…Lewis tells sugar workers to not be fooled by PPP

VETERAN trade unionist, Lincoln Lewis delivered a stinging rebuke to the leadership of the People’s Progressive Party in their heartland on Tuesday when he addressed an anti-sugar reform rally and march at Albion/Port Mourant, Berbice.
Addressing the large gathering, Lewis told the workers: “Sugar has been in crisis for decades. What has happened is that sugar did not have the benefit of a good plan of action to revitalise the corporation and further the diversification programme implemented in the 1970s, which rather than be built on was torpedoed.”

He added: “Today I speak without fear or favour…I continue to do what I have been doing all the years…today we come full circle that those who were in opposition are in opposition again. You would think that this will be a lesson to do right by the people, who they rely on to put them in government. If they were correctly reading the tea leaves, they would have a plan in the making years now. They tell you sugar can be saved and at the same time refuse to make public the plan to save it.” The PPP while it attended the consultations on the sugar industry, had refused to put forward a proposal for the restructuring.

Lewis continued: “While the Jagdeo Government allowed bauxite to go, ignoring the entreaties for rights to be respected in the decision-making processes, they kept on to sugar to use as a political football, paid management super salaries with the sweat of your labour,” Lewis, who is general-secretary of the Guyana Trades Union Congress, declared.
“Those who are blood suckers on sugar workers let us not be fooled, for the only reason they are now standing with you is to deepen their political ambition. When they had the power to give, they gave support to the fat cats at the top. Jagdeo said the industry can be saved and while he failed to put measures in place to do so when the levers of power were in his hands, demand of him that he now make public his plan to save GuySuCo…,” Lewis told the crowd.

Bauxite wokers were ignored
He reminded the gathering that when bauxite workers called for consultation, involvement and participation on the future of the industry, “we were ignored and shut out. Many families were placed on the breadline, went hungry, and endured serious jeopardy. What was different about those workers? But these rights of which I speak do not change under a working-class government, under a caring government, under a government of the people by the people for the people. These rights do not change. If anything they become more entrenched, more preserved, more protected,” Lewis asserted.

“And we the workers must ensure that such protection is not taken for granted, for then we stand the risk of losing grounds: of losing all that our ancestors struggled for and bequeathed to us through norms and laws. The colour of our skin, our ethnicity and political persuasion must not matter or determine whether we are treated with respect and dignity. We fought that battle and settled that score long ago…what we must fight for now is the preservation, strengthening and deepening of the gains achieved.”

Lewis reminded the gathering that the Skeldon factory, which has cost the taxpayers more than 200 million U.S. dollars, on completion was found to be no good. “This was the single largest investment in taxpayers’ money, and [the] Jagdeo Government as quick as it was to spend yours and mine tax dollars did not see the need to ensure during the construction process we, the taxpayers, would have been getting our money’s worth. The fixing of this factory requires tens of millions more, which we too will have to shoulder and we must demand of the David Granger/Moses Nagamootoo Government that in the repair works they ensure proper oversight,” Lewis thundered.

He added that when the Jagdeo Government moved to close Diamond and re-organise the East Bank Demerara Estates, he did not engage in consultation, involvement and participation with “you and your representatives. For those sugar workers to get their redundancy benefits they had to take GuySuCo to court. Do not be fooled by any in their own political self-serving agenda tell you today that they care about you…for when they had the opportunity to care they trampled you. Beware of the wolves in sheep’s clothing,” Lewis admonished the workers.

Turning to President David Granger, Lewis said in running for office the head of state had talked about the Good Life…the sugar workers, bauxite workers, public servants, teachers, and all workers want the Good Life…”it is not only for him, Moses, his ministers, friends and families. It is time this social parasite-ism ends…regardless of which government is in power or party has our support. Let us not waver in our responsibility to protect and defend universally acceptable principles.”

We trade unionists
The Guyana Agricultural and General Workers’ Union (GAWU) has been organising a series of marches and rallies in the sugar belt and Lewis in speaking directly to the leadership of the union, cautioned: “We trade unionists — rank and file and leaders — must be cognisant of politicians who will seek to use us in their political agenda and not necessarily ours. As a young trade unionist, the things I believed in that are at the core at the trade union movement, that I was led to believe they believed in too, when they got into office they turned around and became our worst nightmare.”

He said today he is cognisant of the tight rope he had to walk: “As I speak before you and I want you to be also because we are all on this journey together. If we stand for workers in the sugar industry and around the world, we must stand for good governance, irrespective of which party [is] in power, has your support, or received your vote. While politicians vacillate, we in the trade unions must remain constant.”

Lewis stressed that workers are still entitled to human rights, the right to a living wage, equality, equal pay for equal work, the right to organise and freedom to associate, the right to education and health care, decent retirement benefits for those who served this country and are entitled, the right to work and earn, and a social welfare programme that helps to alleviate economic deprivation for those who are indigent and less fortunate, police protection, justice and fair play. And these values we stand up and continue to fight [for], and it must matter not which government is in office or which party is out.

“Let us today pledge and commit ourselves to these basic principles of trade unionism, for they were relevant in the days of Hubert Nathaniel Critchlow, they were relevant at the time of the Enmore Martyrs, they were in 1999 when public servants were shot at John Fernandes Wharf, relevant for bauxite workers who since 2009 have been engaged in a bitter struggle for the protection of their fundamental rights and freedoms, they were relevant under colonial rule, relevant under successive PNC governments, under successive PPP/C governments, and remain relevant under the APNU+AFC government,” the trade union leader stated.