PPP/C has failed sugar workers

Dec 06, 2019 Letters

Dear Editor,

There is no place in modern Guyana for its citizens to continue cutting cane. That back-breaking labour was a legacy of British colonialism and exploitation that, despite the ending of the European Sugar Protocol, the PPP/C continued to perpetuate in order to control and reward its base through lavish transfers from the Treasury. Their GuySuCo gravy train was derailed In May 2015.
Since then it has been fascinating to watch how quietly the party that once championed the cause of sugar workers has allowed the closure of the three estates. There were no significant protests, just grumblings. It is as if they have pretended to be concerned while wanting the coalition to do the dirty work while leaving the workers out to dry.
But the facts are these: the closures were necessary. Sugar in Guyana like mining in the UK or the steel industry in the US Midwest is economically unviable. All former GuySuCo employees received full severance and the vast majority are simply getting on with their lives after sugar, finding good paying jobs or starting businesses. They know that the future for sugar in Guyana requires a massively scaled back and value added industry.
So why is the PPP/C insisting it will reopen the estates and drive these poor folks back into the fields to cut cane in the hot sun? Sorry but those backward plantation days are over. If the PPP/C wants to reopen the estates, let their bigwigs go work the cane themselves in their Gucci loafers.
Yours sincerely
Albert Russell

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