THE UN MAKES PEACE WITH APARTHEID

The United Nations is planning to sell out the national aspirations of the people of Namibia (SouthWest Africa) in return for worthless promises from the racialist South African government.

Namibia is a former German colony awarded to South Africa under a League of Nations mandate in the terms of the Versailles treaty of 1919.

The mandate reverted to the United Nations after World War II and in 1966 the UN terminated the mandate in accordance with strong demands from the independent African states.

The country is run under a rigid apartheid system and the blacks who form the vast rights They have no political rights. form a pool of indentured labour forced to work at a pittance under contract to white mineowners, fishermen and farmers. PIOUS WORDS The great strike of Ovambo workers at the beginning of this year exposed the reality of the situation in South-West Africa to world attention. The strike e showed up the impotence of the United Nations, which has contented itself since 1966 with pious denunciations of apartheid without taking a single positive step to aid the Namibians who are legally under its 'protection'.

When Kurt Walheim of Austria took over the post of UN secretary-general earlier this year his first Security Council assignment was to begin negotiations with South Africa for Namibian independence.

The representatives of Somalia, Yugoslavia and the Argentine were appointed by the Security Council to assist Waldheim and his personal representative former Swiss diplomat Dr Alfred Escher, in the "negotiations with South Waldheim and Escher toured South-West Africa and held talks in Pretoria with South Africa's premier Balthazar Vorster. Their report was being put before the Security Council this week.

It appears that not only has firm agreement been reached with South Africa to postpone real self-determination into the indefinite future, but the report has the backing of Somalia, Argentine and Tito's Yugoslavia, as well as Britain, the US and France.

It is predicted that the deal will win a majority on the Security Council, though opposition is expected from some of the member-states of Organization of African Unity.

Finer details of the deal are still secret, but enough has leaked out to show that what is proposed is a complete negation of the Namibian people's demands.

The deal is very reminiscent of the abortive Rhodesia settlement worked out between Sir Alec Douglas Home and Ian Smith earlier this year.

It makes no provision for immediate independence of Namibia as a single state on the basis of one-man one-vote. On the key question of self-determination, Vorster has said: 'There is no time-table whatever.

It is impossible to lay down time-table for people at variVorater, South Altea's premier. Abor ": A troman, surroundo ly nor pr7t939518, maiches as ner nouse is bulldozed to make way for the wines. ous stages of development Mr Escher himself has said that it could take years.' He added that whites had as much right to self-determination as any other peoples in the territory.

Vorster is naturally delighted with Waldheim's recommendations. They place the UN seal of approval on his scheme to break up Namibia into separate 'homelands' for the various tribes with the bulk of the most fertile and valuable land in the hands of the whites.

None of these projected homelands are viable economic units on their own—some, like the planned 'Bushmanland' consist entirely of arid desert. Under the agreement they are to be administered by regional authorities under the control of a new overall council.

FREEDOM Waldheim and his fellowofficials have also agreed that 'investigations' should immediately be begun 'with a view' to abolishing restrictive legislation on freedom of speech, labour and movement as well as freedom of expression in Namibia.

As Vorster indicated, there is no time-table for the deal, which also contains a clause that autonomy cannot be conferred on the territory without the inhabitants having had 'experience in self-government'.

No wonder Vorster finds the deal so acceptable! It ratifies his racialist dictatorship over the Namibian blacks (subject, of course, to 'investigations ... with a view') without committing him to doing anything.

The right-wing weekly "To The Point' shares Vorster's enthusiasm. The deal, it såys, 'would mean that South Africa has succeeded in selling its policy of differential development for the separate peoples of South-West Africa, leaving the whole question of independence as a unitary state up in the air.' The imperialist powers which dominate the United Nations are extremely anxious to get Namibia off the agenda as fast as possible. South-West is a major outlet for from Europe and the States, ensuring big pro fits for the mining corporations City and Wall Street.

Their ambassadors lobbying for acceptance Waldheim report in the dors of the United Nations. The big unknown quantity is the Soviet Union and China, which have yet to make their position clear.

SELLING OUT But the attitude of Yugoslavia, which participated in drawing up the deal and is sponsoring the resulting report, indicates that at least one Stalinist bureaucracy has no objection to selling out the Namibian people's basic demands.

If the deal does go through it will be a major blow to those liberals and clerics who have placed their taith in the UN 'thieves' kitchen' to resolve the problems facing Namibian corriworkers. These people have consistently boosted the UN's worthless 'opposition' to apartheid in Namibia.

Their support in the last analysis has only provided the with the credibility it needs in the eyes of the masses to foist this dirty formula on the world.

The United Nations has never liberated a single colonial slave or bettered the lot of a single victim of imperialism. It is nothing more than the central organization of world imperialism, subordinated completely to the requirements of the US and its allies.

The heroic struggle of the Namibian strikers earlier this year served a warning on the South African bosses that their days are numbered. The Namibian workers will win their independence and smash the grip of apartheid.

But it will not be awarded to them by Vorster or the UN. It will be won in struggle against all the agencies of imperialism.

1972