Re: [OPE-L] neo-apartheid (was colloquium on primitive accumulation)

[Jerry Levy <Gerald_A_Levy@xxxxxxx>]

Hi Patrick,


Thanks for the report on the colloquium.


> The task of analysis is fairly minor in all of this, because we can all
> see what one Cape Town commentator termed 'neo-apartheid'
> all around...


Yes, but is there an agreed upon understanding of  the meaning of
'neo-apartheid'?


If it is thought of as a form of neo-colonialism (as understood, for
example,  by Nkrumah), then I think it is apt.  After all, when apartheid
officially ended that no more ended the economic relations
characteristic of apartheid than the success of anti-colonial movements
ended the underlying economic relationships that existed between the
former colonial power and the formerly colonized.  While the
character of South Africa as a white colonial settler state has changed,
the wealth in South Africa hasn't been re-distributed and so the main
forces who owned and controlled the wealth in South African under
apartheid continue to control that wealth today.  But, when you say
that all can see neo-apartheid around them, you seem to be suggesting
something else like brute repressive force by the state.   So, is
neo-apartheid commonly understood in South Africa to be a repressive
policy by the state or a system of economic relations or both?


In solidarity, Jerry