I just got back from that cellebrating collab...
April 20, 2002 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
I just got back from that cellebrating collaboration poster session- had an interesting conversation with a prospective Ada comstock scholar from Ghana about structural adjustment programmes and the World Bank/IMF. Fascinating perspectives. John Foran came and offered me a lifetime of UCSB lovin as a graduate student. they have a very good graduate programme in cultural sociology, which is one of those weak in the knees interests I have. It might be nice to be in a sunny place for seven years. He wants me to be a professor, which I'm a bit dubious about. but all that's a year away. Hope everyone is doing well.
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All is well here- finishing up an OCD paper a...
April 08, 2002 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
All is well here- finishing up an OCD paper and hoping to write one on SA this afternoon. Crunch time is upon me, but I've perfected the art of muddling through. I'm hoping to go to Southern Africa early and do some research in South Africa or Botswana, but don't have much time to formulate the details of any of it.
We'll see.
Love and hugs to all.
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Well, I have this presentation for special st...
April 02, 2002 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
Well, I have this presentation for special studies works in progress on friday, and thought you guys might be interested in what I'm actually doing here in teh ivory towers. Here's what I have- suggestions are welcome!
First, I want to say that IÆve left a hundred things out for the sake of brevity and clarity. IÆm not talking about the labor movement, nor about the Pan African Congress, which organized pass law boycotts in 1959. One of these, the Sharpeville massacre, led to the banning of the ANC. I donÆt even come close to addressing the psychological impact of the ANCÆs shift to military resistance, or of the Black Consciousness Movement. I canÆt unpack the relationship between race and class in South Africa except to say that capitalism and racism were as symbiotic then as they are now. One of the important things that I leave out is the global context of colonization and the cold war. It is essential to remember South AfricaÆs geopolitical and mineral importance in both imperialism and cold war politics throughout this entire discussion, because it was international economic support that kept the apartheid regime in power.
My research on the political revolution of South Africa works within John ForanÆs theoretical framework of third world social revolutions. First, he uses Theda SkocpolÆs definition of social revolutions- the rapid, basic transformation of a societyÆs state and class structure, accompanied and in part carried through by class-based revolts from below. He has theorized that in a third world context, five factors cause such social revolutions: dependent development; a repressive, exclusionary, Personalist state; the elaboration of effective and powerful political cultures of resistance; and a revolutionary crisis consisting of an economic downturn and a let up of external controls. IÆm going to explain the first two as a historical basis for South AfricaÆs political cultures of opposition.
Basically, dependent development is economic growth with social consequences. In South Africa, this refers to the 26.3 billion dollars of foreign capital invested in the economy by 1978. In 1979, South Africa was producing 47 percent of the worldÆs platinum, which is used for refining petroleum and 60 percent of the worldÆs annual supply of gold.
Now the dependent part of the equation is that the whole population was not getting rich on the countryÆs mineral wealth. In 1980, out of ninety countries surveyed by the World Bank, South Africa had the most inequitable distribution of incomes. While white South Africans had the highest rate of coronary disease in the world, an industrialized disease, the principle African diseases were pneumonia, gastroenteritis, and tuberculosis. The main causes of black infant deaths were pneumonia and gastroenteritis, which are products of malnutrition.
There are also some fundamental structural problems with keeping most of your population at sub poverty levels. Apartheid kept black labor cheap for industries. It also kept them poor and therefore unable to consume what was being produced. Apartheid policies didnÆt allow black laborers to become skilled. Unskilled workers canÆt meet the changing labor needs of an expanding economy.
In addition, South AfricaÆs economic growth relied on increased mechanization to increase productivity and profits. This required imported capital goods, making the state vulnerable to balance of payments deficits. This can be contrasted to other third world nations that have labor-intensive industries like textiles instead of farming or mining.
So thatÆs a basic overview of dependent development.
Now a repressive, exclusionary, Personalist state. What does that really mean? Foran describes it as a dictator-like leader who represses the lower class and excludes the growing middle classes and the economic elite from political participation. Collective military rule isnÆt a Personalist state because it usually has the support of the elite and is
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