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The National Union of Namibian Workers: Background and Formation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Henning Melber
Henning Melber
Affiliation:
Gesamthochschule Kassel, Universität des Landes Hessen, Bundesrepublik Deutschland
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Extract

[Windhoek, 1977]…fellow-workers…the weak point we have [to remedy] in order to change the system is unity and co-operation. And we must not distinguish whether some workers are sleeping in a compound and some are staying in the single quarters and some in the so-called locations. All of us who are exploited, we blacks, we must know that we are all workers. We workers want to be in unity. We workers in Namibia, we want to unite. It doesn't matter what kind of work he is doing, each and every worker should come into that union. After such unity and co-operation have been established, it is only then that it will be possible to campaign for better working conditions, for higher wages and to embark on any other action which will change the working conditions.

Type
Africana
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 21 , Issue 1 , March 1983 , pp. 151 - 158
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

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References

page 151 note 1 Report of a preparatory meeting held in Windhoeck during 1977, before the formation of the National Union of Namibian Workers, in the South African Labour Bulletin (Durban), 4, 1–2, 1978, pp. 42–4.Google Scholar

page 152 note 1 Gillian, and Cronje, Suzanne, The Workers of Namibia (London, International Defence and Aid Fund, 1979), pp. 75–6.Google Scholar

page 152 note 2 United Nations Institute for Namibia, Manpower Estimates and Development Implications for Namibia (Lusaka, 1978), pp. 60–7, based on the work of Reginald H. Green.Google Scholar

page 153 note 1 Ibid. p. 59.

page 153 note 2 Department of Information and Publicity, SWAPO of Namibia, To Be Born a Nation. The Liberation Struggle for Namibia (London, 1981), p. 68.Google Scholar

page 153 note 3 For an impressive description of the mechanisms and humiliating consequences of these regulations, see Ndadi, Vinnia, Breaking Contract, recorded and edited by Mercer, Dennis (Richmond, 1974).Google Scholar

page 153 note 4 Cronje, op. cit. p. 27.

page 153 note 5 For the specific aims and initiatives of these teacher associations, see Melber, Henning, Schule und Kolonialismus: das formale Erziehungswesen Namibias (Hamburg, 1979), pp. 154–60 and 216–24.Google Scholar

page 154 note 1 Cronje, op. cit. pp. 106–7.

page 154 note 2 Gordon, Robert, ‘A Note on the History of Labour Action in Namibia’, in South African Labour Bulletin, 1, 10, 1975, p. 8.Google Scholar

page 154 note 3 Keith Gottschalk, ‘South African Labour Policy in Namibia, 1915–1975’, in ibid. 4, 1–2, 1978, pp. 90–2.

page 154 note 4 Gordon, loc, cit. p. 14.

page 154 note 5 For an illustrative account of the strategies of survival practised among mine-workers, see Gordon, Robert, Mines, Masters and Migrants: life in a Namibian compound (Johannesburg, 1977), pp. 120–42.Google Scholar

page 154 note 6 See Moorsom, Richard, ‘Underdevelopment, Contract Labour and Worker Consciousness in Namibia, 1915–1972’, in Journal of Southern African Studies (London), 4, 1, 1977, p. 76.Google Scholar

page 155 note 1 Gordon, Robert, ‘Some Organisational Aspects of Labour Protest among Contract Workers in Namibia’, in South African Labour Bulletin, 4, 1–2, 1978, p. 121. See also Gordon, Mines, Masters and Migrants with regard to the mines; many examples referred to in this work argue in the same direction.Google Scholar

page 155 note 2 See Hubrich, Heinrich-Georg and Melber, Henning, Namibia–Geschichte und Gegenwart. Zur Frage der Dekolonisation einer Siedlerkolonie (Bonn, 1977), pp. 93–101.Google Scholar

page 155 note 3 See Hamutenya, Hidipo and Geingob, Hage, ‘African Nationalism in Namibia’, in Potholm, Christian and Dale, Richard (eds), Southern Africa in Perspective–Essays in Regional Politics (New York and London, 1972), pp. 89–92.Google Scholar

page 155 note 4 The interdependence of the organisation of workers and the establishment of the national liberation movement is described by Ndadi, op. cit.

page 156 note 1 See the descriptions given in Nehova, Hinananje Shafodino, ‘The Price of Liberation’, recorded by Gjerstad, Ole, in Liberation Support Movement (ed.), Namibia: SWAPO fights for freedom (Oakland, 1978), pp. 70–8.Google Scholar A detailed account on the general strike and its background is found in To be Born a Nation, pp. 188–203; for a profound analysis, see also Moorsom, Richard, ‘Workers' Consciousness and the 1971–1972 Contract Workers Strike’, in South African Labour Bulletin, 4, 1–2, 1978, pp. 124–39.Google Scholar

page 156 note 2 See Appendix A, below, for extracts from ‘The Strikers Manifesto’, 10 January 1972.

page 156 note 3 Kane-Berman, John, Contract Labour in South West Africa (Johannesburg, 1972), and Cronje, op. cit. pp. 77–89.Google Scholar

page 156 note 4 For further details, see To Be Born a Nation, pp. 268–73.

page 156 note 5 See Appendix B, below, for extracts from the Draft Constitution, 1977.

page 157 note 1 Source: To Be Born a Nation, pp. 200–1.

page 157 note 2 S.W.A.N.L.A. is the South-West Africa Native Labour Association, the recruiting agency for contract workers.

page 158 note 1 Also referred to as draad in Afrikaans, ‘wire’ is synonymous with contract labour, because the workers are marked with a code, or registration number, tied to their wrists.

page 158 note 2 Source: Cronje, op. cit. pp. 122–3 and To Be Born a Nation, p. 269.