★THE GREATER OMAHA GUIDE Nigerian Natives Win Over British Imperialism By Uniting... Omaha, Nebraska, Saturday, November 3.1945 pUge 3 “Class Struggles Bn Nigeria”.... By Robert L. Birchman Admist wild rejoicing half a million African workers celebrated their own V-Day the first week in September. The general strike of more than 150,000 Nigerian workrs on the government-owned railroads, harbor, communications systems and public works had achieved a sweeping and complete victory. For ten weeks the striker's had withstood all forms of official pressure, intimidation and ter orism. Thanks to the unbreakable unity of their ranks, the British Colonial Office was compelled finally to grant their demands. . On instructions from George Ilali, the new Labor Party colonial secretary, Governor Richards of Ni geria broadcast a statement agreeing to comply with the strikers’ demand for a minimum wage of 2 shillings, sixpence a day and promising to pay them full wages for the ten weeks. He also agreed to release all the arrested strike leaders; to reem ploy all government civil servants; to lift the ban on the suppressed newspapers, the Daily Comet and African Pilot, assuring the editor, Nnamdi Azikiwe security of life and property. To mark the historic occasion of this victory of j colored labor over white imperialism, the Nigerian trade union and nationalist leaders issued a special manifesto congratulating the workers on their loy alty and appealing for still greater unity in the struggles ahead. The declaration concluded in the spirit of The Communist Manifesto: “We can send workers no better message than this which Karl Marx, the Jesus Christ of the working class, would have undoubtedly sent them if he were in this coun try today: namely, workers of Nigeria, unite!” The general strike, which began on June 21, had been preceded by a month of negotiations with the government which is the largest employer of labor in Nigeria. On May 21 the African Civil Servants Technical Workers Union sent a letter to the Gov ernor ointing out that, according to their computa tions, the cost of living had risen 200 percent since 1939, and that the government had partially recogn ized this by giving increases to its European em ployees and supplementary allowances to their tamiiies. In view of these facts, the Nigerian Trade Union Congress asked for a minimum wage of 2 shillings sixpence a day, retroactive to April 1, 1944 and a 50 percent increase in cost of living allowance for all workers earning less than 48 pounds (about $200) per year, and a sliding scale above that. The Congress also gave a one-month strike notice in support of these demands, declaring that “the work ers of Nigeria shall proceed to seek their own rem edy, with due regard for law and order on the one hand and starvation on the other.” The letter of the African Civil Servants Techni cal Workers? Union to the Governor described their intolerable living conditions. Prior to the war three or four workers and their families lived in rooms measuring as little as 10 by 10 feet. Today their osition has been considerably worsened. Rents have increased abnormally, prices of food and im ported goods have soared, supplies are scarce. As a result the health of the people has become severe ly impaired and tuberculosis victims are multiply ing. ‘‘Have we fought this war in order to be ex terminated bv starvation?” the letter asked. The Governor of Nigeria is the Sir Arthur Rich ards who attained notoriety for suppression of strikes and demonstrations while he was Governor of Jamaica. This colonial despot replied that lie would not meet with representatives of the workers since no purpose could lie served by discussion. An incraese in wages, he said, would not offset the in creased cost of living but would simply cause infla tion! A second appeal made on June 11 was again inrneu uown. GOVERNMENT PREPARES FOR STRUGGLE: In preparation for the coming struggle the gov ernment reenacted its recently repealed Defense Regulations under which a number of Nigerian trade union leaders had been imprisoned for four years during the war. The regulations on press censorship empower the Governor to suppress any newspaper that publishes uncensored news or crit icizes the Governor or his officials. The penalty for violation is a 500 pound fine or two* years in pris on, or both. Meanwhile many other trade unions, unaffiliated and affiliated with the Trade Union Congress, came out in support of the African Civil Servants Techn ical Workers Union and put forward wage demands of their own. On June 16, for example, the Print ers’ Technical Union at Lagos passed a resolution stating that “we shall not hesitate to fall in line of action with the mexcept our humble demands are favorably considered. The time for action arrived on June 21 when the strike ultimatum of the Trade Union Congress ex pired. At one minute past midnight over 150,000 workers went out on strike. The entire transport, power and communieationc systems throughout Nigeria were immediately aralysed. Unions participating in the strike in cluded the African Civid Service Technical Work ers and its constituent unions, the African Railway and Eingineering Workshops Workers, African Land and Survey Technical Workers, African Post and Telegraph Workers, Nigeria Electrical Work ers, Nigeria Marine African Workers, Public Works Union, Lagos Town Council Workers, Afri can Locomotive Drivers, Government Sawmill Workers. Nigeria Union of Nurses, African In spectors Union, African Railway Topographical