A long march to save sugar jobs

May 05, 2017 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

During the food crisis of the 1980s when ‘white mouth’ and malnutrition were increasing in Guyana, the Working People’s Alliance held a long march beginning from the eastern end of Guyana to the western end. It was not a big march because the WPA had by then suffered from a mass exodus of its supporters.
The march was small; at times it was one person alone who was marching. But there was quiet supporting along the way because everyone empathized with the struggle for food. But not everyone was able to come out and support the march because they feared victimization, the trademark of the PNC.
The march had moral support but this could never have been measured in a headcount because the WPA was making a moral point, rather than a political statement, about the right to food.
The long march has been discredited since as a tool of moral struggle. The PNCR made a colossal mistake when it organized a massive march from the East Coast into Georgetown. There was violence against non-PNCR supporters along the way and there was mayhem when the march reached Georgetown.
There has not been a long march ever since to establish a moral cause for any cause. But perhaps it is time for a long march by the sugar worker of Guyana to highlight the plight they face.
The government has already closed the Wales Estate and is now moving to close Skeldon and Rose Hall in Berbice, the latter having a far superior productivity ratio than other estates which will be retained. The government will also close Enmore estate.
Sugar workers from these estates have no alternative employment. The government cannot find jobs for these sugar workers. It means that these workers are being put out to pasture just as how the Barama workers have been put on the breadline simply because the government was prevaricating on renewing the leases for forest concessions for the company.
The APNU+AFC government is playing games with the livelihoods of poor people in this country.
The sugar workers at Rose Hall estate had a protest action last week against the closure of their estate. But sugar workers will not get anywhere unless there is greater visibility and media coverage of their protests. The majority of media houses in Guyana are not going to send reporters to cover a sugar protest.
The sugar workers are hurting. They need greater visibility. They need people to understand that their jobs are on the line and that their job security must not be confused with the financial state of GUYSUCO. The sugar company has assets to cover its liabilities which are being over represented. The sugar workers have no assets on which to borrow so to provide alternative income when their estates are closed.
The protests of the sugar workers outside of their estates in Wales and Rose Hall are not going to have a moral impact. The sugar workers need to engage in a long march from Skeldon to Charity so as to highlight their plight.
The long march does not need to be a big one. It can be small as the WPA food marches. The issues are the same – bread and justice.
The sugar workers will remember when the APNU was in opposition and was threatening to join with the AFC, also in opposition, to cut the subvention which the PPPC government had been proposing for the sugar company. The only reason why the APNU and the AFC reversed themselves was because the sugar workers came to the city to protest. Coming to the city gave the sugar workers greater visibility.
The sugar workers must galvanize public opinion on their side. They must highlight this attack on their jobs as an assault on their right to earn a livelihood. They should make a moral case for the retention of the sugar estates which the government plan to close.
The sugar workers should launch a peaceful and orderly long march. It should be small but symbolic of the struggle which is being waged to save their jobs.
The strike weapon has been rendered useless. APNU+AFC do not care if the entire GUYSUCO goes on strike. That will just give them an excuse to shut the industry down. But if the majority of the Guyanese people can be sensitized to the injustice which is being meted out to sugar workers, then there is hope that the jobs of sugar workers can be saved and their families will not have to suffer. A long march will make a moral point about the right of workers to earn livelihoods rather than the right to save the sugar industry.

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