For Struggle, Solidarity and Socialism in Nigeria
LABOUR AND ATTAHIRU JEGA: Free And Fair Elections Are Meaningless Without A Fighting Mass Working Class Labour Party By Ayo Ademiluyi Towards the upcoming 2011 general elections, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) believes that the appointment of Attahiru Jega would perhaps ensure free and fair elections. In a communiqué issued, while welcoming the appointment of Prof. Attahiru Jega as the
MAJOR VICTORY FOR LARUTI OPERATORS LAGOS STATE GOVT. FORCED TO PAY BACK OPERATORS MONEY The tricycle operators popularly known as Lagos State Rural Transport Initiative (LARUTI) recorded a major victory on May 2010 after 10 months of struggle against the Lagos State government. The Campaign for Democratic and Workers’ Rights (CDWR) led these poor tricycle operators to get back their
NIGER DELTA AND GULF OF MEXICO: UNITED BY DISASTER OF CAPITALISM By Peluola Adewale Perhaps, one of the collateral advantages of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster is the momentary media attention it has drawn to daily pollution and environmental degradation of Niger Delta area of Nigeria which has been hitherto under-reported. The international media have run stories comparing
ELECTORAL REFORM CAMPAIGNS AND THE HOPE FOR GENUINE CHANGE IN EDO By Lateef Adams Free and fair election is a miracle that many Nigerians are waiting to happen in Nigeria. It has often been said that if Nigeria could get it right on elections, then it will be possible to resolve all other socio-economic problems which the country is enmeshed
ADIEU! BILLY BRIGHT ANOKWURU A GENUINE AND CONSISTENT TRADE UNION LEADER Billy Bright Anokwuru died on July 20, 2010. Before his death, he was the former National President of the National Union of Shop and Distributive Employees (NUSDE) and Vice Chairman of the Labour Party in Lagos State. In this interview, Comrade Rufus Olusesan (Vice President of NUSDE and Chairman
MINIMUM WAGE AGITATION: TIME FOR MASS ACTIONS By Chinedu Bosah The minimum wage agitation is one that has generated so much interest amongst Nigerian workers, considering the fact that the wages currently earned can be best described as poverty wages. The issue has been characterized by conflicting stories from the government quarters and the media. This has confirmed the position
2011 GENERAL ELECTIONS: IS NIGERIA ABOUT TO BREAK A 50-YEAR OLD JINX? Going by what President Goodluck Jonathan and Professor Attahiru Jega, the newly appointed Electoral Commission Chairman have been saying, Nigerians are expected to have truly free and fair elections come 2011 general elections. Hear the President: “When we nominated Prof. Attahiru Jega as the Chairman of INEC, some
GOODLUCK JONATHAN PRESIDENCY: CAN NIGERIA EXPERIENCE POSITIVE DEVELOPMENT AND IMPROVED LIVING CONDITIONS? After much hullabaloo, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan became president of Nigeria on May 6, 2010, consequent upon the death of President Musa Yar’Adua, who died in office after a protracted terminal ailment. As usual, several bourgeois analysts and plain self seekers, who always support any government in power, have
POOR STATE OF LAGOS ROADS: A GENUINE WORKERS’ AND PEOPLES’ GOVERNMENT IS THE ONLY WAY-OUT By Lanre Akinola The euphoria that greeted the so called performance of the Lagos State Government headed by Mr. Raji Fashola particularly, on the construction and rehabilitation of roads has begun to wane. With the beginning of rainy season, most people have now woken up
History: 70th anniversary of the assasination of Leon Trotsky Coming mass revolts will see workers and youth look to Trotsky’s ideas Peter Taaffe, General Secretary Socialist Party (CWI England and Wales) Seventy years ago the greatest living revolutionary of the time, Leon Trotsky, was murdered by Josef Stalin’s hit man Ramon Mercader. There had been a number of failed previous
WORKERS` STRIKES IN OYO STATE: A call for a United Action and Working People Political Alternative By Abbey Trotsky The perennial economic cum political attacks every pro-capitalist government now characteristically unleashes on workers and other categories of toiling working masses has kept throwing up repeated resistance from workers in Oyo state. In the last five months, workers in different sectors
South Africa: 1.3 million public servants in one-day warning strike Longer strike may follow after negotiations on Thursday Liv Shange, Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM – CWI in South Africa) Approximately 20,000 workers marched in Tshwane and 15,000 in Cape Town on Tuesday, 10 August, as 1.3 million public sector workers, organised in the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu)
Don’t Hand Over Labour Party to Moneybags Trade Unions must condemn the outrageous nomination fees, and actively build and fund the Party By Peluola Adewale On the surface the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the Labour Party held on May 5, 2010 in Akure Ondo raises hope of the resolve of the party leadership to reposition it as a
UNIBEN: Newly Registered ERC branch holds symposium The newly registered branch of the Education Rights Campaign (ERC) held its maiden program on Wednesday 28th July 2010 at the Twin Lecture Theatre 11, Social Sciences of the University of Benin (UNIBEN) Benin Edo State. The Education Rights Campaign (ERC) was formed by the Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM) as a platform to
2011 Election: Workers Must Go for Political Power Perennially faced with poverty and joblessness, high costs of education and health and general despair, more and more Nigerians on the streets, in the markets, on radio and TV phone-in programs and even churches and mosques etc – could be heard saying one thing: what Nigeria needs now is a revolution. This
MINDLESS POLICE KILLINGS IN AJEGUNLE: Enough is Enough! By Aderemi Ismail For over 20 years the residents of Ajegunle, one of the most densely populated poorest communities of Lagos State, have been subjected to searing police terror. But this came to head with the killings of Charles Okorafor on April 1, 2010 and, later, of Tunde Olotu, who had joined
DEREGULATION: Labour Must Maintain its Age-long Opposition Tragically for Nigeria’s workers and poor, it appears that the Labour leaders have opted for subterfuge as a strategy in the struggle against deregulation. While they have continued to put a façade feigning commitment to the struggle, their conduct has only pointed at inclination to dump the struggle. Unfortunately, this they believe they
LIVING WAGE FOR NIGERIAN WORKERS: LONG OVERDUE NLC, TUC Must Remain Steadfast on the Struggle By Chinedu Bosah Minimum wage which started in late 2008 has not moved beyond promises from the federal government and the recent setting up of a tripartite committee made up of labour, federal government and private sector employers. On the committee the Labour representatives are
MAY DAY: The Need to Build the Labour Party as a Genuine Working Peoples’ Political Platform By Kola Ibrahim As workers in Nigeria celebrate this year’s Workers’ Day, the political challenges before the working and poor people are more vital today than ever before. That the capitalist political class has severally and collectively plundered the huge resources of the nation,
Socialist Democracy April-May 2010 Edition DEREGULATION Labour must maintain its age-long opposition By Peluola Adewale Tragically for Nigeria’s workers and poor, it appears that the Labour leaders have opted for subterfuge as a strategy in the struggle against deregulation. While they have continued to put a façade feigning commitment to the struggle, their conduct has only pointed at inclination to