We need a valuable workforce
Muammar Gaddafi said in his Green Book “exploitation is caused by need. Need is an intrinsic problem and conflict is initiated by the control of one's needs by another”. Such was the case prior to the independence of Namibia; this was the plight of the workers.
The majority of the workers, based on their skin colour were exploited by the contract system and wherever they were employed, throughout the entire tragic era of the apartheid regime. At that time, the workers did not have any choice, because they were oppressed and it was “the way things were”.
They nevertheless accepted their exploitative “fate”, with an acceptance that was driven by need.
This situation however, led to conflict, because the control of the workers' rights, their needs and the widening gap between rich and poor became all the more unacceptable.
To this end, the workers in Namibia prior to independence were the foot soldiers of the liberation struggle inside the country and they continued to agitate. In fact, workers' and students' organisations continued to agitate across the entire Southern African region.
They had strong, dedicated leaders, like Anton Lubowski, treasurer of the NUNW at the time. In the end, the trade unions in Namibia and South Africa played a pivotal role in causing massive political change.
After independence however, their leadership lost the plot and in the end, all it boiled down to, was vying for political office – the higher, the better – some are now ministers.
The captains of these powerful organisations jumped ship for their own gain and these large vessels with their enslaved crews are rudderless and afloat in the stormy seas of economic inequality and increasing poverty.
Bread and butter issues are no longer being attended to.
The workers have “rights” on paper, but in fact, nothing at all, simply because the law is not properly enforced and nobody really cares.
Former trade union bosses are now business people – and the old guard is on the street, dead or nowhere.
The majority of the workers, based on their skin colour were exploited by the contract system and wherever they were employed, throughout the entire tragic era of the apartheid regime. At that time, the workers did not have any choice, because they were oppressed and it was “the way things were”.
They nevertheless accepted their exploitative “fate”, with an acceptance that was driven by need.
This situation however, led to conflict, because the control of the workers' rights, their needs and the widening gap between rich and poor became all the more unacceptable.
To this end, the workers in Namibia prior to independence were the foot soldiers of the liberation struggle inside the country and they continued to agitate. In fact, workers' and students' organisations continued to agitate across the entire Southern African region.
They had strong, dedicated leaders, like Anton Lubowski, treasurer of the NUNW at the time. In the end, the trade unions in Namibia and South Africa played a pivotal role in causing massive political change.
After independence however, their leadership lost the plot and in the end, all it boiled down to, was vying for political office – the higher, the better – some are now ministers.
The captains of these powerful organisations jumped ship for their own gain and these large vessels with their enslaved crews are rudderless and afloat in the stormy seas of economic inequality and increasing poverty.
Bread and butter issues are no longer being attended to.
The workers have “rights” on paper, but in fact, nothing at all, simply because the law is not properly enforced and nobody really cares.
Former trade union bosses are now business people – and the old guard is on the street, dead or nowhere.
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Namibian Sun
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