion of senior managers in the private sector at 32.5% (2008), adds Southall. Now,
directorships give real control of means of production, as well as economic ‘ownership’,
i.e. the ability to make key decisions on use, even if the directors are not themselves
majority shareholders.
Given that 37 to 43% of JSE shares are not owned by South Africans, white or black, it is
not entirely obvious how much this ‘black’ control is in South African companies, although
a substantial proportion must be, since foreign investors are often exempted from BEE
commitments like share deals and affirmative action.
Finally, the state is the elephant in the economic room. Standard images of the
post-apartheid economy partially capture the reality: blacks have political power (or,
more accurately, a black elite has state power), and whites have economic power (or, more
accurately, a white elite has private corporate power). Crudely, this captures a simple
truth: a (mainly black) political elite, its power centred on the predominant ownership
and control of means of administration (e.g. the state bureaucracy) and coercion (e.g. the
police) through the state, is allied to a (mainly white) economic elite, its power centred
on the predominant ownership and control of means of production (e.g. the mines), through
private corporations. These two sectors comprise, together, the South African ruling class.
But this basic division should not obscure the profound economic power of the state
apparatus. The distinction between the two ruling class pillars – one, the political
elite/state managers/means of coercion and administration; and two, economic elite/private
corporations/means of coercion and administration – is real, but not absolute. The (mainly
black) political elite of state managers has, through the state, direct control over
substantial means of production e.g. state corporations like Eskom (see below); and the
(mainly white) economic elite of big business has, through the private corporations,
direct control over substantial means of administration and coercion, for example through
corporate managerial and security systems.
STATE CAPITAL
To make this concrete: a focus that stresses the (mainly white) private sector elite
vanishes not only the black elite in the private sector, but the powerful and wealthy
black elite in the state sector, which controls around 30% of the economy through the
state, including state banks (e.g. the IDC), state corporations (e.g. Eskom, South African
Airways (SAA)), state facilities (e.g. the water grid and harbours), mass media (e.g.
South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC)), a world-class weapons industry (e.g.
Denel), high- end research (e.g. the universities); plus 25% of all land (including 55% in
the provinces of Gauteng and the Western Cape), making it the single biggest landowner in
the country; as well as wielding an Africanised army and police, and state bureaucracy,
making it the single biggest employer in the country; through the taxation system, it also
receives more income from South Africa than any other single institution operating in the
territory, writes M. Mohamed.
Some of these operations run on a for-profit basis (notably, Eskom and SAA), albeit with
uneven success, making them almost completely indistinguishable from any ‘white monopoly
capital’, beyond the fact that management is likely blacker. Private corporate ownership,
as noted earlier, has a long and dismal history in South Africa: this includes a history
of corrupt, and monopolistic practices. Yet it is also incorrect to see the state’s
operations as more desirable, with problems like political cronyism, waste, corruption,
lack of maintenance and investment a mainstay of both the NP and ANC periods.
TAKING THE STATE SERIOUSLY
None of this is captured by the ‘white monopoly capital’ formulation, which therefore
ignores the largest employer and largest landowner, as well as the dominant ‘monopoly
capital’ in a range of sectors. It also ignores the ways that the state itself acts as a
site for accumulation, whether illicitly (e.g. ’corruption’), legally (e.g. MPs earning
R85,000 monthly alongside numerous perks), informally (e.g. being ‘in’ on contracts given
to the private sector).This is besides the role of the state in promoting the conditions
for accumulation, both generally (e.g. political stability) and for specific categories
(e.g. Afrikaner capital under the NP, and BEE capital under the ANC).
In contexts like that of South Africa, this function of the state as site for accumulation
becomes exceptionally important for the rising black elite, which is in many ways still
quite marginal in a private sector locked down by giant firms. It is less the case of
billionaires winning elections, and then returning to their firms after their terms, than
of politicians becoming billionaires by winning elections.
The (mainly black) state elite is no mere ‘comprador’ layer, but a powerful ruling class
sector, with its own agenda, of survival and expansion. This involves using the might of
the state to prise open the doors of the boardrooms of the private sector, where black
capitalists remain a minority, through measures like BEE; it also includes accumulation
through the state apparatus.
