Beware Falling Brics: South Africa & China
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Transcript of Beware Falling Brics: South Africa & China
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International crisis of capitalism
Class nature of the state
Permanent Revolution vs. theory of stages
Stalinism, Menshevism, neo-colonial bourgeoisnationalism
Revolutionary Marxism & Internationalism
BEWARE FALLING BRICS:SOUTH AFRICA AND CHINA
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14 million live fromgovernment subsidy
40% of the population liveon $2.50 per day
Strikers demand R12,500about $1500 a month
41% of the worlds gold
73% of the chromium 90% of the manganese
90% of the platinum
CONTRADICTIONS OF CAPITALISM
Wealth of South Africa Poverty of the masses
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Marikana Massacre
The massacre exposed thereactionary ANC regime as a
client state of imperialism.
The ANC attempts to defuse
a mass workers uprising
By building a new strategic
partnership with China
ANC hopes this produces
win-win deals to develop its
economy and reap the wealthproduced. Following the massacre fed up with the unfulfilled
promises of the bourgeois democratic revolution
the working class spread a strike wave across the
mining sector and transportation sector
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GLOBAL CRISIS OF CAPITALISM
We are five years into a major structural crisis of global capitalism thathit in mid 07.
It was triggered by crisis of falling profits endemic to capitalism
Subprime crisis was a surface effect. Underlying cause was failure toinvest in production--finance capital turned to speculation in financialinstruments
Financialization is finance capital* being driven out of the productivecircuit by the tendency for the rate of profit to fall.
Trillions in overproduced surplus capital speculate in existingcommodities creating a bubble of fictitious capital.
*(the fusion of industrial and banking capital)
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THE BUBBLE MUST BE POPPED
For the ruling class the crisis will only be resolved in their favor,
when they have devalued sufficient surplus capital to enableprofits to be restored.
The logic of a structural crisis, as the solution to falling profits isto restructure or devalue capital both constant (plant and raw
materials) and variable capital (wages) - by concentrating andcentralizing capital as the weak firms go bankrupt and strongfirms buy up their cheap assets.
During devaluation production stagnates the labor cost is driven
down below the level of reproduction, austerity is imposed,programs are gutted the feeble, the weak, those in need areabandoned by the state and left to their own resources
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RESOLUTION OF CRISIS LEADS TOCLASS WAR & INTER-IMPERIALIST RIVALRY
Despite the biggest rescue of capital by the state in history the crisis isnot over
Capital still faces trillions of bad debts it needs to devalue ordestroyed
Super-Exploitation restores profitability by driving down the socialwage and average cost of labor power, by inflation & quantitativeeasing,
Workers opposition to these austerity measures (when not containedby SD & Stalinism) is met head on by state and fascist reaction
In South Africa, as elsewhere--for workers to live they must unite tooverthrow capitalism!
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CONSEQUENCE OF CAPITALIST CRISIS
Survival of the fittest monopoly firms
In the epoch of imperialism this means a growing rivalry between imperialistpowers to re-divide the world This rivalry takes economic form in trade rivalryas each state attempts to block imports but increase exports
Ultimately the rivalry can only be resolved by imperialist war and
international class war. Today rivalry is most intense between the US led bloc and the China bloc
This growing antagonism gives concrete expression to the dominant aspectsof the epoch of imperialism, of crises, wars and revolutions.
This structural crisis means we have to choose, once again, betweensocialism or barbarism . we are already well down the road to barbarism.
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IMPERIALIST EXPLOITATION
Imperialism is based on unequal exchange where normal
profits/ surplus-value (SV) are inflated into super profits byextracting super-value. (SVi)
The two main mechanisms are:
use a reserve army of labor to force de-valuation of wagesbelow the level of reproduction
undervaluing the price of the commodities produced andexported via transfer pricing
This means that on top of normal capitalist profits , imperialistcorporations steal super-profits .
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ANC/SACP POLICY TOWARD IMPERIALISM
The ANC/SACP policy of the bourgeois national revolution uses
the state to redistribute surplus value towards the gradual socialownership of the means of production
The ANC/SACP policy is that the national revolution empowersworkers governments to tax or regulate imperialism to reduce or
eliminate unequal exchange as the basis of super-profits. There have been ongoing attempts to achieve this using a
number of rules including attempts to stop transfer pricing.
