[Announce-list] internationale solidarität für nigerianische gewerkschafterInnen Sozialistische LinksPartei SLP slp
From: Sozialistische LinksPartei SLP announce-list AT t0.or.at
Subject: [Announce-list] internationale solidarität für nigerianische gewerkschafterInnen
Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2001 14:53:16 +0200
solidarität mit nigerianischen gewerkschafterInnen - SCHICKT PROTESTBRIEFE
"The Campaign for Independent (Trade) Unionism (CIU) appeals to workers and
trade unions all over the world to put pressure on the Lagos State
Government of Nigeria to reinstate Ayodele Akele and other trade unionists
back to their jobs immediately."
liebe freundInnen,
trotz ende des militärregimes in nigeria hat sich an den angriffen auf
gewerkschafterInnen leider nichts geändert. in den letzten tage ist es im
zuge von massenentlassungen (8000) im öffentlichen dienst in lagos auch zu
entlassungen von "lästigen" gewerkschafterInnen gekommen. einer von ihnen,
ayodele akele, wurde auch inhaftiert. (weitere infos in englisch siehe
unten) wir ersuchen euch um euere solidarität.
attached ist ein muster-protest-brief. bitte schickt diesen oder einen
ähnlichen in eurem namen bzw. im namen eurer organisation an folgende
adressen. eine kopie bzw. eine meldung dass ihr ein protestschreiben
geschickt habt bitte auch an uns, damit wir die kollegInnen in nigeria
informieren können.
für informationen und rückfragen
01-524 63 10
0699-11 73 13 26
für spenden: psk 8812.733 (verwendungszweck: nigeria)
vielen dank im voraus
sonja grusch
------
protestbriefe an:
i) Botschaft der Bundesrepublik Nigeria
Rennweg 25
1030 Wien
ii) The Executive Governor,
Lagos State of Nigeria,
Alausa, Ikeja,
Lagos.
(iii) The General Manager,
LSDPC,
Ilupeju, Lagos.
e-mail: lsdpc@lsdpc.com
(iv) The Speaker,
Lagos State House of Assembly,
Alausa, Ikeja.
Lagos.
Copies to:
slp@gmx.at
ceeiu@yahoo.com
dsm@beta.linkserve.com
Also to the following Nigerian newspapers and magazines:
The Comet: mail@cometnews.com.ng
The Guardian: letters@ngrguardiannews.com
Vanguard: vanguard@linkserve.com.ng
or vanguard@nova.net.ng
The Punch: dailypunch@the-punch.com
---------------------
Mehr Infos:
VICTIMISATION OF TRADE UNIONISTS IN NIGERIA:
AN APPEAL FOR INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY AND SUPPORT
Reinstate Ayodele Akele
And Other Victimised Trade Unionists
The government of Lagos State, Nigeria, has just sacked dozens of trade
union activists in the state public sector from their jobs.
Top on the list of these victimised union leaders is Ayodele Akele. He is
the chairman of the Lagos State branch of Amalgamated Union of Civil Service
Technical, Public Corporations and Recreational Service Employees (AUPCTRE).
He is also the chairman of the Council of Industrial Unions (COIU), the
federation of trade unions in the state public sector.
Akele is a quantity surveyor by profession and works at the Lagos State
Development and Property Corporation (LSDPC), an agency owned by the state
government. Akele's appointment has been terminated alongside 159 other
LSDPC workers including the chairman of the local LSDPC branch of AUPCTRE.
These trade unionists are part of 8,000 public servants who have just been
retrenched from their jobs by the state government as a result of a public
spending cuts programme embarked upon by the government.
But the retrenchment exercise has been particularly aimed at principled
trade union activists who have been in opposition to the programmes of poor
wages and job cuts of the state government. Since the present state
government took office in May, 1999, this is the second mass retrenchment
exercise. In the first mass purge that took place in August of 1999, ten
thousand (10,000) workers were sacked.
To be specific, these trade union activists are being persecuted for their
campaign against the first retrenchment exercise and also for their leading
role in a struggle last year for a monthly minimum wage of N7,500 (£50) for
the state public sector workers. After a breakdown of negotiations between
the unions and the state government, the COIU, under the leadership of
Akele, organised a state general strike, which lasted for 22 days between
June and July, 2000.
