Africa

A number of left-wing activists have been arrested and sentenced to severe terms in prison in Morocco. The regime is cracking down because there is a growing wave of militancy in the country. Please sign and send off the protest letter here provided.

For the first time in years there was one joint Mayday rally in Nigeria of all the trade unions. The Marxists intervened successfully in spite of attempts by the police to stop the distribution of material. Meanwhile the petit bourgeois left are once again making the same mistakes as in the past by mouthing the same slogans as the bourgeois “opposition”.

The recent elections in Nigeria were blatantly rigged. The problem is that the official bourgeois oppositions is incapable of doing anything about it. That is because they serve the same interests. It is up to the working class to build its own party through the trade unions and offer a genuine socialist way out of the present crisis.

The Nigerian authorities are attempting to crush all independent student union representation. At the OAU campus the students are valiantly defending their right to organise but have been met with a brutal response. Please add your name to the protest.

Workers at the Riekebir shoe factory in Morocco work under terrible conditions with dangerous chemicals. They have set up a union and are fighting for better and safer working conditions. The bosses have launched a counter campaign of sackings and intimidation. We are launching the following appeal in support of the workers at the factory.

The Obasanjo regime in Nigeria boasts about its economic achievements, but it is only fooling itself. The real situation is that polarisation between the classes, with extreme wealth for the few and intense poverty for the many, has never been so great.

A Labour Party has been launched in Nigeria and is standing candidates in the forthcoming elections. Unfortunately it is dominated by bourgeois politicians, in many cases people who have abandoned the rotten ship of the discredited parties that make up the present set up. That may explain why so few workers have joined it so far.

Guinea has been rocked by a series of mass mobilisations and general strikes since the beginning of the year. The strikes in January and February represent the high point in a series of mobilisations that have taken place since the end of 2005.

The Communist League of Action has published a reply to the leadership of the Democratic Path in Morocco. The Democratic Path, the main left-wing party in Morocco and inheritor of the old Marxist-Leninist left, has recently called for negotiations to resolve the question of the Western Sahara. The purpose of CLA’s critique is to arm the new generation of socialist activists with a clear Marxist understanding of the question of the Western Sahara and the national question in general.

The National Union of Moroccan students recently organised a week of political and cultural activities with the aim of reaching new layers of youth with their ideas. From meetings to film shows, the National Union was able to explain their ideas and discuss current events in Latin America and the world with a wide layer of students.

Yesterday a newly formed Moroccan Marxist group was publicly launched on the website www.marxy.com. The group, called the Communist League of Action, brings together students and young workers from different towns in the country.

While promising to meet the unions, the Nigerchin management is trying to use scan labour to break the strike. On recognising the workers’ right to join any union thy wish they have raised the excuse that they must first consult with the owners back in China! These workers are fighting for basic trade union rights. Please support the solidarity campaign and raise this in your union.

Chemical workers at the Nigerian company, NIGERCHIN, have come out on an indefinite strike simply to defend their right to join the trade union of their choice. Trade union activists and members are being victimised because of this. They need your support! Raise this issue among your workmates and friends and get letters of protest sent off.

On top of all its other anti-working class policies, the Obasanjo regime in Nigeria has recently introduced a new pension scheme, which is nothing other than a privatisation of pensions, with investment funds taking over the running of workers' pensions, funds which could collapse easily, and with no government guarantees, leaving future pensioners destitute.