WPA: Malcolm Rodrigues enriched our collective soul

Dec 23, 2022 Letters

Dear Editor,

WPA joins with the Roman Catholic community in mourning the death of Father Malcolm Rodrigues. We remember Brother Malcolm as a decent and selfless human being who used his god given talents in constant service of his country, its peoples and its noble causes. He was part of the group who brought him into the public generation that shaped post-independence Guyana- a progressive socio-political persona. He was a renaissance man whose thought was steeped in theology and science. His work as Priest, Educator, Trade Unionist, Scientist, Statesman and Political Radical place him among the finest products of our Guyana – Caribbean civilization.

But it was his socio-political activism which took root in the 1970s that brought him into the public space. He was the revolutionary Priest who mounted the political platform and grounded in the alleys, bottom houses, union halls to speak truth to and against power and organized for liberation. It would not be out of place to locate Brother Malcolm in the vanguard of Guyana’s manifestation of Liberation Theology. He lived and breathed the ideals of that praxis.

WPA is honored to have worked closely with Brother Malcolm. He openly associated with our party when it was considered dangerous to do so, never one to draw unnecessary attention to himself, his contributions to the party and the movement our activism spawned are substantial—he made a massive difference. When the real history of the period in our history is written Brother Malcolm will loom large.

Brother Malcolm was also active in the University of Guyana Workers Union where he worked alongside Professor Clive Thomas, Dr. Josh Ramsammy and others to give energy and voice to the workers of that Institution. He would expand his unionism to the larger labor movement and was a key figure in the Four-Union coalition of unions which later expanded to the Six-Union. Much later he would serve as an Arbitrator in the wage negotiations between Government and the Teachers Union.

As Guyana confronts new forms of unjust governance in the wake of the discovery of oil, Brother Malcolm’s example of political morality and love for the downtrodden should inform public behavior in and out of the halls of power. Despite our national failings, Malcolm Rodrigues enriched our collective soul. He lived out the Christian creed of love, devoted service and compassion.

Regards,

Working People’s Alliance