Growing consensus is these attempts have failed
SA is among the most super-exploited semi-colonies on earth
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STALINISM IN AFRICA ALONG SIDE IMPERIALISM
Fulfilling Stalins commitments, made at Yalta and Potsdam and later re-
committed to as peaceful co-existence, the Stalinist bureaucracy's foreignpolicy sought to limit national liberation wars to the bourgeois democraticstage
They advocated and helped set up cross class governments with the newnative bourgeoisie, which despite Pan Africanist rhetoric most often acts as
minor partners-as an obsequious comprador bourgeoisies, serving thenational wealth up to the parasitic imperialist monopolies.
Angola the masses defeated the colonialist Portuguese army then withCuban assistance international Stalinism limited the revolution to thedemocratic tasks
South African masses defeated apartheid but Stalinism implementedconciliation between imperialism, the white bourgeoisie and the newlycreated black bourgeoisie
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ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF STALINIST THEORY OFPROGRESSIVE NATIONAL REVOLUTION
ANC/SACP/COSATU presides over the return of EU and USmultinationals into the mining industry
The lions share of value from mining still flows to the mining
multinationals Anglo-American, Lonmin, Glencore etc. Imperialist super-exploitation of low wages (reflected in the
poverty living standards of workers) and transfer pricing keepthe rate of super-profits for imperialism massive.
In practice, for 18 years the ANC has proven the SACP theory ofprogressive national revolution is a fraud.
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Materialist basis for the abandonment of thefreedom charter
The minority share that came tothe regime via royalties, taxesand minority shareholdings suchas the Black BusinessEmpowerment (BEES) did notbenefit the mass of South
Africans, but went into thepockets of a newly emergingBlack bourgeoisie.
The ANC, exposed for its failednational revolution, is clearly theparty of a new Black nationalbourgeoisie presiding over thesuper-exploitation of the South
African working class.
NUM founder, ex general secretary of the ANC
& now multi-millionaire and member of the
Lonmin board Cyril Ramaphosa
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THE FORMATION OF THE SOUTH AFRICANBLACK COMPRADOR BOURGEOIS
BLACK ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT (BEE) Some ANC, SACP and COSATU leaders are transformed into
multi-millionaires exploiting the very workers they claimed torepresent
Front men for imperialism claw their way up via thefavoritism of cronycapitalism enjoying the fruits from statecontracts, state owned enterprises etc.
Other ANC leaders like Tokyo Sexwale, minister of human
settlements, founded Mvelaphanda Holdings the third largestdiamond mining company and Cyril Ramaphosa make up thenew Black comprador bourgeoisie
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ANC SERVING IMPERIALISM
The ANC Tripartite regime has trapped SA into dependency onWestern imperialist super-exploitation
Today we see a rising mass dissatisfaction with the successiveleadership of the ANC, its statified union Congress, COSATU,
and of its political leadership in the SACP. The miners of Marikana are but the first wave of mass
insurrection that rejects the ANC regime and its state force andis embarking on the road to workers power!
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TRADE UNIONS INTEGRATED WITH THECAPITALIST STATE
Aug 15th, one day prior to the massacre National Union ofMiners president Senzeni Zokwana (new national chairman ofthe SACP) came to the strike. He stayed behind the police lineand addressed the workers from the loud speakers
The strikers refused to listen and invited him to come speakdirectly with him
He fled in fear and humiliation the next day 34 are murdered.
After the massacre Zokwana denounced the slaughter as,
a barbaric act co-ordinated and deliberately organized bythe AMCU leaders . calling for their arrest!
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TROTSKY ON THE TRADE UNIONS
trade unions, as witnessed by all past historical experience,
including the fresh experience of the anarcho-syndicalistsunions in Spain, developed powerful tendencies towardcompromise with the bourgeois-democratic regime. In periodsof acute class struggle, the leading bodies of the trade unionsaim to become masters of the mass movement in order to
render it harmless. (1938 Transitional Program)
The trade unions of our time can either serve as secondaryinstruments of imperialist capitalism for the subordination anddisciplining of workers and for obstructing the revolution, or on
the contrary, the trade unions, can become the instruments ofthe revolutionary movement of the proletariat. (1940 Discussionwith Cannon)
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WHAT IS BEHIND THE MARIKANA MASSACRE?
