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Socialist Democracy November 2004

Over 200 persons, including labour leaders, labour and working class activists, rank and file members of trade unions, students' union activists, socialist activists, members of the press etc. attended a symposium organised by the Campaign for Democratic and Workers' Rights (CDWR) and Kolagbodi Memorial Foundation (KMF) on Monday, August 23, 2004. The programme was organised as part of activities to campaign against the new wave of attack by the Obasanjo administration on trade union and democratic rights via the so-called trade union act amendment bill, which seeks to greatly weaken the labour movement in Nigeria. The central theme of the symposium is: Trade Union Act Amendment Bill: Issues Involved.

Speakers at the symposium included: SOZ Ejiofor (General Secretary, Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations, Civil Service Technical and Recreational Services Employee (AUPCTRE); Ayelabola Babatunde (Assistant General Secretary, Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN); Emma Ogbuaja (General Secretary, National Union of Chemical, Footwear, Rubber, Leather and Non-Metallic Workers (NUCFRLNW); John Kolawole (General Secretary, Trade Union Congress (TUC); Segun Sango (General Secretary, Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM).

Declaring the programme open on behalf of the organisers, Biodun Aremu, Executive Secretary of Kolagbodi Memorial Foundation said the programme was initiated to demonstrate the solidarity of the organisers with the cause of labour and the oppressed masses in general. He expressed his happiness about the fact that some other civil society and labour related organisations were taking steps to organising similar events.

Generally, the mood was against the proposed labour bill as most people in attendance see the bill as one of the most frontal assaults on trade union and democratic rights by any capitalist government in Nigeria's history. Many shared the opinion that the bill was targeted not only against labour but also against the poor working people in general and therefore, the need to prepare to wage struggles against the Obasanjo's regime in achieving its objective striking out the very existence of trade unionism in particular and the oppressed masses' democratic rights in general.

Comrade Segun Sango, DSM General Secretary in his speech said that the slogan must be 'government must totally hands-off union affairs'. Quoting copiously from a special edition of Socialist Democracy (SD), paper of the DSM produced on the issue of the proposed labour bill, he explained that contrary to the thinking of some labour leaders, particularly in the Trade Union Congress (TUC), the proposed bill, if passed into law, would not automatically guarantee the registration of the TUC as a labour centre, as the bill seeks to destroy the essence of trade unionism in Nigeria. This is in line with the demand of the imperialist backers of Nigeria's neo-colonial capitalist class since neo-liberalism; their adopted model of running society cannot live with a viable labour movement.

He called on the labour leadership to immediately commence mobilisation for a day of action to include symposia, rallies, protests and strikes to kick-start the process of coherent campaign to fight and defeat this latest attack. He urged labour to also set in motion the process of uniting radical groups, parties and organisations like the DSM, NCP, DA, etc, that have been supportive of labour and working class struggles under a united platform - a labour party - to seek political power.

Socialist Democracy November 2004