Out now! Issue Number 2 of Namibia‟s proletarian newsletter The Worker.

This issue includes material relating to the attacks on the WRP’s position in the Parliament.

[threecolumns]The Workers Revolutionary Party of Namibia (a section of the Workers International to Rebuild the Fourth International) is registered as a parliamentary party with long-standing member Hewat Beukes as its official responsible officer. In November 2014 the WRP took part in the Assembly (government) elections and won two seats.
However they faced problems immediately when parliamentary officials tried to insert a certain Willem Beukes as one of their MPs, whereas under Namibian law it is for each party itself to name its MPs. This being the case officialdom was obliged to back down. But this did not end the threats, interference, intimidation and harassment of the WRP.

The aim of the SWAPO (South West African People’s Organisation) government is to silence effective opposition to their state-assisted looting of the country’s assets and natural resources. Therefore they are deeply opposed to the policies which the WRP wants to pursue in Parliament. These were detailed in the maiden speeches of the two MPs explaining that “we use parliament to advance the demands of the working class including the poor peasantry”. (NOTE: these two speeches are published in full in Workers International Journal no. 12, May 2015: web: workersinternational.info).

In cahoots with officials of the Namibian parliament, disgruntled, opportunist and politically backward elements are now attempting to close down the legally registered party and its responsible officer. These elements with craven respect for the “powers that be” are goaded on by unprincipled figures such as the well-known lay-lawyer Auguste Maletzky, who in text messages on 8 and 9 May denounced SWAPO and its leaders Sam and Utoni Nujoma in gutter language, but on 10 May, hand-in-glove with SWAPO officials, denounced the leader of the WRP saying: “You [Hewat Beukes] are not the leader of the WRP! And we shall prove it to you”.

With hopes of personal gain involving the funding available for a parliamentary office and parliamentary duties, these people organised a raid on the family home of Hewat and Erica Beukes (one participant brandishing a gun!). They held a “congress” on Sunday 17 May at a luxury Hotel in Windhoek not far – but a world away – from the great mass of tin huts in the city’s suburbs, and then on Monday 18 May a journalist from Republikein newspaper informed Hewat Beukes that the paper had received a press statement from Maletzky stating that this “congress” had “elected” new leaders of the WRP and carried out expulsions!

For over three decades and with huge personal tragedy, the leaders of the WRP in Namibia have stood with the workers, poor farmers and oppressed ethnic groups in their country;
• first in the struggle against apartheid,
• then against “liberation” leaders who held back the struggle, exploited and abused genuine freedom fighters and murdered them, delivered them over to apartheid forces, imprisoned them in holes in the ground and tortured them
• then – against a corrupt regime brought in by an unholy alliance of the USSR, western imperialist business interests and western governments – fought for over two decades against exploitation, legal chicanery and attempted class violence on the part of the new SWAPO state.

This is the principled and recognised leadership of the Workers Revolutionary Party of Namibia who dare to organise and speak out. It is therefore easy to see why the authorities urgently need to frustrate the wishes of the 13,328 Namibians who voted for the WRP. Under pressure and in public the SWAPO government is hoping to assuage opposition by “admitting” it has made “mistakes” and it will now work hard to do better, but behind the scenes SWAPO is fuelling attacks on the opposition – the WRP.

The “International Updated Report” from the WRP Namibia details the behind-the-scenes alliance between parliamentary officials of the SWAPO regime (the Speaker of Parliament and the Secretary of the National Assembly) with this group which hopes to “dismantle the Workers Revolutionary Party and set up a surrogate” (http://workersinternational.info/2015/05/international-report-from-wrp-namibia/).

We are now calling upon all socialists and upholders of democratic rights to defend the WRP of Namibia. The following questions are being put to the Speaker of the Namibian Assembly:
• On what legal basis does he disregard due communications by the WRP’s statutorily authorized representative?
• On what legal basis does he communicate with unauthorized persons?
• On what basis does he accept illegal communications (without the registered logo, name, address, authorized rep) which constitute criminal offences?
• On what legal basis does he suspend payment and offices?

