gen-. eral strike involving 1,000,000 workers. The strike had loomed since the unions united in forming a:Joint Action Committee shortly after Nigeria achieved the status of a republic last October, The Joint Action Committee called for establishment of a federal minimum wage of £20 [$56] a month. The minimum wage for government employes in the capital city of Lagos at the time was &7/l12s. ($21.28 . Under heavy pressure, the government set up a commission headed by Chief Justice Adeyinka Morgan to make an inquiry. It came in with many recommendations for improvements, including a minimum wage of 412 [$33.60] a month, The government, however, was slow. in publishing the report, On May 26 the Joint Action Committee served an ultimatum on the government -- publish the report within 72 hours or face a general strike. On Saturday, May 30, the unions began strike prepar-~ ations, Police attacked a rally that day, injuring dozens and arresting a number of people. The general strike began June 1. On June 3 the government published the Morgan Commission report with an aosoomanying White Paper that offered a minimum wage of only £9/2s. (eee, 48). The strike continued with mounting impact. The following is an eyewitness account which we have received from our Lagos. oorrespondent, ~- Editor. ] ,
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It was rather flimsy, starting a general strike for slowness in publishing a government report, But discontent had been brewing in the country for three years since Independence, Also public assemblies, demonstrations and meetings of most sorts had been declared illegal by executive decrees called "promulgations,." These ron something like this:
"No Assemblies Lagos
"January 1 to 10, 1964,
"Order dated Dec, 31, 1963,"
"No Assemblies Northern Region
"January 15 to February 18,
- "Order dated January 14, 1964,"
And so-on for all parts of the country.
When the Joint Action Committee called a meeting in a hotel for Saturday, May 50, it was strictly not within the law, At the rally, M.,A.O,Imoudu made an impassioned speech on the lot of the workers, on the need for political freedom, violations of the Constitution, etc, His most biting remarks concerned the ban on demonstra-
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tions, Nigeriats No, 1 labour leader shouted, "Now we will break the so-called ban" mm
The crawd of workingmen carried him off on their shoulders and the demonstration had begun. It consisted of a long massive march from the Lagos mainland towards the island.
Besides being illegal, the demonstration was unplanned, Hence the crowd was unprepared for the squads of riot policemen they encountered in battle readiness at the corner near the entrance to Carter. Bridge.
Alhaji Adehdlu of the United Labour Congress, the governmentrecognized union affiliated to the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, decided to stop and have a chat with the police officer in charge. Imoudu asked to be put down so that he could march properly aoross the bridge on his own feet,
. This pause of less than sixty seconds gave | a favorable opening to the police, They charged the workers from three sides. The crowd had no place to go but backwards along a single street.
Soon Adehdlu was being hit with batons, He went down and was trampled by workers beginning to stampede. Imoudu, by moving quickly forward, had broken through the police lines but found himself alone. on the bridge. He turned to join the workers, again going through the police formation, He received some baton blows on the head but managed to rejoin his comrades and escape.
This episode became known as the Battle of Carter Bridge and is now often cited,
On the next day,- workers throughout the country were ‘able to. read the headlines, “Workers Leaders Beaten Up by Police and Taken to Hospital," Despite this shocking news, something favorable had happened, The ban on freedom of assembly. had been broken, There was no doubt that the strike to begin on Monday June 1 would be a big one. ‘The workers were furious and determined,
At 6:30 a.m. I found three railway crossing gates removed, The trains were not running, I went to the docks at 7 a.m, and by noon we learned that all the ships were idle,’ The strike was virtually complete although not yet nation-wide, It was, however, spreading with enormous speed. Water was still available as well as electricity. Soldiers were keeping. the power plants running. They did this by protecting the European staff with drawn batons,
On Tuesday municipal bus, sewage and other workers stopped work, Production throughout the country came to a virtual standstill,
In the north of Nigeria the unions are not as well organized as in the south, The first news of what was happening there came
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Wednesday, June 3, Not only had the strike spread there, but the union leaders were being dragged to court on charges of "sabotage." What this referred to was the strike of workers in essential services.
In the west, a union leader who had criticized. the strike preparations on Saturday as "flimsy," swung around by Tuesday and became a most efficient strike organizer, At Ibadan University the solidarity was not complete. Students beat up workers who refused to serve them because they were on strike, (African students were once the most dynamic in the world!)
A powerful new surge in the strike struggle occurred when the civil servants joined in. Their strike was one hundred per cent solid whereas the strike of the commercial workers remained spotty. —
In eastern Nigeria, at Port Harcourt, two hundred workers marched fifteen miles to "free" some workers still on the job at a factory.
