THE PPP lost office in 1964 to return to power in 1992 after almost three decades. In that long period we had the descent into Burnhamite dictatorship. It was only natural for the society in general to give Cheddi Jagan a chance to settle down and rearrange society and economy away from its totalitarian mode.

This did not happen. The Public Service Union called an unreasonable, irrational and politically driven strike. The political theorists had a goldmine to work with.

The theory is that the Public Service Union played a huge role in undermining the Jagan premiership because it will never accept a PPP government for ethnic reasons; this theory was strengthened by the 1992 strike.

Before Jagan returned to power in 1992, the union head was Mr. Patrick Yarde. He still maintains that position. After almost 40 years at the helm, Mr. Yarde looks like he is going nowhere. This is the state of trade unionism in Guyana. Is this the union the Guyana Teachers’ Union wants to be associated with? Could such an association help the GTU’s credibility?

Enter Lincoln Lewis. Mr. Lewis has 35 years as General Secretary of the TUC. He appears to be in the same company with Mr. Yarde. In this age of Google, you can find anything that made the news.

Google Mr. Lewis’ rejected strike action at UG in 2019 and his disassociation from the TUC’s own affiliate, UG Workers’ Union. The TUC’s representative on the UG Council voted against the strike. The reason was obvious – the Vice Chancellor at the time was the choice of the APNU+AFC government.

Mr. Lewis, in July 2020, appealed to President Granger to cancel the March 2020 election, a constitutional jurisdiction that the President of Guyana does not have. In 2021, Mr. Lewis was charged with assaulting a woman. Mr. Lewis’ organisation did not seek his suspension from office until the case was concluded.

Is this the person that is advising the GTU? How can the GTU retain credibility by such a relationship? Mr. Lewis will be seeking court intervention to prevent non-payment of salaries during striking days. Is the GTU going to accept this violation of commonsense? Why is it commonsensical? Because to pay striking workers as a theoretical principle is fraught with disastrous consequences.

At the practical level, it also lacks commonsense. If you are going to strike and get paid then there is a rational, logical and perfectly sane reason to strike and to keep on striking. You are being paid not to work.

To seek court intervention on this policy cannot win the GTU the embrace of the nation. The one major disaster that is waiting to happen is that other state sectors are going to be incentivised to go on strike action.

I will never be against workers striking for increased wages. But I will not stifle my capacity to analyse politics in my country. And my analysis tells me that the GTU’s strike came about by the advice of anti-government personalities.

The strike then is politically motivated and my predictions are that there will be more strikes right up to 2025 election by other unions because the opposition is facing an enormous diminution of societal support.

The opposition and its supporters from civil society have two stratagems -only two. There are no other arsenals left in the war room. One is to intensify the cry of African marginalisation, the other, is to use state workers to strike. The marginalisation pathway will not be productive.

I think African-Guyanese see President Ali as a different leader since Independence and a man who will not pursue a racially driven agenda. Over the past three years, I think Dr. Ali has made massive inroads into constituencies that did not embrace past PPP presidents.

The other stratagem of the strike weapon will not work. Our politics is losing its sharp divisiveness. Once teachers are shown the analysis of political motives, strike action will peter out. This is not to say that there are not areas open for negotiations with the government.

There are and the teachers need to complete the negotiation process and ask Dr. Ali to mediate. He will. That is what all heads of governments do.

The teachers should grasp the opportunity of negotiating with a President that is not against working class elevation. His mother was a teacher. I don’t think any of our past presidents were against the resources of Guyana being used for the social and economic enhancement.

But I think President Ali stands out from each of them and I mean no disrespect to the two founding fathers –Jagan and Burnham. As a matter of exigency, the teachers should go back to the table and should ask Dr. Ali to lend a hand. Give it a try, guys!