[lbo-talk] Israel, South Africa revive defense ties after 15-yearhiatus

[Joseph Wanzala]

While I appreciate the reality check offered below by Brian, Joanna's 
comments are appropriate, events of the last decade notwithstanding. It 
would indeed, appear as though apartheid did not end 10 years ago. There are 
many parts of South Africa, especially the large areas controlled by white 
farmers, and the gated communities sprouting up around the major cities, 
where the white establishment operates much as it has for decades. At any 
rate, apartheid itself was a sub-species of capitalism, if you will, and 
had, by the late eighties, become quaint and obsolete - as acknowledged by 
PW Botha in his 1985 'Crossing the Rubicon' speech. A plan was devised by 
the Randlords to make South Africa more compatible with the then emerging 
and now dominant neo-liberal orthodoxies. It was becoming clear that the 
corporate establishment worldwide (the tail) was wagging the state (the dog) 
and real political power lay not with the state but with the corporations. 
So the apartheid (capitalist) establishment (in SA) got to look magnanimous 
as they 'conceded' state power to the black majority, allowed 'democracy' 
and 'majority rule' to flourish, when in fact they were simply updating 
South Africa for the 21st century.

The past (as witnessed inall other post-colonial African countries) is 
prologue.

Joe W.


>From: Bryan <bryan at indymedia.org.il>
>Reply-To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
>To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
>Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Israel, South Africa revive defense ties after 
>15-yearhiatus
>Date: Wed, 01 Jun 2005 07:11:55 +0200
>
>
>Maybe I am missing something? I thought that apartheid ended over ten years 
>ago in South Africa? I thought that Nelson Mandela became president in 
>1994?
>
>Did I hallucinate all that?
>
>joanna wrote:
>>I don't get it. SA and Israel are both apartheid states; the Palestinians 
>>are being offered a bantustan nation; and SA had one of the most rabid 
>>Zionist groups in the world. Boycotting Israel seems like a fine idea.
>>
>>Joanna
>>
>
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