Rethinking the 'race-class debate' in South African historiography¶
Deborah Posel (1983). Rethinking the 'race-class debate' in South African historiography. Social Dynamics: A journal of African studies 9(1). Routledge (Taylor & Francis).
| Type | journal article |
| Scope | Wider apartheid literature |
| Method | theoretical or conceptual |
| Period studied | 1910–1983 |
| Regions | South Africa |
| Themes | politics ideology elections, origins segregation, business and state, comparative theory, bantustans removals influx, resistance social movements |
| Citation key | posel1983 |
Argument¶
Posel argues that the revisionist-liberal 'race-class debate' was cast in 'either-or' terms (class vs race primacy; apartheid functional vs dysfunctional to capitalism), which pushed revisionists into reductionist and functionalist explanations despite their disclaimers. She illustrates this through critiques of Wolpe's cheap-labour article and Saul and Gelb's 'crisis' thesis, showing that their own historical accounts point to non-reductionist explanations. She proposes a reconstructed revisionism in which class and race are interpenetrating, and in which racial policy has been both functional and dysfunctional for capitalism, so that periods differ in which face predominates. The 1948 National Party victory is treated as not explicable by class interests alone.
Evidence and method¶
Close textual critique of published revisionist and liberal works (Johnstone, Legassick, O'Meara, Davies, Wolpe 1972, Saul and Gelb 1981, Frankel, Wilson, Yudelman); a few secondary statistics cited in notes (e.g. Rich on urban African growth, Hindson on homeland GDP per head). No new archival or quantitative data.
Place in the debates¶
- Liberal vs revisionist (race vs class) on the analytic primacy of race or class (see Liberal vs revisionist: was apartheid functional or dysfunctional for capitalist growth?). Rejects the 'either-or' framing of both camps; argues class and race are interpenetrating and that class analysis is necessary but not sufficient, so class cannot be ranked invariably over race.
- Liberal vs revisionist on whether apartheid is functional or dysfunctional to capitalist growth (see Liberal vs revisionist: was apartheid functional or dysfunctional for capitalist growth?). Holds that segregation and apartheid have been simultaneously functional and dysfunctional, with the balance varying by period; rejects both pure functionalism and the liberal view that growth will inevitably erode racial policy.
- Cheap labour thesis (Wolpe) on the transition from segregation to apartheid (see Cheap labour thesis and the function of the reserves). Argues the changing conditions of reserve reproduction were at most a necessary condition; Wolpe's own account shows that the United Party alternative was equally viable, so the transition requires political explanation.
- Structural 'crisis' theory of the 1940s and 1970s (Saul and Gelb) (see Did the apartheid economy fail? Growth, productivity, investment and the post-1970s crisis). Rejects the 'organic crisis' concept as vacuous and functionalist; the trends cited were endemic contradictions since the 1920s.
Findings¶
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Posel characterises the debate as an 'either-or' dispute that led revisionists into reductionism. (p. 2)
revisionist historiography has constituted a debate with its liberal opponents which has an 'either-or' form: either class or race has an alytic primacy
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Revisionists defined themselves by reversing liberal priorities, treating apartheid as functional to capital. (p. 3)
revisionism amounts to a simple reversal of the purportedly liberal priorities: class now has primacy over race, and segregation and apartheid are seen as functional, rather than dysfunctional
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Wolpe's own narrative shows apartheid was not a necessary outcome of capitalist interests, as the United Party offered an alternative. (p. 7)
Nationalist Party policy — apartheid — was clearly neither a necessary nor an inevitable outcome of capitalist processes and interests at the time.
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Class and economic conditions set limits, but the 1948 transition rests on contingent electoral politics. (p. 11)
Economic and class variables set limits on party political and ideological forces, but there comes a point at which an explanation of the transition to apartheid devolves on the simple fact that the National Party had a surprise and slim election victory in 1948.
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Saul and Gelb's 1940s 'crisis' rests on trends that were endemic before and after the decade. (p. 9)
what Saul and Gelb offer as an "index" of an "organic crisis" in the 1940s was an endemic and constant phenomenon.
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The migrant labour system undermined its own foundation in the reserves and fuelled the urban influx it was meant to control. (p. 10)
the migrant labour system increasingly overburdened its own foundation, namely, the capacity of the reserves to absorb these large numbers of people.
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Racial policy has combined functional and dysfunctional features throughout; the system's strengths were also its weaknesses. (p. 10)
The very strengths of the relationship between racial policy and capitalist growth in South Africa, have also been the sources of its weaknesses.
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Class relations in South Africa were constituted along racial lines, so race and class form a unity. (p. 14)
what is fundamental and distinctive about the South African case is the unity of class and race as the source of structural differentiation in the society.
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Racial restrictions inhibited parts of manufacturing, e.g. through skills shortages and limited domestic markets. (p. 14)
The shortage of skilled and semi-skilled labour, together with the restriction of domestic markets, has constrained the productivity of branches of manufacturing industry.
