Workers' Liberty

By Cathy Nugent

In November 1995 Ken Saro-Wiwa, the best known leader of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, was executed by the Nigerian government. The Ogoni are an ethnic minority of 500,000 who live in about 350 square miles in the impoverished Niger river delta region of Nigeria.

Unions in Nigeria organised a general strike on 16 November after the government failed to cut petrol prices.

Mark Sandell looks at Nigeria’s wave of general strikes

A burnt out skyscraper juts into the skyline of Lagos Island, the commercial heart of Nigeria’s biggest city. It is the remains of the Nigerian oil ministry.

Nigerian trade unions organised a four-day general strike against fuel price rises in October, and have vowed to call an indefinite stoppage if the government fails to lower the price of petrol.

By Pablo Velasco

Inside:

• Strike wave in South Korea

• Soldiers terrorise workers Haitian workers
• Victory for Colombian banana workers' strike
• General strike in Nigeria stops petrol price rises

By Faz Velmi

Amina Lawal, a Nigerian woman sentenced to death by stoning for 'adultery', must wait until June to hear her fate. Her appeal hearing against her sentence was due in late March but was adjourned when only three of the five required tribunal members were available. There are suggestions that the trial was deliberately delayed until after Nigeria's elections -recently concluded-took place.

By Nicole Ashford

An estimated 200 people have died and tens of thousands have been left homeless in the riots sparked by the Miss World contest in Nigeria.

There is a long history of conflict between Muslims in northern Nigeria and the mainly Christian south. Islamist influence has been growing in the Muslim areas of the country, and an increasing number of states are adopting sharia law - bringing them into conflict with the national government.

You probably wouldn't expect Miss World contestants to be leading the way in fighting for women's rights. But already seven beauty queens have announced that they will boycott this year's Miss World contest, due to be held in Nigeria in November, in protest at the sentence of death by stoning handed down to single mother Amina Lawal ) under sharia law.