Oil workers and oil communities in Africa: Nigerian women and grassroots environmentalism

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Periodical article

Title:	Oil workers and oil communities in Africa: Nigerian women and grassroots environmentalism
Author:	Turner, Terisa E.
Year:	1997
Periodical:	Labour, Capital and Society
Volume:	30
Issue:	1
Pages:	66-89
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Nigeria
Subjects:	gender relations Ogoni political action environment petroleum
Abstract:	This study examines some of the dynamics of the rise and activities of the broad social movement of indigenous peoples in the Nigerian oil belt, with a focus on the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (Mosop) and its intersection with Nigerian oil workers. The author sets out to delineate the gendered class alliance at the heart of the new social movement for environmental sustainability and reparations. She then turns to the ways in which major oil companies in conjunction with the World Bank and the IMF radicalize and internationalize the indigenous initiatives. Finally, she suggests some theoretical innovations for the analysis of gender relations and the transformational politics of the unwaged. In Nigeria, a gendered class alliance has, for the first time in the country's history, put radical democracy on the agenda. The future of this struggle depends on the extent to which insurgent Nigerian women can maintain their autonomy and the degree to which the internationalization of the struggle is strengthened. Notes, ref., sum. in French.