We in the Workers International have spent our lives facing down attempts to bully and intimidate us, and we do not take such threats lightly. We will take all necessary steps to stop any intimidation. The WRP Namibia has over many years of struggle established a real alliance with the many oppressed and exploited sectors in the country:
• ethnic groups struggling to maintain their lands against sell-off to foreign business interests, and for a fair share of the reparations from the former colonial power;
• home-owners who are unconstitutionally foreclosed;
• miners and civil servants and others robbed of their pensions;
• workers struggling for a living wage.

The WRP Namibia has made considerable progress over the last couple of years. The party may suffer setbacks and blows orchestrated by the SWAPO regime manipulating opportunists who follow individual and sectional agendas. Such people have no confidence in the way forward involving the working class and poor farmers acting in their own class interests. But the WRP is a section of the Workers International to Rebuild the Fourth International, and that body is precisely based on such confidence, not just in Namibia but all over the world.

So we will support each other in resisting and overcoming all such setbacks along the road of rebuilding the international leadership of the working class. We ask all those who have the interests of the working class at heart
1. To protest at these attempts to stifle and silence the WRP of Namibia.
Protests can be sent to:
j.jacobs@parliament.na and
parliament@parliament.gov.na

2. Contact the WRP Namibia (at PO Box 3349 Windhoek, tel 061-260647, or email jacobusjosob@ymail.com) to express your support and solidarity and if possible arrange to donate to the comrades’ fighting fund. Donations to the Workers International account: Account name: “Correspondence”, Unity Trust Bank, Sort Code: 08-60-01, Account number: 20059400
[/threecolumns]

An investigation into the operations of a strike force set up by one August Maletzky, Harry Boesak, Willem Beukes, and Benson Kaapala in cooperation with the Speaker of Parliament and the Secretary of the National Assembly to dismantle the Workers Revolutionary Party and set up a surrogate has produced the following insight:

The Speaker and the Secretary as far back as 8 May 2015 went into verbal and written communications with the said group regarding efforts to dismantle the WRP and to set up an organization with the same name.

On 9 May 2015 the group sent a group to a WRP Politbureau meeting at the house of Hewat and Erica Beukes where one of them threatened to shoot Cds Jacobus Josob and Sageus Tjihenuna, and anyone who worked with Hewat Beukes. He had to be restrained and dragged out of the house where he continued his threats both physical and politically. Most of the group were unknown lumpent elements.

The seriousness of these threats became only clear when it came to light that this group was operating under the direction of the Speaker, Professor Peter Katjavivi, Secretary Jakes Jacobs, a magistrate Oupa Britz, August Maletzky and Harry Boesak.

This group scheduled a meeting at the Safari Motel for 17 May 2015 for a meeting with persons to come from all over the country. The meeting alone will cost at least R60,000.00.

The following extracts from August Maletzky’s email and cell phone messages which he sent around regarding his new masters and afterwards his tirades and threats carried to practicality by his operatives against Hewat Beukes shows clearly to what extent and lengths the Speaker, Professor Peter Katijavivi would go to connive against the WRP.

It is a statement of character spanning the entire exile era.

Maletzky used the crudest and the most uncouth language against the Professor’s party associates, but he does not wince for a second. Maletzky upon agreements turns right around and directs his total and absolute lack of culture against Hewat Beukes without a murmur from the Learned Professor.

The crude swearing of Maletzky constitutes crimen injuria, but our lawmaker has no qualms to associate himself.

The fact that he uses legitimate objections against the SWAPO whilst having no qualms to make a 180 degree turn-around shows the unprincipled character of the person.

Hewat Beukes you called me an inveterate criminal, and apologized after I compelled your sorry ass to. Well, Hewat Beukes, your sorry ass days are numbered. Do the right thing now, face the inevitable consequences. Freaken fool, thank your stars for having your teeth intact. Your dream is about to be shattered. Hungry Poes.. August Maletzky 08/05/15 20:04

August Galax8 May at 11:43 The Truth will always prevail….Swapo’s betrayal of their own freedom fighters disclosed by non other than Mihe Gaomab. They, Swapo, are a disgrace and an insult to humanity. That is why they like parasites, survive by rigging elections!

