We have come to the end of the International Conference in Solidarity with the Struggle of the People of Namibia. In the view of my delegation, this great Conference has been a resounding success, and therefore, a source of strength and inspiration, not only for SWAPO and the Namibian people, but also for all who support and participate in the Namibian struggle. The Conference has revealed a high level of agreement on the nature and demands of the Namibian struggle, a deep commitment on the part of all participants to the resolute prosecution of that struggle, and an unmistakable conviction in the inevitability of defeat for the South African racist regime. We are thus left in no doubt that 500 years after the first African country was occupied by a European Power, the continent of Africa stands poised to rid itself for ever of the yoke of colonial domination. It is significant that the 1980s have opened as a decade pointing to the certainty of victory over the forces of reaction for the peoples of southern Africa.
Historic Victory
The heroic Zimbabwe people led by the Patriotic Front alliance, the governments and peoples of the African States in southern Africa which stood, as they continue to stand, in the front line of the struggle, the consistent and principled political and material support of Africa and the rest of the world forces for progress, all combined to demolish the political and military strategies of Ian Smith and the South African racist regime, and brought the frontiers of freedom to the Limpopo, the northern border of South Africa.
This historic victory, like the great Angolan victory of 1976, demonstrated that the much-vaunted economic and military might of the Pretoria regime is powerless to stop the historical process leading the liberation of the people of southern Africa. It is powerless to stop the liberation of Namibia. It is equally powerless to stop the liberation of the people of South Africa.
The record of rule by the white racist minority is a harrowing catalogue of vicious repression, torture, murder, massacres, invasions, bombings, and destruction of property. Intended to subdue the people and crush the liberation movement, these criminal acts have had the opposite effect. In South Africa a powerful revolutionary movement of the people has emerged and is attacking the regime in a growing offensive, that includes action by ANC armed guerrillas. In Namibia SWAPO's armed forces have established themselves firmly among the people throughout Namibia. Zambia stands solid in support of the liberation struggle. The People's Republic of Angola, the greatest victim of fascist aggression on the African continent in recent times, is resolute, unbending and ever more determined in its support of the liberation struggle of SWAPO and the ANC.
The failure by the racist regime to achieve its objectives represents a defeat of considerable strategic significance. The trend has become familiar: the tactics of terror by Portuguese colonialists and the white minority regimes in southern Africa failed against Guinea-Bissau, Angola, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. The tactics of promoting "internal settlements", installing puppet Prime Ministers and administrations to stop the revolutionary process, likewise failed.
In Namibia, in a desperate bid to keep the waves of liberation at bay, the apartheid regime poured thousands of troops into the country - to no avail. It tried to divide, weaken and rule the people through the bantustan system. But that scheme has collapsed irretrievably. The racist regime proclaimed December 31, 1978, as "the date for the independence of South West Africa". The mirage vanished before the dawn of January 1, 1979.
The saga continued, with the formation of the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance by the racists, the holding of false elections, and the installation of a puppet legislative assembly. Lately there has come into being a "Council of Ministers" and a "Prime Minister".
So, in Namibia, the pattern is repeated as the South African regime follows the beaten path that leads to guaranteed defeat. There is no other path open to it.
The Issues in Namibia
The central issue before this Conference has therefore been one of time, for the victory of the Namibian people is certain. The question is: How much more life and property must the regime be allowed to destroy before the day dawns when Namibia declares her independence? In calling for solidarity and material support, SWAPO is calling attention to the time factor - it is of the essence.
In the Declaration and Programme of Action, which is a response to the call by President Sam Nujoma on behalf of SWAPO and the Namibian people, this Conference has been addressing itself to the time factor. I wish, Comrade Chairman, to emphasise some aspects of our common response to this call.
Firstly, Namibia is the only major trust territory which, 60 years after it was created, has still not been liberated. It is the first and so far the only territory, entrusted to the international community, whose people have had to embark on a war of liberation against a former mandatory Power, after the United Nations had revoked the mandate and assumed direct responsibility for the administration of the territory and its preparation for independence.
To allow such a situation to continue, would suggest that, confronted by this white minority regime, the United Nations is powerless.
Secondly, no single country has done more to damage and undermine the authority and effectiveness of the United Nations Security Council than the Pretoria regime; and there can be no greater threat to world peace than a toothless Security Council.
Comrade Chairman, the United Nations, its Charter and institutions, including the International Court and Security Council, were created for the protection of every nation and people. They are not prefect, but they are the foundations upon which we must build. If persistent defiance, constant contraventions and repeated aggression, are to be allowed to continue, then there is no alternative for mankind but a holocaust in which all shall perish.
Thirdly, when the world community and the majority of the member States were no longer prepared to continue tolerating the contempt with which the South African regime was treating the United Nations and its resolutions, at that crucial moment, the Contact Group of Five emerged. The efforts of this group have sought to accord a new legitimacy to the South African regime in the Namibian situation. The Pretoria regime is being transformed from the criminal to the virtuous. It grants audience to representatives of the Contact Group - purporting to speak in the name of the United Nations and sometimes even of SWAPO. The regime is pleaded with, and appealed to for cooperation. From defier of the international community, Pretoria is being allowed to dictate terms to it. In the latest of these, it is demanding of the United Nations that "preferential treatment of SWAPO should now cease". The United Nations is apparently expected to obey this order, this command. But to demand that the world community should be impartial as between SWAPO and the puppet groups is to ask this community to be impartial in the contest between illegality and legitimacy, between colonialism and independence, between war and peace, between fascism and democracy.