The sacking of these trade unionists violated the relevant labour laws and
regulations in Nigeria. None of the sacked trade unionists for instance has
attained the legal maximum retirement age of 60 years or 35 years of
service. Neither have they ever been issued any query or warning before in
their workplaces. Significantly also, the state government deliberately did
not negotiate with the trade unions as required by the law on redundancy
which makes it mandatory for employers to negotiate the necessity and extent
of any redundancy with the trade unions.
This is second time Akele would be unjustly and arbitrarily sacked from his
job by the state government. In October, 1998, he was dismissed by the then
state military ruler in the course of agitation for a new minimum wage by
the state public sector workers. He was reinstated in July, 1999 as a result
of a massive campaign mounted within Nigeria and internationally.
Though Nigeria returned to civil rule in May, 1999 after 15 years of
military dictatorship, workers, students, trade union and youth activists
fighting to protect jobs, wages, education and social services under attack
from the IMF policies being implemented by the Nigeria's new civilian rulers
still face persecution and repression. For instance, during the minimum wage
strike in Lagos State last year, precisely on 5th July, 2000, a worker,
Adigun Popoola, was killed when a contingent of armed police deployed by the
state government attacked a peaceful procession of the striking workers.
The reasons stated above explain why international solidarity and support
for the victimised trade unionists is very vital.
------------
DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST MOVEMENT
19th April, 2001
PRESS STATEMENT
TINUBU, STOP MASS RETRENCHMENT AND VICTIMISATION OF UNION ACTIVISTS
The Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM) condemns in very strong terms the
ongoing mass retrenchment of workers in the Lagos state public service in
which over 8,000 civil servants have been deprived of their jobs. We demand
an immediate end to this senseless job massacre by the Alliance for
Democracy (AD) government in Lagos State and the reinstatement of all the
sacked workers.
We particularly condemn the usage of the retrenchment exercise to illegally
and unjustly get rid of principled and militant trade union activists from
the state public service. A careful analysis of the list of retrenched
workers shows that there is a deliberate plan by the Governor Tinubu
administration to witch-hunt trade union activists who played leading role
in the struggle of Lagos state civil servants for N7,500 minimum wage across
the board last year which culminated in a 22-day strike by the state civil
servants between June and July, 2001.
Among those who have been witch-hunted in this manner are comrade Ayodele
Akele, the chairman of the Council of Industrial Unions (COIU) in the state
public service, Abdulkabir Ibrahim, the chairman of Lagos State Development
and Property Corporation of Amalgamated Union, (AUPCTRE), M.O. Oloye (Lagos
state auditor of AUPCTRE) and five members of the branch executive of Lagos
State Electricity Board branch of AUPCTRE.
This is a contravention of the agreement reached by the government and the
COIU in February this year which forbids the victimisation of any worker as
a result of his or her role in the minimum wage struggle.
The DSM notes the worrisome systematic trend of victimisation of principled
workers' leaders by governments in AD-controlled states. A few months ago,
comrade Femi Aborishade, the National General Secretary of National
Conscience Party (NCP) was sacked from his position as a lecturer from The
Polytechnic, Ibadan, by the Governor Lam Adesina government in Oyo State
while Dr. Oyebade Olowogboyega, (chairman, Osun state NULGE) equally had his
appointment terminated by the AD government of Governor Bisi Akande in Osun
state.
This actions not only show the anti-working class and anti-poor character of
AD as a party, it has further exposed the sheer hypocrisy of its leaders
most of whom regard themselves and want to be counted by the working masses
as "progressives" and "democrats". On the contrary, the retrenchment
exercise and witch-hunting of trade union activists carried out by AD
governments is a proof that when it comes to defending the interests of the
capitalist system and their own wealth, privileges and power, the so-called
AD leaders could be as vicious and heartless as the leaders of the other two
registered pro-rich capitalist parties - the PDP and APP.
The DSM equally condemns the arbitrariness and lawlessness that have
characterised the retrenchment exercise. Most of the sacked workers had
neither reached the statutory retirement age of 60 years nor attained the
maximum 35 years of length of service. Most of the sackings, especially in
the cases of the trade union activists, also cannot stand the test of
declining productivity or failing health, the two other criteria which the
Lagos State government claimed was used for the exercise. The fact that the
exercise cannot stand the test of laid-down rules must explain the reason
why the Lagos State Government did not deem it necessary to negotiate with
the civil service unions and the COIU as required by the country's labour
law before embarking on this massive retrenchment exercise.
