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Jun 17, 2009 News

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Enmore Martyrs remembered…

It was 61 years ago on June 16, 1948 that Lallabaggie and Dookie from Enmore, and Rambarran, Harry and Pooran from Enterprise/Non Pariel on the East Coast of Demerara gave their lives in protest of the working conditions on the Sugar estates as was imposed by their colonial masters.
The five have since been remembered as the Enmore Martyrs and a monument has since been erected in commemoration of their bravery and a somber service is also held each year on June 16 in their honour.
Scores turned out at yesterday’s remembrance ceremony, among them family members of the martyrs, Head of State, Bharrat Jagdeo, diplomats, politicians and union leaders.
There was also the traditional wreath laying ceremony.

President Jagdeo told the gathering that the sacrifice of the Enmore Martyrs must always be remembered and their sacrifice must be recognised as a key link to the political development of Guyana, which eventually led to the country’s freedom in 1966.
According to Jagdeo the lessons to be learnt from the five martyrs must be used as a catalyst for change in the world.
The first speaker to take the podium yesterday at the ceremony held just outside the grounds of the Enmore Martyrs Monument was the President of the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC), Gillian Burton, who reminded the gathering of the working conditions that the five among others decided to act in a bid to seek change.
She noted, too, that it must not always just be commemorated but the conditions that led to the strike actions by the sugar workers against their colonial masters.
She pointed out that there was unorganised system of employment; there were child labour and harsh working conditions for both male and females, there was a starvation salary coupled with a high cost of living, the non-recognition of marriage between Hindus and Muslims which caused dependants not to be compensated adequately among a whole host of other social ills.
She told the gathering those workers, 61 years later, must measure how far the nation has traveled as it relates to working condition.
Burton said that workers must search themselves and ask if they are satisfied with their current working conditions and wages among other necessities.
She also called on the government to recognize the need for an annual commemoration of the workers that were shot during an industrial protest action in 1999.
President Jagdeo took umbrage to the GTUC’s comments. He said that Ms Burton was using the truth conveniently skipping the period between 1948 and 1999. He asked about the strike actions where workers were greeted with tear gas “or when dogs were set loose on bauxite workers when they took industrial action.”
He pointed out that people must recognize the strides that Guyana has made as a nation.
He said that the government has come a long way in improving working conditions for workers in Guyana and he was sure that not all workers would satisfied but there is still more to be done.
History of Martyrs
The shooting to death of Lallabaggie, Dookie, Rambarran, Harry and Pooran was not the first time sugar workers had been shot in Guyana. This was pointed out yesterday by President of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union.
The first incident occurred in 1872 at Devonshire Castle where Colonial Police gunned down five workers.
He recalled that in 1896 the ‘police shot five workers and seriously injured several others at Non Pareil.
In 1903, eight workers were killed and seven injured at Friends, and in 1913 at Rose Hall fifteen were killed and thirteen wounded.
These shootings all occurred on individual estates where workers resorted to strikes and demonstrations in order to force the sugar estate owners to improve the working conditions.
These incidents were not part of an industry-wide action as was the case of the 1939 shootings at Leonora and the 1948 shootings at Enmore.
In 1939, sugar workers at several estates went on strike as a last resort to influence the sugar estates to improve their working conditions; however, the strike and demonstrations were suppressed when police brutally shot five workers and injuring several others.
After the 1939 death of the sugar workers, a collective bargaining agreement was put into place recognizing the Manpower Citizens Association (MPCA) as the representative union for the field workers and the Guyana Labour Union (GLU) as the representative union of the factory workers.
On June 14, 1948 the Sugar Producers Association and the MPCA met to discuss the issues, but no satisfactory agreement was reached and in any case, the workers were not prepared to accept any agreement that the MPCA was negotiating, since they felt very strongly that the union was betraying their interests.
On the following day, some strikers attacked overseers and some strikebreakers at Non Pareil, and in the evening there were reports of vandalism, including the cutting of telephone lines between Georgetown and Enmore.
Early on the morning of June 16, 1948, a crowd of about 400 workers gathered outside the factory at Enmore for a protest and picketing exercise.
The management of Enmore Estate was expecting this protest action, and the evening before had requested assistance from the Police.
A Lance Corporal and six policemen, each armed with a rifle and six rounds of ammunition, were earlier sent from Georgetown early on the morning of June 16 and they reported to the management of Enmore estate at 4.00 a.m.
Two hours later, they took up positions in the factory compound, which was protected by a fence, 15 feet high with rows of barbed wire running along the outward struts at the top.
By 10.00 a.m. the crowd had grown to between 500 and 600 persons and was led by one of the workers carrying a red flag.
They attempted to enter the factory compound through the gates and through two trench gaps at the rear by which punts entered the factory, but they were prevented from doing so because the locked gates and the punt gaps were protected by policemen.
A section of the crowd then hurled bricks and sticks at the policemen, and several persons managed to enter the compound on the rear of the factory.
The policemen tried to push back the crowd, but after this effort failed, they opened fire and five workers were killed and 14 others were injured.
Lallabagee Kissoon, 30 years old, was shot in the back; 19-year-old Pooran was shot in the leg and pelvis; Rambarran died from bullet wounds in his leg; Dookhie died in hospital later that day; and Harry died the following day from severe spinal injuries. These men, through the years, became known as the Enmore Martyrs.
On June 17, the funeral of the slain men saw a massive crowd of people marching behind their coffins from Enmore to La Repentir Cemetery in Georgetown, a distance of more than 16 miles.
It is believed that the slaying of the sugar workers greatly influenced the political leaders of that time to struggle for freedom from its then colonial masters.
This gives credit to FITUG member Kenneth Joseph who speaking at the ceremony yesterday, said that the hands that triggered the death of the Enmore martyrs unwittingly triggered Guyana’s Independence.

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