INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON “THE CENTENARY OF TRADE UNIONISM IN NIGERIA: LESSONS FROM THE PAST, CHALLENGES OF THE PRESENT, VISION FOR THE FUTURE”

Conference Announcement

The first trade union in Nigeria was formed on 19th August 1912 and has since then faced tremendeous challenges and attained significant gains for the working people. The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) - the apex labour organization – in recognition of this will be organizing a conference to commemorate “The Centenary of Trade Unionism in Nigeria: Lessons from the Past, Challenges of the Present, Vision for the Future” from 19th–24th August 2012 in Abuja, NIGERIA

The Congress solicits for papers from scholars, trade unionists, labour activists, and the likes from within and outside Nigeria on the following subjects:

➢ Trade Union Development in Nigeria: Formation; Workers & their Unions; Inter and Intra Union Politics; Division & Unity, etc;

➢ The Conditions of the Nigerian Working Class: Housing; Health and safety; Family and Social Life, etc; i.e, industrial relations, the cost of living & coping strategies

➢ Workers Struggles: strikes, mass protest-demonstrations, etc.

➢ State, Capital and the Trade Union Movement in Nigeria.

➢ The Trade Union and National Politics in Nigeria: Anti-colonial Struggles; Democratic Struggles; Anti-imperialist Struggles; Political Parties, the Media, Civil Society Groups and the Trade Unions Movement;

➢ Trade Unions and Economic Development in Nigeria;

➢ the Nigerian Trade Union Movement, the International Labour Movement; Cold War Politics; and the “New World Order”;

➢ Gender and Labour.

➢ Nigerian Arts, Culture and Literature and the Representation of workers.

➢ Representation of workers in the Nigerian Film and Video Industry.

Despite these specific topics, the Congress will be happy to consider and accommodate topics that deal with the experiences and struggles of workers in Africa and other parts of the world. In this respect, the Congress particularly invites papers that present new facts, critique previous studies and offer new trends in working class and trade union history, labour scholarship and historiographies of working peoples’ struggles; papers that forcefully present and critically challenge neo-liberal policies and practices; and papers that examine and scrutinize transnational workers’ and peoples’ struggles for and against globalization.

The Conference will be organized in three formats: ➢ Plenary Sessions for Guest Speakers & Presentation of Communiqué;

➢ Group Sessions for paper presenters.

➢ Roundtables on the experiences and struggles of trade union movements globally, especially in Sudan, Algeria, Egypt, Zambia, Zimbabwe & South Africa in Africa; the United States, Canada, Brazil & Argentina in the Americas; Germany, Greece, Russia & Poland in Europe; China, India, Bangladesh, & Pakistan in Asia.

The NLC will publish the conference papers either in book form or electronically. Accordingly, selected presenters will be requested to submit their paper(s) on or before 19th July, 2012 to the Congress for advance distribution to allow participants become familiar with the papers of each grouped session, encourage lively and rich discussions during the Conference, and to make suggestions for further development of papers.

Exhibition and a range of cultural activities are being planned as part of the centenary commemoration. All activities will be opened to the general public.

Interested participants should send an abstract of 300-500 words accompanied with a brief CV or biography to nlc100yrsconference@nlcng.org and copy to gsec@nlcng.org. Deadline for the submission of abstract is 20th April 2012. Notification of accepted abstract is 27th April, 2012 and for the paper is 19th July 2012. Detailed information on the Conference will be posted on NLC website: www.nlcng.org