In preparation for the coming struggle the government re- enacted its recently repealed Defense Regulations under which a number of Nigerian trade union leaders had been imprisoned for four years during the war.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 criticizes the Governor or his officials. The penalty for violation is a 500 pound fine or two years in prison, or both. Meanwhile many other trade unions, unaffiliated and affiliated with the Trade Union Congress, came out in support of the African Civil Servants Technical Workers Union and put forward wage demands of their own. On June 16, for example, the Printers’ 5 Union at Lagos passed a resolution
stating that “we shall not hesitate to fall in line of action with them except our humble demands are favorably considered.” The time for action arrived on June 21 when the strike
ultimatum of the Trade Union Congress expired. At one minute past midnight over 150,000 workers went out on strike. The entire transport, power and communications systems throughout Nigeria were immediately paralysed. Unions participating in the strike included the African Civil Service Technical Workers and its constituent unions, the African
Railway and Engineering, Workshops Workers, African Land and Survey Technical Workers, African Post and Telegraph Workers, Nigeria Electrical Workers, Nigeria Marine African
Workers, Public Works Union, Lagos Town Council Workers, African Locomotive Drivers, Government Sawmill Workers, Nigeria Union of Nurses, African Inspectors Union, African
Railway Topographical Workers, African Railway Station Masters, Government Press Technical Workers Union and Medical 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 reported that “armed soldiers with rifles were yesterday reported to be guarding the railway locomotive 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 reported that the miners in the government-owned coal mines at Enugu had
joined the strike and a government communique admitted that the general strike was spreading throughout the provinces. As
a matter of fact, military personnel were forced to dig graves in the cemeteries as even the grave diggers were on strike. Workers employed by numerous private enterprises later joined in sympathy strikes and in other cases gave support by refusing to serve as strike-breakers. Over 200,000 workers
were on strike before 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 contractual 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 strikers back to work, the Government issued a promise that there would be no victimization of workers if they returned immediately. But the workers held steady. 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.
Source - Robert L. Birchman
Class Struggles In Nigeria