In both of these ways, the black ruling class sector has real and independent effects on
the political economy, ranging from the problems caused by corrupt, ineffective municipal
administrations, to the challenges of affirmative action, to the opportunities of working
with black capitalists and politicians to score lucrative state contracts, generating
bitter battles for state office and factionalism and administrative dysfunctions in the state.
NATIONALISATION?
It is here that the endless factionalism of the ruling ANC, as well as within state
departments and corporations, as well as within rival parties, has its roots: leading
offices in the state are limited, the competition for them exceedingly fierce; as
different factions emerge, each seeks to lock down control of resources for itself,
leading to purges of rivals and splits (e.g. Mbeki’s expulsion of Zuma, Zuma’s expulsion
of Julius Malema), and elections operating as a means of getting to the state coffers. The
ANC, as I have argued elsewhere, is a ‘bourgeois- bureaucratic black nationalist party’,
representing primarily the interests of the emergent black capitalists and the (largely
black) state elite – and a key channel for access to state resources for the lucky few.
Advocates of nationalisation should pause to consider the existing mess. In the 2013/14
financial year, South African Post Office executives failed to meet most planned targets,
misspent R2.1-billion on tenders, and stumbled from crisis to crisis; while Post Office
workers waged a series of massive strikes in 2013 and 2014. It emerged that top managers –
who plead poverty when faced with workers’ demands for higher wages and better jobs –
awarded themselves a 26% wage increase, write Sikonathi Mantshantsha and Karl Gernetzky in
the “Business Day.”
The idea that nationalisation is, in any size, shape or form, socialist, is completely
mistaken: all it means is shifting resources between the private and state wings of the
ruling class, not shifting them to the working class; state ownership is not working-class
ownership.
RETHINKING CLASS
Underlying this blind-spot on the state are both Marxist and liberal habits of thinking,
in which ‘the economy’ is seen as something outside of the state, and in which ‘classes’
are seen, basically, as layers within ‘the economy’. However, even in today’s neo-liberal
world, states remain massive economic actors, and inequalities in wealth and power – the
basis of class – correlate as much with the upper levels of states (including state
corporations), as they do with the upper levels of corporations.
It is more reasonable, then, to use an anarchist/syndicalist class model, in which the
ruling class comprises not just those who personally and legally own substantial means of
production, but also those who have effective economic control over those means, including
heads of state corporations; further to include in the ruling class, also those who have
effective ownership or control over the means of administration or coercion, which means,
primarily, those who control the state. Given the hierarchical character of the state,
’those who control the state’ are those at the upper levels of the state: the layer that
controls state companies, departments, institutions, local governments, and security, a
layer that includes MPs, ministers and directors, mayors and municipal managers, vice
chancellors and rectors, senior judges and police chiefs.
To summarise, private capitalists are part of the ruling class, but only part, and exist
in a balance with the state elite, which has its own resources and its own agenda, and
thus, its own agency and its own guilt; crudely, the ruling class centres on capitalists
and state managers.
STRATEGIC IMPLICATIONS
But also reinforcing the blind spot on the state, is a certain naiveté regarding the class
character of the state. As indicated in the opening, many – I would say, most – South
Africans believe the state itself has an empty place of power, that is, an empty driver’s
seat, at the top: with the right driver (party, individual) and the right map (policy,
programme), it can go anywhere. Thus, the fetish of parties, the fetish of elections, the
fetish of great (or flawed) leaders as solutions.
But the state is locked in an endless embrace of capital, since, just as capital needs the
state, the state needs capital. Further, the state is vastly more than the talking heads
of parliament and cabinet, despite the obsessive media coverage of this layer, and its
upper layers are inherently part of the ruling class, and finally, the state is both site
of accumulation, and promoter of accumulation.
This is a deep, entrenched, system, its current form – the white/black elite pact
-representing a historical epoch of the system in South Africa – not something that can be
changed by an election or two.