Worekrs, African Railway Station Masters, Gov I ernment Press Technical Workers Union and Med ical Department Workers Union. Workers on the privately-owned Elder Lines joined the strike at its beginning. The Elder Lines are a subsidiary of Elder Dempster and Co., Ltd., which has a virtual monopoly on all shipping to and from the West African colonies. Two days after the strike began the Daily Comet reorted that “armed soldiers with rifles were yes terday reorted to be guarding the railway locomo tive yard at Ebute Metta. But all was quiet and there were no disturbances, as no workers appeared! on the scene.” On June 26 the Comet reorted that the miners in the government-owned coal mines at Enugu had joined the strike and a government com munique admitted that the general strike was spreading thorugliout the provinces. As a matter of fact, military personnel were forced to dig grav es’ in the cemeteries as even the grave diggers were on strike. Workers employed by numerous private enter prises later joined in sympathy strikes and in other cases gave support by refusing to serve as strike breakers. Over 200,000 worekrs were on strike be fore it ended. First, the Government threatened to withhold the wages of all strikers for the month of June and to cancel all their pensions, gratuities and contract ual rights. When this intimidation failed, four railroad union leaders were arrested on trumped up charges of participating in an illegal strike. They were later released. Next, to lure the strik ers back to work, the Government issued a promise that there would be no victimization of workers if they returned immediately. But the workers held steadv. The Governor then publicly accused the strikers of sabotaging the transport and communications systems, derailing a train at Oshodi, and cutting telephone lines connecting Lagos with the interior of the country. Ten strike leaders were arrested on these frame-up charges. The reply to these provocations was given at a huge mass arlly in Lagos where thousands of work ers swore on their tribal oath “by our mother Afri ca and the departed spirits of our ancestors” not to return to work until their demands were granted. Their five demands were: pay the strikers for the period during which they have been on strike; guarantee their pensions and other rights; no vic timization of strikers; immediate release of the ar rested strike leaders; grant the original demande for a 2/6 minimum wage. The militancy of the workers was further demon strated when Bankole, president of the NTUC., ad vised the strikers to return to work. This false leader was immediately repudiated and expelled from office. He was replaced bv A. O. Imoude, former president of the Railway Workers Union, who had been released from four years detention and exile on June 2. Imoude had been imprisoned on grounds that his labor activities interfered with the progress of the war. On his release he return ed to Lagos riding on a white horse where he was received like a conquering hero and publicly ac claimed by thousands of workers. The anti-imperialist movement pressed the bat tle on still another front. In protest against the reenactment of the rigid press censorship and sup pression of free opinion, the African Pilot and the Daily Comet, the two leading Nigerian daily papers appeared with their editorial pages blank. These two papers were later suppressed because they criticized those union leaders who advocated that the strikers return to work. The European comm unity threatened to lynch the editor, Azikiwe. Azikiwe cabled to labor, Negro and progressive organizations in the United States and Great Brit am for aid on his behalf. In response to his ap peal cablegrams of rotest were sent to the British Colonial Office and the Governor of Nigeria by James R. Cannon, national secretary of the Social ist Workers Party, Walter White for the NAACP, and R. J. Thomas president of the CIO. United Automobile Workers. In defense of the actions of Governor Richards, the Colonial Office in London issued a statement that the Secretary of State for Colonies “is satis fied that the measures taken by the Nigerian gov ernment to combat the rise in the cost of living are the best possible under the circumstances. Any increase in the cost of living allowance would not only be operated to the detriment of the wage earners themselves, but would result in the deter ioration of the general economic situation.” While the British Government was trying to break the strike, significant demonstrations of sol idarity were held in England. In London over 2,000 Africans and other colonial seamen, war plant workers and students held a mass rally in suppor' of Nigerian labor and collected about $2,000 to aid in feeding the wives and children of the strikers. Sixty telegrams were sent to world trade union or ganizations and unions in America, India and the West Indies by the Pan-African Federation seek ing support for the Nigerian workers. A similar mass meeting held in Manchester collected over $500 for the strike relief fund. e The Nigerian Trade Union Congress which led this tremendous strike struggle to victory is only two years old. It was organized in August 1940 when 200 delegates fro m56 unions, representing over 100,000 workers, met in Lagos, the capital of Nigeria. The Congress issued a manifesto declar ing that the workers of Nigeria were entitled to the full rights of democratic government, including free speech, collective bargaining adequate wages, equality of opportunity and protection against ignorance, want, disease and exploitation. The Congress adopted a program calling for the nation alization of mining, timber and other important in dustries, labor representation on the Legislative Council and the Municipal Councils, social insur ance, education and housing for workers and pro tection of workers’ health. there were delegates from 64 unions and the mem bership had increased to over 400,000. The Niger ian Trade Union Congress now has 86 affiliated unions with a membership of over 500,000. The vigorous proletariat of Nigeria is new and young. The number of wage and salaried workers in Nigeria in 1939 was only 183,000. 