Colloquium on the Economy, Society and Nature

THE UNIVERSITY OF KWAZULU-NATAL CENTRE FOR CIVIL SOCIETY and PARTNERS PRESENT:

A COLLOQUIUM ON THE ECONOMY, SOCIETY AND NATURE
With tributes to Harold Wolpe and Guy Mhone, and the Rosa Luxemburg
Political Education Seminar 2006

28 February - 4 March 2006
University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa

In cooperation with partners who have indictated in-principle support - The
Harold Wolpe Memorial Trust, The Open Society Initiative of Southern Africa,
The Rosa Luxemburg Foundation and the journal Capitalism Nature Socialism -
CCS will be opening thematic research projects on 'Economic Justice' in
2006. We are anxious to launch this theme by reviewing some of the finest
traditions of national, regional and international political-economic theory
and contemporary analysis, and invite you to join us. We seek inputs from
individuals and organisations who would like to participate.

We are mainly concerned with market-nonmarket interactions and new forms of
'primitive accumulation'. Ideas about a supposed 'dual economy' in South
Africa (and indeed the region and world) are now being debated at the
highest political/policy levels. This is an opportune time to discuss
whether formal markets and the informal economy plus other aspects of
society and nature are really as divorced as is often argued.

Three scholar-activists - Harold Wolpe in South Africa, Guy Mhone in
Southern Africa and Rosa Luxemburg in Europe - developed consistent
arguments about the way markets systematically exploit 'nonmarket'
opportunities, in other modes of production, in society (especially women's
unpaid labour) and in the natural environment.

At three scales of analysis, we want to pick up their stories, review past
and contemporary contributions on their legacies, and assess whether current
and future political-economic scenarios require new insights:

* SOUTH AFRICA is a crucial site to explore how the apartheid economic
system evolved into a still racialised, highly gendered, increasingly
unequal and ecologically disastrous system of capital accumulation. For
Harold Wolpe, these relations could be understood partly as the
'articulation of modes of production'. Wolpe died in 1996; a decade later,
the intellectual memorial on 28 February is one of several major events
devoted to recalling his contributions, with its focus on Wolpe's
political-economic writings. (Another conference sponsored by the Wolpe
Memorial Trust will be held in September.) From the 1960-80s debates about
apartheid and capitalism, we have much to learn about the current
conjuncture.

* SOUTHERN AFRICA faces increasing polarisation, both within and between the
countries of the region. For Guy Mhone, this represented a problem of
'enclavity', by which economic linkages were truncated and state policies
distorted, to meet the needs of global and regional business interests, not
the majority. Mhone passed away on 1 March 2005, so a year later, the Open
Society Initiative of Southern Africa will assist us in remembering his
exceptionally fruitful career. Experts from other regions - including Latin
America and South Asia - will also join us, for comparative purposes and to
build intellectual solidarity required at a time India-Brazil-South Africa
connections are deepening.

* THE GLOBAL SCALE is characterised by a system based not upon the
inter-imperial rivalry of a century ago, but instead in part upon vast new
forms by which the 'North' loots the 'Global South' and the world
environment. By arguing - in her 1913 book The Accumulation of Capital -
that this process was not accidental but a necessary outcome of economic
processes, and by showing how the theory applied to 19th century South
Africa, to German colonialism in Namibia and to Belgian control of the
Congo, Rosa Luxemburg gave hints about how to understand the subsequent
imperialist project. The Southern African Regional Office of the Rosa
Luxemburg Foundation is assisting so that on 2 March, not only the strengths
but also the weaknesses of her approach are discussed, at a time of
international revival of interest in her work.

Many local/regional - and several international - social scientists will be
addressing the problems associated with market exploitation of nonmarket
(society and nature) from 28 February through 2 March, in an event open to
the public. From 2-4 March, activists from across KwaZulu-Natal, South
Africa and the region are especially invited to help move from analysis to
praxis, with open discussions and strategy debates in the framework of the
Rosa Luxemburg Political Education Seminar.

National, regional and international internet-based streaming and
participation from other centres are also being explored.

To get involved, or for more information, please contact Patrick Bond:
[email protected] .