The Nigeria section of the International Marxist Tendency (IMT) recently held its national Conference on Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th November, 2010. The Conference which was well attended by the members witnessed a lot of highly educational and inspiring leadoffs and contributions from the comrades present in the sessions. Some of the comrades living outside Lagos travelled hundreds of kilometres on the ever deteriorating Nigerian roads to be part of the conference.
On the first day of the event, political educational sessions were held, namely on World Perspectives, highlighting the present world economic crisis and the growing class struggles, particularly in Europe and Nigerian Perspectives, which looked into the way the world economic situation is impacting on Nigeria as well as the situation inside the Nigerian Labour Movement.
The IMT’s World Perspectives were generally reaffirmed in that the economic trend will remain that of sluggish growth on a world scale, with very limited development of capital, further attacks on the working class combined with structural unemployment, which inevitably would lead to an intensification of the struggle between the classes.
On the Nigeria front, it was equally reaffirmed that the perspective is that of the intensification of the ongoing socio-economic crisis, with more attacks unleashed on workers and the poor sections of the population through different means. The Nigerian ruling class is presently faced with limited options on the political front, with a section that prefers to continue the present deceit, spending part of the accumulated reserves to placate the poor (but with very limited space to manoeuvre) and another section who is saying enough with the ongoing deceits, that they will not be able to afford this for much longer and that the working class must be taken head-on. In the main, the perspective is that of an awakened working class that will eventually come to the political conclusion of the need to go for political power.
Another important highlight of the Conference was the discussion on the Nigerian Labour movement. It was generally accepted that the workers of Nigeria yearn for a party of their own and that Marxists should support any attempt by sections of workers and unions to build such a party.
On the second day, the report of the work and progress of the International Marxist Tendency was discussed in the first session. The report, ranging from the work of the comrades in Venezuela to that of the impressive work of the Pakistani Marxists of The Struggle, was noted as inspiring and will serve as an impetus to the work of the Nigerian Marxists. The second session discussed the report of the activities in Nigeria in the period between the last conference and now.
The conference was concluded with the election of a national committee and there was no doubt that the event was reinvigorating as members were all in high spirit to face the activities of the coming year.
Website of Nigerian Marxists: Workers' Alternative (English)