37.5 percent were employed by the government. 37.5 percent in mining and 25 percent by commercial firms, agri culture and other private interests. Today it is estimated that there are about one million wage and salaried workers, more than half of them organ ized in unions. RAPID SHIFT TO CAPITALISM The war led directly to this rapid growth of the working class. By the beginning of 1942 the har bors of West Africa became busy ports of call for convoys bound for the Middle and Far Eastern theaters of war. Simultaneously a great chain of airpotrs grew up near the main towns for handling the stream of aircraft carrying men and supplies to North Africa and the Far East. A huge con struction program arnged from the building of mud huts in military camps to the building of up-to date airdromes, new roads, railroads and habor fac ilities. These activities were accompanied by the intensified exploitation of vital raw materials, such as oras, foodstuffs, lumber and rubber. To supply the necessary manpower thousands of natives were literally hurled from their primitive agrarian and tribual mode of living into the modern world of machinery and capitalism. These devel opments produced far-reaching dislocations in the social structure of Nigeria. Processes that in peace time would have taken generations are today being completed in weeks or months. Simultaneously with the rapid rise of the trade union movement there has developed a large and powerful Nigerian nationalist movement in which the trade unions play a leading part. This politic al movement has cut across tribal traditions, relig ious ties, Mohammedan, Christian, Pagan, and the barrier of diverse native languages, Nigeria with its numerous native states and tribes, has hitherto been bound together only by geographical proxim ity and the bureaucratic apparatus of the British imperialist overlords. Now its people are develop ing a national consciousness. The nationalist movement took on defnnite shape in August 1943 when a delegation of editors of West African newspapers in Great Britain issued a mem orandum on “The Atlantic Charter and West Afri ca.”' Basing their claim on Clause 3 of the Atlan tic Charter which affirms “the right of all people to choose the form of government under which they may live,” they asked for the immediate abrogation of the Crown Colony system of government and the substitution of representative government. The authors of the memorandum declared “that factors of capitalis mand imperialism have stifled the nor mal growth of these territories.” The memoran dum set forth a series of proposals for reforms in education, health, social welfare, agriculture, min ing, finance, trade and commerce. upon tne return ot the press delegation to Africa, a campaign to popularize these demands was start ed under the leadership of Nnamdi Azikiwe, editor o fthe West African Pilot, largest Nigerian daily newspaper, and secretary of the delegation. On January 20 of this year a constitutional convention was held in Lagos, capital of Nigeria, which form ulated and adopted a draft constitution and a pro gra mof economic and social reforms. The conven tion set up the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons for the purpose of uniting in federation all progressive organizations in the country. The Jun 26 Daily Comet reports that 126 organiz ations have affiliated with the Council. Among them are sixty tribal unions, the two leading polit ical parties—the Nigerian National Democratic Party and the Union of Young Democrats—eleven social clubs, eight professional associations. The most significant are the two leading trade union organizations—the West African LTnion of Seamen and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria with its 86 affiliated unions and membership of over 500,000 An editorial in the May 17 West African Pilot says that the Council has a following of over 6 million people. Alarmed by these developments the British Gov ernment set about to counter the popular insistence on a new constitution. Shortly after this conven tion a White Paper containing proposals for the re form of the Constitution of Nigeria was issued with the approval of the British Colonial Secretary, in the name of Sir Richards, Governor of Nigeria. Bv this proposed constitutional revision the British imperialists sought to prevent the emanation of a draft constitution from the people themselves through the Constitutional Convention. Calling a special meeting of the l egislative Coun cil in March, Richards presented a constitutional draft demanding immediate acceptance before the people had an opportunity U studv it. The Council made up of a majority of white officials and a min ority of hand-picked chiefs, voted acceptance. At the same session of the Legislative Council Richards secured approval for two bills. One granted the British Government the right to con fiscate