Dumping grounds of Apartheid

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unions, they were mistaken or not telling the truth.

In contrast to the SirsDuffy plan, useful links internationally have in fact been made by the independent, non-racial unions in South Africa.

Members of Anti-Apartheid argue that the apartheid state would only allow visits to take place which they approve of.

What they forget, however, is that the apartheid state is not all-powerful, and that both the unions in South Africa and unions outside have certain amount of clout to prise the doors of state open security.

Boycott

Imagine an official T&G delegation going over at the invitation of SAAWU: if the state lets them in, all well and good - it will be our job to make sure that the delegates keep faith with those who invited them. If the state does not let them in, imagine the propaganda that could be made around this refusal.

The : apartheid state would like to stop all progressive links, but whether it can remains up for grabs.

The great advantage of a boycott strategy is that it is ert, has become the fourth 'homeland' dumping ground for black South Africans.

There is no way that the Ziake could live there lond clazens 660,000 do, though the South African government has made efforts to move old, unemployed, etc. blacks into the area.

The South African government aims eventually to make all black South Afticans citizens of one or another independent' homeland. Most of them, of course, will actually live and work in South Africa - but as immigrant workers, who can deported to their 'own' country at will.

And the talk of independence from South Africa is a nonsense. Disease is rife in Ciskei, there are hardly any medical facilities, and the prospect of employment is practically nonexistent.

As the 'independent' flag was raised at the ceremony last week, the flagpole collapsed and broke _in two. South African soldiers fixed the flagpole and too away the flagman. They" be staying around to der with any more problem Ciskei may have as 'independent' state.

VENDA ZIMBABWE

Sapt 13,1979 independent' homelands Other homelands TRANSI BOTSWANA Mafeking NTW • Pretoria SWAZIL ELELE Johannesburg ORANGE FREE GWAGI BOPHUTMATSWANA STATE Decomber6,1977 ONATALF LESOTHO Durban CAPE INDIAN OCEAN PROVINCE TRANSKEI Octaber 26.1976 CISKEI East London becerabel 0r4,1021 0 Miles 24

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IN THE aftermath of the recent South African invasion of southern Angola, Western diplomats have been to Nigeria, Kenya, and all the states of Southern Africa, trying to put together a new version of the United Nations plan for the independence of Namibia.

After weeks of secret negotiations and deals, it was announced late last month that the governments of Nigeria, Kenya, and the frontline states (Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Angola, Botswana) together with the exile leadership of the Namibian nationalist movement SWAPO, had effectively accepted the Western proposals.

The South African regime and its puppets in Namibia, who have denounced the original UN plan as unacceptable, have not openly committed themselves to the new deal - but neither have they opposed it publicly.

On the surface, it might seem that a way is being opened for freedom and independence. The imperialists and their diplomats present things this way, saying that they are putting pressure on the South African government. They warn that what stands in the way of independence is the so-called threat of Soviet expansionism.

But no worker should be blinded by the public words of these people. They are the same bosses and their Tory government who are planning how to break our unions, who every day feed us lies in their media, who use their army to attack anti-imperialist workers and youth in Ireland.

Who could rely on such people to help the oppressed of Namibia?

Behind the diplomacy and propaganda of the imperialists, lies the reality of struggle. The imperialists face a rising tide of mass struggle in Southern Africa, which is challenging their control and profits in the region. Every move they make is forced on them by this threat.

Demobilised

They are forced to rely more and more centrally on the bosses' apartheid state as the main weapon against the mass struggle, and the main guardian of profits.

They condemn apartheid in public - while in secret they continue to plan with Botha and the South African bosses against the struggles of working people and they continue to supply them with advanced weapons and technology.

Some of the imperialists fear that certain actions by Botha, such as the invasion of Angola, go a little too SWAPO freedom fighters far, and threaten to provoke an even greater resistance and determination among the oppressea. SO they are forced by the tighting strength and militancy of the oppressed to look for additional weapons, with which to politically weaken the mass movement in Namibia.

The UN plan has never been a basis for genuine independence. It has always been an option for constructing a neocolonial government in Namibia that would politically chain the mass movement and guard bosses' interests.

The imperialists have constantly acted to strenthen the plan as a possble weapon against the mass struggle, always taking into account the interests of their ally, the South African ruling class. And these moves have continually got the direct or indirect support of neocolonial bosses' governments in Africa.

Despite the fact that these governments are forced to pose before workers in their own countries as champions of the liberation struggle, their main concern is that the struggle in Namibia should be demobilised - because the more it advances, the more it threatens to strengthen the challenge which they already face from the workers' movementi in their own countries.

The huge South African military offensive against SWAPO freedom fighters and the Angolan people has now been followed up by an imperialist political.

offensive around the UN plan for independence.

South African military terror increases the pressure on the Angolan government, which has always tended to compromise with imperialism.

At the same time, the Soviet government sees the growing pressure and demands from the developing struggle in Southern Africa as jeopardising the 'peaceful coexistence' balance which they have constructed with imperialism in the region.

They claim to fully support the liberation struggle - but they have never fought to mobilise the international working class to take action in support. The economic and military aid which they give to SWAPO and Angola is limited. It is not part of a genuine programme of solidarity, but is in practice designed to maintain their credibility with the oppressed while keeping a bargaining counter for deals with imperialism.

