Is this what democracy looks like?

( this has little to do with radical politics but I was asked to do some work with the anti-eviction campaign and here is the abbreviated result)

The case of the Hawkers being evicted from the Mitchells Plain CBD is one which should radically concern all South Africa’s consumers. Considering the increasing dominance of large retail chains ,and how this large scale capital is able to engineer state support as we see in this and other instances , consumers run the risk of not only dealing with inflated prices in a contracting economy ,but in the long term having financially colonized possibilities. The Tiger Brands saga, and other cases of price fixing, where retailers have kept mum, illustrate that no matter how beautifully branded the chain is, the consumers best interests will always defer to be the chains profit margins.

There is general consensus amongst analysts that South African retailers need to adopt a more mutual relationship with consumers, as the residue of apartheid has ensured that large scale capital precedes human public interests. The old battle of capital verses the people takes on especially sobering dimensions in the Mitchells Plain context. The bylaw enables the eviction of 800 hawkers, with a knock on effect on dependents, suppliers as well as consumers. Given that this is not an affluent area, and that a huge portion of household income is dedicated to food, there is no room for reticence in this situation.

Limitations to our response include the widely held assumption by consumers that supermarkets are cheaper than smaller stores. While this may hold true for convenience stores and other small stores situated in isolated areas, the Michells Plain hawkers are certainly not more expensive then the chains. While doing comparative pricing I was expecting the hawkers to be selling stock at very similar prices to Shoprite, however I found that more often then not the hawkers undercut the supermarkets substantially, and the quality of the produce was overall far superior. Two comparative shopping case studies undertaken were for a woman hypothetically buying back to school supplies and the other set of goods was grouped around buying weekly fruit and vegetables for a family. The results were shocking, as the groupings from the hawkers trumped every item in Shoprite with an overall saving of 25 percent in the case of school supplies and 34 percent in the case of groceries. Considering the high portion of income allocated to food by most people of this country, such a high percentage makes the City Councils actions unacceptable. As a result, by evicting the hawkers, the state is forcing consumers to pay more, as by making it difficult to access the hawkers by evicting them from the concentrated city centre. This is not in the public interest as it aids only large scale corporations, which as I have noted earlier do not have the peoples interests at heart.

The marginalization of small scale capital in this instance, something which is often tenuous to begin with, has far reaching effects which move beyond increases in grocery prices for Mitchells Plain inhabitants. By evicting the hawkers, the City of Cape Town is not only destroying the livelihoods of the hawkers and their suppliers, but also exerting unnecessary strain on the community as a whole. The dependents of the workers will find themselves without the constant stream of income which has in some cases been dependable for as long as 20 years and these individuals will become more vulnerable not only in regards to food security, but will find it increasingly easy to slip into what Seekings and Natrass have termed South Africa’s underclass.

The knock on effects will not only affect those depending on the income generated through hawking however, as the spatial restraints of the bylaw will mean that individuals who cannot afford the inflated prices of will have to either walk to an area where they can access food for cheaper, or buy less food of inferior quality for more money. This represents an unnecessary waste of time for mainly women who already are overworked and carry most of the burden in households. The safety issues of moving outside of the CBD also have implications mainly for women, and considering the long working hours of many individuals, create a completely unacceptable compromise of time and safety. Family dynamics will also come under strain the slowdown in the economic climate translates into stagnant or decreasing incomes. The person buying the food, in most cases the woman of the house will increasingly have to explain the sizable chunk of income devoted to food, and given our country’s appalling gender violence, chances are this will exacerbate already tense and oppressive situations.

Small scale capital is othered in economic dialogues, as are the workers. The effects of neo-colonialism and marginalization on the everyday life of individuals directly and indirectly impacted by profit mongering, are framed in language with delegitimizes these daily struggles for survival. This is especially clear when the individuals are described as facing obstacles or even worse are termed as obstacles, as the hawkers have been in this case. If we consider Ingrid Palmary’s work on Social Crime Prevention, the value of hawkers as ‘a crime prevention resource’ emphasizes the pivotal role hawkers play in urban areas, especially those of the periphery. In Mitchells Plains case they are not only offering cheaper goods, which are less likely to be irradiated or squashed and come from smaller suppliers, they are also performing a social function, as they interact and network with the community, supplying invaluable eyes on the street, a service Shoprite and co will never provide.

In conclusion it becomes clear that this is a case of the state working against the needs of individuals, and contrary to the electioneering rhetoric, that the poor are not only being marginalized but are being structurally exploited in favour of large scale capital. This action by the state should alert all consumers to begin demanding a country where this kind of thing isn’t allowed to happen, and solidarity with the Mitchells Plain Hawkers is an excellent way to begin to keep the authorities in check and ensure that democracy is not a complete farce.

