The organised Labour movement, as matter of self-enlightened interest, decided to get involved in the baking of the bread and the preparation of the butter, in order to be in a better position to get a more satisfying slice… A vital lesson to be learnt from the transformational experiences of organised labour movements into political parties was that whilst it is true that labour is the most important factor of production, politics as the fourth factor of production was far more important.
The advent of the industrial revolution in the 18th century in the United Kingdom, continental Europe and the United States of America, established land, labour and capital as the primary factors of production. While land included natural, mineral and water resources above and beneath it, capital essentially referred to money, the legal tenders or any other means of exchange, and labour was the work force deployed to till, mine and cultivate the land, as well as oversee the proper utilisation of capital. But of the three primary factors of economic production, labour is the most important. Although interdependent of each other, and with none dispensable, labour is needed to convert the enormous potentials of land to satisfy wants, just as it is the fruits of labour that is converted into capital, to keep the wheel of production grinding. Labour is the most important factor of economic production because while capital and land are inanimate, labour is animate in its primary form as a human activity that utilises the other two factors to satisfy human wants and needs accordingly.
While the industrial revolution transformed the course of human economic activities for better, the invention of machines and its substitution of manual labour tended to undermine the importance of labour in the early stages of the industrial age. Armed with enormous capital and equipped with machines, the emergent class of industrial capitalists, like slave masters before them, exploited labour to the maximum, without commensurate benefit. It was out of the chaos of the early stages of the industrial revolution, which was characterised by poor wages, exploitation, poor working conditions and everything that could be categorised as unfair and unethical labour practices, that the organised labour movement emerged.
As a means of collective bargaining, workers, traders and artisans organised themselves into unions to replace the pre-industrial era guilds, to engage with both public and private employers for better working conditions. Beginning in 18th century Britain, strike actions were embarked upon by workers to press home their demands for fairer labour practices and improved working condition by the organised labour movement. Industrial disagreements between capitalists and their workers soon triggered a class struggle, with society being organised along the lines of the owners of capital – the bourgeoisie and the workers – the proletariat. It was this class struggle that incubated a new ideological framework for the political economies of the newly industrialised nations of the world to challenge what was being denounced as capitalism. The proposed alternative framework was the ideology of socialism. It was this ideology that saw the labour movement transformed into social democratic movements and eventually resulted in the formation of organised labour backed political parties.
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By 1917, the Bolsheviks led by Vladimir Lenin rode to power on the back of the Russian revolution and the Labour Party of UK formed its first democratic government in 1924, with Ramsay McDonald as Prime Minister when it won the majority seat in the British parliament. These labour-centred parties and others like them all over the world, successfully incorporated the ethos of social democracy in the politics of their respective nations…
Beginning with the formation of the Labour Party in the UK from an amalgamation of the Trade Union Congress of England and Wales with other elements of the organised labour movement in 1900s and the rise to eminence of the Bolshevik faction of the Social Democratic Party of Russia in 1903, organised labour all over the industrial world no longer sat on the sidelines as perpetual spectators in the game of partisan politics of democratic leadership recruitment. This was so because as the most important factor of production, labour could no longer concern itself with just negotiating for its slice of bread with butter. The organised Labour movement, as matter of self-enlightened interest, decided to get involved in the baking of the bread and the preparation of the butter, in order to be in a better position to get a more satisfying slice.
By 1917, the Bolsheviks led by Vladimir Lenin rode to power on the back of the Russian revolution and the Labour Party of UK formed its first democratic government in 1924, with Ramsay McDonald as Prime Minister when it won the majority seat in the British parliament. These labour-centred parties and others like them all over the world, successfully incorporated the ethos of social democracy in the politics of their respective nations, and mainstreamed the charter of demands of the organised labour movement in ways very profound, and which have largely resolved the existential problems of the financial inadequacy, inequality and insecurity of their members. A vital lesson to be learnt from the transformational experiences of organised labour movements into political parties was that whilst it is true that labour is the most important factor of production, politics as the fourth factor of production was far more important.
Bringing this nearer home, the organised labour movement can no longer seat on the side lines as mere spectators in the politics of democratic leadership recruitment in Nigeria. The time is right for the labour movement in Nigeria to stop agonising over its inadequate bread and butter and must begin to organise to get involved in the process of baking a bigger loaf of bread, from which it can get an adequate slice for its members. The scope of labour as a factor of economic production transcends mining, manufacturing, academia and manning the military-industrial complex, to the politics of democratic leadership recruitment. Since the transition from military to civil democratic rule in 1999, the organised labour movement in Nigeria has remained largely aloof and detached from matters of partisan politics to the detriment of the course of good governance in Nigeria.
To effectively transform Nigeria from a consumption economy into a productive one, the organised labour movement will have to step out of the side lines into the main arena of partisan politics by harmonising its charter of demands into a concise peoples manifesto for national rebirth and democratic redemption from identity politics, with patronage as the reward system for a privileged few, to an economics driven politics, with good governance as reward for all.
The reason for the existence of a modern democratic nation-state must be more economic than political – the economics of production and not politics of consumption. And for a democratic nation-state to be able to provide security and welfare to its people, its politics must be primarily driven by the economics of production. This is so because no nation on earth is really endowed with abundant human and natural resources. At best, nations are only endowed with enough natural and human resources, and they must necessarily look beyond their borders to shore up their resource bases through developmental immigration and overseas trade and investment. The most export competitive nations are those whose internal political processes are predicated on the economics of production and not those who economies are predicated on politics of consumption.
Unfortunately, the democratic Nigerian state exists more for the politics of consumption and less for the economics of production. This is sadly so because its politics is primarily driven by ethnic and religious sentiments, rather than economic common sense. This is also because at the inception of the Fourth Republic, the organised labour movement in Nigeria, which is the most important economic interest group in the country, left partisan politics to ethnic champions and religious bigots, who imposed identity politics as the major driving force of Nigeria’s democratic leadership recruitment process. And with an elaborately corrupt patronage system as the main reward for identity politics, the attendant financial haemorrhage is what has driven Nigeria broke and unable to pay living wages to its workers, to provide health care and decent housing for its people.
To effectively transform Nigeria from a consumption economy into a productive one, the organised labour movement will have to step out of the side lines into the main arena of partisan politics by harmonising its charter of demands into a concise peoples manifesto for national rebirth and democratic redemption from identity politics, with patronage as the reward system for a privileged few, to an economics driven politics, with good governance as reward for all. However, to effectively transform Nigeria from consumption to production economy, the government can no longer hands off the means of production to private individuals alone. The neoliberal concept that seeks to keep government out of the means of production under the guise of “government has no business in business” is a proven fallacy that must be rescinded if not repudiated by the organised labour movement and insist on a new political economic philosophy that states that “government has business in business” because the main purpose of government is doing business and any government that cannot do business has no business being in government.
Majeed Dahiru, a public affairs analyst, writes from Abuja and can be reached through dahirumajeed@gmail.com.
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