In our view, the slightest concession by the United Nations in favour of this outrageous demand would at this point in time be a betrayal of the very purposes for which the United Nations was established, and a violation of its own most sacred principles. For, as we understand it, the United Nations is, a militant combatant for independence, peace and democracy. It is common cause that certain forces have from time to time sought to use the United Nations for subverting these objectives but that does not subtract from the fact that, by its nature and decisions, the United Nations has to be partisan against colonialism and against war and fascism.
Within the spectrum of Namibian politics there is only one unique force that represents exactly the positions of the United Nations and the international community on such questions as colonialism and independence, war and peace, fascism and democracy. That force is SWAPO - SWAPO is the leader of the people of Namibia; SWAPO is the people of Namibia.
It is clear that the role of the five Western Powers is sinister in the extreme. They are trying to subvert the Security Council to the service of a criminal regime, reducing it to a state of impotence in the face of the most flagrant violations of the United Nations Charter. In the result, the South African regime is assuming control and dictating not only terms but also the pace at which the international community moves.
It uses the time it has gained as it has used the past two years, to kill and murder as many Africans as it can find in Namibia, Zambia and Angola. It could continue with that exercise another two years or more.
The central issue is time. But the central problem is the Western Powers - for they are the joint beneficiaries from the occupation of Namibia and the exploitation of its mineral wealth. From this point of view, the world community has four principal tasks which are incorporated in the Programme of Action, already adopted by this Conference, and which I have selected for emphasis.
Key to Peace
The first is to give massive political and material support to SWAPO, enabling it to launch and sustain a general political and military offensive to drive the South African racists out of Namibia.
The second is to rally to the defence of the People's Republic of Angola and other countries threatened by South Africa, and employ and sustain an effective deterrent to armed aggression by the Pretoria racist forces.
The third is to deal with the Western Powers as comprising the greatest source of misery and suffering in Namibia, as elsewhere in the world, and the greatest obstacle to freedom and peace. The role of these Powers - Great Britain, USA, France, West Germany, Canada and Japan - especially in southern Africa, must be brought to the attention of their citizens so as to mobilise them to act to change the policies of their governments. Only they can do it; and they, like the people of Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa, comprise the young and old, the youth and women, workers, patriotic intellectuals, MP's, political parties. (There is of course no MP in Namibia and none for the majority in South Africa). But we are talking about people who must feel as we do about these things. And I believe that one of our tasks, jointly and severally, is to work out ways of mobilising the people in the Western countries that are such thick allies of the racists in South Africa.
The fourth of these tasks is to deal with the transnational corporations. We must pay attention to their role and find ways of dealing with these heartless vultures which feed on the sweat and blood of enslaved millions in Namibia and South Africa.
We believe that to concentrate our efforts on these four tasks in particular, as well as carrying out the other tasks in the Programme of Action, is to shorten the duration of the regime's continuing occupation of Namibia. It is to hasten the process leading to the national liberation and social emancipation of the people of southern Africa. It is the key to peace. It relates to the time factor.
Solidarity
In South Africa we have benefited and drawn strength from the victories of struggling peoples throughout the world. Today we extend our solidarity to all these friends throughout the world - in Asia, in Africa, in Europe and Latin America.
Speaking as the leader of a liberation movement, I would like to assure our comrades-in-arms in the liberation struggles - POLISARIO, FRETILIN, the PLO, the fighters in the Canary islands - that by definition their struggle is ours. Every victory they win advances our cause against the forces of imperialism and racism. We fight in our countries to advance their struggle. As far as the PLO is concerned our fight is carried on in the knowledge of the degree of intimacy and political, military and economic alliance that has developed between racism and Zionism.
Finally, I should like to address myself to you, Comrade President Sam Nujoma, to the militants of SWAPO who are here today. I should like to do so in the name of your colleagues and mine, members of the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress, in the name of Umkhonto we Sizwe, in the name of our entire membership and movement, in the name of our people. You have sacrificed lives already to defeat the enemy - the exploiter and oppressor of the people of South Africa. You have made great inroads, you have corroded the apartheid power structure in Namibia, which within South Africa itself, remains relatively unshaken. We admire your gallantry, your courage, your efficiency, your capability on the battlefield.
By your actions you have forged bonds of unity between yourselves and us, the Namibian people and the people of South Africa - bonds of brotherhood and comradeship, forged in blood, and for that reason indissoluble.
We of the ANC have come to this Conference, not so much to talk of our struggle but to participate in yours. We would like to pledge before you in the name of all our people and particularly in the name of our leaders, including Herman Toivo ja Toivo, who are now being held indefinitely on Robben island and elsewhere - we pledge, that we shall fight, and fight, and fight, until this our common enemy is defeated not only in Namibia but also on South African soil.
A Luta Continua! 1 From: Sechaba, December 1980; also in ICSA Bulletin, London, October 1980.