At Aba, women and workers marohed to the High Court there and asked the judge why he was not on strike, His lordship fled, leaving his wig behind, according to eyewitnesses,
It was also in eastern Nigeria that workers marched on the police station to release their leaders held in cells, The police fled, The gates were forced open, the leaders freed, and the strike continued,
In bourgeois circles it was generally forecast that the strike would end on Monday, June 8. But anyone who attended any of the mass meetings held throughout the country on the Saturday before would have disagreed, Immense activities were taking place in the workers movement and in left circles. The fruit of this appeared during the following week, "SS Committees" were set up in every factory, These were strike committees of activists, most of them oriented toward the recently formed Revolutionary Marxist Group. The SS Committees did excellent work so far as organization was concerned,
In some shops and offices where expatriates were working, most of them Southern Europeans, the SS Committees marched in and "freed" them, threatening the employers,
On June 8 Prime Minister Alhaji Sir Abubaka Tafawa Balewa gave a nation-wide address in which he served a 48-hour ultimatum to the workers to return to work or face the direst consequences, including dismissal,
As the two days expired, thousands of leaflets appeared in Lagos giving the prime minister an ultimatum, The leaflet read as follows: : .
Pay oye
"Balewa Ultimatum
"Sweating in their workshops and offices, the toilers of Nigeria create wealth but enjoy the fruits therein not. Consequently we are on strike, A nation-wide strike for a living wage does not seem to impress our oppressors, Instead of negotiations they give us ultimatums,
"Today the workers prove that they cannot be intimidated by any ultimatum or show of forces, We are not returning to work,
"Instead we give an ultimatum to the Balewa Government to resign since they cannot fulfill the aspirations of our toiling oountrymen, If they cannot implement Morgan Commission Awards, resign within 48 hours or face the wrath of the forces of the united toilers of Nigeria,
"Morgan or no Morgan the struggle of the Nigerian workingman continues, Today it is the strike and we are going to Strike, Strike and Strike again. Tomorrow it is workers Power}!
"Our aims are peaceful but if violence is used against us, we, the toiling millions, shall defend ourselves, Bayonets cannot stop us nor shields made of baskets, [Nigerian police shields are made of canes,]
"All striking workers and progressive citizens are forming workers defence committees to keep vigilance and protect the population. Strike, Strike and Strike again. Down with Balewa.
"Tssued by the Lagos Workers Defence Committees,"
The demonstrations increased. More police attacks ocourred, Tear gas, baton charges, hospitalizations. Police armed with bayonets often stood at the ready near workers rallies, which were still illegal, However the cases of unlawful assembly brought against the tradeunion leaders after the Battle of Carter Bridge were suspended,
During the week, the police declared that Imoudu was wanted, Plainolothesmen came to his house where he was still in bed from the clubbing he had received but they did not dare try to go through the workers surrounding the place, °
At their rallies, the workers began picking up new slogans: "Powert" "Tmoudu, our Prime Minister!" "Give us a Labour party!"
At the Ibadan race course grounds, a resolution was passed unanimously, demanding formation of a Labour party.
Prime Minister Balewa, who had been vacationing out of town,
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returned to Lagos. I watched him as he. drove. into Tafawa Balewa Square, The crowd booed, They called him, "Ole! Olelt" (The translation is thief or robber.) “The prime minister stayed but shortly and left town again. .
As the strike continued, a cabinet meeting was called, ‘he Nigerian Employers Consultative Association LNECA] began to hold meetings. They were weakening, but they still did not want to meet the wage level called for in the Morgan report, They put notices in the newspapers dismissing employees who failed to return to work by such and such a date. No one paid any attention,
‘By Friday July 12, marketwomen were ready to go on strike, The meaning of this can be gathered from the fact that ninety per cent of the distribution of the Nigerian economy is in the hands of these women,
Just before this the youth began staging demonstrations in Lagos, They came from three corners of the city’ and converged towards the oenter., Most of them were members of the Action Group youth's association, They carried sticks and sang war songs. Not a single policeman was to’ be seen in any of the streets occupied by the youth,
The Cabinet indicated Friday that it would retreat. The government, the NECA and the Joint Action Committee went into negotiations.
At the same time, rumours circulated that some expatriate employers wanted to murder M.A.O.Imoudu, The volunteer workers! guard around him was doubled. Other kinds of rumours circulated concerning an army take over,
It happened that I was arrested on Friday. The police chief asked me about attempts to topple the government. But I assured him that this would not occur because the government would certainly accept the Morgan report either that very day or by Sunday at the latest,
The prediction turned out to be accurate. When they turned me loose Saturday morning, the headlines announced that the strike had come to an end because the Government, the NECA and the Joint Aotion Committee had agreed to use the Morgan report as the basis for nego-= tiations. The workers had gained their point.
The most important gain of the 1964 general strike, however, was a great rise in the political consciousness of the workers. This will bear fruit in the coming period.
~Be..
COLONIAL PROPLE