In the end, after all the anti-apartheid speeches and anti-Reagan speeches have been made in the UN, the Commonwealth conference, and the solidarity rallies, the African and Soviet governments have fallen in line with the latest imperialist initiative, put forward by the Reagan government. Meanwhile, even as the negotiations and secret deals take place, the South African army continues to launch raids into Angola, to maintain a near-occupation of parts of southern Angola, and to carry 'out its terrorist repression inside Namibia; especially in the northern region.

All of passed in near-total silence by the imperialist governments, since it is in reality the other half of their strategy against the liberation The Reagan proposals for tightening up the UN independence package involve three phases, the last of which is the election of a constituent assembly which would draw up a new constitution. This last phase is usually described as taking place at the end of 1982 -provided there are no delays with the other phases.

Phase 1, which has recently been agreed in prin ciple by the African governments and SWAPO leadership, involves the constitution of the independent state. Phase 2 deals with the ceasefire leading up to elections. The details of the plan show quite clearly that it is designed to safeguard bosses' control.

The 'constitutionai guarantees' of phase 1 are in fact little more than rules for the protection of the private property of capitalists with Namibian investments. The ceasefire plan of phase 2 has not been finalised, but as it stands, it gives a free hands to the existing apparatus of the bosses state.

'Protection'

The police, courts and civil service will remain intact to keep 'law and order'. The Namibian working people can tell us what the law and order of the bosses' state machine means. And the working people of the Congo and Zaire can tell us what sort of protection' the UN troops would give to the oppressed against this law and order.

The UN is fundamentally an institution used by the imperialist powers to organise and maintain their world domination. But the South African and imperialist governments are going further and planning for a UN force to be dominated by troops from the imperialist countries, lessen any risk of fraternisation and to ensure more direct control.

The South African army and SWAPO guerillas are treated entirely differently under the existing plan. South African troops would be confined to bases inside Namibia - which means that they remain ready to be used like the Rhodesian army was used during the Lancaster House ceasefire.

SWAPO guerillas, on the other hand, would be effectively imprisoned in bases in Angola and Zambia, guarded by soldiers from these governments, and monitored by US AWACS • surveillance planes.

And as if all this was not enough, the bosses would have one further armed forçe - the ultra-right terrorist gangs which every day grow more organised, and which are becoming more and more closely linked with their counterparts in South Africa. In the last month, at least two large rallies in Namibia have been addressed by fascist demagogues from South Africa - calling for armed resistance to any attempts to remove the white man's power"

Ultra-right terrorists have already been schooled in their role as the unofficial force of the bosses state, backing up the officwir 1a ial army and the police, by carrying out assassinations, bombing of SWAPO offices, and other terrorist acts.

In face of all these attacks, the militancy and determination of the mass movement remains unbroken. Workers and all oppressed are looking for a way forward to win genuine freedom - not only from South African colonialism, but from all oppression and poverty.

The independence plan of the imperialists would have no weight if it was not for one fact - the politics of the SWAPO leadership, which rely on the UN, on certain imperialist governments, and on the frontline African governments.

For years the leadership has upheld the UN independence plan as a way forward, and are now sliding towards accepting the latest deal. SWAPO president Sam Nujoma is following Mugabe's road of collaboration.

In fact SWAPO leaders have said that a SWAPO government would draw on the experience of the Mugabe government. The workers of Namibia might want to ask them whether this includes Mugabe's by now extensive strikebreaking experience.

SWAPO leaders have promised the imu: alists that there would be no expropriation of the mining monopolies, whose great wealth comes from the sweat and blood of workers. In the words of SWAPO secretary general Moses Garoeb, "In the first few years, our people may not necessarily get the fruits of independence"

But leaders like Garoeb are determined that they, like Mugabe and his leadership, will get the fruits of independence.

Botha Massive pressure is being exerted on the SWAPO leadership by the imperialists, the African governments, and the Soviet: bureaucracy. The leadership succumbs to this" pressure because it comes from the forces with which it has long been building alliances: the SWAPO leaders have programme of action and demands that starts from the needs working people, and shows a way forward from today's struggles to the meeting of those needs.

Workers and militants look to and build SWAPO as a weapon for taking forward their struggle. The leadership is wasting the militancy and sacrifices of the mass organisation through its politics of class collaboration.

A fight has to be taken up inside SWAPO to end the secret diplomacy of the leadership, and for an end to the strategy based on class collaboration.

This can only be taken up as part of 'a fight inside the working class for a programme • based on. needs of working people, showing a road to develop the class force that can defend against capitalist attack and move forward to the smashing of the profit system and state of the bosses, and the building of a workers' and peasants' government and a socialist economy.

Workers need their own leadership to fight for this programme: they cannot wait for or rely on the existing SWAPO leadership. From the militancy in struggle of the Namibian workers today, the basis is already created for the building of their own workplace and community committees to take up all the issues facing them

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Socialist Organiser no. 65 December 9 1981 Page December N 12 S M 1 1 19 8 26 1 1 6 24 2E 6. 1 22 23 31 13 30 20 28 29 Socialist Organiser meetings and forums LAMBETH: Sundays 7pm, for venue phone 3071.

Dec.20: The Russian re tion Jan.31: Stalinism Feb.28: The origins of