THE planting of sugar for commercial purpose has always attracted its own politics. The politics of slavery was one where the plantation owners exploited the unpaid labour of Africans, who were deemed property, and lived and toiled under inhumane conditions. This barbaric system resulted in resistance throughout the hundreds of years of its existence. When indentured labour arrived, though conditions of work and living were relatively better than slavery, the system of servitude was still abominable and those workers fought it.
The oppressive systems of slavery and indentureship were not without leadership and organising among the oppressed to bring about justice and parity in the society. Neither were the oppressed without supportive leadership from those who did not live and labour under such conditions.
In 1943, when Dr Cheddi Jagan returned to then British Guiana and focused attention on mobilising the masses to change their circumstances, he met an energised and formally organised workforce in the sugar industry. Those workers were organised into trade unions by the likes of Hubert Nathaniel Critchlow and Iyube Edun and were conscious of what their conditions of work and living ought to be. Jagan joined the trade union and made an impact both in forestry and sugar, lending leadership to the workers’ cause.
In 1948 when the strikes in the estates on the East Coast of Demerara occurred, which resulted in the deaths of sugar workers, Jagan played a leading role in giving direction to this activity. On the day of the funeral of those, who are the Enmore Martyrs, mourners marched along the East Coast Demerara road all the way to Le Repentir Cemetery in Georgetown. In that procession, Jagan walked with the leaders which would have sent a message to the colonial power that Indians on the sugar estates have found a leader in him.
The 1948 event was a game- changer and influenced the Crown to favourably respond to calls for a Commission of Inquiry into the riots that resulted from the strikes. And as Jagan maintained a presence in the sugar industry through the trade union, he intensified his party politics around the country.
Sugar’s inherent politics of activism has not been lost on those who pursue politics to get into office or make political statements, one way or the other. The Working People’s Alliance (WPA), Rise Organise and Rebuild Guyana (ROAR), and the Alliance For Change (AFC) when they came onto the political scene headed straight to the sugar belt to engage the workers and tried forming trade unions or pressure groups from within the ranks, notwithstanding the presence of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) and NAACIE.
The earlier rivalry between the recognised Manpower Citizens Association (MPCA) and challenger Guyana Industrial Workers Union (GIWU) to represent the workers saw the accusation by the latter that the former was a company union. The GIWU was co-founded by Jagan in 1946 and with the nationalisation of the sugar industry in 1976 GAWU, formerly GIWU, won recognition to represent the workers.
During nationalization, the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) suffered from constant arson where young sugar canes, the property of the state, were burnt. This act ended when the PPP assumed political office in 1992. There were other acts of alleged sabotage to factory equipment during the pre-1992 period. The State carried tremendous loss of revenue from these incidents at a time when sugar’s price was lucrative on the world and preferential markets. The aborted diversification plans in the industry adversely impacted the industry’s revenue capacity.
When the World Bank advised Guyana that the industry should be closed, the PPP/C government failed to do any feasibility study even as estates were closed and the Consolidated Fund was used to invest more than US$200M in the decrepit Skeldon Factory. Leader of the Opposition, Bharrat Jagdeo, at this time when the industry requires level-headed approaches to determine its future, is opting to take a different route.
Though the crisis in sugar escalated under Mr Jagdeo’s presidency, the proposals he is raising now to save the industry, had he implemented them could have probably stopped the haemorrhaging. The industry was also denied required attention during his 12- year presidency to prepare for the inevitable. Where the European Union recently announced phasing out preferential treatment, and in the midst of GuySuCo’s crisis, Government has to be mindful of sugar’s politics and the consequences that could be wrought by those who see the sugar workers as expedient to their desire for political office.