The development of capitalism in South African agriculture: class struggle in the countryside*
Mike Morris
Abstract
The development of capitalism in South African agriculture has received very little attention. This chapter attempts an analysis of the contradictions within agriculture and between the capitalist countryside and the towns in the twentieth century, after the capitalist mode of production had come to dominate much of South African agriculture. The class struggle in social formations is the only site in which the existence/reproduction of a mode of production can take place. Before discussing the manner in which the rhythm of the class struggle governed the disintegration of labour tenancy and the migration of farm labourers from rural districts to the towns, one more structural feature has to be revealed. The struggle in capitalist agriculture concerned both the extraction of surplus value from labour tenants and the necessity of farmers to re-organise the productive forces. The specification of two contradictions between mining and agriculture is however important. They refer specifically to contradictions directly concerning labour in the countryside.