MASS RETRENCHMENT NOT THE SOLUTION TO ECONOMIC CRISIS
To us in the DSM, apart from the witch-hunting of union activists, the other
aim of this retrenchment exercise is cost-cutting in government social
spendings in line with the neo-liberal capitalist policies pursued by
various governments in Nigeria since the early 1980s. Incapable of tackling
the decline in productive sectors of the economy, successive governments
under pressure from the international capitalist creditors led by the IMF
and World Bank have adopted the anti-poor approach of massive reduction in
government spendings on wages, education, health, housing and other vital
social services.
This is the essence of neo-liberal policies such as privatisation of public
enterprises, commercialisation of social services, devaluation of naira,
increase in the prices of petroleum products, retrenchment of workers, etc.
These policies are presented as the pre-conditions for being in the good
book of Nigeria's international creditors and attracting so-called foreign
investments which is seen as the only solution to the country's economic
woes.
However, after two decades of the implementation of these policies not only
does the economy remains in a state of comatose, with low productive
capacity and high level of unemployment, the living standards of the masses
have nose-dived while the gap between the rich and the poor has never been
wider.
As the experience of public corporations such as Nigeria Railways and
Nigeria Airways which have carried out massive purge of workers in the past
have shown, the policy of retrenchment of workers while ignoring the
fundamental causes of the economic crisis will not solve the problem of the
economy either in Lagos State or nationally. On the contrary, it will worsen
the problem of poor purchasing power, increase unemployment level and
exacerbate social problems like armed robbery, drug trafficking,
prostitution, corruption and so on. But it is these same anti-poor and
counter-productive policies which is also being implemented by the
governments controlled by the self-styled "progressive party"- AD. This is
the second retrenchment exercise to be carried out by the Tinubu
administration. In the first exercise which took place in August, 1999,
almost 10,000 workers lost their jobs.
We in the DSM consider gainful employment as a very basic right. We would
also want to assert that Nigeria, endowed as it is with abundant natural
resources, has the capacity to guarantee full employment and decent life to
everybody. But this potential will never be realised so long as the
neo-colonial capitalist system which creates wealth, opulence and privileges
for a tiny minority while condemning the vast majority of workers, peasants,
petty traders, artisans and the youth to endless poverty and misery,
prevails.
Based on the above analysis, the DSM calls on the Nigeria Labour Congress
(NLC) leadership both in Lagos State and at the national level to take up
the fight against the on-going retrenchment in the Lagos State civil service
and the victimisation of union activists. The NLC must mobilise workers to
compel the Lagos State Government to halt this job massacre and the
witch-hunting of labour leaders. The NLC must demand that all the affected
workers and trade unionists must be recalled.
Finally, the present vicious attack on workers and trade unionists in Lagos
State shows once again the need for the working class to building an
alternative political platform opposed to the present pro-rich capitalist
parties. Therefore, the NLC, and labour and youth activists must fight for a
genuine multi-party democracy with the right of every individual and group
to organise political parties without registration by the government and the
right to stand for elections as independent candidates. Above all, an
independent mass working people's political party with a socialist programme
must be built as a matter of urgency to provide an alternative to the
existing capitalist parties.
SEGUN SANGO
General Secretary, Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM)
---------------
Saturday, April 21, 2001
NLC want Akele reinstated
WORRIED by the sack of the chairman of the Council of Industrial Unions
(COIU), Mr. Ayodele Akele, by the Lagos State government, the Nigeria Labour
Congress (NLC) has appealed to Governor Bola Tinubu to reinstate him and
other dismissed workers.
The NLC said it is shocked that Tinubu's administration still continued the
exercise in spite of its promise to stop it.
According to NLC's Assistant General Secretary, Mr. Chris Uyot, "during the
struggle, the state government was high-handed in its approach and one of
the protesting workers, Mr. Adigun Popoola, ended up dead on account of the
brutality of the policemen deployed to disperse the protesters."
He added: "The sack shows the crude resolve of the administration to pursue
its earlier threat to retrench workers, if the unions insist on the minimum
wage."
"The sack is in spite of a pending agreement between the unions and the
state government that the administration would not sack any union leader nor
retrench workers.
"The congress finds the reasons adduced by the Lagos State government for
this exercise unacceptable and it is clear to the congress that the move was
made partly to purge the public service of trade union leaders who insisted
on a fair deal for the workers," he stressed.
