[R-G] Black Women South Africa's Most Unemployed + SA Wealth Gap Widening + Bankruptcy of the Israeli Left + Bethlehem Investment Conference

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

Ran Greenstein raises a question: "With changing organizational modes
of action, and the dropping of socialism and class struggle as guiding
principles, what is left of the anti-Zionist agenda and the colonial
model?" ("Zionism, Nationalism and Revolutionary Socialism: The
Radical Left and the Colonial Model in Israel/Palestine,"
<http://www.uj.ac.za/Portals/102/docs/seminar%20papers/Greenstein%202008%20Zionism.pdf>).
 Indeed, what's left?

It has become common among leftists to model Palestinian solidarity
activism on solidarity with anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa.
The socialist class-struggle-first model never really made great
progress among Jews or Arabs, and the national liberation model,
whether based on the idea of the Arab nation or the Palestinian
nation, has hit the dead end, so it is understandable that an
increasing number of Jewish and Palestinian leftists have turned to
the anti-apartheid struggle for inspiration.  After all, it succeeded
in ending de jure apartheid.

The analogy, however, has been often faulted on the grounds that Ran
criticizes it: "The current debate over the one-state solution, which
seeks to adopt a South African model of a unitary state that
incorporates all its citizens equally as individuals89, cannot become
meaningful in Israel/Palestine without coming to terms with its deeply
entrenched national identities. They cannot be wished away."

The model ought to be criticized first of all, though, on the grounds
that what it effected in the end is not decolonization but an elite
transition from racist Keynesianism to multicultural neoliberalism,
which not only has made most working people poorer but has even
aggravated racial economic inequality in South Africa.*  The same
vision of elite transition toward neoliberalism underlay the "peace
process."**  Whether the outcome is one state, two states, three
states, or whatever, if it reproduces and even aggravates economic
inequality between Jews and Palestinians, while making most of both
poorer, there probably will not be any peace in Israel/Palestine.

But the reality is even worse for Israelis and Palestinians than South
Africans: what they have is "socialism" for West Bank settlers, racist
neoliberalism for the rest, in a "Jewish state" from the sea to the
river.  That is the reality which most Arab ruling classes have
tacitly accepted, as exemplified by the Bethlehem Investment
Conference in May this year.*** -- Yoshie

* <http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jMnNHcIceR3wCwfY-OpMp8VI0afw>
Black women South Africa's most unemployed
Aug 28, 2008

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) — As one in nearly three black South African women
who are jobless, Sabatha Nyawo has pounded the streets of South
Africa's financial capital Johannesburg for two years in search of
work.

"Everyday I send applications to different companies to no avail,"
said the 32-year-old who graduated as a librarian five years ago but
has never worked in her chosen profession.

The mother of two last worked as a supermarket cashier. As a black
women she falls into a group that has an unemployment rate eight times
that of white men.

Labour figures released Thursday from South Africa's central
statistics arm showed a fractional dip overall in the unemployment
rate by 0.4 percent to 23.1 percent in the second quarter of 2008.

But while the number of workers rose slightly, the indicators point to
employment rates that remain racially skewed in favour of whites, the
minority group who ruled apartheid South Africa until 1994.

While joblessness among white South Africans is just 4.6 percent, it
affects 12.7 percent of Indians and 19.5 percent of mixed race or
coloureds.

Twenty-seven percent, or more than one in four, of black South
Africans aged between 15 and 64 years old are not working - a figure
that goes up to nearly one in every three for black women.

Professor Vasu Reddy said this was not surprising and explained that
the roots of the problem go back to the country's discriminatory past
when policies were actually aimed at suppressing the black majority.

"Even though we're 14 years into democracy, we still have the
historical legacy of economic imbalance whilst there is political
power," said the expert from the Human Sciences Research Council in
Pretoria.

Black women had the least access to economic and educational resources
and the least skills to allow them entry into broad economic
participation, Veddy added.

Kimani Ndungu, a senior researcher from the National Labour and
Economic Development Institute agreed: "For a long time women have
always been an the receiving end of the unemployment scourge."

In addition, the majority of unskilled black women did menial jobs in
the low paying informal sector, he added.

Analysts said the marginal decline in joblessness was no cause for
celebration as the country is currently battling with a shortage of
skills and slowing economic growth.

Additionally the overall increase of 100,000 workers in the second
quarter painted a "bleak future" for thousands of job seekers, Ndungu
said.

The government was unlikely to meet its target of reducing
unemployment rate to 14 percent by 2014, he added.

Russel Lamberti, an analyst with Econometrix, said: "The dip may be
small but it is an indication that we are still facing a big challenge
in terms of creating sustainable economic growth."

South Africa's annual rate of inflation, driven by higher costs for
power, food and transport rose to 13.4 percent in July, its highest
level since 2002, the statistics agency said Wednesday.

Chief economist with financial services company, Dawie Roodt, said any
improvement of the unemployment figures was welcome as South Africa
had experienced "very slim" economic growth in the past year.

