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SOUTH AFRICA more than half the level at the height of the boom of the 1960's.
For the major countries we only have figures for the share of the profits.
Manufacturing Profits % of Value Added 1960 1970 10.9 Italy 16.5 Germany 29.3 23.5 39.2 34.4 Japan Source: National Income Statistics of each country. The figures for manufacturing profitability distinct downward trend over the 1960's, even in these "miracle"
countries. Since national income figures, which for technical reasons cannot be used for comparisons between countries, show that the trend has continued, and intensified especially in Germany and Japan. The very large falls in output during 1975 (see March 1975 MIR) will certainly have decreased profitability still further in all these countries, and in France as well which up till then seems to have been relatively immune from the slide in profits. A vital aspect of the decline in profitability is its implications for renewed capital accumulation. houses) and machinery shows the following pattern in the various countries.
"We decided to stop work because two supervisors treated us badly. There was no point in reporting the matter to top management because in the workers' the white men always stick together. The owner of the firm and the police were called. It was our chance to speak to the owner: we decided there and then to snatch the opportunity by incorporating wage demands in our The owner appealed to us to return to work. We refused because that would only mean delaying sorting things out. There were no outsiders among us. How would they know about the bad treatment we received from the supervisors.
Wohannesburg| 29/8/75.
For reasons that should be obvious by now the black workers are in the forefront of the struggle in South Africa at the present stage and not only in the forefront, but crowding the second and third ranks as well. all strikes are illegal, conditions which practically never occur. For workers to lay down their tools, therefore, means taking on the entire armed might of the state. We have seen, however, that worsening economic conditions coupled with great political developments in the sub-continent have driven black workers to a point where this longer be avoided. It is a long and bitter struggle, with neither the workers nor the employers throwing in anthing like their full resources at this stage and the tinal outcome depending to a great extent on the Profits Income % of National Income 1970 1973 1974 13½ 12½ 11½ 19.7 17.5 15.1 16.0 12.7 8.1 show a 1970, the much cruder fixed investment in buildings (other than in the 'Financial Mail'
struggle can no 1970 Japan 100 U.S.A.
100 France 100 Italy [Total Investment] 100 Germay [" ] 100 U.K.
100 Source: OECD Quartarly National Income Statistics 1972-13, through tax cuts and holding down living profitability even harder.
Investment: index of real volume Peak of Boom Latest figures 136[1973,04] 105 [1975, Q3] 125 [1974, Q2] 104[1975, Q3] 122 1974,02 112 [1975, 02] 114 [1974, Q2] 100[1975, Q2] 109 [1973] 94 [1975-forcast] 108 [1970, Q4] 99 [1975, Q4] So after rises in investment which were quite smail, in a number of countries, during the short-lived boom of of 1975 the rate of accumulation had generally fallen back to around the 1970 level. If the recovery from the world recession is to be sustained for any length of time a renewed burst of investment would be necessary. This looks extremely improbable given massive excess capacity and very low profitability described above. A'Keynesian' reflation, credit expansion could help moderate the excess capacity, but the capitalists fear that substantial falls in unemployment would make their task • standards and improving This is the basis for anticipating only a very limited boom in the world
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potential power.
unfolding of events on a world scale. While future developments cannot be predicted in detail, under present conditions time is undoubtedly on the workers' Traditionally, the struggle of black workers in South Africa has been mass struggle as opposed to organised by specific unions. Two forms of struggle have recurred again and again—illegal strikes and boycotts of public transport. These forms of struggle continued in Strikes: Preceded by the Namibian strikes, the great strike movement found its momentum among the Natal textile workers in late 1972. Since then it has spread to every industry and to all parts of the country. As battle as employer was joined on a hundred factory fronts, resistance hardened and workers gained in experience, the struggle took on a more definite character and with rising unemployment inhibiting appearance became deceptively subdued. Beneath this appearance, both the struggle and its causes continued with unabated bitterness.
Despite the concessions won by workers since 1973, a Durban survey reveals that 75% of African workers are still dissatisfied. 70% would strike again if matters came to a head. The considerable participation of Indian workers in the strike was also indicated. Most Indian workers are in favour of joint trade unions with their African fellow workers.
Some 300 strikes took place between January 1973 and June 1974. In July 1974, strikes were reported on the Witwatersrand sometimes at the rate of 13 on one day. 135 strikes involving black workers were recorded in the second half of 1974. 125 of these were wage disputes. From July 1974 to March 1975 there were officially 68 strikes in Natal alone, involving 12,051 black workers. The statistics for 1974 are:
Transvaal Cape Natal Free State Total 374 Strikes 203 50 96 25 Workers involved 22.552 13.725 18.9932.386 57.656 (From figures provided by the Minister of Labour in Parliament, 1975) Afrikaaners, trying to preserve the "Great Trek" mentality, set their faces against the march of history. Now they are confronted by an African working class rapidly becoming conscious of its strength and During 1975 there were at least 123 illegal strikes. A strike at the Natal Cotton and woollen Mills at Durban in November 1975 was typical of many others. 600 relatively skilled workers, struck work in protest against the dismissal of 20 of their comrades. They demanded that, instead, the personnel manager be sacked. Managing director, Victor Daitz, of course found the workers'
complaints groundless. All those who did not return to work would be replaced by new men. Management responded with the usual tactic. Dismissing all 600 men, it invited them to re-apply for their jobs the next week.
