m - DISA

page 3
Koranic aspect of this boom was that It lad to e
dramatic concentration «nd centrelieation of capital
on the basis of cv*r more capital inteneive production,
leading to significant shifts in relatione within the
capitalist class. Prior to the 1960s, South African
industry was characterised by a sharp economic
distinction and political antagonist between local
undertakings and foreign capital. "•> & 00 * 9 f ^ha
i9€Oa produced the rapid intervenetratIon of capitals
and the consolidation of the dominance of diversified
monopolies within the economy generally, and in all
the major sectors of capitalist production. This
process was effect^ on the basis of a_ massive influx
of foreign capital, in a country where the return on
capital was amongst the highest in the world. By
1970. total foreign investment was estimated at
R5 81&-milllon, and a total of R3 559-million foreign
investment capital flowed into South Africa in the
period 196S - 19?o\ 6
Consequent on this Increasing dominance of
capital-intensive production, these years further saw
significant changes in the organisation of the
proletariat within production, accelerating the process
of the simultaneous attraction and extrusion of workers
from production. The introduction of Increasingly
sophisticated technology into the production process
on an ever expanding scale, leads to a relative
reduction in the number of workers needed to operate
it. moreover, it simultaneously Introduces a new
industrial division of labour between semi-skilled
operatives on the one hand, and technical/supervisory
labour on the other, replacing the old unskilled/
skilled division of labour. Thus, during this period,
whilst large numbers of sami-skilled operatives were
being drawn into production, even lerger numbers of
unskilled african migrant workers lost their Jobs as
they became 'redundant 1 . Throughout the 'boom',
african unemployment stood at over 1 million. The
Influx control measures and pass laws of the apartheid
system operated to expel the unemployed from the
cities end dump and barricade them In the festering
rural slums of bantustano. This process marked a
decisive shift aw«y from the reliance on cheep,
unakillad migrant labour so long charactar 1 Stic of
South African industry, towards the consolidation of
a stable, ssml-ekllled workforce.
Similarly during this period, large numbers of
skilled (white) workers eere also rendered relatival/
superfluous to capital Intensive production, as their
skills were superceded by the need for technical/
supervisory labour. Yet in apartheid South Africe.
the Jobs of white workers were protected. The rigid
industrial colour bar reserved all supervisory,
technical and professional work for whites. Thus in
this changing organisation of the labour process, few
shite workers lost their Jobs, but were either
retrained and/or converted into supervisors of efrican
workers. However, this process of reclassifying white
workers was unable to fill the growing need for
technical labour. The boom period was thus also
characterised by a severe and growing shortage of
labour in technical, professional and semi-
professional grades of work - a shortage estimate*.
at some 47 000 workers In 1969.
In these years the monopoly element of the
capitalist class did demand measures which would mase
restriction on trie mobility, employment and training
of african workers, to permit its acquisition of a
stable supoly of semi-skilled operatives end to retrain
african workers for technical labour. However, the
over-all conditions of expansion and high profitability
edtlgated the adverse effects of such labour
shortages flncJ thus did not lead to an all out assault
by capital on the existing rigid racial division of
labcxir. During this period, the economy was further
'cushioned' against such labour shortages hy the
continuing large influx of foreign investment capital.
Thua, while the boom conditions persisted, the
maintenance of the rigid racial division of labour in
industry did not seriously threaten the interests of
the capitaliat class.
As the 1970s unfolded, the great boom of the
sixties gave way to a deepening recession. By 1976
the country was facing the worst economic crisis in
its history and an actual decline of GOP of 0,29)1 in
1977-76. 9 By the mid* 1970s, confronted both with an
international recession and growing industrial,
political and economic instability within South Africa
itself and the region as a whole, the very large doses
of foreign capital which had sustained the growth
of the 1960s began to dry up. South African Reserve
Bank statistics show a reduction in the inflow of
long-term foreign investment from R1 561-mllllon in
1975-76 to Ra52-mlllion in 1975-77. If this
redaction is coupled with the actual net outflow
of short-term capital from the private sector, the
year 1976-77 saw a total capital outflow of some
R12l-mllllan. Similarly, the recession dramatically
increased the growing structural unemployment of
african workers. In 1976, before the recession had
reached its full height, it was estimated that
african unemployment stood at 2,3 million workers*
moreover, simply to stabilise unemployment at this
huge number it was calculated that the economy would
have to grow at 6,7% per annum. Ironically, in
the face of this acuta unemployment of african
workers, the shortages of technical workers in
the economy accelerated* By 1977, government figures
show vacancies Tor 99 000 workers in the professional,
semi •'professional and technical grade*. The pages
of authoritative economic Journals were filled with
reports of bankruptcies, and the r.t it* was forced to
abandon or defer major infrastructwal Investment
programmes in steel, petro-chee)ical»f transport and
other sectors.
The above specification of som% of the Indices
of the crisis of accumulation cannot substitute for
lte actual analysis. A detailed analysis would have
to grapple particularly with the differential
barriers to accumulation for veriou* capitals, and
the differential impact of the crisis on various
capitals. Thle analysis remains to be done. Thus,
the assessment of the effects of thl* crisis of capital
accumulation remains necessarily incomplete. However,
one general point can be made. Thia *as far more
than a cyclical recession normal to capitalist
economies, but represented in effect a profound
structural crisis for South Africmn capitalism.
The rapid growth of the South African economy