ABDUCTED GIRLS: WE SAY NO TO IMPERIALIST INTERVENTION!

NLC and TUC must mobilize mass protests and one-day general strike against terrorist attacks on poor working masses, students & youths, joblessness, poverty wages etc

PRESS STATEMENT

We of the Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN) wholeheartedly welcome the campaigns for the return of the abducted Chibok girls. We also call for an end to the killings by Boko Haram terrorists. But we are totally opposed to the planned military intervention by foreign imperialist forces under the disguise of aiding the “war against terrorism”.

The imperialist powers including the United States, United Kingdom, France, China and Israel have been falling over themselves to act as “messiah” for the Nigerian people with military intervention.

Our opposition is anchored on the historical fact that the imperialist military intervention will only lead to a further explosion of tensions; given the fact the country will become a target for global terrorist forces. 

It is a known fact the so-called war against terrorism led by imperialist forces has only worsened the situation in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Besides, thousands of ordinary people were killed by the imperialist forces in the course of the purported fight against terrorists.

What the imperialist powers and the local capitalist ruling elite know, but shy away from is the fundamental socio-economic inequality in Nigeria, which is the predominant basis for the emergence of backward and reactionary forces like Boko Haram.

In contrast to foreign intervention, what is urgently needed now is a working people’s led and democratically constituted mass self-defence committees, not just in the Northeast but everywhere else in the country, as there is nowhere that cannot be a target for the terrorists.

We also call for the solidarity of the rank-and-file of the armed forces and the police, to refuse to turn their guns on the fighting forces of the working masses and join hands with the working masses’ self-defence committees to build an all-encompassing mass resistance against unacceptable terrorist killings and neo-liberal attacks on the rights of the working masses.

We in the SPN therefore challenge the leaderships of both the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) to go beyond mere words and lead a mass resistance of the working masses against the relentless wave of terrorist attacks and the neo-liberal policies that fuel them through a one-day general strike and mass protests. The demand must also include an end to wanton killings and unlawful detention of innocent people by the security operatives under the guise of fighting Boko Haram.  It is a fact that the casualties of war against terror in the North East Nigeria are not only the victims of Boko Haram but also of the security operatives called Joint Task Force (JTF)

The general strike we are proposing would serve as a notice to the government that the working people are prepared to take their destiny into their hands. This is also necessary to give a biting teeth to the ongoing strike actions of unions like the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) and the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) against attack on education, the struggle of National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) against mass retrenchment and unions in the aviation sector against the merger of the aviation agencies with looming job losses.

We contend that such an accelerated mass struggle for immediate improvement in the living conditions of the working people must be linked to a resolute opposition by the labour movement against the planned imperialist military intervention.

Yet, ultimately without building a coherent and independent working people’s political alternative that can remove all sections of the rotten ruling elite and build an anti-imperialist movement to put the enormous wealth of society into the hands of the working people, we are quick to the warn that the current gloomy era will only be a prelude to a season of catastrophic attacks with all the consequences for the working masses.

The SPN says:

Free Abducted Chibok Girls and End Boko Haram Killings.

End the killings and unlawful detentions of innocent people by the security operatives under the guise of fighting Boko Haram

No to imperialist intervention! Foreign troops out of Nigeria! Build self-defence committees under a working people democratic control everywhere to organise against the terrorists!

For a one day general strike by NLC and TUC against poverty wages, mass retrenchment and   education attacks! Solidarity of the workers of the world with the Nigerian workers in the resistance against terrorism and imperialist intervention!

Segun Sango

National Chairperson

For and on Behalf of SPN National Executive Committee (NEC