Unions cry foul over partisan control of Workers’ Celebration
The annual commemoration of Workers Day has come under fire for being hijacked by partisan interests with Independent trade unions saying the day, meant to unite the working class, is being monopolised by the National Union of Namibian Workers (NUNW) and its affiliates, leaving out unions not aligned with the ruling Swapo Party.
While Workers’ Day is celebrated in over 160 countries as a moment to honour those who have died, been injured, or fallen ill due to work-related causes, acting secretary general of the Namibia National Labour Organisation (NANLO), Joseph Garoeb, told Network Media Hub (NMH) on Tuesday that no invitation was extended to their federation to attend the main event, held in Oshakati.
“NUNW will never invite us because we’ve become competitors. But that should not be the case. We should complement each other as workers. We were never formally invited to the Workers’ Day celebrations. We only saw people playing kickball. There was no formal invitation for us to participate. The truth is, Workers’ Day is not supposed to be a government event. It should be a workers’ event. We don’t want to keep relying on the same ministers and the president, who don’t negotiate with workers, to speak on our behalf. Workers must speak for themselves," he said.
"We also do not want to take part in a parade where ministers and the president speak two different languages, telling workers what to do, while also acting as their employer. The same people oppressing workers are the ones trying to tell them what’s best. That doesn’t make sense. The keynote speaker should be a worker, someone who can speak directly to fellow workers, to motivate and encourage them. It should be a leadership event by workers, for workers. The keynote should focus on how to advance the working-class struggle. So yes, in reality, the event was monopolized by Swapo-affiliated unions,” he added.
Garoeb said the celebration was effectively a government function, not a neutral platform inclusive of all workers. "Not all of us are Swapo-affiliated, but we are all workers. All workers should be welcomed at these events, even if they are not part of NUNW or any specific union. Workers must show up in numbers. But the event was so overshadowed and draped in Swapo branding that it looked like a Swapo event,”
“This was a Swapo-coordinated union event, and that’s exactly what we don’t want. That’s why we are holding our own events, in our own context. That’s also why we said: if we invite the president to our event, then she can come. But she will never just show up unless she’s invited. And we want to make that invitation deliberate, we plan to send it early, as early as January, and then we’ll see if she actually comes to address us,” he said.
Julius Natangwe, interim central secretary of the Revolutionary Union (RU), confirmed that his union also received no invitation to the Oshakati event. “That day is typically monopolised by Swapo and its affiliate unions. But what are we really missing? It’s just one political speech after another, nothing tangible ever comes from it. It’s the same pattern we see on Independence Day and other national occasions that have effectively been turned into partisan political events. Our priority is our members and their wellbeing, not political gatherings disguised as national workers’ celebrations,” he said.
Namibian Revolutionary Transport Union's (NARETU) Petersen Kambinda shared a similar sentiment. “When you organise a Workers' Day celebration, you invite your own speakers. Whoever accepts your invitation becomes your speaker. In this case, when NUNW invited the president, it naturally included its affiliates, and other high-ranking government officials typically follow wherever the president goes. We are not affiliated with NUNW, but we didn’t take issue with not being invited, nor with government officials attending their event,” he said.
“This year, we decided not to host a Workers' Day celebration ourselves. Instead, we have planned our own activities, and we will carry them out according to our own schedule,” Kambinda added.
However, NUNW secretary general Job Muniaro dismissed claims of exclusion, stating the event was open to all. “We have never hosted a May Day event together from the beginning. At some point, we attempted to do so, but everyone has their own group of members. As a federation, we organised our own event based on our members, their affiliations, and their membership. But the event itself was not exclusive, everyone was welcome. The reality is, they did not have a unified event of their own. Some of them held individual events instead, which is why they didn’t attend ours,” he said.
“From our side, we believe this needs to be viewed from a different perspective. If they truly wanted to attend, they should have done so—even if they weren’t the organisers. The event was arranged by our federation, in collaboration with our affiliated members. We extended an open invitation to everyone who wished to attend,” Muniaro said.
