Socialist Party Australia - Nigeria: General Strike over

From our comrades in Nigeria in the Democratic Socialist Movement, the biggest socialist organisation in Africa. July 2003

Nigeria
Mighty general strike ends with a compromise
The eight-day Nigerian general strike, which ended on 8 July, was a marvellous demonstration of the strength of the working class and the weakness of the political class.
The entire country came to a complete halt in protest at the massive increase in fuel prices suddenly decreed last month by the newly re-elected President Obasanjo. While this general strike did not last as long as those staged in 1945 and 1964 it was supported by far greater numbers of workers and poor people.
Significantly there was no serious opposition to the strike. Obasanjo claims to have received nearly 24.5 million votes in April’s heavily rigged election, but on the streets he had no supporters whatsoever. Despite the difficulties of daily life being increased by the strike, with food shortages developing in the cities, day labourers not being able to work, and other problems, the strike retained its massive support.
Unifying the population
The action of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) showed that the working class could be the real opposition, not just to Obasanjo, but also to the entire rotten elite. In contrast to other African countries, like the Congo, this struggle illustrated how the labour movement in action can unify the population in struggle and act as a barrier to social disintegration. In Nigeria, like in other countries, ethnic and religious clashes tend to develop when the working class is not showing a way out of the social crisis.
The struggle over fuel prices reveals the true character of Nigeria today. The country is one of the world’s largest oil exporters but the mass of the population have hardly gained from the estimated $280 billion that oil has earned in the last 30 years. The rotten, corrupt elite has looted the vast bulk of this income. The repeated shortages of fuel are the result of speculators ensuring that Nigeria’s four oil refineries work way below capacity, forcing the government to import refined oil.
The mass of Nigerians see cheap fuel as the only real help they get in life. Hence the enormous anger when Obasanjo suddenly ordered the price hike. Furthermore, no one believed that the money the government “saved” by this increase would really be used to benefit the working masses.
There is no doubt that the entire price rise could have been rolled back, but the NLC leaders were scared of the power that they had mobilised. The eight days of strike action showed that the NLC, as leaders of the working class, were the real opposition in society and potentially had more popular power than the elite. But the NLC leaders did not want to challenge the elite or their system. The strike stopped the entire country, posing the question that if the working class and poor could halt economic life then they could also run the economy and society as a whole.
More could have been won
Stepping back from a decisive showdown with the government, the NLC leaders finally agreed to a compromise deal, accepting an increase in the petrol price from N26 (20 US cents) to N34 (26 US cents) a litre, an increase of over a third. For a time, some Nigerians may see a success in the fact that the government had to back down from the N40 (31 US cents) Obasanjo originally ordered. But there will be many activists who will feel that more could have been won and that, given this limited victory, new struggles need to be waged on, for instance, Obasanjo’s refusal to implement previously agreed increases in the minimum wage.
The Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM - the CWI in Nigeria) played an important role in mobilising for this strike. The DSM called for the building of local, democratic ‘Action Committees’ to deepen the strike’s support and argued that Nigerian labour needed to adopt a political platform that challenged the elite and fought for the socialist transformation of Nigeria. In this sense the strike was a missed opportunity. The continuation of capitalism means that there will be continual attacks on the Nigerian working masses and no real hope of breaking out of poverty until the system is overthrown.
Nevertheless, the strike’s enormous strength shows the potential power of the Nigerian labour movement to change society. The DSM will continue to campaign for that power to be deployed to end capitalism and open the way to a socialist Nigeria.
Robert Bechert, CWI
For current information from Nigeria, visit the DSM website:
http://www.socialistnigeria.org/

Article 2
National Secretariat:
162, Ipaja Road, Agege, Lagos.
P.O. Box 2225, Agege, Lagos.
Website: www.socialistnigeria.org

8th July, 2003

PRESS RELEASE

POLICE KILLINGS OF PROTESTERS:
OBASANJO REGIME, POLICE AUTHORITIES MUST BE HELD RESPONSIBLE

The Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM) condemns the callous killings of several innocent Nigerians and peaceful protesters by the Nigeria Police in the attempt by the Obasanjo government to quell the nationwide strike and mass protests against its 20th June cold-hearted and anti-poor hike in the prices of petroleum products.

We demand the immediate resignation of the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Tafa Balogun and the police top hierarchy over these heinous killings and general police brutality against strikers and protesters.

We equally demand for the immediate release of scores of people being detained by the police as a result of their participation in the strike and protests. Among them are Mr. Eko John-Nicholas, a student of Lagos State Polytechnic and member of DSM, and 49 other students of the institution who are presently being detained at Panti Police Station, Ebute Meta, Lagos. If the police are of the view that any of these detainees has committed any offence, then he or she should be immediately arraigned before a court rather than being detained illegally in a police cell.

Reports from many parts of Lagos confirmed that many unarmed peaceful protesters and in some instances innocent bystanders were shot dead as armed policemen indiscriminately fired live bullets into crowds of unarmed protesters.

In the Dopemu/Akowonjo area in Lagos, three people were reportedly shot dead including a man who was coming from a pharmacy where had gone to procure drugs for his wife who put to bed last week. A young man was equally killed in front of his house along Tejuosho Road around Ojuelegba and his corpse was brought by sympathizers to the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) secretariat in Lagos. According to a report in The Punch of Tuesday, 8th July, 2003, not less than twelve people were killed by the police during the protests in Lagos and Ogun States on Monday, 7th July, 2003. This is on top of the four people killed by the police in Abuja last week.

These killings came on the heels of the order of the Inspector-General that the police should use “maximum force” to suppress the NLC-led strike and protests. These killings are barbaric and reveal the desperation of the Obasanjo regime to force the unpopular and anti-poor fuel price hike down the throat of the already impoverished working masses.

To us in the DSM, peaceful assembly and mass protests are legitimate, basic democratic rights. The use of teargas and live ammunitions to disperse unarmed protesters is a brazen crude and dastardly violation of these rights.

Above all, these killings and the suppression of legitimate protests by the Obasanjo regime expose once again the hollowness and the undemocratic character of the present civil rule in the country.

We call on the NLC, trade unions, students’ unions, human rights and pro-democracy groups to organise an independent enquiry into these killings and to demand that the perpetrators be dismissed from the police and prosecuted. The labour movement should equally demand the resignation of Mr. Tafa Balogun and other police commanders who gave the orders that led to this wanton loss of lives.

This state murder of innocent and defenceless Nigerians, incessant fuel crisis, worsening living conditions and general economic, social and political crises confirm the need for a fundamental social transformation of the Nigerian society. The decadent, anti-poor and crisis-ridden neo-capitalist system which engenders mass poverty and endless misery in the midst of potential abundance needs as matter of urgency to be overthrown by the Nigerian working people and replaced it with a democratic socialist order in which satisfaction of the genuine needs of the masses and not profits and wealth for a small capitalist super-rich minority will form the basis of production, economic management and governance.

To this extent, the NLC and the labour movement should as matter of priority commence the building of an alternative, independent mass working class political platform, which will be fundamentally different in ideology and methodology from the pro-rich capitalist political parties, to champion the rights of the masses and lead the struggle to change society. Towards this end, the NLC should immediately call a conference of trade unions, students’ unions, peasant farmers’ groups, artisans’ and market traders’ associations, youth and community groups, human rights and pro-democracy groups, socialist organisations, the National Conscience Party (NCP), Party for Social Democracy (PSD) and other mass-oriented organisations to discuss the establishment of this independent mass working people’s party.

SEGUN SANGO (signed)
General Secretary, DSM