We call on our members and our international comrades to support us in our struggle against the perverse and contemptible methods used by the Namibian Parliament to threaten the lives of our leaders, destroy the WRP and deny the Namibian electorate the right to elect their own representatives. We call on them to make their aversion to this perversion of Universal Franchise known to the world and the Namibian Parliament.

The bourgeoisie backslap and award these anti-democrats for sending the Namibian Nation deeper into the abyss. These are crucial actions by the imperialists to legitimize their surrogates.

Kindly make the contrary statement.

We call on our members and our international comrades to support us materially and financially to mobilise our defence against this vicious enemy and to exercise the right to build our party.

We assure you that nothing will deter us!

Signed: Hewat Beukes,Authorised representative
WORKERS REVOLUTIONARY PARTY TO REBUILD THE FOURTH INTERNATIONAL
P.O. Box 3349 Windhoek Fax: 088641065 Tel: 061-260647 jacobusjosob@ymail.com 15 May 2015

In this special supplement of The Journal we publish the full text of the “True State of the Nation Address” issued by the United Front in South Africa on 11 February 2015, the 25th anniversary of Nelson Mandela’s release from prison.

THE UNITED FRONT was initiated by the National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa(NUMSA). We believe that this statement is of special interest to the People’s Assembly in Britain and people standing up for socialism all over the world.

NUMSA explained that for them the massacre of the Marikana miners “marked a turning point in the social and political life of South Africa”. It could not be “business as usual”. They put the question: “How do we explain the killing of striking miners in a democracy?” They had to conduct “a sustained and thorough analysis of the political meaning of Marikana”.

The leadership concluded that the decisions of the union’s ninth Congress “were no longer enough to guide [them]. The situation had changed to a point where [they] needed a new mandate from the membership”, and their Special Congress in December 2013 decided to break with the African National Congress (ANC) and the South African Communist Party (SACP) and call upon the Confederation of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) to re-establish its independent campaigning role, for “there is no priority more important than safeguarding the capacity of the working class to act in its own interests”.

In so doing NUMSA raised matters of vital importance for workers everywhere “engulfed by the crisis of capitalism which manifests itself in mass unemployment, deepening poverty and widening inequalities”. To end the rule of capital, workers are faced with the task of breaking with fake “socialist” and “communist” parties acting on behalf of the capitalist class and “failing to act as the vanguard of the working class”.

The Special Congress therefore decided on a new united front to coordinate the struggles in the workplace and in communities, to explore the establishment of a Movement for Socialism and to conduct a “thoroughgoing discussion on previous attempts to build socialism as well as current experiments to build socialism” and “an international study on the historical formation of working class parties”.

Letter:
to Mr. Charles Lobodell, Political Officer, American Embassy, Windhoek, re: Meeting 10 December 2014

Dear Sir,
You have requested a meeting with me to discuss:

• Our position on the election.
• Our programme for the next 5 years in parliament.

We have delegated Mrs Erica Beukes, Jacobus Josob and our two parliamentarians to meet with you on Thursday, 14:00, 11 December 2014. As indicated I will not be able to attend.

Our delegation is to discuss the following concerns.

In 1976 Dr Henry Kissinger on behalf of the American Government requested Sam Nujoma to get rid of the “radicals” in SWAPO. The “radicals” were SWAPO Youth League and PLAN fighters who were demanding a stop to the corruption of the SWAPO leadership and a Congress to call the leadership to order and chart out a political programme centred on self-determination. This leadership were using warehouses of weapons, food, clothing, medicine and general provisions as their wholesalers while PLAN fighters were dying of hunger in the camps.

They were also opposing the Sole and Authentic Representative status of SWAPO bestowed on it by the United Nations Organisation. The SWAPO leadership was tribal and did not represent the Namibian Nation.