Waiting

The air has bristled with tension for the last few months. What stands out for me specifically was the overenthusiastic Obama furvour ,and people telling me ad nausea how it signals a dawn for African politics and me wincing unsurprisingly at the particularly technicolour repercussions they envisioned for Zimbabwe . The ‘hope’ dialogue that cascaded and continues to gush out of peoples souls is disarming. Some part of this listener responds by trying to see that some level of interest in the world is positive, and smile encouragingly, but my overwhelming response tends towards despair, as the rhetoric is so laden and seeped with nonsense that you can see how easy it is for them to flounder blindly ,with your chest tightening at the prospect of the less enjoyable next level in the ‘hope cycle’ for these misty eyed citizens of the world.

This ridiculous expectation is highlighted by the local interpretations of the Gaza situation which has taken on the intrigue of a soap opera. The Jewish community has been slightly divided but dominantly supportive of Israel while asking for local consumers not to let the situation colour their buying patterns. The Islamic community have responded in outrage as expected and issued a boycott of ‘Jewish business’ including Coke and our biggest supermarket chain Pick n Pay. Some individuals of the group which started the boycott were then photographed drinking Coke by our local tabloid, The Daily Voice, and this event in the saga has so satiated my appetite for satire that I haven’t been able to even ask my neighbours how they feel anymore, or even read the business paper without risking a fit of giggles.

During the writing of the last sentence I have been invited to a ‘Peace event’ this evening which ‘ is an opportunity to come together in collective spiritual resonance’ and once again my response is delighted at my friends for being able to desire contemplating the void in regards to conflict,but obviousloy slightly confused at how they think this will actually help anything. Parecon as a workable solution instead of white cotton draped whimsy holds much more solace then the idea of undefined collective positive consciousness and it would do us well to remember it.

And so I am once again awed, heartbroken, and entertained by my surrounds, and the importance of a realistic idealist tradition, especially one as wonderful as a libertarian socialist model, reasserts itself. 'Our patriotism is that of the man who loves a woman with open eyes. He is enchanted by her beauty, yet he sees her faults.'.and in the case of summer in Cape Town, even the streets are probably chuckling at their wonderfully strange inhabitants.

security

Living in one of the most unequal societies in the world while being chronically interested in scarcities has made me consider what Parecon has to offer by way of access to resources and offering security around them.

A very palatable example is food security. African cities are exploding and last week our CPI data was released for urban areas, reporting a 6 year high. While South African cities are expected to grow slightly less then others o the continent, the stress that high urban inflation will have on the urban poor, married with the horrible permutations which have been triggered by our new status as a net importer of agricultural products for the first time in more than 20 years, means that even more of our already chronically marginalized will continue to sidelined.

The rampant speculation on all commodity markets, including that of food, tends to have the effect of pushing those on the edge closer and closer to tragedy by the day. In Parecon this bullying is not only tempered but eliminated, as society demands its own demands. Shortages of basic commodities will therefore only occur if there is chaotically bad luck, which theoretically should be planned for, or if the society as a whole decides that life is not worth preserving, which while possible, seems slightly out of step with our experiences of human tenacity. All in all basic security should therefore be provided for, and unwanted fluctuations in supply can be relegated to fodder for dystopian science fiction stories.

Access to basic commodities, which I doubt will be interchangeable with the term scarcity, in a Parecon society, is not the only security that a Parecon society is capable of providing though. In South Africa, like many other fractured and heavily hierarchically structured societies, the idea of safety and the excessive paranoia which goes hand in hand can be seen locally, as gated communities and heavily fortified spaces have become normalized and cease to offend even those of us who hate them passionately.

By shifting what is valued by society and changing the way that organizations are structured, there will be no need for paranoia as hoarding ‘valuables’ will seem bizarre, especially if the valuables are ugly pieces of art which only ever has speculated value. The implications of this are huge and nearly impossible for me to imagine, as the idea of not having houses and malls and offices and schools where we are always ‘protecting’ is alien whilst implying a whole range of other positive changes.

Ways to apply these elements of Parecon to daily life are varied. By trying to create strategies which support and encourage structures which have Pareconish values, and being part of groups which are inspiring and hopeful, steering clear of martyr fueled disillusionment, and being involved in our communities, we can cement these elements of Parecon in our own minds and by that be catalysed into realizing new ways to reestablish the ways our societies deal with and respond to the idea of security.

So here be....

This blog is a response to a call by those beings who make up IPPS...
I will try and grapple with a few things related to it and share vaguely inspiring things...

.. I might not be able to stick to topic always but will keep this blog as palatable as possible and steer clear of tirades as they can get a little dry after a while...


.. I am based in Cape Town and work in a variety of fields but am happy to answer questions vis policy and whatever else... as yet we havent got a real parsoc set up but that will come....

blessings