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Accepted Contribution:
Immigrant farm workers, self-exploitation and social reproduction on redistributed land, South Africa
Mnqobi Ngubane
(University of Johannesburg)
I will present work that shows how land redistribution can deepen capitalism in new progressive ways, from below, fuelled by the labour power of classes of labour, as wage labour, and on the basis of self-exploitation for social reproduction, and accumulation from below.
Contribution long abstract:
Diverse social relations of production and reproduction in South African land reform seldom feature in pessimistic views about its impacts on farm labour. This work explores social relations of production, and reproduction on redistributed farmland by examining capital-wage relations, and the impact of land redistribution induced small-medium scale capitalist farming on the material base for social reproduction, and accumulation. The immigrant farm work phenomenon is engaged with, illuminating capital-wage relations, laying bare far-reaching social reproduction impacts of farm work, and access to land for petty commodity production by working class land beneficiaries via self-exploitation, and wage labour. Findings suggest that intensive labour absorption on recently subdivided small-medium scale farmland deepens capitalist relations in redistributive ways, widening the material base for social reproduction and accumulation from below. The paper ends with the Lesotho land question, the immigrant farm workers’ home country, and suggests reparative land restitution.