Political+Economy+Seminar,+CCS+Durban+and+skype,+4+February+2008

Centre for Civil Society

 * http://www.ukzn.ac.za/ccs**

=Seminar: 'SA Political Economy Revived: Transcending Two Economies'=


 * Speakers: Patrick Bond, Ashwin Desai, Eric Stalin Mtshali and Xolani Dube (and others)**


 * Chairperson:** **Vishnu Padayachee**

> **Date: Monday, 4 February**

> **Time: 12:00-1:30pm (NOTE NEW TIME)**

> **Venue: CCS Boardroom, MTB F208, UKZN Howard College Campus**

Join the **UKZN **Centre for Civil Society for the launch of the hard copy version of a new journal devoted to reviving SA political economy, on Monday, February 4, 12-1:30pm. (Please note new time.)

The special issue of the UNISA Press journal** Africanus **is now available, and features many local and a few international commentators on capitalism and 'non-capitalist' relations.

The journal, whose papers were delivered at a CCS Colloquium on Economy, Society and Nature in 2006, is free to download at http://www.ukzn.ac.za/ccs

Thanks to [|skype.com] conference calling capacity, we anticipate having a lively debate drawing in other political economists from across the country, the continent and the world. We will break promptly at 1:30 for refreshments.

The School of Development Studies director, noted political economist** Vishnu Padayachee**, will chair.

In addition to tackling** Thabo Mbeki's **and** Jacob Zuma's **use of the 'two economies' metaphor from the standpoint of critical civil society, to some extent this journal also reflects a longstanding analytical debate between two major traditions within the movements for social justice: the independent 'New Left' and the** SA Communist Party**. The intellectual conflict dates back decades, in disputes over the national question, rural-urban relations, and capitalist/pre-capitalist superexploitation as the basis for apartheid and imperialism. Its revival comes in part because of renewed interest across the world in 'primitive accumulation', and in South Africa, in the 1970s political economy research legacy of SACP intellectual guru** Harold Wolpe **(for his online works, see

http://www.wolpetrust.org.za/main.php?include=wolpetexts.html&menu=_menus/dialogue.html

especially //"Capitalism and Cheap Labour-power in South Africa: From Segregation to Apartheid"//).**

That legacy was reclaimed at the World Social Forum Festival for Social Change in Durban's Diakonia Centre on January 26, when - before a crowd of 300 - Mtshali challenged Wolpe Lecture presenter Trevor Ngwane on his interpretation of the 'articulation of modes of production';

Ngwane will be on a phone line from Soweto to continue that debate

Join us! (For refreshments you must RSVP: 031 260 3195)


 * //(If you intend skyping in, please do so by sending a note to patricksouthafrica a.s.a.p., thanks.)//**