I am pleased on behalf of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), to join with the Chairman and others in welcoming everyone here and to express our Union’s appreciation to you for attending this 69th Commemoration Activity of the Enmore Martyrs. We are all here to pay homage and respect to those five gallant young men who paid for their engagement in a struggle for the betterment of their working and living conditions which our colonial masters sustained and resisted to reform. Their martyrdom, in the ensuing years, served as a catalyst for the many changes they would have wanted.
Indeed, the lives of the Enmore Martyrs were snuffed out in one of the just struggles by workers who were made to suffer greatly in the heyday of colonialism in our country. When they began to protest against their atrocious working and living conditions, they were not aware that their protest and struggle would have impelled the plantocracy and the colonial regime to resort to their killing. Since their demise, their deaths have been commemorated yearly, not only for us to remember the past, but for us to be conscious of the exploitative and cruel system that was perpetuated by the plantocracy and for us to be on guard to ensure that the emergence of new forms of oppression of our people are resisted in their early stages.
Since the Martyrdom of the five, the ruthless killings of sugar workers have ceased. Indeed, it was so when an account is taken of the killings of the workers at Devonshire Castle, Non Pariel, Friends, Lusignan, Rose Hall, Ruimveldt and Leonara. Between 1872 and June, 1948 a total of 54 sugar workers were gunned down with scores wounded, some maimed or scarred for life.
Indeed, the 1948 Enmore shooting was a turning point. Dr. Cheddi Jagan, at the time a member of the Legislative Council, was a major supporter of the strike. He was deeply disturbed by the shooting to death of the martyrs. In his renowned Book the West on Trial he recorded that at the gravesite of the martyrs, that he made a silent pledge:- “I would dedicate my entire life to the cause of the struggle of the Guyanese people against bondage and exploitation.”
Dr Jagan’s pro-workers agitation and struggle to end colonial rule in Guyana and his mobilization of large sections of the Guyanese people were instrumental in ending the overwhelming power and authority of the plantocracy. This explains the background to the end of the cold blooded shooting of sugar workers.
At this time, as we hail the martyrs sacrifice, the various activities which are organised are overshadowed by the harrowing challenges which confront the workers of the sugar industry and the people linked to the industry’s operations. We see the disdainful treatment of no pay rises and no incentives now magnified to push thousands of sugar workers into a life filled with misery, hardship and suffering. At this time, it is disturbing to learn that the Coalition Government is promoting decisions to close Rose Hall and Enmore Estates and to sell-out Skeldon Estate. These will be coming on the heels of the already closed Wales Estate which has resulted in hundreds of workers thrown on the breadline. Implementing more closures and a sellout will have reverberating effects for too many of our people and will serve to reverse the progress made in recent times.
We reiterate and alert the workers and the Guyanese people that there is no comprehensive plan, at this time, to address the fallout from the sugar estates closure and divestment. The intentions by GuySuCo to become involved, once again, in non-sugar ventures, if Wales is used as an example, gives us very little comfort as there is no sign, as far as we are aware, of implementation of the touted endeavours. Non-sugar schemes, we strongly hold is a non-starter. GuySuCo’s past experiences which hopelessly and utterly failed are lessons we cannot turn a blind eye to. And, clearly very little thought has gone into this idea which again is being floated. To condemn thousands of our compatriots in ‘ventures’ in circumstances where they are so many unanswered questions is not only callous, but immoral as well.
Our Union firmly believes that the sugar industry has all the possibilities to be placed on a viable and sustainable path. GAWU has shared with the Government of Guyana and the public our workable proposals in this regard. But it seems that our proposals were not considered, possibly not even read, by the powers-that-be who remain headstrong on a decision that will harm Guyana and Guyanese for generations to come. At this time, we urge, as we have done before, that we secure our sugar industry for ourselves and for posterity.
Our times, in many ways, differ from the era in which the Enmore Martyrs lived. Conditions are not the same and the demands, we make, are different yet continue to revolve around the fight for decent and rising wages, better working conditions and safeguarding livelihoods. Indeed, such are the struggles before the workers in Guyana and the world over. And, while demanding, on one hand, these class struggles hold out the promise of further achievements and significant social changes in the future.
Many years have gone by since that fateful period when the workers from Enmore were killed. They dared to challenge the existing socio-economic order for a better day. But improvement is a constant feature of our existence and in our day, a new generation continues to raise its voice and make fresh demands for all-round improvements.
In our fight of today, we also remember past battles and those like the Enmore Martyrs who had been the victims of colonial plunder and exploitation and fatal violence. GAWU feels that history’s lessons should not be forgotten lest workers lower their vigilance and succumb to disunity which would be to their detriment. Workers struggles have not come to a close. Indeed, their struggles continue but in a different context and in different circumstances than what faced the Enmore Martyrs.
Long live the Enmore Martyrs!
Long live the Working Class!
The struggle continues!
