We meet today on the 69th Anniversary of a workers’ struggle waged at Enmore in which five (5) workers lost their lives and many more suffered various injuries. This year marks also forty-one (41) years since those who fell in that battle of the workers and the colonial planters gained national acclaim and were declared as martyrs. Today, once again, we of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) are pleased to take part in these activities to remember the sacrifice and pay homage to the Enmore Martyrs – Harry, Lallabajee, Pooran, Rambarran and Surujballi. These annual observances are a reminder of the difficult road we as a people have travelled and the challenges and difficulties preceding generations met with and had to overcome in the sugar industry to achieve betterment. The occasion also brings to mind the difficult working and living conditions of those times as well as the harsh means employed by the plantocracy to deny workers and their families a decent life.
History records that between 1872 and 1948, fifty-two (52) sugar workers were killed as they raised their voices against the harsh conditions and other injustices meted out to them. They, like the heroic Enmore Five, were seeking a better day for themselves and their families. Their sacrifices are of no less importance and today we also recall their courage which has helped to bring a better day for us all.
Comrade Chairman, the Enmore Martyrs observances also brings to attention the often ignored contributions of sugar workers and the sugar industry to the nation and its people. Those contributions have been many and significant and may have very likely touched every area of national life. Therefore, it is very vexing and painful that this group of honest, decent, and hard-working Guyanese is now-a-days being treated in such a disrespectful manner and all that they have done and are doing is being forgotten and diminished. It seems, quite frankly, that they and their families have been deemed a different class of people, like in the days of the Martyrs.
Comrades, we see a very cold and heartless approach being taken regarding the sugar industry and which has already resulted in many thousands connected to the operations being affected. Today, as we meet, we see hanging over the heads of so many, a life filled with desperation and uncertainty. At this time, we are mindful of the expressed plans to minimize the sugar industry through the closure of Enmore and Rose Hall Estates and the sale of Skeldon Estate. Taken together with Wales, some 9,000 workers will be affected by these plans. What is worst is that there is no proper plan to address the difficulties that would face the people who are and who stand to be affected.
At Wales where I was employed and which was closed about six (6) months ago, I must say that the situation is sad and depressing. For me it is painful to know that an area that was once so lively is now filled with so much concerns and suffering. For a large number of the workers, they have not been able to get jobs. For those who received severance pay, many are using those monies to maintain them and their families. But those sums cannot last forever and at some time they will find themselves between a rock and a hard place.
Some workers have also used their monies to buy second-hand minibuses and taxis but they are very little travelling passengers and their earnings from those activities are limited. The usual Friday market is a shell of what is was and the village shops are all complaining about poor sales. And, those who were lucky enough to get jobs are receiving less than a living wage and others get work for just a few days a week. It is sad to say that some families have broken up and for some their children education is under threat. At the same time, there are more incidences of crime and people are growing scared.
And, all the talk we hear about diversification at Wales is just talk, nothing more. Except for the recent planting of rice in a few fields, some aspects which were done by non-Wales workers, nothing else is happening and the thought of going to Uitvlugt has its own difficulties as well. The situation at Wales is bleak and the future is not encouraging and, at this time, many from the neighbouring communities are wondering if this is the ‘Good Life’ they were promised.
Given the difficult times which the people of Wales are now facing, it is disturbing that we see plans which would take those hard times to other villages and tomore working Guyanese. For the GAWU it is worrying that such plans are promoted especially knowing of the problems which have arisen at and being experienced at Wales. We have been told that more closures and sale is necessary since the support required by sugar is unaffordable. But, at the same time, let us ask ourselves can we afford the crime, the poverty, the divorces, the destitution, the impact on education, the drug use, the domestic violence, the alcohol abuse, the suicides and the other sad problems that would expectedly emerge? Can we afford the costs of larger jails and other necessary infrastructure which will surely be necessary as conditions generally deteriorate? As a small, developing nation these are problems which, we think, cannot be afforded and problems which our decisions should not make worst.
We in the GAWU hold that the harsh plans promoted are unwise and unnecessary. We strongly believe that sugar can overcome its challenges through diversification in areas of white sugar, alcohol, packaged sugar and electricity production. This is a direction we see being pursued in sister CARICOM states. Certainly, if their approach is right, then we can go along this way with greater confidence. The industry has faced challenging periods in the past but has overcome them through the dedicated efforts of its workers, a committed approach by a knowledgeable management and a supportive Government.
Comrades as we recall the heroism of the Enmore Martyrs, the best tribute we can pay to them, and all those on whose shoulders we stand and in the interest of the current and future generations of Guyanese, is to actively express our strongest disagreement with the wrong plans for sugar. As the living example of Wales shows it will be a painful experience and one which generations to come will surely regret. The GAWU urges that we all should play a part in calling for a change of course with regards to the sugar industry.
Now, more than ever, I encourage all Guyanese to light a candle for sugar workers whose lives stand to be rolled back to those times even before the Enmore Martyrs.
Long live the Enmore Martyrs!
Stop the destruction of the sugar industry!
Solidarity with the sugar workers and long live the workers of Guyana!
