Capitalist crisis goes from bad to worse

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Like a recurring nightmare, the capitalist crisis refuses to go away and rather seems to be going from bad to worse.   

Perhaps the most glaring signs of the deepening crisis has been the massive volatility experienced in stock, bond and currency markets globally. Over the last few months more than US $ 6 trillion in share values have been wiped off stock markets across the world, and currency values have bounced around. So far, the worst hit countries have been in Latin America, Asia, and Africa. China has been particularly hard hit with stock markets plunging over the last 8 months.

South Africa has not been spared. As with other ‘developing countries’, South Africa’s stock, currency and bond markets have been on a roller-coaster ride.

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State ‘capture’ or the nature of the state?

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Across the political spectrum, individuals and organisations have been expressing their disgust and shock that a faction, indeed a single family in the form of the Guptas, have ‘captured’ the state.  As a consequence, there have been calls for state ‘capture’ to be ended though firing Zuma.

The Gupta’s offering cabinet posts to politicians, if true, was brazen and corrupt. While the fact that a section of capitalists – in this case a family – have such influence over the state should disgust us; it should not come as a surprise. To understand why, it is important to look at what states are, why they arose, and whose interests they serve. Coupled to this, it is essential to look at a few examples, amongst many, of how the state and capitalism in South Africa have always been defined by cronyism and corruption.

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The state, markets and “civil society”: Limiting struggles and limiting democracy

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Today we are regaled by notions that the state “lacks” capacity to do things. This is then used as motivation for why the state should enter into “partnerships” – chiefly with business - to ensure that things actually happen. So whether it is about education, housing or public services the state must partner with the private sector to ensure houses, schools or toilets.

Economists – who dazzle us with figures - love this kind of argument. So they play with notions such as a fully-functional heath service would cost, say R100b – which the state cannot afford, or only partially afford. So the private sector will have to give the rest in order to make health services possible. But the private sector wants a return on its investment. So for every R100 pent it wants say R150 in return – which means that it, by definition, takes out more than it puts in. “Partnerships” is little more than code for more privatisation of public services and more outsourcing of what should be state functions.

Behind all the talk of the “state has no capacity” is the entrepreneur, the consultant and the mogul seeking new opportunities for making money.

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State brutality

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In the last year and a half in South Africa, approximately 40 people involved in protests and strikes have been killed at the hands of the police, including at Marikana. Many more people were beaten, tear gassed, shot with rubber bullets, arrested and some even tortured. The latest person, unfortunately, to die at the hands of the police was a 17 year old girl, Nqobile Nzuza, who was killed on the 30th of September during a demonstration for housing in Durban. She was shot in the back by the police with live ammunition (in fact her family claims she was shot by the police when she went to see what the protests were about).

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