Harry H. Boesak – Namibia

I work with a group of people from Namibia known as the Workers Support Committee. Together with our comrades in South Africa and Angola, we are running a campaign called the United Africa Campaign, which fights exploitation and oppression and advocates solidarity and justice. Our work revolves around the everyday issues of the working class in Southern Africa, such as the trade union movement, and privatization of public utilities. Additionally, we work on the peace campaign in Southern Africa. South Africa was, for many years, seen as a stable area, but recently this has changed. There are now two wars ravaging South Africa, in Angola and the DRC. Our campaign hopes to spread awareness to people and find ways we can stop these wars. We also want to encourage workers in other countries to take action against our governments, as the South African government is directly involved in these wars, supplying weapons to both the belligerents.

Our campaign additionally seeks to confront the issue of housing in Namibia. The local government authority has abandoned this responsibility by privatizing housing through para-statal organizations in which certain key ministers have gained financially. As a result, individuals are living in temporary settlements throughout the city.

We are also concerned with the accessibility of running water. Because these people live in settlements, there is no proper infrastructure that can provide them access to water, so they walk roughly 10 km to get their water in a bucket. We demand that the municipality set up camps in order to supply these individuals with water. In some areas the municipality has produced a system through a private company to set up large litres. In this system you must pay in order to receive water. Our campaign seeks to put and end to this system because it is the inherent, democratic right of every Namibian citizen to have access to water.

Southern Africa has yet to have the impositions of the IMF and the World Bank. Our campaign in Namibia seeks to discourage our government from obtaining new loans as well as hold the government accountable for all previous loans. We want to know where the money was spent and the terms on all these loans. We do realize, however, that there is a code of secrecy that exists in regards to these kinds of issues, and that is why we are linked with other groups in Europe to force their governments to reveal what the terms were in relation to bilateral loans.

I want workers to have the right to work, earn a decent living salary, and the right to self–respect. That is what I want.