From “War Break” to “Aluta Continua”

Oct 27, 2021 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

---

Kaieteur News – I sent this commentary to four lawyers, yes four lawyers. They concluded nothing is libelous. I changed, on the suggestion of one of the lawyers; two adjectives which he opined were safe but still made the suggestion. I will avoid getting libel suit and will continue to offer analyses on Guyana’s troubled political landscape.
Mr. Winston Jordan issued a statement in response to the revelation by the Attorney-General that he is under criminal investigation when he served as Minister. At the end of his output, Jordan used the revolutionary chant – “aluta continua.”
That chant means “the struggle continues” and originated in the African liberation wars from the seventies. It has found widespread use in the fight for justice in any form worldwide. My activism in Guyana goes beyond 50 years and in those long decades, I never saw the conspicuous or visible presence of Mr. Jordan. Please note the two words, “conspicuous” and “visible.” Now don’t get me wrong. Jordan could have been there. It is just I have been there so long but missed Jordan.
Former PNC executive, Clarissa Riehl, once told me that she did not know about the politics of David Granger when he became PNC leader. But Granger told a meeting of a PNC diaspora group that he had over 40 years of political service. It could mean that Granger was around for 40 years but Riehl didn’t see him.
In his statement Jordan informs us that he has 35 years of public service. That would mean from 1985, Jordan was in the public service. Of those 35 years, a considerable percentage of it would have been during the tenure of the PPP government. From October 1992 to April 2015, the PPP headed the government.
One would like to think that in those 35 years Jordan would not have risked his job by being involved in political activities thus he would not have had the opportunity to say – “aluta continua!” What is interesting is what Jordan means by the well-known chant. Which struggle is he referring to – the continuing struggle of 7,000 former sugar workers who were put out of their jobs when APNU+AFC was in power or the struggle of the PNC to win national elections.
You don’t know what Jordan means sometimes. In August 2019 at a Cabinet outreach in Bartica, on hearing that GECOM under chairperson, Justice Claudette Singh, had stopped house to house registration (HTHR), Jordan who was on the podium addressing the gathering, shouted “war break!” On to this day, no one knows what he was referring to. See my column of Thursday, November 5, 2020, titled, “War break but where was the war supposed to be and between whom?”
Was it the outbreak of war inside GECOM for stopping HTHR or was it the confrontation in the society over HTHR? Could it have been that? What Moses Nagamootoo said at the very Bartica meeting needs repeating. He shouted out to the attendees that the youths will rebel over the scrapping of HTHR.
In fact the youths did rebel but not against HTHR but against Nagamootoo himself when he went up to his home village of Whim in Berbice and asked Berbician youths to protest the stopping of HTHR. The reaction was so hostile that Nagamootoo’s safety was endangered.
It would be interesting to hear from Jordan what he meant by “war break!” But let’s get back to aluta continua! What was the shape of the struggle between 2015 and 2020? Over 7,000 sugar workers and by extension over 42,000 family members and relatives were reduced to penury. They had to apply to the courts for compensation legally due.
At various GAWU rallies in Berbice to expose how sugar workers were treated by the APNU+AFC regime government, many of the speakers exclaimed – “aluta continua!” Indeed the struggle continued for sugar workers and they won when the APNU+AFC lost the 2020 general elections.
When the APNU+AFC reached three years in office and the amendment to the marijuana legislation was still not done, I was told some youths in Buxton held a protest. At the end of their meeting, they denounced the Granger presidency for breaking its campaign promise of changing the law and shouted out “aluta continua!”
During the reign of the APNU+AFC, the tax on animal drawn carts was increased. I heard a story that the cart-men gathered in Sophia and denounced the government before they dispersed. They shouted out loudly – “aluta continua!” If PNC leaders continue to use the slogan from the African liberation struggle, it brings up the question what do they mean by it in Guyana today. (The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

---

---