Dr Kissinger also had talks with President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia.

Shortly thereafter the Zambian Army rounded up the Plan and Youth League members and started killing them. The survivors were kept at Mbaroma Camp in Zambia.

As a result of the Kissinger initiative, SWAPO in 1978 started building 3 metre deep dungeons in which it threw hundreds of SWAPO members culling them regularly by firing squad and hurling some of them from a mountain cliff in Southern Angola. Thousands died in this manner until 1989.

Three days before the Cassinga massacre the SWAPO leadership ordered the Mbaroma Camp inmates to be dressed in army fatigues and brought to Cassinga in southern Angola to be massacred on 4 May 1978.

Sam Nujoma during this reign of terror caused the 11-year old son of Martha Ford (néé Beukes) to be killed as reprisal for her criticism of their treacherous politics and sexual abuse of young girls. Mrs Ford was a member of the Politbureau.

The ultimate consequence of this was that the issues of self-determination and civilization was deferred to today. We now sit with a cleptocracy which ravages the country and its people like a swarm of locusts.

Our delegation will also inform you of the electoral fraud which has become endemic in this country. The very sovereignty of the country has been shown to be void with the Indian voting machines. This has been declared “free and fair” by the European Union while the German Supreme Court has declared voting machines to be intransparent and open to fraud. Even Universal Franchise has been assailed and nullified.

Our concern is that the Kissinger Initiative put an indelible question mark on your invitation. We cannot be blamed for suspecting that this may be the beginning of American intervention in Namibian affairs which bodes ill for Namibia, ourselves and our party.

If that is the case, we demand that you desist from continuing the Kissinger initiative.

We write this letter for the historical record, the laws of which are stronger than any power.

Hewat Beukes, Authorised Representative.

[threecolumns]Workers Revolutionary Party to Rebuild the Fourth International is a member of the Workers International for the Rebuilding of the Fourth International.

Its leadership emanated from the liberation struggle of Namibia and were part of the socialists in the SWAPO Youth League, which in 1976 unsuccessfully challenged the SWAPO Leadership for all-encompassing corruption and imperialist collaboration due to imperialist intervention.

In 1984 we started building our party clandestinely and stood in the forefront of the struggle against the terror campaign and mass killings of SWAPO members by the SWAPO leadership in exile in Angola and Zambia.

In 1988 our party called out the mass protests of 4 May 1988 against South Africa just prior to independence obtained in 1989.

Since 1990 we have fought on all fronts on issues wracking the working class and the colonial status quo maintained by the colonial ruling classes through a caretaker boss-boy SWAPO regime.

We dealt with trade union issues, the homeless, the landless and workers who were in struggle over the past 24 years.

We participated in elections to articulate a workers programme and self-determination for national groups.

We did not stand in the 2009 elections due to our work with mass workers groups such as the TCL miners whose pensions were stolen, teachers who were being pauperized, fuel workers who were being brutalized, the Truth and Justice Committee seeking historical restitution of history and the landless whom the regime sought to bulldoze after they had taken their land by themselves.

We took part in the 28 November 2014 general elections, incorporating former soldiers of South Africa who were forcefully conscripted during the colonial era and whose pensions were stolen by the SWAPO regime, and won two seats in the National Assembly to the consternation of the bourgeoisie.

The media speculate on how a party which has not made one rally or campaigned could obtain such a high number of votes and for that matter a communist party.

Our votes varied between 1.5 and 2% over this vast country (1,600 km north to south, from central Namibia to north west 1,600 km, east to west 800 km.)

Our votes came mostly from organized groups and from supporters of our work over 24 years.