• with imprisonment, hunger deportation to the Bantustans, such an ultimatum is unanswerable except with almost superhuman courage. Yet two days after the management deadline, only 200 men had gone back. 400 remained solid.
But the workers of one factory, however courageous, cannot hold out against an entire social system. Not only unemployed at the disposal of the bosses; spreading recession has thrown growing numbers of spinners and weavers on the streets to take the strikers' place. It was this system, and the absence of organisation binding employed and unemployed together as a single fighting force, that defeated the strike at Natal Cotton Mills. Management used the opportunity to purge the workforce of workers' spokesmen. Even liaison committee members were weeded out: 14 out of 15 were not taken back. Nor were two of the three shop stewards of the (Indian) National Union of Textile Workers. Bus boycotts: A fare increase by the privately-owned East London bus company in November 1974 sparked off an 8 week boycott that ended in victory for the workers. "So ugly had the situation grown," it is reported, "that there seems no alternative but for the government to step in through the Xhosa Development Corporation." basis for the conflict was the large-scale unemployment in the township concerned, Mdantsane. Since the township officially forms part of the Ciskei 'homeland', the unemployed cannot be 'endorsed out' (or deported) as is the standard policy. The conflict over bus fares thus threatened to touch off a more widespread The XDC bought up the bus lines for R7.4 million. 27
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The owners, Tollgate Holdings, found "satisfactory." The fares were reduced arily."
In September and October, struggle erupted in the Newcastle township of Madadeni and Osizweni after the (state-owned) bus line put up its fares. 180 buses were driven off the road. I thousand workers carrying sticks could not be kept from demonstrating through the streets of Newcastle. Most significant of all, a highly effecitve system of 'flying pickets' was set up.
Buses attempting to break the boycott were stoned by detachments of workers. Some women who broke the boycott arrived at the factory where they worked—only to find their way barred by pickets. They had to walk back home. A certain shopkeeper called Gatsha, who gave two workers a lift to Newcastle, did not escape the pickets. He was stopped and reprimanded. Later he claimed they had robbed him of R1,350!
By 3rd October, 200 policement were on guard around the townships. Four policémen entered the Iscor township to arrest a man who had hurled a stone at a bus. Instead, the workers arrested the police and severely beat them-an ironical reversal of the corporal punishment so freely meted out by South African courts.
A white inhabitant of Newcastle summed up both the result of the boycott and the mentality prevailing in his own circles. Telling a British journalist that the boycott has "just petered out," he added at the same time that fares had been reduced to their former level! And if the workers thus emerged the victors, the Kwazulu Administration are probably the losers, to whom the government has now turned over the bus line.
Prospects: With capitalism in South Africa built up on the basis of the merciless exploitation of the mass of workers, the struggle cannot be resolved until the stranglehold of the present owners of the factories, the mines and the land is broken. Implicit in the entire struggle, therefore, is the demand for public ownership of production under the democratic control of those who do the work.
This has grown evident even to government servants like Chief Gatsha Buthelezi, who sees the need (in Zululand at least) to "avoid the evils of capitalism." As a remedy, he wants the Kwazulu Development Corporation to own a 50% stake in all companies operating there.
Even this moderate proposal is enough hackles of the South African businessmen. afield as Salisbury the reaction reveals its
the transaction again "tempor-
to raise the From as far true attitude
Soweto: Two students carry away a friend shot by the police during an unarmed demonstration of schooldchildren. Years of terrible oppression produced the desperate courage shown by the demonstrators.
towards African independence. 'The examples of African socialism in neighbouring states," writes a certain P. J. Henderson, "can hardly inspire capitalists to invest in Kwazulu.
In Lesotho, Commerce Minister Joel Moitse was moved to tell the local 'Chamber of Nabobs' (Chamber of Commerce) to "sell out or be nationalised." Chief Jonathan, seen by businessmen as being "basically sympathetic to private enterprise, " came to the rescue by firing Moitse.
As one Lesotho born white businessman modestly explained: "We do not want to tell the Lesotho government what to do, but we would like it to consult with us to ensure its proposals are feasible in the first place."
But big business and even the state itself can no longer claim sole hegemony over the future of South Africa. As the Financial Mail admits, "the unorganised proletariat has demonstrated a force to be reckoned with." It is "one of the forces that really count today" (1/8/75).
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