by Muttaqa Yushau Abdulra?uf, Sian Byrne, Warren McGregor and Lucien van der Walt
The origin of May Day, International Workers Day, lies in the historic fight for decent
working hours that culminated in the execution of four trade unionists in Chicago, the
United States, in November 1887. This was a decisive moment in the struggle for a just
society through militant trade unionism. In Nigeria, May Day was first declared in 1980 by
the People?s Redemption Party (PRP)-led government of the late Abubakar Rimi in Kano
State. ---- Therefore this article draws attention to the anarchist ethos of, first,
building a people's counter culture to unravel the dominant class culture in the society
and, second, building a counter-power that draws its energy from the trade unions,
peasantry, the unemployed and the oppressed to change the world.
This article is concerned with reflecting on the May Day commemoration as a platform to
harness the power of the working class into a counter movement for a better society.
Across the world, ordinary people are faced by ecological problems, the financial crisis,
massive unemployment, low wages and all sorts of oppressions and injustices. The solution
does not seem to lie in more state regulation of the economy since politicians have often
been part of the problem, not the solution. To understand this, we must look more closely
at what the ?Chicago,? or ?Haymarket Martyrs? stood for - as well as the role and
potential of Nigerian trade unions as a means to change society.
Anarchism, Chicago and May Day
What did the "Chicago Martyrs" stand for'? This is often forgotten. They were part of the
?anarchist? movement. This term is often deliberately misunderstood, but the truth is that
the anarchists simply stand for society being run from the bottom-up by the ordinary
workers and farmers - and not by the capitalist and politicians. What they want is that in
place of the masses being ruled and exploited from above, society and workplaces should be
run through people's councils and assemblies, based on participatory democracy and
self-management.
Anarchism was a global mass movement from the 1870s, including in the United States: its
stress on struggle from below for radically democratic socialist society appealed to the
oppressed in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe and the Americas.
May Day was adopted as an international day of remembrance of the "Chicago Martyrs" and
their struggle by the international working class.
Workers around the world were shocked by the brutal execution of the unionists and wanted
to show their solidarity with the international fight for better conditions. In fact for
the anarchist tradition, May Day was to be used as veritable tool of organising the
working class. Rebuilding, anarchists and socialists formed the Labour and Socialist
International in 1889. They proclaimed May Day as Workers Day, a global general strike to
commemorate the ?Haymarket Martyrs?? fight for the 8-hour working day and build global
workers unity.
Taking trade unionism forward
Noting the radical roots and aims of May Day, it is important to move beyond the as-usual
May Day pattern in Nigeria and elsewhere of speeches, symposiums and dinners; much needs
to be done to make the trade union movement relevant to the larger segment of the society;
much needs to be done to push for real improvement in the conditions of the masses. What
is needed is to galvanise the masses around a positive programme of education and
organisation, for social and economic justice and equality and for real grassroots
democracy. The trade unions are central to this.
The trade unions have a responsibility that goes far beyond simple bread-and-butter
issues. They have strategic importance in the production process in Nigeria and elsewhere
and this makes them a very powerful force. They also provide a space to mobilise and
educate people. Also, they can provide allies for other segments of the masses and
powerful muscles for all progressive struggles. It is said with the Nigeria Labour
Congress (NLC) motto that labour creates wealth; and this is true. Everything created by
human hands and minds is labour and the labour is provided by the working class - the
poor, the peasantry and the masses.
But the burning question remains: how can this strategic power be used to empower all the
masses who toil to make the wealth? How can this wealth be used to empower all the masses
who toil to make the wealth, rather than elite economic and political minorities enjoying
the lion?s share without doing the lion?s share of the work? The only way is to build
counter culture and counter power with the anarchist ethos; and this building can start
from the strong foundations laid by many years of union struggles.
Brief history of militant trade unionism in Nigeria
It is clear that trade unionism in Nigeria has a proud history of fighting for justice and
progress. The ideological standpoint of trade unionism has been leftist since inception,
going back into the 1930s. Trade unionism was formally recognised by the British colonial
authorities in 1938 with the union ordinance, but recognition arose from struggles.
The colonial economy based on the extraction of raw materials by a cheap labour force
formed on the basis of ongoing agitation; notably the strike over the Cost of Living
Allowance (COLA) that followed the global depression in 1930, and the callous and
unforgivable massacre of miners at the Enugu colliery in 1949.
During the independence struggle trade unions in Nigeria also played a key role. They
were, though, divided into conservatives exemplified by the Trade Union Congress of
Nigeria (TUCN), the United Labour Congress (ULC) and the Nigeria Workers Council (NWC)
affiliated to the ICFTU and the radicals exemplified by the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and
Nigeria Trade Union Congress (NTUC), which were socialist in orientation and affiliated to
WFTU.
It was only in 1978 that the NLC was formed as the sole central labour organisation with a
check-off system. In fact, the NLC was the creation of a military government which wanted
to create a form of corporatism to promote labour quiescence. But like the British
authorities, the military miscalculated: workers did not become quiet due to government
action.