(We plan to produce a fuller report on the Namibian election campaign and results in the next issue of Workers’ International Press – Editor)[/threecolumns]

[threecolumns]WORKERS REVOLUTIONARY PARTY TO REBUILD THE FOURTH INTERNATIONAL

P.O. Box 3349 Windhoek Fax: 088641065 Tel: 061-260647 jacobusjosob@ymail.com

14 December 2014

INTERNATIONAL APPEAL

Our party is a member of the Workers International for the Rebuilding of the Fourth International. Its leadership emanated from the liberation struggle of Namibia and were part of the socialists in the SWAPO Youth League, which in 1976 unsuccessfully challenged the SWAPO Leadership for all-encompassing corruption and imperialist collaboration due to imperialist intervention.

In 1984 we started building our party clandestinely and stood in the forefront of the struggle against the terror campaign and mass killings of SWAPO members by the SWAPO leadership in exile in Angola and Zambia. In 1988 our party called out the mass protests of 4 May 1988 against South Africa just prior to independence obtained in 1989.

Since 1990 we fought on all fronts on issues wracking the working class and the colonial status quo maintained by the colonial ruling classes through a caretaker boss-boy SWAPO regime.

We dealt with trade union issues, the homeless, the landless and workers who were in struggle over the past 24 years. We participated in elections to articulate a workers program and self-determination for national groups.

We did not stand in the 2009 elections due to our work with mass workers groups such as the TCL miners whose pensions were stolen, teachers who were being pauperized, fuel workers who were being brutalized, the Truth and Justice Committee seeking historical restitution of history, landless whom the regime sought to bulldoze after they had taken their land by themselves.

We took part in the 28 November 2014 general elections, incorporating former soldiers of South Africa who were forcefully conscripted during the colonial era and whose pensions were stolen by the SWAPO regime, and won two seats in the National Assembly to the consternation of the bourgeoisie.

The media speculate on how a party which have not made one rally or campaigned could obtain such high number of votes and for that matter a communist party.

Our votes vary between 1.5 and 2% over this vast country (1,600 km north to south, from central Namibia to north west 1,600 km, east to west 800 km.)

Our votes came mostly from organized groups and from supporters of our work over 24 years.

Unlike the bourgeois parties we immediately establish contact with our voters and supporters to organize and to consult.

The Workers International supported us financially with their support crucial to our success over this vast country.

We now face a problem with a shortage of funds for follow-up work which is crucial for consolidation. We herewith appeal internationally for further support of at least one-thousand British pounds to sustain our work.

We further need to put out our own paper “The Worker” nationally to counteract the incessant attacks by the bourgeois media which seeks to portray us as unrealistic and misrepresent us.

We need to bring our true history to the regions through our branches and we are now in a position to take the next step to join the United Front with the NUMSA in South Africa.

At the moment there is no way in which we can meet the costs for this work ourselves until we have established proper organization.

You can donate to the following bank directly:

• Bank of Scotland
• Miss Eva-Panduleni Beukes
• Sort: 80-45-13
• Account No: 10164363

or send cheques made out to EP Beukes to PO Box 68375, London E7 7DT

Hewat Beukes,

Leader.[/threecolumns]

[threecolumns]

WORKERS REVOLUTIONARY PARTY TO REBUILD THE FOURTH INTERNATIONALP.O. Box 3349 Windhoek Fax: 088641065 Tel: 061-260647 jacobusjosob@ymail.com

Introduction

We are using the 2014 elections to propagate the following enlightenment for the working people of this country:

On 13 November 1970, the Namibian nation called together the National Convention at Rehoboth where national groups were represented by their respective leaders including the SWANU and SWAPO. It was to be a united front for the liberation of Namibia from South Africa. In January 1971 the UNO declared – SWAPO a tribal organization – the Sole and Authentic Representative of the Namibian People, thereby rendering void the right to self-determination of the Namibian People.

The UNO subsequently revoked the representative status of the leaders of the different national groups and thus opened the way for the South African sponsored Turnhalle Conference in 1975 and the Conscription Act in 1977.

We the present leaders of the WRP – then leaders of the Youth League – with others led the Anti-Conscription movement, which was opposed by the SWAPO leadership in exile.

The Anti-Conscription movement led to mutiny within the SWATF and soldiers who escaped fled into exile to Angola and Zambia where they were forced to confess to being spies and all of them were killed.

