MARX’S LABOUR THEORY OF VALUE AND TRADE DISPUTES IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Disputes between labour and capital or workers and their employers is endemic, a phenomenon attributable to their divergent interests in the labour process. This paper investigated the processes involved in the resolution of labour disputes and how labour has generally fared since the institutionalization of trade dispute resolution mechanisms. It was the general aim of this paper to explore the theoretical and historical roots of the incessant and perennial disputes between labour and capital or workers and employers, as well as the feasibility of the various mechanisms that have been put in place for the peaceful settlement of industrial disputes for the purpose of attainment of industrial peace and harmony and enhanced productivity. It found that, for the simple fact that trade interventionist institutions are the creation of the state, which is also a party and therefore implicated in the labour/capital contradiction, it is incapable of standing on a neutral ground to resolve such disputes and ensure lasting industrial peace, particularly in dependent capitalist societies. Marx’s theory of the Fetishism of Commodities served as the theoretical framework for the paper. As a qualitative and historical study data were drawn from secondary sources such as newspapers, journal publications, books, reports and internet sources and subjected to logical content analysis. Conclusively, it drew attention to the fundamental irreconcilability of the parties and irresolubility of trade disputes within the context of a capitalist mode of production owing to the instinct for profit maximization of the capitalist enterprise which inevitably imposes a negative effect on workers’ welfare and interests. Accordingly the paper recommended a more socialized pattern of economic organization that would be more labour-friendly.