Is this the re-opening of the democratic revolution that has thepotential for permanent revolution similar to that of the ArabSpring?
Why does the national democratic revolution need re-opening?
In 1955 the ANC and SACP joined forces to lead the nationaldemocratic revolution to power.
The ANC adopted its program on national development,the Freedom Charter, from the Stalinist SACP which held
that SA must go through a bourgeois stage of capitalistdevelopment to create the pre-conditions for socialism.
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STALINIST THEORY OF STAGES UNRAVELS
We trace the Stalinist theory of stages to the Mensheviks position in Russia.
Stalin reverted to this theory in 1923 once he was in power in the USSR
The democratic revolution would empower the working class to nationalizethe means of production to speed up the transition to socialism.
This, the workers were told, would be possible if the bourgeois state was
under the control of the ANC representing the Black majority working class. The Freedom Charter adopted in 1955 made nationalization of the mines
central to its program of national development.
Nationalization meant ownership by the bourgeois state governed by theANC, not the social ownership of the working class in a socialist workers
state. The working people would delegate this task to the ANC and not havedirect control over its implementation.
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THE FREEDOM CHARTER Adopted in 1955 this bourgeois democratic program promised:
All bodies of minority rule, advisory board, councils and authorities shall be
replaced by democratic organs of self government
The mineral wealth beneath the soil, the Banks and monopoly industry shallbe transferred to the ownership of the people as a whole
Land to be re-divided amongst those who work it to abolish famine and
hunger All people shall have equal rights to trade where they choose, to
manufacture and to enter all trades, crafts and professions.
Demolition of Slums provide affordable quality housing, plentiful foodavailability, preventive and free medical care
Marxists defend and advance all reforms and democratic gains but we do notconfuse the democratic tasks of the unfinished bourgeois revolution with thetasks and program of the proletarian revolution.
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Allows for nationalization
Either with or withoutcompensation to the big
shareholders Run under capitalist
government control
State Capitalistaccumulation for socialdistribution or statestabilization
Allows for nationalizationwith compensation
Under the control of thebourgeois state
State capitalist mechanismto protect big capital incrisis
i.e. Chavez nationalize oilwith compensation run
under capitalist statecontrol.
Obama GM & Banks
THE PROGRAM OF NATIONALIZATION
Big Bourgeoisie
programNeo-Colonial or Petty
Bourgeois programWorking Class Historic
Program
Nationalization withoutcompensation to the bigshareholders
Occupation and workers self-management over of themeans of production
Run under an economic planderived by councils ofworkers deputies chosen bythe workers at the point ofproduction who maintain theright of immediate recall !
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THE POST SOVIET MODEL LEADS TOABANDONING THE FREEDOM CHARTER
When the ANC came to power in 1994 the SACP program of nationalizationwas already realized in the Soviet Union by its return to state capitalism.
The Stalinist policy of Perestroika and Glasnost had opened the road to therestoration of the capitalist market.
Yeltsin in 1992 defeated any resistance to capitalist restoration forcing
privatization of state property and the remaining State Owned Enterprises(SOEs) to be subject to the law of value in the global capitalist market.
This translated globally as a retreat from not only workers property but frombourgeois nationalization to the mixedeconomy dressed up sometimes asmarketsocialism.
Thus when the ANC came to power in 1994 the Stalinist world was alreadyrejecting nationalization as the preferred road to socialism.
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SAS DEMOCRATIC BOURGEOIS NATIONALREVOLUTION DEFORMED AT BIRTH
Thus the bourgeois national revolution in SA was deformed at birth as part of
a historic defeat of the world working class that brought the downfall of thedegenerate workers states including the Soviet Union, destroying workersproperty, the main gain of the October 1917 Revolution."
Coming to power in 1994 the ANC junked the Freedom Charter for adevelopmentalstate model of marketsocialismwhere the state acts toregulates the market to meet the goals ofsocialism.
Today the ANC leadership still rules out nationalization of the miningcompanies assets as too costly and politically destabilizing.
