The Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) is pleased to join with the Chairman and others in welcoming everyone here and to express our Union’s appreciation to you for attending this 70th 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 and which were favourable to their contemporaries and subsequent generations of workers.
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.
Today, Comrade Chairman, as we reflect on Martyrs heroism, we cannot help but be saddened by what is taking place in the sugar industry. The sending home of some 7,000 workers over the last two (2) years clearly without any plan to address their welfare and loss of their livelihood has to be among the most callous of decisions ever made by a Government in our day. Then to add pepper to the deep wound and contrary to our law, some workers received only half of their severance payments and some others at Wales none. We have also seen some 390 workers of BEV recently losing their jobs and now will join the thousands of the unemployed.
In sugar, today, for many of the workers who have been placed on the breadline, they remain right there unable to find steady jobs and in some cases any job at all. Today, the talk of “sugar too big to fail” or “sugar will never die” or “we will fix sugar” heard boisterously during the 2015 campaign have been replaced by silence or by other heart-rending tunes and callous actions. It is indeed upsetting that this approach had been taken especially recognizing that it was not necessary in the first place and there was very good and real possibilities to overcome the difficulties in the sugar industry.
The GAWU must reiterate its dismay that the decisions for the sugar industry were implemented without any sort of socio-economic impact assessment concluded. The refusal by the Administration adamantly to conduct such an exercise is especially disturbing as it would have illustrated the necessity of the sugar industry to the society and country beyond the narrow profit window. Despite what would be daunting challenges the FITUG recognized that the workers did not give up hope. They stood up and defended militantly their jobs, their families and their communities. They demonstrated an indomitable will to stand up and to call attention to their plight as they sought to overcome and win out in this struggle. Their laudable actions to counter the heartlessness of the State to protect their jobs and livelihood found sincere sympathy among a wide section of Guyanese and also from several overseas organisations.
Their stance and solidarity received, in our view, prompted the Administration to re-think their hardened position it would appear that the Government is not advocating its intention to divest estates, which arguably is better than closure but not necessarily the best solution. This is not the outcome the workers wanted but they can hold their heads high for their resistance which is continuing and which reflects working-class history which records that in class based, authoritarian societies, those holding the reins of power, never or hardly ever ensure justice for the working-class.
Comrades, at this time, the plight that has befallen so many sugar workers cannot be forgotten. We are sure that those who so heartlessly brought untold hardships to their lives will not be forgotten or forgiven now or in history. Comrades, the sugar industry and its workforce have a pivotal place in our country’s economic life. We urge the authorities not to disregard this. We urge them not to continue letting down the working people.
As we face new challenges today, new workers struggles are taking place. It is fitting, therefore, in such circumstances to reflect on and draw inspiration from the 1948 Enmore workers struggles.
Long live the Enmore Martyrs!
Long live the Working Class!
The struggle continues!
