Towards a New Deal

A Political Economy of the Times of My Life

Rob Davies

• Publisher: Jonathan Ball
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781776190935
• eBook ISBN: 9781776190942
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Political Biographies
• Index: Social Sciences

'As the world economic system stumbles, as trade wars intensify and the dangers of a diminishing global multilateralism threaten, Davies' new book offers a unique blend of astute analysis and personal experience. It is a must-read.' – Jeremy Cronin, former Deputy Minister of Transport

Africa's past quarter century has been shaped by the decisions and reach of one of the oldest political alliances in southern Africa, that between the African National Congress and the South African Communist Party.

In this memoir, Rob Davies, one of the government's most articulate former senior ministers, looks back on the politics, policies and inner workings of the South African government in the democratic era. He offers and insider's account of the evolution of trade and economic policy over the last 25 years, up to the presidency of Cyril Ramaphosa and the global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Leavened with intriguing anecdotes and informed by the author's very personal and humanising history of activism and exile, Towards a New Deal makes the case for an economic policy transformation that is focused on creating jobs and reducing poverty, that highlights South Africa's role in Africa, and that addresses the challenges of economic stagnation, climate change and the fourth industrial revolution. It will be essential reading for economists, businesspeople and ordinary readers keen to grasp the political and economic dynamics of the moment.

Notes

Introduction

1.Among Marcuse’s works much read at the time were An Essay on Liberation (1969) and One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society (1964).

2.HJ and RE Simons, Class and Colour in South Africa 1850–1950, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1969.

3.‘The White Working-Class in South Africa’, New Left Review, 82, November–December 1973.

4.Published by Harvester Press, Brighton, in 1979.

5.For a comprehensive account of the life of the ANC community in Mozambique, including more details of my own role there, see Nadja Manghezi, The Maputo Connection: ANC Life in the World of Frelimo, Jacana, Auckland Park, 2009.

6.See, for example, Chinyamata Chipeta and Robert Davies, ‘Regional Relations and Cooperation Post-Apartheid: A Macro Framework Study Report’, consultancy study for the Southern African Development Community, 1993; and Robert Davies, Dot Keet and Mfundu Nkuhlu, ‘Reconstructing Economic Relations with the Southern African Region’, discussion document prepared for Macro-Economic Research Group, March 1993.

Chapter 1

1.See tributes to Harold Wolpe by Dan O’Meara, Harold Wolpe Papers, University of Cape Town Libraries, www2.lib.uct.ac.za/mss/existing/Finding%20Aids/bc1150_harold_wolpe_papers.htm; and by Michael Burawoy, ‘From liberation to reconstruction: Theory and practice in the life of Harold Wolpe’, Review of African Political Economy, Vol 31, No 102, 2004, pp 657–675 (also available at wolpetrust.org.za/lectures/ML2004Burawoy_pdf.pdf); and Steven Friedman, Race, Class and Power: Harold Wolpe and the Radical Critique of Apartheid, University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, Pietermaritzburg, 2015.

2.For an outline and critique see Martin Legassick, ‘The Rise of Modern South African Liberalism: Its Assumptions and its Social Base’, University of Sussex seminar paper, 1974. For an explicitly reformist perspective of this type, see Merle Lipton, Capitalism and Apartheid: South Africa 1910–1986, David Philip, Cape Town, 1986.

3.For a fairly recent review, including a bibliography of many of the major contributions, see Friedman, op cit.

4.Frederick A Johnstone, Class, Race and Gold: A Study of Class Relations and Racial Discrimination in South Africa, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1976.

5.See note 1.

6.Harold Wolpe, ‘Capitalism and cheap labour-power in South Africa: From segregation to apartheid’, Economy and Society, Vol 1, No 4, 1972.

7.Harold Wolpe, Race, Class and the Apartheid State, James Currey, London, 1988.

8.For the definitive account of this, see Dan O’Meara, Forty Lost Years: The Apartheid State and the Politics of the National Party 1948–1994, Ravan Press, Randburg, 1996, and Volkskapitalisme: Class, Capital and Ideology in the Development of Afrikaner Nationalism, Cambridge University Press, 1983.

9.See Rob Davies, Dan O’Meara and Sipho Dlamini, The Struggle for South Africa: A Reference Guide to Movements, Organizations and Institutions, Vol 1, Zed Books, London, 1984, p 21.

10.Francis Wilson, Labour in the South African Gold Mines 1911–1969, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1972.

11.‘The Freedom Charter’, www.historicalpapers.wits.ac.za/inventories/inv_pdfo/AD1137/AD1137-Ea6-1-001-jpeg.pdf.

12.See Davies, O’Meara and Dlamini, op cit, pp 37–47.

Chapter 2

1.See Immanuel Wallerstein and Sérgio Vieira, ‘Historical Development of the Region in the Context of the Evolving World-System’, in Sérgio Vieira, William G Martin and Immanuel Wallerstein (coordinators), How Fast the Wind? Southern Africa 1975–2000, Africa World Press, Trenton, New Jersey, 1992.

2.Colin Murray, ‘From Granary to Labour Reserve: An Economic History of Lesotho’, conference paper No 28, SALDRU Farm Labour Conference, September 1976.

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