This is not a conspiracy, based on hidden networks or manipulations; its domination and
exploitation of the working class rests on open, centralised control and ownership of
means of administration, coercion, and production – or, crudely, on officials, guns and
money. Conversely, direct ownership of means of production by most South Africans,
regardless of race, is extremely minimal, living in the shadow of giant private and state
companies. Even the 13% of land for black Africans in former homelands is effectively held
by the state in ‘trust’, and controlled by state-paid kings and chiefs.
That being so, the notion that the state can really be changed through elections – let
alone wielded by the working class against private capital, or ‘white monopoly capital’ –
is profoundly flawed. Private capital and state cannot be played, one against the other,
and neither can be wielded by the working class; replacing the ANC with a new party, or
Jacob Zuma with a new ANC head, would make no more difference than replacing Thabo Mbeki
by Zuma did.
The state cannot be changed or captured or contested; it can only be fought. Since the
state, like private capital, operates in structural antagonism to the working class that
it helps exploit and dominate, it must be resisted by its victims, outside and against its
structures. This requires a bottom-up class-based movement, with a different logic and
different imperatives – a movement that is, at once, anti-capitalist, anti-statist, self-
managed and libertarian, and, ultimately, revolutionary. Time to stop choosing rulers at
the ballot box.
** Lucien van der Walt is a sociology professor at Rhodes University.
[REFERENCES — note the following did not appear in the published version, in line with the
current ‘SA Labour Bulletin’ style:
* This article leaves aside contentious issues of the sectoral composition of state and
private capital in South Africa, that is, the debates over whether it has become
“financialised”, represents a “minerals-energy complex” (MEC) etc. The focus is less on
where, than on how and who, “owns” South Africa.
** While the ANC was the elected government from 1994, it was part of the transitional
executive government with the NP from 1993, in which period the transitional government
took the country’s first IMF loan in years.
COSATU, 1987, “Political Economy: South Africa in Crisis,” COSATU Education Unit,
Johannesburg, p. 19.
Competition Commission: see http://globalcompetitionreview.com/…/south-africas-competi…/
D. Innes, 1984, “Anglo American and the Rise of Modern South Africa,” New York: Monthly
Review Press, pp. 234-236.
G. Jones, July 8 2013, “‘Double Negative Whammy’ Risk for JSE,” “BDLive,”
http://www.bdlive.co.za/…/double-negative-whammy-risk-for-j…
D. Kaplan, 1983, “The Internationalisation of South African Capital: South African Foreign
Direct Investment in the Current Period”, paper presented at “Southern African studies:
Retrospect and Prospect” conference, University of Edinburgh. 30 May-1 June 1983, pp. 206-208.
Land: M. Mohamed, 29 Feb 2012, “Blacks ‘Own more Than 13% of Land'”, “The Citizen;” R.
Rumney, 2005, “Who Owns South Africa: An Analysis of State and Private Ownership
Patterns”, in J. Daniel, R. Southall and J.Lutchman (eds.), “State of the Nation: South
Africa 2004-2005,” HSRC: Pretoria.
Post Office: L. Seale, 4 September 2014, ” R2.1bn Post Office Scandal,” “Independent
Online,” http://www.iol.co.za/…/gauteng/r2-1bn-post-office-scandal-1…; S. Mantshantsha and
K. Gernetzky, 22 October 2014, “Post Office Top Brass Take 26% Raise Amid Strike,”
“BDLive,” http://www.bdlive.co.za/…/post-office-top-brass-take-26-rai….
M. Sibanyoni, 10 Oct 2010, “Black Directors Arrive on JSE,” “City Press” (figure was then
951 out of 3450 posts).
R. Southall, 2010, “Introduction: South Africa 2010 – Development or Decline?” “New South
African Review,” 1, 2010, Wits University Press, p. 11
R. Southall, 13 February 2012, “South Africa’s Fractured Power Elite,” WISER seminar,
University of Witwatersrand
L. van der Walt, 2013, “Who Rules South Africa? An Anarchist/Syndicalist Analysis of the
ANC, the Post-Apartheid Elite Pact and the Political Implications”, “Zabalaza: A Journal
of Southern African Revolutionary Anarchism,” no. 13.]
https://lucienvanderwalt.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/van-der-walt-beyond-white-monopoly-capital-who-owns-sa.pdf
