The Social Equality Movement (SEM) has accused the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) of abandoning the arena of struggle amid hardship in the land.

SEM made this statement as workers mark Workers’ Day. The theme of this year is Reclaiming The Civil Space in the Midst of Economic Hardship.

It said: “Today, the top echelon of the Labour bureaucracy, who command the two main Labour centres, Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress, have abandoned the arena of struggle.”
It added that despite the rain of anti-poor neoliberal attacks on the living conditions of rank-and-file Nigerian workers, the unions have refused to lift a finger against these attacks.

“This is in tandem with the ‘there is no alternative’ to neoliberal attacks accepted by the trade unions globally, especially since the 90s with the restoration of capitalism in the Stalinist Soviet Union and the triumphalism of capitalism globally.”

“In Nigeria, the two leaderships of the NLC and TUC accepted, in principle, the fuel subsidy removal policy of the President Bola Tinubu administration. They only made half-hearted appeals for palliatives afterwards.”

It called on rank-and-file workers to organise themselves to resist attacks from below.
In its call, it said: “We call for the formation of rank-and-file workers’ action committees, which will democratically discuss and plan how to build mass actions to resist attacks.”

“The Socialist Equality Movement will support such rank-and-file workers’ initiatives and help link them with the International Alliance of Rank-and-File Workers Committees (IARFWC) of the International Committee of the Fourth International.”

Workers in Nigeria have a historic task to overthrow the Nigerian ruling class, providing leadership to the peasantry, students, and youth. We posit that such a revolutionary mass movement can only proceed on a permanent international basis by linking up with their class brothers and sisters across the world.

“This is why the Socialist Equality Movement is part of the International Committee of the Fourth International, which is building a genuine worldwide international movement of workers and youth to defeat war, fascism, and capitalism.”

“By socialism, we oppose the false version of ‘socialism in one country’ espoused by Stalin and his successors in the defunct Soviet Union and its satellite states. We refer to an international democratic experience of workers and youth globally.”

The working masses in Nigeria and Africa need to join up with the working class worldwide to build a global mass movement against Trump’s fascist trade war and the needless imperialist bloodbath in Gaza and Ukraine.

“We of the Socialist Equality Movement, in political solidarity with the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), extend solidarity greetings to millions of rank-and-file Nigerian workers on this year’s celebration of May Day.”