In 1982 the “Five Western Powers” with South Africa and the UNO agreed to so-called National Reconciliation in which the South African sponsored parties would reconcile to leave the colonial economic situation as is.

SWAPO willingly reconciled with the colonial ruling classes, but seized N$36 million of the SWATF/KOEVOET pension. These soldiers were demobilized and immediately became victim of Labour Hire and dire exploitation as part of the lower working classes.

The SWAPO leaders now use their phony liberation status to refuse to give back the stolen pensions.

The SWATF/KOEVOET represent in every respect the plight of the working classes of Namibia.

For this reason, we the WRP have integrated this group of soldiers to give them the respectable political home which they deserve.

Our election campaign is based on the following:

1. We, the WRP, go to Parliament to speak over the heads of the bourgeois parliament, to the masses of the people. We have no regard for the Namibian Parliament as it is an institution of capitalism and in a backward country like this it takes absurd forms in which it is a mere rubber stamp for legislation and decisions of the big corporations and the banks. We cannot speak of taking over parliament as the elections have already been rigged with inaccessible electronic voting machines made in India.
2. We are using these elections to advance the demands of the working class including the poor peasantry and in particular the demands of the SWATF/KOEVOET families and relatives, in relation to stolen pensions, loss of income and losses in general through economic sanctions, marginalization, victimization and discrimination, landlessness and homelessness.
3. We will articulate and support the demands of the Herero and Nama people for War reparations for Genocide (1904-8) from the German State.
4. We will put forward the seizure of our Natural Resources to enable us to fund the upliftment of the working class and poor peasantry in general and the neglected SWATF/KOEVOET soldiers in particular.
5. We will put forward the immediate cessation of the wanton sale of our natural resources through Exploration Licenses (EPL’s) with seizure of it without compensation, to enable us to fund the upliftment of the working class and poor peasantry.
6. The demands of the SWATF/KOEVOET will also highlight the demands of the working class in general.
7. We will further advance the demand for basic needs of the working class families to be provided and subsidized by the government on the first tier level (Municipalities), housing, water and electricity, public transport, clinics, kindergartens, sport and recreation facilities, etc to be brought to the people.
8. We will advance taxation for excesses and demand living wages tied to the rate of inflation (and not minimum wages).
9. We will demand land to the landless and subsidies for the upliftment of the poor peasantry.
10. We commit ourselves to rebuild the 4th International with the world’s working classes, the subregional working classes of Angola, Zimabwe, Zambia and in particular South Africa with which we share a common political history.
    Hewat Beukes
    Authorised Representative.[/threecolumns]

[threecolumns]

HEWAT BEUKES, a leader of Workers International, previously a member of the South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO) Youth League and now in opposition to the Namibian SWAPO government, interviewed TANGENI NUUKUAWO, a leader of the 1971-72 general strike and also formerly a member of the SWAPO Youth League. This is an extract from the book “Movement for Socialism”

In the first chapter of “Trade Union Struggles for Freedom in South Africa” (page 43 in this book) there is a reference to the 1971-72 general strike in Namibia (then South West Africa) being a prelude to the strike wave in Durban in 1973. The Namibian strike also profoundly affected the freedom movement when 4,000 youth joined the South West African People’s Organisation (SWAPO) in exile.

The South West African Native Labour Association (SWANLA) was formed in 1943 by the South Africa colonial government for the purpose of herding workers from the north of Namibia to work in the mines in the south.

Under the so-called contract system, workers were gathered together in Ondangua and then driven down to Grootfontein where their assigned bosses would collect them. The compulsory contract was for 18 months. Over time the entire commercial, small industrial, mining and agricultural sectors would be fed by contract labour.
Tangeni experienced this himself and remembers his father who was a labourer in Walvis Bay. He was employed on compulsory 18-month contracts, during which time he could not come home and his wife was not allowed to visit him. Tangeni obtained a permit to visit his father in the compound, but for only one hour at lunchtime.
The beds were concrete slabs protruding from the wall, one on top of the other. Rooms were small for two to four occupants, but during the return of seasonal workers these were overcrowded. The food was the same day after day for 18 months; lunch consisted of porridge with either meat or fish relish, and breakfast consisted of brown bread with jam.
It was slave conditions, performing back-breaking labour without sitting down for more than eight hours a day. Workers developed back problems and illnesses arising from the unsanitary conditions. If you became sick you lost your job.

