Category: Socialist Democracy May – June 2011

DANGOTE PASTA SACKS 250 WORKERS FOR JOINING UNION CDWR Demands Unconditional Reinstatement of All Workers and the Respect of Their Rights to Unionise By Victor Osakwe, Secretary, CDWR For over one year now the inalienable rights of workers to freely associate has been brutally attacked by the management of Dangote Pasta Plant Ikorodu, a company owned by Aliko Dangote, the

ZARTECH Workers Agitate For Improved Welfare Conditions As They Seek To Change Their Union Affiliation By Abbey Trotsky The determination to keep the fight for improved living and working condition alive has been demonstrated by workers in ZARTECH Nigeria limited, Oluyole, Ibadan with their ongoing agitation to change their union affiliation from the Agricultural and Allied Employees Union of Nigeria

LYBYA: After Gaddafi – Stop the Revolution’s Derailment – Independent Workers’ Action Needed! By Robert Bechert, Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI) Almost every day there are warning signs of the dark shadows that NATO’s intervention has thrown over the Libyan revolution. In a country with hardly any tradition, so far, of a workers’ movement, the distorting effects and dangers

TUNISIA: After Ben Ali’s Ouster: Big Mood for a Second Revolution At the recent Summer School of the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI) held in Belgium H.T Soweto (DSM, CWI) spoke with three comrades of CWI in Tunisia on the current situation of the revolution in the country which set alight the entire Arab world and now Israel with

THE GREEK CRISIS By Victor Osakwe While the bulk of the world’s capitalist economies are in crisis, the Greek economy is in one of the most severe situations of all. Greece, with a population of 12 million, is facing an economic crisis that makes the government unable to pay a debt owed to big banks and other creditors. It borrowed

Deregistration of 7 Political Parties by INEC is undemocratic By Bosah Chinedu The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), relying on section 78 of the electoral Act, has recently deregistered 7 political parties on the grounds of not fielding candidates at the last general elections let alone winning a seat at the parliament or any executive position. Section 78 of the

FOI: Beyond Illusions By Lanre Arogundade The authors of the freedom of or access to information law conceive it as a potent anti-corruption weapon in capitalist democracies. In Nigeria, successive years of corrupt rule by the military and civilians, gave actual impetus to the FOI idea and made it popular among different layers of society. Its principal proponents were however

MASS FAILURE IN 2011 UTME AND 2011 WASSCE Urgent Mass Actions Needed To Save Public Education By H.T. Soweto That education in Nigeria is collapsing is hardly debatable. The mass failure in UTME and WAEC says it all. On Friday 24 June 2011, the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) released the results of the 2011 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination

OAU: STUDENTS LET DOWN BY NEW VC Urgent Necessity To Take The Struggle To A New Level By Adewale Stephen On September 6, 2011, the new Vice Chancellor, Prof. Tale Omole, of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Ile Ife called for an interactive session with students at the University Afrika Amphi-Theatre. While thousands of expectant and anxious students thought the

AJEGUNLE ERC HOLDS 2011 FREE HOLIDAY COACHING By Ho2 Moshood The Ajegunle, Lagos, branch of the Education Rights Campaign (ERC) has concluded its 2011 free holiday coaching. The ERC is a campaign initiated by the Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM) – CWI Nigeria – since 2004 to campaign against education underfunding, fee hikes and for provision of free and functional education

BOMBING OF UNITED NATIONS’ BUILDING Terrorism Takes Root in Nigeria Amidst Deep Social and Economic Crisis (By H.T. Soweto) On Friday 26 August 2011, Nigerians were thrown into panic as a suicide bomber rammed a car laden with deadly explosives through two security barriers into the reception area of the office of the United Nations in Nigeria’s capital city of

GOODLUCK JONATHAN FULL TERM PRESIDENCY: Can the Economy and Policy Get Better? To his bourgeois promoters plus also the few elements who wrongfully have hope in him, Goodluck Jonathan is a God-sent president to effect Nigeria’s socio-economic “transformation”. He is the only politician, who became a governor and then later president within a period of 5 years, without ever having

ROBBERY UNDER THE GUISE OF PRIVATISATION Labour Should Immediately Pull Out of Privatisation Council Now and Champion a Clear Pro-Working People Alternative By Peluola Adewale Just as obtained in the power probe by the House of Representatives in 2008, Nigerians have been treated to a reality show of monumental frauds and daylight robbery perpetrated in the name of privatization exercise.

THE STRUGGLE FOR N18,000 MINIMUM WAGE For A Two-Day General Strike Now! No To Retrenchment of Workers By H.T. Soweto The current administration had hardly been inaugurated when workers were set on a warpath with the Federal and state governments over the implementation of the N18,000 new National Minimum Wage. Especially in the public sector, strike activities involving tens of

FLOODS: Consequences of Lack of Planning By Bosah Chinedu The downpour across the country and its attendant flood has continued to leave behind loss of billions of naira worth of properties, deaths and homelessness. Floods are the Nigeria’s tsunami or hurricane, even though it could have been avoided if society was well planned. The states which are the worst affected

The 2011 General Elections and the Working People On three different dates, April 9, April 16 and April 26, Nigeria held the general elections to elect politicians that would control power at central and state levels for the next four years. For a country of about 150 million people in which over 70% of its citizens live on less than

N18,000 MINIMUM WAGE PASSED INTO LAW Labour Must Fight For Its Implementation across the Federation By Chinedu Bosah Finally, after much delay, the national minimum wage was signed into law on March 25, 2011, just days before the elections started. It was very two years ago that Labour had first tabled the demand for an increase and since then organized

AJEGUNLE: Multiple Tax, Yet No Development By Aderemi Ismail The city of Rome was built with the blood and sweat of slaves. The same is true of capitalist civilization today which is built on the blood and sweat of working class and poor people. In Lagos State, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN)-led government of the State wishes to build

JONATHAN READING CAMPAIGN: Can He Bring Back The Book? Socialist Democracy chats with AJ. Dagga Tolar, the Chairman of the Association of Nigeria Authors (ANA), Lagos Chapter, on his comments on President Jonathan’s so-called national reading campaign tagged ‘Bring Back the Book’. Excerpt: Socialist Democracy: What is your take on the initiative of President Jonathan’ ‘Bring Back the Book’ and

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 2011: Why We Have To Organise And Fight Back (The statement of the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI) on this year celebration of Women’s Day) In recent months, millions of women worldwide have risen up to resist the devastating effect that the economic crisis is having on their lives. Hundreds of thousands of super-exploited textile and