It says nationalization of the assets of listed mining corporations would cost$1 Trillion, bankrupt the country, leaving it at the mercy of a Structural
Adjustment Program.
It therefore continues to opt for a range of taxes, royalties and other value-sharing measures to implement its particular brand of nationaldevelopment.
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CLASS NATURE OF THE SA STATE
Today the Popular Front Tripartite Alliance of the ANC, SACP andCOSATU administer a neo-apartheid capitalist state in the semi-colony of South Africa
A capitalist state reserves to itself the sole monopoly of violence todiscipline the workers and protect that parasitic classes--both thenational and imperialist bourgeoisie.
i.e. in addition to the Marikana massacre on Oct 2nd 2,000 minerswere evicted from company housing at Gold Fields mine for striking
is nothing else but a gathering that administers the common
business of the whole bourgeois classcommunist manifesto
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Historical materialism defines ahealthy workers state as onewhere the armed bodies of mendefend proletarian propertyrelations
The plan dominates replacingthe law of value (lov)
A monopoly of foreign trade isestablished to secure the plan
Workers self management isestablished at the shop floor
and recallable workersdeputies are chosen tolegislate & execute the plan
Marxism define a capitaliststate as one in which thearmed bodies of mendefending capitalist propertyrelations (the law of value,)dominate and maintain
capitalist social relations When the workers strike the
government sends bodies ofarmed men defendingcapitalist property relations to
shoot down the workers, evictthem, beat them etc.
CLASS NATURE OF THE STATE
The Capitalist State The healthy Workers State
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THEORY OF PERMANENT REVOLUTION
Postulates that the tasks of the bourgeois democratic revolution (national
independence and unity, land reform, democracy, bourgeois liberties) couldnot be carried out by the native bourgeoisie in Russia, China or the semi-colonies. The bourgeoisie in these countries are too weak to accomplishthese tasks in the face of imperialism and that those tasks (accomplished inthe classic bourgeois revolutions USA, UK, France, Germany) and that those
tasks would fall to the working class and be addressed only by the victoriousproletarian revolution.
The Menshevik two stage theory proved disastrous in front of the Kornilovcounter-revolution. The tasks of the bourgeois democratic revolution fell uponthe working class which took them up through the proletarian revolution three
months after the assault by Kornilov. Permanent Revolution was validated inthe victory of the three year civil war, which pitted class against class,reveling the monarchists and bourgeoisies joint affinity for imperialism.
RENEGADE TROTSKYISTS FORGET THE FIRST
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RENEGADE TROTSKYISTS FORGET THE FIRSTLESSON OF MARXISM: CLASS INDEPENDENCE
The American SWP abandoned the theory of Permanent Revolution in the
1985 Article The Coming Revolution in South Africa. Joining, at least inthe realm of theory, the SACP in calling for the national democraticrevolution.
Mandela writings and pro ANC literature l found its way along side Castroand Guevara replacing Trotskys Permanent Revolution on the shelves of the
SWP bookstores. Like many of the Third Worldists, Pan Africanists, Castroists and Stalinists
many self proclaimed Trotskyists could not resist the pressure to capitulate toimperialism joining or voting for the Popular Front in 1994
The Marxist Workers Tendency, the Socialist Group, the Comrades for aWorkers Government, the Workers International League all abandonedclass independence joining or voting for the ANC
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GLOBAL CRISIS DIRECTS THE CAPITALIST ANCTO ATTACK THE WORKING CLASS
The 52nd ANC national conference outlines a new plan for national developmentbased on a greater share of the resource rent
These proposals are overwhelmed by the global crisis and falling demand forminerals
Putting pressure on the regime to contain and discipline mine workers to drive
down labor and production costs and restore levels of super-profits. Creating waves of dissatisfaction with the NUM, rank and file mobilizations,
wildcat strikes and the series of disputes that ultimately led to the MarikanaMassacre.
The ANC response to the massacre has been to resort to police suppression ofthe militants trying to defeat and contain the miners strike
The ANC seeks to control the moderates by holding a public inquiry andpromising major economic reforms.
