As promised another occasional slide that illustrates a major theme of the moment. I have put the meat into the caption – note the reversion to some traditional Marxist theory … fractions of capital and the working class fighting to wield the state? Was that Althusser or Nicos Poulantzas … hmm, no, for them the state was a site of struggle and not an instrument …. gosh, I’ve forgotten more than I ever knew.
- This slide illustrates discussion about the “real” conflict shaping our future – I use the Eskom saga and the nationalisation debate to illustrate how an alliance of the most productive classes (the industrial working class and capital) is involved in a struggle with lumpen elements of the comprador bourgeoisie and ‘fugitives from justice’ over who gets to wield the state and to what ends
Absent from the slide itself are Zwelinzima Vavi and Bobby Godsell. 
Here they are wearing their respective hats as, in Vavi’s case, a leader of the industrial working class; and in Godsell’s case Chairman of Eskom (but more revealingly Chairman of the World Gold Council). They are up against the ANCYL and the Black Management Forum.
Here they are wearing their respective hats as, in Vavi’s case, a leader of the industrial working class; and in Godsell’s case Chairman of Eskom (but more revealingly Chairman of the World Gold Council). They are up against the ANCYL and the Black Management Forum.The costs of defeat and the prize of victory concern the fate of Eskom: will it be looted or will it be used as an engine of economic growth and job creation?
Nic Borain 