Conservatism amongst Nigerian workers

In a recent paper (Waterman 1974) I discussed the debate that has been taking place, largely amongst socialists, over the role of workers and unions in Africa. I identified three major positions that have emerged. One was the traditional Communist position that the workers and unions are the leading force for national and social revolution in Africa. Another was the Fanonist thesis (as well as a common liberal one) that the regularly-employed workers and their unions are a privileged and conservative 'labour aristocracy'. The third was the new Marxist one that whilst workers and unions could not be categorised wholesale as a labour aristocracy (having considerable radical potential), such a group did exist significantly amongst them

International labou's Y2K problem : a debate, a discussion and a dialogue : (a contribution to the ILO/ICFTU Conference on Organised Labour in the 21st Century)

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Communist Theory in the Nigerian Trade Union Movement

The subject of this paper is the Nigerian Trade Union Congress (NTUC), the Communist trade union organisation in Nigeria. More specifically, it is about the central leadership of the NTUC, since the organisation is in origin and structure a central, national and Lagos-based federation of trade unions. Even more specifically, it concerns the theoretical activity of this group, its view of Nigerian society and its organisational strategy. While this focus might seem excessively narrow for the study of a trade union organisation, it is perhaps justified for examination of a Marxist-oriented group. A true understanding of their environment has traditionally been considered a prerequisite of effective political action by Marxists. And Marxists working in the trade unions have traditionally paid great attention to organisational strategy

Union organisations, social movements and the Augean stables of global governance

The traditional international union organisations are currently engaged in a series of 'social partnership' initiatives at global level. Prominent amongst these is that addressed to 'global governance'. This project comes from outside and above the unions, is addressed to the existing hegemonic interstate instances, and is carried out primarily by lobbying. This orientation is increasingly challenged by a 'global justice and solidarity movement', more concerned with the democratisation of the global, and more oriented to consciousness-raising and mobilising than lobbying. The new movement, moreover, operates in places and spaces, with forms and understandings, that relate rather to a contemporary globalised-informatised capitalism than to the old national-industrial-colonial one which gave rise and shape to the international unions. Trade unions will have to abandon the discourse of global governance for that of global democracy, and to operate on the terrains of this new movement, if they are to effectively defend and advance worker rights and power under the new global despensation

The Bamako Appeal of Samir Amin: a post modern Janus?

The Bamako Appeal is an attempt to move the World Social Forum process from being some kind of agora for discussion of alternatives to neo-liberal globalisation, to the provision of an anti-capitalist leadership for the global justice and solidarity movement. Sponsored by prominent left activist intellectuals of the 'Thirdworldis' tradition, it has nonetheless adopted much of the language of the new movement. Because of its authors' apparent vanguardism, the BA has proven controversial within and around the leadership of the WSF. Such charters, declarations and manifestos are, however, common within the wider movement, occur within the WSF itself and should be welcomed. But the process by which the BA has appeared and been launched reproduces old movement practices that the new movement has been surpassing. The BA's chapter on labour suggests the possibility and necessity for a meaningfully global and open dialogue on the BA more generally. Whilst the BA is commonly seen as a deviation from or opposition to the WSF process, both of these instances reveal the simultaneous backward-looking and forward-looking nature of emancipatory movements

Movement internationalism/s

The word internationalism originally referred to relationships between nations and states, but came quite early to mean relationships of solidarity between people and peoples across or despite national boundaries, inter-state conflicts and economic competition. Over the past few centuries it has been a constant feature of social movement practice, from the 1649 Leveller mutiny against joining Cromwell’s campaign in Ireland to the 1984 – 87 Dublin shopworkers’ strike against handling South African produce - or contemporary international solidarity with struggles in Mexico, Kobane or Ferguson. International solidarity has been hugely important in changing the terms of politics. External supporters often provide crucial sources of legitimacy, publicity, funding or knowledge – but they also tell local activists that they are not alone, that what they do resonates on a world stage and that official attempts to dismiss their issues do not convince everyone. Conversely, supporting struggles abroad can be a tool for educating movement participants, thinking outside the particular state’s political discourses and arrangements, and seeing other, more emancipatory possibilities. It is not only that together we are stronger; as movements make links outside local power arrangements they come to define a different kind of power, spoken more on their own terms than on those of the national state, the local wealthy, the dominant culture, and so on. What is hegemonic locally is often shown to be a provincial peculiarity on a wider scale – and hence contingent, vulnerable to popular pressure. For all of these reasons, social movements regularly think and act in international terms. At the same time, the practice of internationalism is anything other than straightforward. It exposes participants to particular pressures, from accusations of being foreign agents to isolation from the wider community; it can involve taking sides in often less than transparent internecine struggles of movements elsewhere; when successful, its effects are not always as expected; and the inequalities which often exist between participants can lead to bruising experiences. Over the years, Interface has published several discussions of transnational solidarity as well as many pieces which arise out of internationalist activism and research; as a project, of course, it is programmatically international, geared towards “learning from each other’s struggles” in different regions of the world – and organised on the basis of autonomous regional groups of editors. This special issue, we hope, takes the theme further with a thought-provoking selection of pieces