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ANC REFORMS SERVE IMPERIALISM NOT THEWORKING CLASS
These reforms amount to promises to tax the mining super-profits viatougher Resource Rent Tax (RTT) that will create a Sovereign Wealth Fund(SWF)
The SWF is to invest in national and economic social development. This
conception of national development is tied to SAs membership of the BRICSled by China .
It is being promoted as an attempt to reduce SAs dependence on Westernimperialism by collaborating with the market socialist giant whosedevelopmental model can be copied. Instead of Western imperialist
exploitation the ANC sees China as an alternative economic power withwhich it can enter a win-win partnership based on equal exchange.
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FOLLOWING CHINAS PATH IS IT POSSIBLE?
The SIMS plans launched in March 2012 the ANC proposes that aSWF funded by the 50% RRT can develop upstream in energy
(power and infrastructure) and downstream, manufacturing,education, housing etc. just as China has.
The plan is to build Pilot Beneficent Hubs based on the ChineseSEZs
Allow new investment, technology etc. Drive up the value chain to add-value and fund jobs and rising
living standards.
This, they say will allow SA to follow Chinas path to national
development overcoming the barriers of super-exploitation,unemployment and poverty.
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MALEMBA REJECTS THE RRT TAX AS A HALF TAX
Julius Malema, the expelled ANC Youth League leader, and hisfaction want to replace the leadership of the ANC and its policyof taxing profits. His factions main demand is nationalizationwithout compensation.
Malema is trying to contain the political radicalization of workers
to rescue the ANC and the Tripartite Alliance by promising amore radical reform than the current leadership.
Malema is popular with the striking miners who support moremilitant moves to share the wealth. Many are now breaking with
the NUM and Cosatu and calling for directly negotiated share ofthe profits.
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MELEMBAS NATIONALIZATIONA RADICAL-BOURGEOIS PROGRAM
This is not a nationalisation from below based on workers occupation andworkers control!
Nationalisation without compensation is radical/democratic & bourgeoispolicy
Melembas Nationalisation if undertaken by the ANC would be a bourgeoisnationalisation. The process will be led by the Tripartite Alliance of the ANC,Cosatu and SACP in which a bourgeois state is the agent of nationalcapitalist development continuing to act as a junior partner of imperialism.
Malema is unlikely to win a majority at the ANC Congress for nationalisationas a panacea, because the ANC leadership is confident its reforms will bebankrolled by China.
This time round the global crisis which has now burst to the surface atMarikana and spreading to all the mines is pushing the ANC leadership toreinvent itself by modelling SA development on Chinas market socialism.
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ANC PLANS FOR DEVELOPMENT THROUGHEQUITABLE TRADE WITH CHINA
The ANC wants SA to take-off raising living standards like China and theother BRICS.
This financial cooperation agreement is between development banks and the
specific projects in which they are going to invest, they have to identify these
projects, said, Kgalema Motlanthe South Africas deputy president, on a
three-day trip to China, was further quoted by Reuters as saying. To thatend, the difference is, instead of just exporting these minerals as raw
materials, there will bevalue add to create jobs on both sides,.
the new investments from China will be centred on geology andmineral resources as well as on financial cooperation between the
Development Bank of South Africa and China Development Bank. The deals are meant to strike a healthybalancein trade volume between
the two countries.
ANC ASSURES WORKERS OF CHINAS
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ANC ASSURES WORKERS OF CHINASHONORABLE INTENTIONS
A win-win deal.
China may be investing in the old imperialist ventures of energy, mineralsand banking.
But it wont be extracting super-profits!
Or at least the super-profits will be divided equally hence win-win for both
Chinese and South African bourgeoisie!
A delegation from the province of Gauteng visited China to sign a deal forinfrastructure projects. Premier Nomvula Mokonyane said, "Our people'slives will improve because after this partnership is sealed, we will see a
massive roll-out of infrastructure projects. Alreadywe have a number of
flagship projects in the pipeline including the construction of the Tshwane
International Conference Center and Rainbow Junction, among others,"saidRamokgopa.
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CAN SA DEVELOP LIKE CHINA? The global crisis, the slump in demand for minerals as well as the hardship
facing workers that led to Marikana, may speed up the China connection.
