The Rossing File

Book excerpt: This booklet is a classical example of politically directed radical research. Its publication was part of a carefully planned escalation of the campaign to end British imports of Namibian uranium, which included a hard-hitting television documentary ("Follow the yellowcake road", World in Action, Granada) and trade union action against the hitherto secret transport route, in both of which the author was centrally involved. Well-written and thoroughly researched, the pamphlet explains with admirable clarity how a major mining multinational, Rio Tinto Zinc, set up a lucrative mining operation by manoeuvring the British government into becoming its major customer and defender. It also exposes the duplicity of successive governments in protecting RTZ's illegal contract. It contains a good deal of useful information on the economics of the Rossing mine itself and the conditions for its black employees, and also reproduces key statements by SWAPO and by the Rossing workers. For a brief, and somewhat updated version, see a conference paper by the same author: The International Trade in Namibia's Uranium. An overview of the Expropriation of Namibia's uranium resources (Washington: International Seminar on The Role of Transnational Corporations in Namibia, 1982, 8 p.) (Eriksen/Moorsom 1989).