Eye on Nigeria

Following are several newsclips from Nigerian sources, where Peacefile takes a special interest in the labor movement. Leader of the white collar oil union PENGASSAN escaped an assassination attempt soon after the union won rights to staff several management positions in Total-Fina-Elf operations. Unionists are planning to picket gas stations that violate court-ordered price controls. And if Nigerian refineries have not been rehabilitated by the government in late July, the oil unions are promising a strike. Union lawyers in a Nigerian court are meeting delays as they seek a contempt ruling against the government for not enforcing court-ordered price controls on fuel.

Meanwhile in Delta State, government troops are widely reported to have burned down six villages, killed dozens, and sent hundreds fleeing into the countryside, in a maneuver called Operation Hope purportedly directed against pirates who allegedly killed American oil workers and Nigerian Navy sailors in April.

Writing from Boston, two academics report on the environmental devastation of the Nigerian oil patch. Ken Saro-Wiwa was hanged nearly a decade ago for his activism on this front.