China continues to keep the economies of the BRICS steaming along so longas its own economy is still growing rapidly. Yet today there is a slowdownfrom 8% to 7%. Still booming in comparison to western imperialist states.
China appears different from the established imperialist powers as it
continues to keep the world economy from slumping into deep depression. Is Chinese investment an alternative to imperialist super-exploitation?
Can it sustain the world economy and in particular the BRICS?
Will South Africa be able to attract more trade and investment out of China,
and also increase its share of the rent from mineral extraction? And will heChinese model of development reproduce in SA an increase in added valuebased on transfer of technology and knowledge?
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GO OUT EXPORTING THE CHINESE MODEL Deborah Brautigam blogging at China in Africa: The Real Story sees China as
different from the European powers, but still expecting a commercial advantagefrom investments
China is not copying European colonisation which sucks out resources and labourpower without concern for upstream or downstream development
China sees the benefits in developing Africa after the Chinese model.
Not only is China exporting its model to semi-colonies but since 2000, the policy toGo Out and membership in WTO, it is demonstrating this process of going up thevalue stream from cheap labour to high tech in its FDI in SA.
Figures show that China has used FDI in semi-colonies like South Africa to launch
Go Global. It does not compete directly against the established brands of EU, USand Japanese corporate, but starts cheap or contracts to established brands todevelop a competitive product and then develop its own brands globally.
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CHINA IN SA Chinese OFDI to SA took off after 2000
It used SA as a learning arena for the globalisation of its banks and industries.
China is not only doing swaps of loans for resources, it is investing in upstream energy andinfrastructure, and downstream consumer goods such as domestic appliances, electronics andcommunications.
Adding the FDI estimates suggests that Chinese assets in South Africa in mining alone wereprobably worth close to US $700 million at end of 2007.
Confirming that MOFCOMs figure of US $702 million was reasonably accurate
The period since 2000 has seen a major expansion in the Chinese presence in South Africanmining with the doubling of Sinosteels investment during 2006, and the entry of other miningcompanies. Several major Chinese corporations have entered the banking and constructionsectors. (The Edge Institute report p 18.)
Thus Chinas demonstration effect is a major factor in reviving hopes that win -win deals willsee South Africa and other African states make the same leap from underdevelopment todevelopment made by China.
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CHINA: 21ST CENTURY SOCIALISM OR 21STCENTURY IMPERIALISM
On the surface it is easy to see why semi-colonial governments can hope to dowin-win deals with China. The Chinese developmental model is regarded widely asa form of market socialism a concept that fits snugly with the central role of thestate in ownership and control of African economies expressed in the ideology of the
ANC, ZANU PF and other African governments.
All of this hinges on the assumption that China is a new form of economy a hybridof a socialist state and the capitalist market which is not governed by the lawsgoverning the economies of the other big powers. Thus it appears that China hasescaped the trap of Western imperialism and shows the way for the rest of the
BRICS and otherdeveloping countries to follow the same road.
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CHINESE MODEL VS. WEST IMPERIALISM
But on closer analysis, China is not essentially different from WesternImperialist economies as its policies are dictated by the laws of motion ofmonopoly capital and by the growing rivalry with other imperialist states.
Standard neo-liberal economic theory argues that Chinas Overseas FDIis different from established developed economies as they are not globalleaders in any sector.
This view is echoed on the left, that China cannot catch up withimperialism because it does not have competitive advantage in anyglobal sector of production.
Some argue that this fits with Lenins concept of imperialism whereimperialist firms must be world leaders to monopolise a sector ofproduction, e.g. oil, banks, steel, autos etc.
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ECONOMIC POWER LEGACY OF DWS
What this theory overlooks is that China with its centralised
state capitalist apparatus is able to leverage its 100s of millionsof low paid workers to create huge surpluses to catch up with itsstagnating rivals.
This means that it has a massive accumulated super-profits to
buy existing assets or resources and form joint ventures tobreak into sectors where it seeks to dominate in the future.
In South Africa Chinese FDI is mainly in minerals and financialservices. China sought markets for assembled CKD (completely
knocked down) goods and offers more competitive, cheaper,brands and services on the basis of technology transfer arisingfrom FDI inside China itself.
