Message from the International Workers’ Committee to the workers of Benin

The International Workers’ Committee condemns the police and judicial repression of Beninese workers.

The International Workers’ Committee has been informed by its correspondents in Benin of the ban on the May 1st 2024 demonstration, organized by the central trade unions, in particular the CSTB, « against the high cost of living, hunger, attacks on freedoms and in defense of national sovereignty », and of the repression against the demonstrators. And this despite the fact that the organizers had complied with the legislation governing demonstrations.

The IWC condemns the arrest of seventy-two workers and activists on their way to the demonstration. Initially, they were charged with « taking part in an unarmed gathering ». Then the charges were changed: those held in police custody for several days, in inhuman and degrading conditions, were forced to undergo urine tests without their consent and without their lawyers being informed. Twenty-one of them were charged with « possession and use of cannabis » and jailed, to await trial on May 15.

The IWC is outraged by such procedures on the part of the Beninese authorities, procedures aimed at criminalizing trade union action.

The IWC expresses its solidarity with Beninese workers and their organizations, in their struggle to have their legitimate demands met.

It denounces the repression and arrests on May 1st and demands that the Beninese government immediately release the twenty-one workers arbitrarily imprisoned, that freedom of demonstration be respected and workers’ demands be satisfied.

Paris, Thursday May 9, 2024