The Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) is pleased, once again, to participate in this activity that tells yet another story of the heroism and sacrifices linked to the sugar industry. Today’s activity takes us back to one hundred and five (105) years ago. Rose Hall Plantation was in ferment; workers struggles for betterment and resistance to inhuman living conditions were an integral part of plantation life. On this occasion their struggle ended in carnage. We have come to learn that on this occasion fifteen (15) workers were killed, including a woman who was shot in her stomach, and of them forty-one (41) received serious injury. At the time it was perhaps the deadliest indenture-era suppression of unrest in the Caribbean and elsewhere.
What happened here over a century ago represents one of the several other class confrontations that erupted in our country during this period. The records reveal that in 1872, five workers were killed at Devonshire Castle; in 1879, five at Non-Pariel; in 1903, eight at Friends; in 1912, one at Friends and one at Lusignan. After indentureship, thirteen were killed at Ruimveldt in 1924 and four at Leonora in 1939.
At this time, we specifically give recognition and pay tribute to those who fell at Plantation Rose Hall. They left a legacy which runs through the veins of the contemporary workforce of the sugar industry. This occasion furthermore affords us the platform to remember with fondness and pride those who also courageously fought and heroically fell in the struggles in other plantations in other parts of the country.
These fallen workers remind us that sugar’s history is enriched by the struggles, sacrifices and the sweat and blood of the working class. That spirit continues throughout the years since that time and, pleasingly, I note, survives to this day in the industry.
But as we cast our minds backwards, we must not fail to recognize that the shooting down of workers seems the preferred method of suppression in the colonial context. This kind of relations between plantation owners and their workers typify a major feature of the system of colonialism. Expressed in another way, we can say that this was the inhuman relations between owners driven by the urge to make huge profits and workers whether as slaves, indentured labourers or wage earners whose brutal exploitation was the primary source of such profits.
We must take note of this and all aspects of colonial conditions and reactions of the past. The colonial structure globally has been largely dismantled today, but dangers still linger. In recent times, analysts have drawn attention to a resurgence of neo-colonialism especially in the former colonial territories and primarily in those countries with strategic resources.
The memory of those we honour today at Plantation Rose Hall and other locations has served to jerk us back to the reality that a new colonialism is stalking the developing world – already devouring the resources of several countries, and do so through unheard of violence and mind boggling exploitation of many utilizing the technological progress of today in the process.
One hundred (100) years ago, it was Plantation Rose Hall which wrote a glorious page of our history. Fifty (50) years ago, it was Leonora Estate where the heroine Kowsilla was crushed to death by a tractor while giving solidarity to striking workers. And the narrative of our rich and proud history goes on reaching a high point in Enmore, 1948 and which our nation celebrates as the Enmore Martyrs.
New challenges – tarnishing the Martyrs legacy
At this time, as we hail the martyrs sacrifice, the activities 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, the Coalition Government, despite a chorus of opposition, took an unconscionable decision to close Rose Hall as well as Skeldon, Enmore and Wales Estates over the last two (2) years.
The closure of Rose Hall, like the other estates, can be seen as a death knell for so many hardworking people and their families. For the people of Rose Hall, closure has meant that their plans for life, their dreams for a better tomorrow, and their aspirations for our children and grandchildren have all but been dashed. For the people of Rose Hall closure has brought about uncertain times and many difficult, misery-filled days ahead. Today, the sad reality of closure has seen people asking themselves real questions like where would their next meal come from, how would they send their children and grandchildren to school, and how would they earn and meet their obligations. Closure has meant that difficult choices have to be made:- would they eat or would they pay the electricity bills; would they send the children to school or would they buy clothes; would they starve or do they have to do something not necessarily right to put food on the table. These are some of the stark but real choices people are facing. Closure could very well force good people to do things they shouldn’t do. This is the life and this is the tomorrow people have been pushed into.
For the people of Rose Hall, the estate represented more than a place of work. It allowed many to reach out for their life’s goals. It allowed them to become better people. And, it gave them an opportunity to contribute to the building and development of Guyana. The estate was a beacon for the communities. When it was in operation it provided hope, it gave the communities life, and it provided light in the darkness that often times fills life. Now, the estate chimney no longer smokes, the horn no longer blares, the hum of the sugar factory has ceased, the night sky will not light up as canes are burnt, and the unmistakable sound of traversing cane punts will no longer be heard. And in its place, an eerie silence has been its replacement.
It is sad to say that the reality is there is simply nothing else to do in the area. There is no other industry or enterprise which can readily take on the workers. We are told that Rose Hall had to be closed because there are not sufficient monies to support its operation. But we ask, isn’t the cost of the massive social upheaval that will take place more costly as was pointed before by GAWU? Certainly significant sums will have to be spent to employ more police officers, to build new jails or extend the existing ones, and to hire more magistrates and have larger courts to address the crime situation that would come about from the estate’s closure. Huge sums will also have to be spent on increasing the lot of social workers and improving the social protection infrastructure to deal with the social problems that would arise. Great sums will also have to be expended to deal with the increase in poverty. These are just a few of the real difficulties we see that would arise and hopefully that would have to be meaningfully addressed by Rose Hall’s closure.
We urge the decision makers, at this time to think about the people who have been affected. We urge them to think about the innocent children whose tomorrow stands threatened. We urge them to think about the threats to family life and community well-being. We urge them to step back and look at the big picture and not to be consumed only by finance and recall their promise to us and our families of a ‘Good Life’.
Conclusion
Our times, in many ways, differ from the era in which the Rose Hall 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 Rose Hall were killed. One hundred and five (105) years later we pay respect to their memory. 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 Rose Hall 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 Rose Hall Martyrs.
In the face of these challenges before us, let us draw inspiration from the example of the Rose Hall Martyrs.
Long live the memory of the courageous Rose Hall Martyrs!
We continue our march and our struggles for justice, democracy and betterment!
In the name of our Martyrs, let us go on to score fresh victories!
