DESPITE different views expressed for the future of Guyana’s sugar industry, all who gathered to commemorate the 69th death anniversary of the Enmore Martyrs, expressed that their legacy must guide the future of the industry.
The Enmore Martyrs, Lallbaggie, Dookie, Harry, Rambarran and Pooran, died on June 16, 1948 while struggling against the repressive plantocracy.
The ‘Enmore Five’ had once struggled for their rights in the colonial regime, struggled for higher wages, struggled for the support of a representative trade union and struggled to have better living and working conditions.
Speaking at a commemoration ceremony held in Enmore, Minister within the Ministry of Citizenship, Winston Felix, underscored that just as these workers struggled for a better life, Guyanese now must all focus on creating a better life.
He acknowledged that there have been some controversies surrounding the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCO) and the fate of the sugar industry. There is the outcry from the sugar workers, who have been the largest workforce in Guyana’s history that they will be without livelihood.
Felix, however, noted that the once booming sugar industry has been plagued by a number of external and internal factors causing it to collapse and thus, efforts must be made to foster the creation of an industry that will be economically viable. “For the period 2011- 2017, the Guyana Sugar Corporation has received more than $47M in bailouts,” Felix stressed and added that the government (past and present) has expended large sums of money to keep the faltering industry afloat.

While disclosing the failure of the industry to produce and the inability of GuySuCo to manage itself, the minister said, “because of the factors I have outlined for you, we are in a place where the sugar has to adapt and be made more profitable, or it will die a painful death.”
He highlighted to the gathering, that the rationalisation and amalgamation of estates, such as the Wales/Uitvlugt Estates; the diversification of the estates, such as the seed paddy planting which began at Wales and even the selling or leasing of the Skeldon Estate, are all necessary steps for the creation of a profitable industry. These measures were all presented in the state paper laid in Parliament earlier this year.
In the case of the Uivtlugt Estate, Felix noted that this estate is well on its way to producing a satisfactory amount of sugar, but related that there are more than 400 jobs available for those who once worked at the Wales Estate. Transportation is also provided to and fro.
He alleged that “political mischief makers” such as the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) and Guyana Agricultural and General Workers’ Union (GAWU), have been deterring persons from going out to work here while the government is aiming to create a viable industry. It is not a case where sugar will be entirely gotten rid of and forgotten, as Felix noted that sugar will still be grown at three estates and produced at two factories.
He asserted, “The sugar still sweet.”
Meanwhile, a fieldworker of GAWU, Gordon Thomas, related that persons who lost their livelihood due to the closure of the Wales Sugar Estate are finding it difficult to make ends meet. Though the money needed to sustain the sugar industry is great, Thomas posited that the resultant crime, poverty and other ill-effects are incomparable.
Thomas further countered the Minister’s statement of the availability of jobs by noting that it is “unlawful” to take someone more than 10 miles away to work, and the distance from Wales to Uitvlugt is approximately 25 miles according to him. He also related that many persons have not been paid their severance. President of the Guyana Trade Unions Congress (GTUC), Coretta McDonald, stressed that despite the various opinions on the next step forward for the industry, all Guyanese must work together and recommit to the betterment of the nation. She posited, “United we stand, divided we fall.”