He added that historically, NUNW has not formally invited non-affiliates because they organise their own commemorations. “They are not our members. They have their own federations—we’ve never co-hosted any event together,” he added.
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While Workers’ Day is celebrated in over 160 countries as a moment to honour those who have died, been injured, or fallen ill due to work-related causes, acting secretary general of the Namibia National Labour Organisation (NANLO), Joseph Garoeb, told Network Media Hub (NMH) on Tuesday that no invitation was extended to their federation to attend the main event, held in Oshakati.
“NUNW will never invite us because we’ve become competitors. But that should not be the case. We should complement each other as workers. We were never formally invited to the Workers’ Day celebrations. We only saw people playing kickball. There was no formal invitation for us to participate. The truth is, Workers’ Day is not supposed to be a government event. It should be a workers’ event. We don’t want to keep relying on the same ministers and the president, who don’t negotiate with workers, to speak on our behalf. Workers must speak for themselves," he said.
"We also do not want to take part in a parade where ministers and the president speak two different languages, telling workers what to do, while also acting as their employer. The same people oppressing workers are the ones trying to tell them what’s best. That doesn’t make sense. The keynote speaker should be a worker, someone who can speak directly to fellow workers, to motivate and encourage them. It should be a leadership event by workers, for workers. The keynote should focus on how to advance the working-class struggle. So yes, in reality, the event was monopolized by Swapo-affiliated unions,” he added.
Garoeb said the celebration was effectively a government function, not a neutral platform inclusive of all workers. "Not all of us are Swapo-affiliated, but we are all workers. All workers should be welcomed at these events, even if they are not part of NUNW or any specific union. Workers must show up in numbers. But the event was so overshadowed and draped in Swapo branding that it looked like a Swapo event,”
“This was a Swapo-coordinated union event, and that’s exactly what we don’t want. That’s why we are holding our own events, in our own context. That’s also why we said: if we invite the president to our event, then she can come. But she will never just show up unless she’s invited. And we want to make that invitation deliberate, we plan to send it early, as early as January, and then we’ll see if she actually comes to address us,” he said.
Julius Natangwe, interim central secretary of the Revolutionary Union (RU), confirmed that his union also received no invitation to the Oshakati event. “That day is typically monopolised by Swapo and its affiliate unions. But what are we really missing? It’s just one political speech after another, nothing tangible ever comes from it. It’s the same pattern we see on Independence Day and other national occasions that have effectively been turned into partisan political events. Our priority is our members and their wellbeing, not political gatherings disguised as national workers’ celebrations,” he said.
Namibian Revolutionary Transport Union's (NARETU) Petersen Kambinda shared a similar sentiment. “When you organise a Workers' Day celebration, you invite your own speakers. Whoever accepts your invitation becomes your speaker. In this case, when NUNW invited the president, it naturally included its affiliates, and other high-ranking government officials typically follow wherever the president goes. We are not affiliated with NUNW, but we didn’t take issue with not being invited, nor with government officials attending their event,” he said.
“This year, we decided not to host a Workers' Day celebration ourselves. Instead, we have planned our own activities, and we will carry them out according to our own schedule,” Kambinda added.
However, NUNW secretary general Job Muniaro dismissed claims of exclusion, stating the event was open to all. “We have never hosted a May Day event together from the beginning. At some point, we attempted to do so, but everyone has their own group of members. As a federation, we organised our own event based on our members, their affiliations, and their membership. But the event itself was not exclusive, everyone was welcome. The reality is, they did not have a unified event of their own. Some of them held individual events instead, which is why they didn’t attend ours,” he said.
“From our side, we believe this needs to be viewed from a different perspective. If they truly wanted to attend, they should have done so—even if they weren’t the organisers. The event was arranged by our federation, in collaboration with our affiliated members. We extended an open invitation to everyone who wished to attend,” Muniaro said.
He added that historically, NUNW has not formally invited non-affiliates because they organise their own commemorations. “They are not our members. They have their own federations—we’ve never co-hosted any event together,” he added.
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