THE WORLD IS STILL HERE

May 23, 2011 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

If you are reading this, it means that the world has not ended. A great many people prepared for the worst last Saturday, and many are thousands of dollars short for the effort.
One man invested $140,000 of his savings into the campaign to alert the world about its predicted end and is today wondering just what went wrong. Others are similarly stunned, not knowing what to do.
Many of them who blew a great deal of money behind this doomsday prediction are today counting their losses. Guyana Trade Union Congress ran the Critchlow Labour College.
It never predicted the end of the world but when the government pulled the subvention that was previously granted to the CLC it seemed to have knocked the wind out of that organisation, and it has never recovered.
The public is now getting a fair idea of the size of that subvention. According to one source, the government subvention to the CLC was some $40M. Now that is an astonishing amount of money for any government to be giving to any labour college, more so considering that labour unions should not be considered without sources of income.
After all they do collect union dues for the representation they provide and there is no reason why the Critchlow Labour College could not be run on a cost-recovery basis, but even if this was not possible the trade union movement should have been able to carry on this college with overseas assistance and from their own sources of revenue which must be considerable considering the time they have been in existence and their membership during the days when labour was king.
There are better things for the government to do than to give to the CLC forty million dollars per year. A great deal more can be done. The GMRSC redid the South Dakota surface with a sum equivalent to the original one year subvention and this will allow for motoring racing to develop in years to come.
There are many other areas where this forty million can be put to better use. Most of the parks in Guyana are in a poor shape and there is a need for improvements. This forty million dollars that was previously allocated would be better spent on these facilities.
The trade union movement should not have to be dependent on any subvention from the government.
This sets a bad precedence for any trade union movement, which in any event ought to be able to pay for the upkeep of the college from its own funds considering the size of the movement in Guyana.
While therefore there has been a commitment for the subvention to be restored should certain things be put in place, better use can be put to that money.
There are many other organisations that need seed capital to grow and many others which are doing a fantastic job but who do not receive the sort of support they needed.
Just last year, the miserly sum of one million dollars was given to the ex-soldiers association. Now how does this compare with the forty million that used to be given to the labour college?
Another consistent beneficiary of government support has been the Salvation Army. Just recently that organisation received a massive grant from the government; a few years ago, they also got 10 million, and just before that five million. It does not need to be asked why this generosity by the government to the Salvation Army.
The world is not going to end soon and therefore there is a need for a fair system of apportioning government subventions. Social organisations should be assisted where it is clear that they need such assistance, but this assistance should not be continuous and should only be to allow them to develop and eventually to be self- sustaining.
The Critchlow Labour College is going to survive, government subvention or no government subvention. Those who attend the college should pay for the cost of the services they receive.
The unions are strong enough to be able to make this investment into their members and employers should also chip in to help their employees who are attending the college.
The College needs to concentrate on retraining workers because this is needed in today’s world. The college should feel under no compunction to accept any subvention from government.
In fact, if the labour movement wishes to preserve its independence, it should totally reject receiving any money from the government and instead ask that money be spent on hiring some top lawyers to help prosecute some of those big companies which are believed to be exploiting their employees.

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