CSTB march : “We die of poverty”

After May 1 2024, here is the 22 May. The march announced by the Benin Workers' Union Confederation (Sit-in from) was held in the streets of Cotonou. Despite the heavy rain, workers have made this protest movement a priority. They left the Place de l’Etoile Rouge to land at the Labor Exchange. Alternately, youth league representatives, market women, the president of the support committee for political exiles and detainees took turns at the podium to express their fed up.

“Comrades, Please applaud yourself first.". It is with this sentence that the confederal general secretary of the Benin Trade Union Confederation of Workers welcomed the demonstrators who deigned to brave the bad weather to protest. “Now in Benin, we have won the freedom of demonstration that we have been deprived of since 8 years” said Nagnini Kassa Mampo before adding “No law can prohibit the freedom to demonstrate in Benin” he reiterated.

In the declaration, the deputy secretary general of the Benin Trade Union Confederation of Workers listed several grievances against the regime in place. Among others, “the law establishing the conditions and procedure for hiring, placement of labor and termination of employment contract, the law relating to the exercise of the right to strike which criminalizes strikes for the health sectors, transport and hydrocarbons, the general status of the civil service, the code of ethics and values ​​of the administration and others have made employment precarious” indicated Norbert Kouton. He also recalled the closure of certain state companies such as Sonapra, Onasa, Ons, Sonacop and Bénin-Telecom with unemployment as a corollary.  

“We die of poverty”

From the multiplication of taxes to the increase in prices of basic necessities, the social and economic situation of workers and people, in general, has worsened, describes the representatives of the different social strata present at the demonstration this Wednesday 22 May 2024. “We can’t take it anymore, we are starving, We are dying of poverty,” shouted Norbert Kouton.

This first barrier successfully crossed, workers promise to come back. "We're going to walk again, we are going to strike, we are going to make a ghost town”,announced Nagnini Kassa Mampo in front of a crowd well committed to the cause of the CSTB. There was also the president of the Organization for Human and People's Rights (Ordhp), master Aboubacar Baparapé who came to support the initiative.

Arnaud ACAKPO (Coll)