LABOUR MOVEMENT SHOULD ORGANIZE TO RESIST UNDEMOCRATIC ACTIONS AND ANTI-PEOPLE POLICIES

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PRESS STATEMENT

CDWR CONDEMNS THE INVASION OF THE NLC HEADQUARTERS AND THE ATTACK ON PROTESTERS; THESE ATTACKS INDICATE THE EMERGENCE OF A CIVILIAN DICTATORSHIP AND TYRANNY

LABOUR MOVEMENT SHOULD ORGANIZE TO RESIST UNDEMOCRATIC ACTIONS AND ANTI-PEOPLE POLICIES

Campaign for Democratic and Workers’ Rights (CDWR) condemns the invasion of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) headquarters at night-time on Wednesday, August 7, 2024, in a commando style by armed security men. Aside from the invasion, the armed security personnel broke into the second floor and carted away many books and publications. We demand the return of all books and publications wrongfully and forcefully taken by the Police and the federal government without further delay.

This raid of Labour House is part of coordinated brutal attacks on free speech, freedom of association, and the right to protest. In a similar attack on the democratic rights of citizens, plain-clothes security operatives abducted Michael Lenin, Babatunde Oluajo Sankara, and Mosiu Sodiq in the wee hours of Sunday, August 4, 2024, brutalised them and transferred custody to a notorious police department known as Intelligence Response Team (IRT) on Monday, August 5, 2024. We demand the immediate release of Michael Lenin and other activists and protesters.

The notorious secret police, Department of State Services (DSS), has denied involvement in the raid of NLC and the arrest of Adaramoye Michael Lenin and others. We challenge them to name publicly the security agency or agencies who carried out the despicable operation

These anti-democratic attacks on trade unions, workers, activists, and protesters by the Tinubu-led government is a new height in tyranny and civilian dictatorship, and a warning signal to the trade union leaders to end its strategic alliance with the capitalist ruling elite. It is also strategically wrong for the trade union leadership to allow the implementation of neo-liberal and anti-poor policies unchallenged on a false premise that it will only negotiate better wages for its members (workers) and reliance on tokenistic palliatives for the people. This strategy has turned out to be a disaster given the humongous hardship imposed on workers and the working masses in general due to implementing anti-people policies. The recent increment in the minimum wage will be eroded very soon by the rising cost of living. Adding insult to injury, most state governors will not pay unless pressured through mass struggle. Fundamentally, the only way the N70,000 will retain its value is if all anti-poor and neo-liberal policies (hikes in petroleum products prices, electricity tariff, and school fees; floating of the Naira etc) are reversed and massive investment in industry and basic infrastructure to create jobs on a huge scale are undertaken.

The NLC leadership should go beyond press statements, it should concretely respond to these undemocratic attacks through a serious mobilization of working people for mass actions. By and large, the trade union leadership should lead the mass struggle and agitation against all anti-people policies and bad governance. Besides, CDWR calls on the NLC and TUC to mobilize workers to ensure the N70,000 minimum wage structure is implemented across the board (public and private sector employees) and also demands the reduction of the outrageous salary and allowance being earned by political office holders to the wage of skilled civil servants.

SIGNED:

Comrade Bosah Chinedu
National Publicity Secretary