Sithembiso Bhengu
Chris Hani Institute (CHI), Johannesburg, South Africa
Email: sithembiso@chi.org.za
Abstract: The paper expands on research arguments from my PhD research (Wage Income, Migrant Labour and Livelihoods beyond the Rural-Urban Divide in Post-Apartheid South Africa: a case of Dunlop Durban factory workers), which examined workers, wages and livelihoods, beyond the rural-urban divide. It revisits Harold Wolpe’s ‘articulation of modes of production’ thesis, through which he theorised the relationship between production and reproduction of the capitalist regime of accumulation through cheap labour power in South Africa. From his seminal “Economy and Society” edition, Wolpe presented how the development of capitalist accumulation entailed bifurcation of productive and reproductive spheres of the economic system, which enabled mining and later industrial (manufacturing) capital to pay wages far below the costs of reproducing labour power, through relegating reproduction costs to workers’ households in the county side. In this manner, both the colonial and apartheid systems of migrant labour became social and political formations to create and enforce cheap labour power. My research at a tyre manufacturing factory in Durban show that while migrant labour and rural-urban linkages persist, Wolpe’s articulation thesis needs revisiting. While the vast majority of African industrial workers continue to maintain active rural-urban family networks, which they service through remittances and in-kind payments, the countryside no longer functions as the reproductive buffer zone, nor is it a source of readily available labour reserves. The paper argues for a rethinking of the articulation thesis in light of the aforementioned observations.
Keywords: Articulation Thesis; Cheap Labour Power; Social Reproduction; Rural-Urban Linkages; Post-Apartheid Accumulation.