Baba Aye's

Today makes it twenty-one years since Comrade Ola Oni passed on. He was one of the greatest leaders and teachers on the Nigerian Left, from the '60s till his death. He, along with Eskor Toyo, Baba Omojola and others split from the Socialist Workers and Farmers Party in Augsut 1964 (i.e., a year and four months after SWAFP was formed) to form the Nigeria Labour Party under the leadership of Michael Imoudu (Labour Leader #1). Both SWAFP and the NLP would be smashed by the military juntas (first of General Aguinyi Ironsi's for just 6 months but more so by General Yakubu Gowon's which lasted 9 years), as all partisan formations were repressed. But the tendency they had formed would continue in different forms (as well as SWAFP's till the early '90s) till the early 2000s. With elections on the horizons for the establishment of a Second Republic in 1979, a series of two All-Nigeria Socialist Conferences were organised in 1977 and 1978, with the primary aim of formin...

Response to Osaze Lanre Nosaze's open letter It is quite unfortunate that not once in the 4,407 words of Osaze’s letter is there even the slightest mention of the defining issue of today i.e. the COVID19 pandemic. It shows how disconnected from changing the world his penchant for interpreting it is.* Anyway, I have neither the time nor the disposition for a long-drawn response, for the moment at least. But there are some outright distortions that need to be clarified and a few issues which I will summarily put in perspective regarding the claims and accusations made in his open letter. 1.        On “our phone discussion” and related matters -           Osaze claims that I or as he puts it, the SWL merely “wanted a CORE meeting held where the question of developing a programme for the organisation would be finalised and an expanded leadership established”. This is a half-truth.  -    ...

·        Learning from a Turning Point Struggle                       Memorial of the Iva Valley Massacre in Enugu, the "Coal City". The killing of 21 striking coalminers on November 18, 1949, at the Iva Valley mines Enugu, was a turning point in the struggle against colonialism. Working-class people’s resistance spurred anti-colonial revolts, ascertaining the leading role of the working class as the strongest and most consistent social force in fighting for a better society. There are several lessons to learn from this heroic moment in the history of the working class. The colonialists presented British imperialism as a defender of “democracy” during World War II, since it was part of the allies that routed fascism on the European continent. Workers sacrificed, increasing productivity, including in the coalmines, to support the war...