| | In this article the author attempts to provide a historical understanding of the nature, character and contradictions of the Nigerian labour movement in the struggle for democracy. The article shows the capacity of labour movements' radicalism to influence processes of political transition even in the absence of a meaningful impact on the part of labour organisations themselves. However, only a multi-faceted analysis of labour, concerned with shifting boundaries between institutions and militancy, centralised bargaining and localised conflict, commitment to democratic stability and to the defence of standards of living undermined by structural adjustment will provide an appropriate space for the study of radicalism and social transformative visions as components in building organised labour as an effective actor in democratisation. In the meantime, the absence of socially and strategically diversified organised labour in Nigeria today is what mostly makes the perpetuation of military power viable. |