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IS CHINA SUBJECT TO THE LAWS OF MOTION OFCAPITAL?
China has been able to capitalise on its history as a degenerateworkers state to accumulate surplus value rapidly and gooutby applying its developmental model in key countries like SouthAfrica.
We contend China demonstrated, by its rapid expansion, that itis an emerging imperialist power, it is also proving that it is notimmune to the deepening global capitalist crisis and is showingsigns of overproduction of capital.
This is now becoming evident as Chinas economy is slowingdown.
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OR IS IT THE GLOBAL MARKETS FAULT?
Perhaps Chinas slowdown is only because it is tied to the global
market, and not due to any inherent crisis of overproduction?
This is the most common view on the reformist left, a view shared bythe ANC and other African regimes.
Because the ANC views capitalism as capable of being reformed into
socialism by equalising exchange, China is socialist to the extentthat it can use Keynesian state deficit spending to compensate forfalling trade.
But in a capitalist economy state investment in infrastructure will
generate stagflation unless that infrastructure contributes to theproduction of commodities that China can sell in the world market.
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LIMITS OF MARKET SOCIALISM
Chinas crisis then, exposes the limits of market socialism as dependent on
the underlying laws of global capitalism.
The BRICS look to the China model of state managed development tostrengthen trade and investment relations and move toward swap dealswhere China provides long term loans or infrastructure deals in exchange forresources.
Yet the BRICS categorised as emerging markets, hides essentialdifferences behind surface similarities. The essential differences are thatRussia and China are imperialist countries and have no interest indeveloping the other BRICS unless they can reap super-profits. This meansthat BRICS like South Africa cannot escape the sphere of influence ofChinese and Russian imperialism without a socialist revolution.
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RUSSIA AND CHINA DOMINATE THE BRICS
Russia and China are newly emerging imperialist countries having made the
transition from DWS back to capitalism. Despite massive problems brought by capitalist restoration, their strong state
and relative independence from the imperialists allowed them to escape thefate of the other BRICS which remain trapped in colonial dependence.
Russia and China have formed a new imperialist bloc competing with the USled bloc by creating its own sphere of influence (SOI) in Asia, Africa and Latin
America. This SOI now includes the other BRICS (Brazil, India and SouthAfrica) as well as other intermediate states such as Iran, Venezuela etc.
Inevitably this SOI is one in which Russia and China dominate and super-
exploit their semi-colonial clients. India, Brazil and South Africa are allcharacterised by the continued dominance of imperialist FDI which limitstheir ability to develop an independent bourgeoisie and accumulate capitalon their own account.
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CONTRAST INTERNATIONALISM VS. ARMSPROFITEERING !
ZANU, the repressive capitalist governing party in Zimbabwe, hadlong been supported by Chinese loans, investments and militarygrants.
The eyes of the Southern African workers were focused on the
violence and repression of worker activists during the lead up to the2008 elections
April 2008 Dockworkers at Durban refused Chinese shipments of armsdestined for to the Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe.
Thabo Mbekis ANC government gave the ship clearance
The class conscious dock workers turned the ship around!
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CONCLUSIONS
The ANC cannot lead South Africa out of imperialist super-exploitation by
following Chinas development model.
It has proven not only that the bourgeois democratic revolution cannot becompleted by means of a popular front government but it in fact holds backits completion by trapping the working class in a client state of imperialism.
This will prove to be the case with China also. China is not a new form ofsociety that can escape capitalist crisis.
It is an emerging imperialist power that is now the main rival of the US bloc inAfrica. The ANCs strategic alliance with China will see it staying trapped insemi-colonial super-exploitation and its people trapped in poverty and
misery.
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FOR WORKING CLASS POWER
The miners of Marikana will not win freedom or economic security
without leading a socialist revolution in SA.
For that to happen the workers need their own Revolutionary Party and
a program that opens the road to revolution. It is necessary to build a
working class movement based on the mines; workers councils in
every workplace and township; workers defence militias; for the seizure
of power and formation of a Workers and poor farmers Government toexpropriate imperialist and capitalist property and plan a socialist
economy!
Build a Workers Party that unites the militant vanguard from China the
Middle East to the USA!
For a new World Party of Socialist Revolution!