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recession, tnern was broad agreement over the nature
of tots* desired reforms* The Most significant of
these can ba broadly specified. Firstly, aith raganl
to aconomlc policy, there was wide agreement on tha
naad to ease substantially legislative raatrictions
on tha mobility of african labour (influx control,
pass lava, tha labour bureaux system), to permit i
its mora profitable utilisation. This aas
accompanied alth a general damand that raatrictions
on the training and employment of skilled african
labour ba likewise aboilahad or rafor mad, to parmlt
tha reorganisation of production on tha basis of
highar productivity. Thasa two vary basic issues
further ralsad tha naad for s negotiated reorganisation
of tha labour procasa in many branchas of capitalist
production. Again, all employers' organisation* vara
united on the naad for some kind of state recognition
end control of organisations of collective bargaining
for african workers* In 197S, the various employers*
organisations in South Africa formed an umbrella body
to press these views on government. The evidence of
tha various employers* organisations to tha government
Commissions of Enquiry on Manpower Utilisation
(Rlekert Commission) and Labour Legislation (Vlehahn
Commission) is strikingly similar on these issues.
There aas likewise unanimity between all the
organisations of the capitalist class on the urgent
need for e drastic reduction in state ownership and
control In the economy.
The particular emphasis given to economic policy
by all the various employers' organisations iamediately
posed tha question of the necessary reforms to ensure
the political stability so vital to further economic
growth. Here were raised questions of both foreign
and domestic policy. Tha flight of foreign capital,
the intensifying wars of national liberation in
Namlble and Zimbabwe, and the increasingly desperate
need for export markets for South African industrial
commodities, highlighted very clearly the relationship
between International acceptability, regional
stability and renewed prosperity. Once again, all
the various employers* organisation* put strong
pressure on the government to Introduce reforms
which would emee the international leoletion of the
country, renew th« flow of foreign investment,
(Marwntee Western support in Namibia and Zimbabwe, and,
if possible, open the African continental market to
South*African goods.
But tha most overriding concern was tha need to
secure Immediate domestic stability. Hare particular
emphasis was placed on tha position of a newly
discovered creature, 'the Urban African'. In mid-
1976, in the aftermath of Soweto, e whole host of
business-funded and cross-cutting organisations
sprang up to 'deal' with the problem. The most
Important of these was tha Urban Foundation,
jointly established, and massively financed, by
many of the major corporations in South Africa*
Numerous proposals warm made for 'Improving' the
lot of the urban african* that was essentially
being proposed here was the removal of those
apartheid restrictions which unnecessarily inflamed
workers, and more particularly, lead to collective
action between african workers and the african patty
bourgeoisie. Thus the most widely trumpeted and
major scheme of the Urban Foundation was an attempt
to initiate a system of private home ownership for
the very few Africans able to afford housing. In
reality, thes* various organisations envisaged
isolating various groups of efricans from each other,
attending to their specific needs separately, hopefully
to polarise them politically. Thus a slight
amelioration in the living conditions of those
africans who possessed the right under section 10
of the Urban Areas Act to remain in the cities
would effectively separate them permanently from
tha vast reserve army of the unemployed barricaded
in the rural slums of the bantustans by tha influx
control system. But more particularly, the sudden
obsession of all these organisations with the (again
newly discovered) 'black middle cless', and the need
to develop it very rapidly, was premised on the need
to drive a wedge between black workers and the petty
I bourgeoisie. Certain sections of the capitalist claas
I had long been arguing for this course. By 1978 It had
I become the universal litany of all employers and other
bourgeois organisations.
Once again, much further research le required
before an adequate analysla of tharaectlons of the
capitalist class to these aconomlc and political
crises can be made. However, 5 preliminary general
points can be stressed. Firstly, the combination of (
economic and political crisis gave rise to a atrong
demand for urgent reform from virtually all sections
of tha organised capitalist class. It earn a rapid
proliferation of business-funded organisations and
pressure groups to push for reform. In other words,
through the various cross cutting organisations
through which it exists as a class, tha bourgeoisie
engaged in a desperate flurry of open politicking
on a previously unheard of scale.
Secondly, this flurry of bourgeois politics was
in no sense confined to the party and parliamentary
level. For reasons which thaajselves require detailed
analysis, parliamentary politics are a relatively
insignificant form of political struggle In South
Africa. Rather, what took place aas intense
politicking on the one hand within and between the
various (and proliferating) organisations of the
capitalist class - ranging from directly economic
interest grouos to church organisations, women's
group*, etc - and within and between the various
state apparatuses and such bourgeois organisations on
the other hand.
Thirdly, any consideration of this explosion of
bourgeois politics must come to terms with the
increasingly open and direct political role of tha
military. Particularly under the new Chief of
Staff, General amgrws Helen, the military ems now
openly canvassing for state policies which ware
'militarily defensible'. This is examined In greater
detail below, but here it is Important to note that
this now openly political role of the military
brought it into increasing conflict with other
elements In the state apparatus, particularly the
security services.
Fourthly, during these crises, long existing
political alignments and alliances both within the
bourgeoisie end between sections of the bourgeoisie