Swapo Betrayals Help S. Africa's Namibia

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Two The Namibian elections have been followed by what can only be described as farcical 'negotiations' between South Africa and the DTA over the holding of UN sponsored later this year.

A South African delegation which included Prime Minister P.W. Botha, Foreign Minister Pik Botha and Commander of the South African Defence Force General Malan met with the members of Namibia's so called Constituent Assembly 'in an attempt to persuade them" to agree to UN elections.

Agreement

Surprise, surprise, the difficult negotiations' resulted in 'an agreement in principle' to plans for UN supervised elections.

The assembly accepted a resolution put forward by DTA chairman Dirk Mudge which set out a series of pre-conditions for acceptance of the UN scheme.

These include a deadline of 30 September 1979 for the elections and one of 28 January 1979 for an answer from the UN Security Council; no South African troops should withdraw from the territory before a complete cessation of hostilities; that the South African police retain responsibility for maintaining law and order, and that administrative and legislative power remain with the South African Administrator General until independence.

These pre-conditions, aside from the deadlines, do SWAPO guerrillas not cut across Security Council resolution 435 which sets out the election plan.

UN could easily agree to the proposals and Secretary General Kurt Waldheim was quick to agree to them.

further 'surprise' was that the resolution did not make the conditions binding on the South African government and the UN recognition of SWAPO as the sole authentic representative of the Namibian people was simply described as a 'serious irregularity'.

With such promising developments' imperialist talk of sanctions against South Africa can continue to be occasionally mentioned to keep the doubtful quiet and the road open for a 'satisfactory' solution.

The armed struggle had forced South Africa to soften its position but the anties of the SWAPO leadership has given reaction time to regroup.

In the face of the betrayals of the SWAPO leadership and the setbacks which these have led to it is absolutely vital that the struggle is taken up to build a genuine revolutionary leadership inside Namibia.

Guerrillaism

In that struggle it will be necessary to guard against tendencies towards guerrillaism amongst militants inside and outside SWAPO.

Armed acts divorced from a programme of democratic and transitional demands aimed at mobilising the mass of the oppressed can provide no SWAPO leader Nujoma leadership committed to political independence the working class.

It is to elaborate a programme and forms of action and build organisations which can lead the struggle against apartheid and capitalism in Namibia.

Now as the SWAPO leadership slithers along the path of betrayal, the extreme right uses the opportunity to organise and arm itself against internal leaders who despite many years of 'armed struggle' are left totally defenceless.

Defence In the face of this situation a clear defence of the oppressed masses must be fought for:

*Root the armed struggle in the oppressed masses by developing workers' militia as part of a programme around which the masses can be mobilised. The first task of the armed struggle is the defence of the oppressed masses.

*Use the cadres with military training to build workers defence squads as units of that militia in Namibia.

*No negotiations with imperialism.

*No secret diplomacy.

*Councils of Action inside Namibia to mobilise against the South African/ imperialist plans.

*Fight for a revolutionary programme of democratic and transitional demands:

1) Constituent Assembly tied to the demolition of the state apparatus.

2) Independent union and workers' committees.

3) Nationalise all multinationals without compensation under workers management.

4) Committees of peasants and agricultural workers-land • to the peasants and agricultural workers. Smash reactionary tribal rule structures.

*Maximum material aid from the international labour movement. (In Britain remove Owen, imperialism's left-talking errand boy).

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