Transformation 3 (1987)                                           Review
   REVIEW OF:
  Alf Stadler (1987) - The Political Economy of Modern South
  Africa (Cape Town: David Philip; London: Croon Helm.
  Heattmr Hughes
      What is Immediately impressive about Stadler1s book Is the enormous
  amount of Information he 1s able to bring within a single, clearly defined
  frame of reference without swanping a reader (only 76 footnotes In toto,
  for example). His central contention is that
        while the efforts the state made to reform the political order
        during the 1970s were very significant In dictating some of the
        outcomes of the great transformation which South Africa is under-
        going, they were part of a defensive strategy designed to avert
        fundamental change, by a process of incremental modifications to
        the status quo, and were not its leading edge (p 4-5).
      His historical approach Illuminates the point that past 'reforms' to the
   status quo (the jargon of previous phases of reorganisation was of course
   quite different) have been no more than defensive strategies either, aiming
   as they have done to reinforce racial domination and control over the black
  majority, deprived of common political rights. He traces the emergence of a
   domestically-located and politically powerful bourgeoisie, 'the really
   significant feature of the South African political economy' (p 22), first
   1n the mining industry and then later In manufacturing and agriculture. The
   strong influence of this owning class, coupled with the particular labour
   needs of Industry, meant the evolution of a highly coercive labour policy.
   And since 'the question of admitting the majority of adult men and, later,
   women to the franchise ... has only ever arisen anywhere ... in the context
   of industrialisation1 (p 36), he explains the manifold attempts by succes-
   sive white parties in government to repress the political aspirations of
   the majority. As he observes, controls over the movement of labour
        were singly the most serious Issue in the relations between
        governments and their black subjects, providing from before the
        First World War down to the 1960s some of the most intense con-
        frontations (including the one at Sharpevilie) In their political
        relations (p 86).
      Drawing on the work of Doug Hindson, Stadler points not only to the
   racial divisions explicit 1n these labour controls, but also to the growing
   divisions within the African working class, principally between 'Insiders',
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Transformation 4                                                  Hughes
entitled to remain in the cities, and 'outsiders', vulnerable to extrusion
from them. The former have taken a leading role in struggles against the
state, paticularly in recent decades (and Stadler 1s correct to emphasise
the dominance of the town over the countryside, even though he tends to
equate the latter with the bantustans). It is a division which, he
suggests, deeply affected the emergence of the independent trade union
movement in the 1970s:
      The strongest support for the new unions came from migrant wor-
      kers, rather than workers permanently settled in the urban areas
      and enjoying Section 10 rights, who were the most privileged
      groups among blacks in the workforce (p 174).
    (A small, but important, note must be entered here about Stadler's use
of the terms 'black' and 'African1. He tends to employ them interchange-
ably; has the state won this ideological battle?)
    It will be clear to anyone following the long 'politics and economy1
debate since the 1970s that Stadler places himself firmly in the tradition
of analysts who have stressed 'the extent to which apartheid and exploita-
tion of black labour were interlocked1 (p 15). (His use of the past tense,
while he points out is 'hopeful', is often disconcerting.) As such, it is a
useful, general summary of this position. But Stadler not only sums up; it
seems as if he is arguing for an extension of the use of the central term
 'political economy'. His analysis is correct in demonstrating what he,
following Yudelman, terms the 'symbiotic relationship' between political
and economic spheres in South Africa, but is it helpful to run the two
together on that basis? The institutional and functional separation of
 'politics' and 'economics' has been a characteristic of capitalist socie-
ties, here as anywhere else, and It is often difficult to work out from
Stadler where the one ends and the other begins. One must assume a clear
intention on his part, which has led him, inter alia, to portray the
relationship between the owners of industry and the holders of state power
as basically in tune, and to see apartheid as more or less a logical deve-
 lopment of segregation. To stress an essential continuity of institutions
and practices of control and repression is to underplay key shifts and
conflicts, notably perhaps in the radical social engineering of the apart-
heid period.
    The argument for a physically-present 'political economy' requires some
conceptual discussion. In its absence, however, this 1s still one of the
best overviews of contemporary South Africa available.
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