The 1945 general strike in the womb of history, By Ahmed Aminu-Ramatu Yusuf

By 9 August, the strike became so severe that the residents of Beau telegraphed high ranking colonial officials in Lagos and Enugu, that the: “Labour situation Victoria division seriously deteriorating. Intimidation against loyal workers and assaults on Europeans increasing. Probable that more Police will be required and request 80 be ordered stand by in case of need.”

The first General Strike in the country was suspended on 6 August, 1945; that was eighty-one years ago. The suspension was by the African Civil Service Technical Workers’ Union (ACSTWU).

The strike lasted 45 days in the Lagos area; at least 53 days in the Northern and Southern regions; and 74 days in the “British” Cameroons.

Yet, the strike had been presented, first, as a Lagos affair; second, a Southern region affair; and third, as a strike by Southerners. So how general was the 1945 General Strike?

The strike was, without doubt, a Lagos affair. But why should it not be, when Lagos was the capital city of Nigeria, the seat of the national government, the economic nerve of the nation, the heartbeat of trade unionism in the country, the headquarters of nationalist politics, and the soul of a highly politicised and restless civil society?

The strike was so successful in Lagos that even non-unionised workers in the public and private sectors joined it. Non-strikers were booed by Lagosians. Even army personnel, called to carry out skeletal services, were reported to be “reluctant to work owing to the jeers and insults of crowds.”

Large sections of the civil populace saw the strike as theirs. They gave credit facilities to the strikers, while daily paid workers were fed for free. In the Western provinces, the situation was not radically different from that of Lagos.

The General Strike began in the Eastern provinces at 0.00 hours on the 21st and 22nd of June, 1945. Enugu, the capital of the Eastern Province, was “principally affected” as all, with the exception of clerical workers, “came out” for the strike.

In Aba, the strike action was confined to the railways, while in the Onitsha Division, the Railway and P&TD workers fully observed it. In the former, there was, “widespread bewilderment that Government did not accede to the strikers’ demands in full or in part. Government being the source of all money should not have found it difficult to make a little more and save the general public the not inconsiderable inconvenience of ceasing its postal orders and drawing on its Savings accounts. After all a little more money to the workers would mean better prices for the farmers and who would deny the farmer a few more pence?”

In Port Harcourt, the Railway, Marine, Public Works, and Post & Telegraphs workers, with the exception of a few supervisory officers, joined the strike. The commercial workers of Dempster’s coal and wharf labourers also downed tools. The Township Conservancy labourers “struck for days, during which the work was done by prisoners.”

In Kaduna, nurses and printers joined and were reluctant to call off the strike, despite directives from their national unions in Lagos. While the printers repudiated their apex union for not actively participating “on grounds that it is contrary to orders of the Federation,” the nurses completely doubted the authenticity of the “telegram instructions” that they suspend the strike for humanitarian reasons.

So popular was the strike, and so widespread was societal support for the strikers that the Resident of Onitsha Province, Captain DPJ O’Connor, wrote: “There can be little doubt that the strike weapon will make its appearance periodically henceforth and… it is none the less proper to record here… that in all future “General Strike” there will be an increasingly Black versus White, racial atmosphere.”

In Yola, the Resident reported that the strike was “being conducted in an extremely friendly way and there is not the least likelihood of any trouble.”

In Plateau province, the strikers were reported to “have been well-behaved.”

The situation was not different in Zaria, where it was reported that the atmosphere was “one of cheerful resignation” and that there was “no violence, no any picketing and few threats.” There, the strike leaders kept warning strikers not to tamper with or destroy any government property, and that “anybody caught damaging anything will be responsible for his action.”

In Kaduna, nurses and printers joined and were reluctant to call off the strike, despite directives from their national unions in Lagos. While the printers repudiated their apex union for not actively participating “on grounds that it is contrary to orders of the Federation,” the nurses completely doubted the authenticity of the “telegram instructions” that they suspend the strike for humanitarian reasons.

In no other region did the traditional aristocrats so readily cooperate with the colonial authorities to break the strike than in the Northern provinces, for fear that the “apparent success of the agitators may draw further recruits to their ranks from disgruntled elements in the North.”

The Magajin Gari (District Head) of Jos expressed serious concern about what the “continued defiance of Government [will have] upon the minds of the general public, especially the Northern elements, and the increasing damage of confidence which is occurring.” He added that: “every day longer that the strike lasts is increasing the deep underlying bitterness, is hardening public opinion against all Europeans, and is creating a situation which will be more and more difficult to clear up afterwards. In a place like this the tendency is for the strikers to show increasing defiance and insolence, for the authority of the [strike] leaders to grow, for the Hausa corner boys to take up attitude of the strikers and to laugh at the Government.”

Even when the strike was suspended by the trade union movement, the strike leaders in Niger, Zaria and Plateau provinces, delayed to call off the strike because of their suspicion that the various telegrams and airmail letters were false and part of the government’s tricks to break the strike.

By 13 August, the strike had engulfed the entire plantations in the “British” Cameroons, with the exception of UAC Plantations in Bwinga, near Tiko. Four major reasons accounted for the delay in the “British” Cameroonian workers’ joining of the General Strike…. First, Cameroonian workers were not unionised and did not have any trade union experience. Secondly, they were largely agricultural workers, with little or no literacy, and were based in rural areas.

In the “British” Cameroon, plantation workers first joined the General Strike on 11 July, when about 1,500 rubber tappers in Kumba Province “struck without warning.” By 7 August, some 1,450 plantation workers in Moliwe, another 1,100 workers in Bota; and 700 workers in Likomba; among others, struck, bringing virtually “all transportation to a standstill.”

By 9 August, the strike became so severe that the residents of Beau telegraphed high ranking colonial officials in Lagos and Enugu, that the: “Labour situation Victoria division seriously deteriorating. Intimidation against loyal workers and assaults on Europeans increasing. Probable that more Police will be required and request 80 be ordered stand by in case of need.”

By 13 August, the strike had engulfed the entire plantations in the “British” Cameroons, with the exception of UAC Plantations in Bwinga, near Tiko. Four major reasons accounted for the delay in the “British” Cameroonian workers’ joining of the General Strike.

First, Cameroonian workers were not unionised and did not have any trade union experience. Secondly, they were largely agricultural workers, with little or no literacy, and were based in rural areas.

Thirdly, the “British” Cameroon, though divided into the Northern and Eastern provinces, were largely treated as an autonomous region, and it was the most inadequately administered in terms of labour and other matters.

Fourthly, the communication network was virtually non-existent. There were no railways connecting Nigeria and the British Cameroons, while the road network was equally non-existent. These restricted contacts between workers of both sides.

The General Strike continued on an “on” and “off” basis in the Cameroons up to September 1945. Whereas in Nigeria it had been suspended since 4th August 1945.

The 1945 General Strike was the first nation-wide action by Nigerians. It gave them a sense of national unity and consciousness.

Ahmed Aminu-Ramatu Yusuf worked as deputy director, Cabinet Affairs Office, The Presidency, and retired as General Manager (Administration), Nigerian Meteorological Agency, (NiMet). Email: [email protected]