Georgetown : President Donald Ramotar last evening said that the best homage Guyanese can pay to the five Enmore Martyrs is a recommitment to the fight to remove all the obstacles that are preventing the nation from moving to greater heights.
The Head of State was at the time delivering the feature address at the 66thdeath anniversary of five sugar workers; Lallabagee, Rambarran, Pooran, Surujballi and Harry who were shot and killed by colonial policemen on June 16, 1948 during a strike.
This historic protest and picketing exercise outside of the Enmore Factory was to express their general dissatisfaction with the cut and load system at the sugar factory with the trade union representing them, and to demand higher wages and better living conditions.
The President said that the event represents one of the turning points in the country’s history, as it highlighted several strands of economic struggles that were occurring in Guyana and reflected in many ways, what was taking place in the world at that time, “It slowly developed into a struggle for industrial democracy; whereby workers could select a union of their choice. It also heralded the call for political independence in Guyana. During this time, the liberation movement had already begun in Asia, Latin America and Africa. The president said, “In Guyana, the struggles and oppression that the sugar workers were subjected to, had become unbearable; living conditions were beyond deplorable, many of them were living in logies (the same logies that used to house slaves), opportunities for education were almost non-existent and so were health facilities”.
President Ramotar added that while today much has changed, the domination continues in the form of global governance; whereby international institutions are used by the rich and powerful countries to the disadvantage to those in the third world, that are developing.
Wreaths were laid at the monument built in honour of the five heroes by President Ramotar, surviving family members of the martyrs, Minister of Labour, Dr. Nanda Gopaul and representatives from a number of trade union bodies.
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