Many Angolans were contracted. They were much cheaper than the Namibians. Mostly illiterate, they suffered even worse abuse and exploitation. Many lost their lives due to being killed on farms with no relatives to enquire and question their whereabouts. They were slaughtered.
The inhuman conditions built up frustration and resentment to breaking point amongst the vast number of workers housed in large compounds especially in the urban areas, and in 1971 the anger boiled over into a general strike which started on 13 December 1971 and ended on 20 January 1972.
The organisation was underground with the leaders explaining to the workers concentrated in the compounds that their situation could only be changed through political struggle. They needed to overthrow the system. They demanded amongst others:
• the right to free movement;
•better wages and better conditions of work;
• the pass book to be replaced by an I.D.;
• the right to negotiate for pay and to choose their own employers.
However, finally the only change brought about by the strike was the shortening to six months of the compulsory period before returning home to see their families.
Nevertheless the strike had a heavy impact on the economy. Production went down in mines and fishing, also farms were unattended. Most important, it gave way to political organisation and awareness. The colonial regime trans- ported many workers back to the north, but they returned as organised workers, and as a token of defiance and freedom they cut a large section of the border fence between Namibia and Angola.
Before the strike, political organisation was loose. The SWAPO Youth League consisted of unstructured individuals. The Strike gave structure and organisation both to the workers and the Youth League. In 1973 there were school boycotts in the north and organisation of national resistance against the Bantustan policy enforced by the Odendaal Plan of 1964 which put homeland “second tier” authorities in place for the various national groups.
These boycotts and resistance were met by harsh repression by the colonial regime and the homeland authorities. In the north youth and workers were tied to trees and flogged with palm branches. This led to an exodus of four thousand youth in 1974 to join the SWAPO in exile in Zambia; when the Anti-Apartheid Committee interviewed the youth in Lusaka they mostly wanted to hear about the strike
No wonder! The Namibian General Strike defied the largest colonial military force in Africa – one soldier for every 12 Namibians – and shocked not only the colonial administration for its determination and death defiance but the South African regime itself.
It was a big thing internationally. South African contract workers in mines and industry suffered the same conditions as those who took strike action in Namibia, and so the mood spread. A strike of 300 PUTCO workers in the Transvaal against low wages was followed by the wave of strikes which exploded in Durban in 1973. Our general strike had an impact in South Africa, and the development of workers’ struggles in South Africa had an impact on us.
In Namibia the general strike led to a restive period of labour resistance and political organisation culminating in the 1978 Rössing Strike which involved thousands of miners at the Rössing uranium mine and other mines and which saw the formulation of a broad set of demands including trade union demands. This level of development was influenced by the trade union struggles in South Africa.
Today it is particularly important that the National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa (NUMSA) has broken with the ANC. Even when we joined SWAPO in exile in Zambia in 1974 we were already conscious of the corruption and political poverty of the SWAPO leaders and SWAPO in government has proved this to be true! We knew when we organised the general strike that workers’ conditions could only be changed through political struggle. Workers here are faced with the same task as workers in South Africa – to start a Movement for Socialism.
NUMSA is the biggest affiliate of the Confederation of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), but COSATU is in President Zuma’s pocket and the ANC can’t even implement the Freedom Charter! I thought the general secretary of the ANC was a communist, but then I listened to his statements on relations between the ANC and the unions and realised that the ANC seeks to seriously weaken the workers’ situation, and so I agree 100% with NUMSA’s decision to work towards a new independent workers’ party for socialism.
It is now our job to educate and organise![/threecolumns]

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