This plan was a failure for the NLC never shied from challenging the Nigerian state and
the Nigerian elite. It was especially notable when in the wake of neo-liberalism
exemplified by the 1986 Structural Adjustment Programme, the NLC mobilised and, in
alliance with the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), issued documents such
as "Nigeria Not for Sale" and the "Student Charter of Demand."
The NLC was proscribed from 1990-1998 by the Military junta. With the return of the
civilian administration via the 1999 Fourth Republic, the NLC revival was rapid,
culminating in a delegate-based conference that elected a dynamic new leadership. This
leadership developed a programme of rebuilding the union movement and of making it
relevant to a wider segment of society beyond simply the employed unionised workers.
The formation of Labour and Civil Society Coalition (LASCO) in 2004 was one outcome; a
means to rebuild the labour movement both on the shop-floor and in alliance with the
masses across society. LASCO focused on fighting against neo-liberal state policies such
as deregulation and privatisation; it also fought against corruption, such as elite-driven
scams in the pension industry and waged a robust campaign for electoral reform.
Neo-liberalism at the crossroads - what next?
But what alternative is being proposed to neo-liberalism? With the collapse of the
Keynesian welfare states in Western Europe, the eclipse of the Central Planning Model in
Eastern Europe and Russia and the decline of Import Substitution Industrialisation (ISI)
in post-colonial countries, neo-liberalism is often presented as the only feasible model
of economic organisation: the mantra of the late Margaret Thatcher being ?There is no
alternative? or Francis Fukuyama's claim that this is "The end of history."
But neo-liberalism is not a solution tor the masses. For the workers it has redefined
labour-capital relations on terms that force labour into retreat through flexible labour
markets characterised by outsourcing, labour-subcontracting and labour brokerage and
downsizing. This has weakened the organisational power of the working class and promotes
the proliferation of vulnerable employment in the informal sector. Meanwhile the
commodification of welfare, the removal of subsidies and sky-rocketing prices has hit hard
against the unemployed, the peasants, the students and others.
These challenges confront the NLC and the Nigeria labour movement with the need to revise
its organising strategy - so as to build a counter movement that could replace the
existing rentier and predatory state system with a participatory democracy that is from
the bottom-up and based on principles of equality and social justice as envisioned by the
anarchists.
Conclusion: building working-class struggle for a better world
The organisational power and strategic location of the Nigerian trade union movement,
representing over five million workers organised both in the private and state sectors,
should be the point of departure for building a counter movement among the broader
Nigerian working class allied to the peasantry and other poor sections of society.
The strength of the Nigerian working class both in white collar and blue collar jobs
should be translated into a viable political and social movement with a clear agenda for
change - a movement that can provide an alternative to the current state system that is
ruinous to society. To struggle to fix the current state system would continue to be an
exercise in futility. Even the best politicians are powerless to change the state. We dare
not tinker with reform that fails! Rather, we need systemic change that can guarantee
equality, fraternity, self-management and socialisation of the common wealth guided by a
bottom-up approach to decision making. We need a labour movement guided by the following
dictum:
??a multicultural and international movement with a profound feminist impulse, a movement
with an important place in union, worker and rural struggles, prizing reason over
superstition, justice over hierarchy, self-management over state power, international
solidarity over nationalism, a universal human community over parochialism and separatism
- anarchism and syndicalism is this and much more? (van der Walt & Schmidt, 2008: 10).
This is our appeal, and that is our message as we commemorate this May Day, in a country
in which the storm clouds gather over humanity - but in which the hope of a better future
can break through, if we organise. May Day began as an example of globalisation-from-below
and it continues to be a rallying point for workers everywhere facing social and economic
injustices some 120 years later.
Let us rally to it!
References:
Hashim, Y. (2001). ?Co-option, Control and Residence: the State and the Nigeria Labour
Congress?, in Beckman, B. & Sachikonye, M. (ed). Labour Regimes and Liberalization: the
Restructuring of State-society Relations in Africa. Harare: University of Zimbabwe
Publications.
van der Walt, L. & Schmidt, M. (2009). Black Flame: the Revolutionary Class Politics of
Anarchism and Syndicalism. San Francisco, Edinburgh: AK Press.
Author details:
Muttaqa Yusha? works in the International Department of the Nigeria Labour Congress,
Abuja, is a graduate of the Global Labour University, University of the Witwatersrand,
South Africa and can be reached at myushau@gmail.com or +234 8030766568.
Sian Byrne works for the National Labour and Economic Development Institute (NALEDI),
South Africa.
Warren McGregor is an activist, postgraduate student, part-time lecturer and a Global
Labour University Programme Coordinator at the University of the Witwatersrand.
Professor Lucien van der Walt lectures at Rhodes University, South Africa.
Source reference
Muttaqa Yusha'u, Sian Byrne, Warren McGregor and Lucien van der Walt, 20 June, 2013,
"Towards a Viable Counter-Movement in Nigeria," Daily Labour, volume 26, number 7,
(Nigeria), p. 10. (Also see corrections note in Daily Labour, 15 July 2013 vol. 26 no. 8,
p. 1)
Related Link: https://www.facebook.com/zabalazanews
Home »
» Beyond MayDay Celebrations: Towards a Viable Counter Movement in Nigeria by Warren McGregor - ZACF