Georgetown : Promising on behalf of President David Granger to support the sugar industry, Prime Minister, Moses Nagamootoo last evening joined relatives and residents of Enmore, and other Government officials and members of the Diplomatic Corps at the Enmore Martyrs’ Monument, East Coast Demerara, for the commemoration of the struggle of Guyana’s sugar workers over six decades
Reflecting on the difficulties facing the sector, the prime minister called on all stakeholders to sit and talk with government, which he stated, will leave no stone unturned to decide the industry’s future. “Workers must be part of the solution and not part of the problem”. He also called on the People’s Progressive Party, which he acknowledged was linked to the struggles of sugar workers over previous decades, to at least “help find some solutions, together with us.”
The struggle, Prime Minister Nagamootoo said, which cost the lives of the martyrs was one that began since the 1763 slave rebellion, which birthed the struggle for better working conditions and basic human rights. He spoke of his struggle for the recognition of the trade union movements, for recognition of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers’ Union (GAWU), and the eventual recognition of that trade union and the construction of the monument to honour the memory of those killed on that momentous day on June 16, 1948.
It was his belief in the right of workers to have a trade union of their choice and this he recalled almost led to his expulsion from the PPP/C Government in 2010 after former president Bharrat Jagdeo and then General Secretary Donald Ramotar threatened to de-recognise GAWU. “Not even the president of GAWU stood up to defend GAWU, because people gave their lives for the recognition of trade unions.” He recalled that he wrote an article for sugar workers and the next day, “Mr. Jagdeo and Ramotar threatened to expel me from the PPP. I would have welcomed that expulsion; it would have been an honour to fight for the trade union for which the sugar workers gave their lives”.
Prime Minister Nagamootoo, who recalled his ancestors’ service in the early days of indentureship, opined that those who now claim to be friends of sugar workers have betrayed them. He said that soon after the new Government took office, it was met with the claim that GuySuco was virtually bankrupt, and this was unbelievable. “I could not believe that our leaders had hidden the fact that they had bankrupted the industry and they had placed the lives of 16,000 sugar workers at risk”.
He added that he also could not believe that they had borrowed billion of dollars and stolen the pensions from NIS of sugar workers, some $1.2 billion and deducted $225 million from the credit union and did not pay this money.
He slammed GAWU for failing to look after the workers’ interest. “No one could have told me that they would have spent $47 billion on a factory that could produce the amount of sugar that it did when the Enmore Martyrs were alive”. Billions more, he said were reportedly spent to restructure the industry, ‘but instead it was turned upside down”. Even the $17 billion last voted for the industry is now unaccounted for, the prime minister said, hence the reason for firing the GuySuco Board and the ordering of a forensic audit. “I was shocked that when Mr. Raj Singh was sent packing the leaders of GAWU said they were very disturbed by that”.
Government is currently in high – level meetings with officials from India, Cuba and the European Union to enlist their assistance in moving the sector forward, the prime minister said.
Enmore Martyrs’ Day must be remembered by the relatives especially, the prime minister stated, “as they are descendants of great fighters whose names have gone down in the annals of history. They must forever raise their heads in pride and with honour, knowing that their relatives and their foreparents have struggled to make sugar an industry on which so much depends.”
Also delivering brief remarks were various trade union representatives including Carvil Duncan of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions (FITUG), and Lincoln Lewis of the Guyana Trades Union Congress (TUC). These were preceded by a wreath laying ceremony at the Martyrs’ Monument.
In April 1948, cane cutters in British Guiana went on strike, calling for the replacement of the “cut and load” with a “cut and drop” system, by which the cane cutters should cut the cane. They also demanded higher wages and improved living conditions on the sugar estates. However, the real aim of the strike was to demand recognition of the Guyana Industrial Workers Union (GIWU) as the bargaining union for the field and factory workers on all the sugar estates in the country.
On June 16, a meeting to discuss the issues was held, but no satisfactory agreement was reached as the workers felt that the union was betraying their interests. Early on the morning of June 16, a crowd of about 400 workers gathered outside the factory at Enmore for a protest and picketing exercise. By 10.00hrs, the crowd had grown to between 500 and 600 persons. Several persons managed to enter the compound at the rear of the factory.The policemen tried to push back the crowd, but after this effort failed, they opened fire; five workers were killed and 14 others were injured.Lallabagee Kissoon, 30, was shot in the back; 19-year-old Pooran was shot in the leg and pelvis; Rambarran died from bullet wounds in his leg; Dookhie died in hospital later that day; and Harry died the following day from severe spinal injuries. These men, through the years, became known as the Enmore Martyrs.
The Enmore Martyrs’ Monument was unveiled on June 16, 1977, close to 30 years after the tragedy, to honour the deaths of five labourers killed by colonial police while protesting the social conditions on the East Coast plantations in 1948. Designed by Guyanese artist Dennis Williams, the monument stands raised on a concrete base six feet high with five repetitive verticals each adorned with brass symbols reminiscent of cutlasses and inscribed with the names of the five martyrs.
There is also a plaque designed by another Guyanese, Stanley Greaves.
You must be logged in to post a comment.