White Monopoly Capital

(6-minute read) – I know the evils of white monopoly capital. I spent years working on platinum mines in the Rustenburg area of South Africa learning how mine workers live. They suffer at the hands of white monopoly capital… and at the hands of black government corruption.

Often we hear people talk about one or the other; white monopoly capital or black government corruption. We attribute the problems of the country to one or the other. The government blames white monopoly capital. People with money blame black government corruption.

Two edges of a sword

Neither of these two forces can do much damage without the cooperation of the other. They are two edges of the same sword. And together they cut the heads off the general population of South Africa… and many other populations around the world.

It’s a caustic combination. Big business (capital) brings the money and gets whatever they want from corrupt government benefactors that care little for the people they are elected to govern. Total exploitation of the working class results.

A sword that dehumanises

Total exploitation means the working class is left completely dehumanised. Take the mine workers living in the settlements around the mine shafts on the outskirts of Rustenburg.

They don’t earn enough money from the mines to improve their living standards. Inadequate service delivery by government means they don’t have running water, electricity or ablutions. They don’t have land or solid dwellings. There’s nowhere to plant crops of rear livestock.

I would often ride through these areas on freight trains and be overwhelmed by the smell of human faeces. I saw how locals walking along the paths would simply step off the path into the long grass, and squat to relieve themselves. Every fence, every tree, every patch of earth is polluted with bags and papers and all sorts of solid waste. It’s difficult to spot an unspoiled square metre.

Ultra-rich… white?

The owners of the platinum mines, or the bankers unto whom they are beholden, are ultra-rich.

They are the white monopoly capital that I too despise as a middle-class white. It has nothing to do with racism. It just so happens that the mining money sits in white hands. But it could just as easily be black monopoly capital. It’s not the colour of the skin that is despicable. It is the greed and insensitivity of human nature.

Black people are just as prone to this greed and insensitivity as whites. Black government corruption is evidence of this fact. The fat-cat politicians that benefit from hand-outs and shady business deals are no less despicable than the old-money elites in London and New York. Exploitation doesn’t depend on skin colour. The whole problem is about human nature… not black or white human nature.

The unholy alliance between white monopoly capital and black government corruption is the scourge of Africa. They have worked their wicked alchemy wherever there are resources to be stolen from original people… not just in Africa.

The sword is everywhere

My personal experience is limited to Africa. I have seen the wealthy Mozambican politicians and business monopolies who benefit from coking coal mines to the detriment of the working class in that country.

I have seen the ongoing strife in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Mining houses there manipulate the system to get copper and rare earth metals out of the ground with as little reward for the local people as possible. The documentary “When Elephants Fight” exposes the situation in that country brilliantly. It mentions the protagonists by name. Representing white monopoly capital we have the Israeli billionaire mining magnate Dan Gertler. And in black government corruption’s corner, we have Mister Gertler’s friend Joseph Kabila, who happens to be the President of the country. How convenient. Together they have sailed the people of the DRC down a river without a paddle.

The case of the DRC makes a brilliant documentary. But it is by no means unique. One could do ten or twenty documentaries just like it on the African continent.

Politicians’ spin

Unfortunately in South Africa, our politicians use the term white monopoly capital to sew division and to garner votes from the black constituency. They tow racial lines to win votes. The tactic is nothing new in South Africa. The National Party played the same tricks with ‘die swart gevaar’ (the black danger) and ‘die rooi gevaar’ (the red danger – referring to communism).

The tactic is nothing new throughout the world of politics and power mongering. It’s a shrewd technique of using our most obvious differences against us to divide and conquer. Government can keep power and the alliance with business can continue to reap benefits for all the lucky few.

Divide and conquer tactics must fall

We should not fall for divide and conquer tactics any longer. The problem is not about black and white. It is about the wicked alliance of oppressors versus the dispossessed and exploited majority of the world’s population. More precisely, it is about a macro-economic system. It is not about individuals.

We who seek to be connected and peaceful should be aware that the enemy is not within our ranks. The enemy is not in any person per se. The enemy is greed and hate wherever it rears its head. We should identify these tendencies and seek to root them out by walking an alternative path. We should go about our mission with peace, focussing on the problem not the person who we perceive to be delivering the problem.

Ultimately we are all humans and we are all subject to fall for the same evils of greed and hatred. I have no doubt that the vast majority of us would partake in the spoils if we were in the camp of white monopoly capital or black government corruption. We all have the same tainted human nature.

And yet paradoxically we all have the same glorious potential to be free of the temptations of these earthly lures. It is this potential we should tap into to halt the exploitation of people by the unholy alliance of money and political power.