The Impact of Liquor Act on the Working Class
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THE IMPACT OF LIQUOR ON THE WORKING CLASS (WITH PARTICULAR FOCUS ON THE WESTERN CAPE). THE IMPLICATIONS OF THE STRUCTURE OF THE LIQUOR INDUSTRY AND THE ROLE OF THE STATE IN THIS REGARD BY WILFRIED SCHXRF University of Cape Town Thesis submitted to fulfil the requirements for the Degree M. Soc. Sci. (Criminology) University of Cape Town BUT October 19 8 L', 364 SCHA The University of Cape Town h:>s been given the right to re.produce this thesis In whole ._________________________ ___ or In part. Copyright is held lily the author . The copyright of this thesis vests in the author. No quotation from it or information derived from it is to be published without full acknowledgement of the source. The thesis is to be used for private study or non- commercial research purposes only. Published by the University of Cape Town (UCT) in terms of the non-exclusive license granted to UCT by the author. University of Cape Town CONTENTS Acknowledgements: i Abstract: ii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION A: INTRODUCTION 1 - 6 B: LITERATURE REVIEW AND METHODOLOGY 6 - 23 CHAPTER 2: HISTORICAL BACKGROUND A: INTRODUCTION 24 - 25 B: PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION UNDER V 0 C RULE 25 - 26 C: FROM BRITISH ANNEXATION TO THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY 26 - 29 D: ABOLITION OF SLAVERY TO COBDEN TREATIES 29 - 32 E: COBDEN TREATIES TO UNION 32 36 F: UNION AND AFTER 36 - 42 CHAPTER 3: LIQUOR DISTRIBUTION AND ITS IMPACT ON THE WORKING CLASS A: INTRODUCTION 43 - 45 B: LIQUOR DISTRIBUTION TO URBAN BLACKS 45 58 C: THE SOWETO UPRISINGS AND SHEBEEN LEGALISATION 58 - 64 - D: CONCLUSION 64 - 65 CHAPTER 4: LIQUOR DISTRIBUTION AND ITS IMPACT ON THE WORKING CLASS - A: INTRODUCTION 66 67 B: LEGAL LIQUOR DISTRIBUTION IN 'COLOURED' AREAS 67 - 72 ---- c: ILLEGAL DISTRIBUTION IN 'COLOURED' AREAS 72 - 77 ( i ) Background to Shebeens in the Western Cape 78 - 79 (ii) Shebeens and Liquor Capital 80 - 84 (iii) Shebeens and Street Gangs 84 - 111 (iv) Shebeens and the Community 111 - 130 ( v) Shebeens and the Police 130 - 143 D: CONCLUSION 143 - 148 CHAPTER 5: THE REPRODUCTION OF AGRICULTURAL LABOUR AND THE TOT SYSTEM A: INTRODUCTION 149 - 155 B: LABOUR SUPPLY, MOBILITY AND THE TOT 155 - 166 C: SKILLING AND THE TOT SYSTEM 166 - 180 D: COERCIVE MANAGEMENT, CRIMINALISATION, AND LABOUR'S RESPONSE (i) Coercive Management 180 - 184 ( ii) 'Criminalisation' 184 - 191 (iii) Labour's Response 191 - 204 E: CCNCLUSION 204 - 206 - CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION 207 - 215 APPENDIX I DETAILS OF INTERVIEWS CONDUCTED FOR AGRI CULTURAL SECTION 216 APPENDIX II DETAILS OF INTERVIEWS CONDUCTED FOR AGRI CULTURAL SECTION 217 FOOTNOTES 218 - 255 BIBLIOGRAPHY 256 - 276 INDEX OF TABLES TABLE TITLE PAGE NO. A Proportion of Black and Coloured regular Male Labourers on ten Stellenbosch/Somerset-West Farms, 1983. 159 B Age, Length of Residence and Length of Employment on a Stellenbosch-Area Wine Farm, July 1983. 162 c Formal Qualifications and Actual Ability of Tractor/Truck Drivers on Four Farms in Stellenbosch/Somerset West Area. 169 D Percentage of Offspring Affected by Foetal Alcohol Syndrome. 173 E Drinking Profiles of Women on a Select Wine-Farm Stellenbosch Area. 174 F Male Drinking Patterns. 252 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to express my sincere thanks to the following people, who each in their own way, contributed to this thesis. Don and Patch Pinnock, Venetia Lorenzo, Ingrid Averbach, Professor Dirk Van Zyl Smit, Mana Slabbert, Christine Glover, Michael Maughan-Brown, May Isakow, Liz Offen, Di Sandler, Denis Davis, Dr Nigel Worden, Linda Wedepohl, Sally Creed, Nigel Daly, Debbie Robinson. A special word of thanks goes to all the friends on the farms who risked so much by merely talking to me. To the 'lai ties' in Elsies River, who taught me so much about life, "Salut". ii ABSTRACT This thesis examines the role liquor has played in shaping both the rural and the urban 1 Coloured 1 working class in the Western Cape. The dramatic events during the 1976 Soweto uprisings and the subsequent blatant and dramatic restructuring conveniently illustrate the complex interplay between the interests of liquor capital, the State, and the urban Black workforce. Furthermore it exposed the blatancy with which liquor consumption was manipulated by the State to reproduce the work-force to the needs of capital in general. The Decriminalisation of shebeens, and the withdrawal of the State from overt liquor distribution, is seen as an attempt at co-optive strategies by which class stratification among urban Blacks is accellerated. A historical examination of the relationship between primary liquor capital (the winefarmers) and the State creates the context within which the contemporary role of liquor is explored. The power and influence of primary liquor capital has resulted in perennial over-production which of necessity had to be distributed through illicit channels. By a process of selective enforcement of liquor laws, the State has colluded with liquor capital to enable continued accumulation to take place. At the same time this process co-opts the illicit distributors, the shebeeners of the Cape Flats, into an uneasy alliance in terms of which they assist in controlling the urban working class. In the rural context, the tot system forms part of coercive management, by which the agricultural labour force is kept underdeveloped, dependent, and both spatially and occupationally immobile. The processes of informal criminalisation and recriminalisation augment the control over the labour force achieved by the institutionalised administration of liquor. 