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Different periods are distinguished by which face of the contradictory relationship dominates; stability depends on the balance of forces. (p. 15)
during the 1920s, 40s and 70s, the stresses and strains of the system of racial capitalism were visibly exacerbated; whereas the 1930s, 1960s were periods in which the functional alignment between the booming economy and racially discriminatory policies was noteworthy.
Evidence ledger¶
Sources used¶
| Source | Kind | Period | How used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Native Economic Commission of 1932 | commission or official report | 1932 | Cited to show that the decline of the reserves had already been noted by the late 1920s, so it cannot mark a 1940s crisis. |
| Economic and Wage Commission of 1926 (UG 14/1926) | commission or official report | 1926 | Cited to show that full proletarianisation and detribalised urban Africans were already evident in the 1920s. |
| Fagan Commission (as discussed via Wolpe 1972) | commission or official report | 1946-1948 | Treated as the basis of the United Party's reformist 1948 platform, evidence of an alternative capitalist policy route to apartheid. |
| Hindson (1977), unpublished seminar paper on African labour supply and employment 1946-1975, GDP per head of homeland population | secondary literature compilation | 1946-1975 | Used to claim reserve per capita output kept falling or stagnating after 1948, so reserve decline was not specific to the 1940s. |
| Paul Rich (1978) figures on urban African population growth 1904-1921 | secondary literature compilation | 1904-1921 | Used to show that rapid urban African growth predated the 1940s. |
| Unspecified urban African population statistics (1920s onward) | official statistical series | 1920s onward | Invoked, without citation, to claim urban African growth was ever-increasing and irreversible from the 1920s. |
| Wolpe (1972) 'Capitalism and Cheap Labour Power' as an evidentiary account of 1940s party and class alliances | secondary literature compilation | 1940s | Its historical commentary on the United Party and Nationalist Party class alliances is reread as showing that apartheid was not an inevitable outcome. |
| Saul and Gelb (1981), The Crisis in South Africa, account of the 1940s | secondary literature compilation | 1940s, 1970s | Its narrative of the 1940s 'crisis' is quoted at length and criticised as evidence for its own conceptual claims. |
| 1948 election result (referred to, no returns cited) | election returns | 1948 | The slim National Party victory is invoked as a contingent political factor beyond class determination. |
Inference¶
Quantification: None.
Theoretical and historiographical critique. The author does close textual reading of revisionist writings (Johnstone, Legassick, O'Meara, Davies, Wolpe, Saul and Gelb) and re-reads their own historical material against their stated theory. She argues logically, using a necessary-versus-sufficient-conditions argument and a few dated points from earlier commissions and secondary data. No original empirical analysis.
Key claims¶
| Claim | Basis | Strength |
|---|---|---|
| The race-class debate took an either-or form that pushed many revisionists into a reductionist, functionalist problematic. (p. 51) | Close reading of quoted passages from Johnstone (1970, 1976), Legassick (1974), O'Meara (1975) and Davies (1979a). | Illustrative or anecdotal |
| Wolpe's own historical account shows that apartheid was neither a necessary nor an inevitable outcome of capitalist interests in 1948, so changed conditions of labour reproduction are necessary but not sufficient to explain the transition. (p. 55) | Wolpe (1972)'s account of United Party versus Nationalist Party class alliances, as re-read by the author. | Partial data |
| Saul and Gelb's 1940s 'crisis' is analytically empty, because reserve decline, urbanisation and black resistance were endemic before and after the 1940s. (p. 57) | Native Economic Commission 1932, Economic and Wage Commission 1926 (UG 14/1926), Hindson (1977), Rich (1978), and the 1946 strike's rapid suppression. | Partial data |
| The relationship between racial policy and capitalism has always combined functional and dysfunctional features, which are contradictions inherent in racial capitalism. (p. 58) | Reasoned argument on migrant labour, influx control and African exclusion from institutions, drawing on Saul and Gelb's narrative and general knowledge; no new data. | Asserted |
| Class and race are interpenetrating: class relations in South Africa are constituted along racial lines, and racial cleavages help explain class differentiation. (p. 61) | Conceptual argument supported by Johnstone's 'ultra-exploitability' formulation (1976). | Asserted |
| Liberals and revisionists now partly agree that racial policy and economic growth are in contradiction. They still differ on past functionality and on the prospects for reform. (p. 63) | Quotations from Davies (1979b), Yudelman (1975), Legassick (1974) and Trapido (1971). | Illustrative or anecdotal |
The author's caveats¶
None. The article states that investigating how to specify a crisis threshold is beyond its scope. It does not discuss data limitations.
Gaps in the evidence¶
The argument that reserve decline, urbanisation and resistance were 'endemic' rather than peaking in the 1940s needs systematic time series: census urban African populations 1911-1960, reserve agricultural output and wage data, strike statistics, and state expenditure and repression indicators. These existed then in published censuses, Native Affairs reports and Department of Labour strike returns. The 1948 contingency claim would need party-level election returns and archival evidence on capital's lobbying of the United Party and National Party, both available in archives. Without such evidence, claims about class alliances rest on Wolpe's and Saul and Gelb's secondary accounts.
Replicability: Not applicable.