The number of economically inactive persons rose by 67,000 from 12.8
million in first quarter of 2008 to 12.9 million.

Last month, a report by Organization for Economic Co-operation and
Development said South Africa's high unemployment was the "most
disappointing aspect of post-apartheid economic performance,
particularly for less-skilled younger blacks.

<http://www.fin24.com/articles/default/display_article.aspx?Nav=ns&ArticleID=1518-25_2258159>
SA wealth gap widening
Jan 24 2008 21:05

Cape Town - South Africa's wealth gap is widening and the average
black citizen still only earns an eighth of what his white counterpart
does nearly 14 years on from the end of apartheid, a new survey found
on Thursday.

In its annual survey, the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation
(IJR), said inequality rose from 0.60 in 2006 to 0.62 last year on a
zero to one scale, on which one represents absolute inequality.

"We are not succeeding in reducing inequality," IJR senior researcher
Jan Hofmeyr told AFP.

"Even if the increase is marginal, it is not a good sign. We need to
be moving in the opposite direction."

The institute's 2007 transformation audit found that the per capita
income of black South Africans was 13 percent of that of whites, 14
years after the end of the white minority apartheid government.

And women were feeling the pinch more and more, with the income of
female-headed households measured at 46.2% that of male-headed
households - down from 47.9% in 2006.

New ANC leader Jacob Zuma made the disparity between rich and poor one
of the main themes of his recent successful campaign to oust South
African president Thabo Mbeki from the helm of the ruling party.

** <http://www.alternativenews.org/news/english/the-primary-elections-of-the-kadima-party-and-the-bankruptcy-of-the-israeli-left-20080924.html>
The Primary Elections of the Kadima Party and the Bankruptcy of the
Israeli Left
Written by Sergio Yahni, Alternative Information Center (AIC)
Wednesday, 24 September 2008

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Since 1992, the peace process, which was accompanied by neoliberal
socioeconomic policies, substantially contributed to the growing
socioeconomic inequalities in the Palestinian and Israeli societies.
The combined effect of a peace discourse voided of any social
dimension, with neo-liberal policies that undermined social welfare
networks, made peace appear as a relevant concern only for the
wealthier population or individuals who had made unscrupulous gains
during the process. Impoverished and marginalized communities
developed resentments against the concept of peace and peace
organizations.

While the ruling socioeconomic elites in Israel benefited from the
peace process and its parallel economic growth, many Palestinians and
Israelis experienced accelerated impoverishment, a dismantlement of
the social welfare net and heightened social marginalization.

According to a report prepared by Dr. Shlomo Svisrky for the Adva
Center, only those already in Israel's top twenty economic percentiles
benefited economically during the era of peace while the remaining 80
percent of the population began to earn less.

<http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/business/news/article_1407175.php/Bethlehem_investment_conference_raises_1.4_billion_dollars_Fayyad>
Bethlehem investment conference raises 1.4 billion dollars: Fayyad
Business News
May 23, 2008, 12:19 GMT

Bethlehem, West Bank - A key international investment conference in
Bethlehem, aimed at boosting a Palestinian economy emerging from years
of violence, has raised 1.4 billion US dollars, Acting Palestinian
Prime Minister Salem Fayyad said Friday.

Participants at the conference agreed to invest some 650 million
dollars in a new mobile phone company, Watanya, which is to compete
with the only Palestinian mobile phone company currently operating in
the Palestinian autonomous areas - Jawal.

They also pledged to invest 530 million dollars in real estate, 100
million in industry, 65 million in Information Communications
Technology (ICT), 20 million in insurance and 12 million in food
processing, Fayyad told the closing session of the three-day
conference Friday.

Organizers had hoped to raise some 2 billion dollars, but they
nevertheless hailed the conference, planned in just three months, as a
success.

Over 1,300 businessmen, more than expected, attended, the vast
majority of them Arabs and Palestinians from abroad, but also
Europeans, Americans, Chinese, Japanese and others.

The results of another 46 meetings between Palestinian and foreign
businessmen on the sidelines of the conference, which could yield more
money, were not yet known, Fayyad pointed out.

<http://www.alternativenews.org/news/english/palestine-investment-conference-opens-in-bethlehem-20080522.html>
Palestine Investment Conference Opens in Bethlehem
Written by The Alternative Information Center (AIC)
Thursday, 22 May 2008

<http://www.alternativenews.org/news/english/economic-success-for-palestinians-requires-political-freedoms-and-full-territorial-sovereignty-20080525.html>
Economic Success for Palestinians Requires Political Freedoms and Full
Territorial Sovereignty
Written by Ahmad Jaradat and Sara Venturini, Alternative Information
Center (AIC)

<http://www.alternativenews.org/news/english/bethlehem-investment-conferencedevelopment-or-normalization-20080525.html>
Bethlehem Investment Conference:Development or Normalization?
Written by National BDS Steering Committee
Sunday, 25 May 2008