1 CHAPTER 1 A INTRODUCTION During the uprisings of 1976, over 250 state-run liquor outlets in Black townships over the entire• country were destroyed! This action on the part of the working class showed that they recognised and rejected the part which the system of liquor distribution played in their oppression. It left the State, found with the extent of the destruction and the danger of its recurrence, no real alternative but to institute some fundamental change in this particular section of the overall system of racial capitalism. The State was called upon to respond. However, the re3ponse which it produced was in appearance at least, highly contradictory: * It supported moves towards greater centralisation and control (and less competition) in production and distribution of liquor. * At the same time it passed the Competitions Act of 19 7 9 with the apparent intention of preventing just such centralisation.2 * It sold its liquor outlets in Black townships to Black entrepreneurs? * It legalised shebeens in Black townships. * At the same time it launched, through the Department of Health, the National Plan to combat overconsumption, incorporating all organisations and institutions which could possibly exercise 2 an influence over drinking behaviour! It is the intention of this thesis to argue that this apparently contradictory sequence of events was a manifestation of far deeper contradictions which have characterised the production, distribution and consumption of liquor from the beginning of the Colonial State in South Africa. These contradictions are based on the following postulates: * Liquor producers and distributors, like all other producers aim to expand their markets as much as possible. For particular historical reasons, which will be detailed below, the grape farmers and wine producers constitute a particularly powerful political pressure group with exceptional influence on the State. This influence they have consistently used to promote market expansion. * Wine farmers, like some other producers, rely heavily for their profits on very cheap and docile labour. This has traditionally been obtained by the strategy of paying part of their labourers' wages in cheap surplus wine. Not only does this directly reduce the costs of labour, it also serves to induce alcohol dependence in the workforce. The workforce is thus made more manageable and less mobile; furthermore it helps reproduce the labour-force in the form most useful to the farmers. * Certain other producers share the winefarrners need for imrnobi le and docile workers, 5 but do not share in their desire to expand markets for liquor. * Other sections of capital increasingly require 3 highly productive, reliable labour to operate more sophisticated machinery. For them overconsumption of liquor by their workers is a costly and destabilising nuisance. * Whether this directly relates to the lastmentioned group or not, there is a number of religious/philanthropic pressure groups which have consistently fought to reduce the consumption of liquor by the working class since it is in conflict with the ideological framework characterised by the "Protestant work ethic". While these particular contradictions are peculiar to the issue of liquor, it is argued that they are also specific manifestations of general contradictions which constantly operate within the system of racial capitalism. It is also argued that the role of the State in society is to attempt constantly to lessen the disruptive effects of such contradictions with the goal of maintaining the overall smooth functioning of the system. Thus it could be expected that the reaction of the State following the 1976 uprisings would be an attempt to control the disruptive effects of the contradictions specific to liquor while at the same time using the specific terrain of the liquor dispensation, if not to address deeper contradictions, at least not to aggravate them. The thesis will explore and test this expectation particularly through an examination of the spheres of enactment and enforcement of legislation. The steps by which this will be done, which are reflected in the chapters of the thesis are as follows: 4 1) History A brief historical section (Chapter 2) will review the major trends and a few particularly significant occurrances in the development of the liquor industry since its inception. Particular attention will be paid to the legal and law enforcement issues. The section will show the development of the contradictions to the point of the crisis of 1976, indicating the various actors and their respective influences.