GAWU Combat - January/February 2015 by GAWU

Issue#1 Volume#36

Combat Voice of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU)

Sweet, then bitter-sweet, sugar’s struggle, triumphs and crises It was this commodity – coupled with and fuelled by Empire-building, European expansionism and plain greed – that ultimately was responsible for the presence of most of Guyana’s population and fluctuating economic fortunes and profile. Keen students of local and European history would love the accounts of happenings after the Coast of Guyana was sighted in the 1500s: how the Dutch in Brazil, the Portuguese, French, Spanish and English engaged in numerous battles and power struggles, both at home and in their new possessions in the Americas and the Caribbean, to establish colonial and economic dominance amongst themselves; how sugar replaced tobacco, cotton and possibly coffee as the product of choice; how the Dutch brought slaves to Essequibo, Demerara and Berbice to work their plantations, and how the British perpetuated cane-sugar production on the backs of slaves and Indian indentured labour to make sure that Britain stayed economically great.

January/February, 2015

GuySuCo first crop commences crop targeted to produce 86,201 tonnes sugar

It is within that historical that GAWU and Combat wish to locate this commentary as we celebrate the thirty-ninth (39th) year of the recognition of GAWU as the legitimate representatives of Guyana’s sugar industry’s workers. And there is good reason for this editorial essay at this time. Struggle at Various Levels The British left British Guiana constitutionally and governmentally in May, 1966. From an economic standpoint, they left Guyana with sugar as the mainstay of an “independent” Guyana; hence, the importance of sugar workers’ representation, rights and well-being. Elsewhere in this edition, Combat features the dire struggles for recognition which GAWU was forced to ensure. The Union displaced the Man Power Citizens’ Association (MPCA) which was recognized in 1939 by the Sugar Producers Association. The workers’ battle for a new Union in the sugar industry started with the formation of the Guiana Industrial Workers Union (GIWU) in 1946. One of the early highpoints in the struggle was in 1948, when five (5) sugar workers were killed and fourteen (14) others were injured at Enmore during the famous ‘cut and load’ controversy and the demand for the recognition of GIWU. A split within the leadership of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) in 1955 resulted in a split soon after within the GIWU. Later, that Union became dormant. A new rival sugar union to the MPCA, the Guyana Sugar Workers Union (GSWU), was formed in 1961, which was renamed the Guyana Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU) in 1962, and the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) in 1978. The acronym GAWU has been retained. Continued on page two COMBAT: January/February, 2015

Harvested canes in punts being transported to the factory

For the first crop this year, the Guyana Sugar Cor- March 13, 2015, the production across the industry poration (GuySuCo) has outlined production levels stood at 12,635 tonnes sugar. with respect to its seven (7) grinding estates as follows:The Corporation, in its latest Business Plan released in November, 2014, indicated this year’s proSkeldon - 17,214 tonnes sugar duction at 245,710 tonnes sugar. Albion - 19,548 tonnes sugar Rose Hall - 9,366 tonnes sugar The industry’s current resources are capable of Blairmont - 10,845 tonnes sugar achieving much higher production levels than the Enmore - 14,088 tonnes sugar present poor production levels achieved past years, Wales - 6,892 tonnes sugar but serious agronomic issues continue to bedevil Uitvlugt - 8,248 tonnes sugar the industry. The Managers of the country’s preTotal - 86,201 tonnes sugar mier industry and its Board of Directors seem to be either unaware of those issues and/or are unable to As at week ending February 28, 2015, with the adopt appropriate measures in order for the indusexception of Skeldon Estate, which is scheduled to try’s production to peak once again. commence operations expectedly on week ending Page One

GAWU concludes Branch Conferences throughout sugar belt Blairmont Estate Branch Committee Chairman: Rubraj Singh, Vice Chairman: Julius Nurse, Secretary: Bhikram Singh, Assistant Secretary/ Treasurer: Shiek Baksh and Committee Members: Seuvraj Bridgelall, Dharamdeo Brijwalla, Pooran Seudharry, Lakeram Sukra, Yogindra Seenauth, Kumarie Kishore, Gowkaran Inderjit, Rajendra Singh, Motilall Dyal, Yuvraaj Dharampaul, Yudhistirnauth Persaud, Abdool, Dhanraj Gobin, Verney Henry, Wendy Richman East

Demerara

Estate

GAWU President, Cde Komal Chand (standing) addressing delegates attending the the Branch Committee Chairman: Balkissoon Albion GAWU Branch Conference on January 25, 2015

The Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), in keeping with its Constitution, held seven (7) Branch Conferences with the Union’s seven (7) branches in the sugar belt during the months of January and February, 2015. The Conferences, which were attended by delegates from the various sections of the workforce, reviewed the work of each Branch during the preceding year, as well as elect new Branch Committees, which are charged with administering the affairs of the Branches for another year. Also, attending the Conferences was a member of the Union’s leadership, who addressed the Conference’s delegates on important matters, such as the serious challenges facing the sugar industry in the light of the sale price of sugar being below the cost of production. The newly-elected Branch Committees are as follows: Skeldon Estate Branch Committee Chairman: Mitchell Mc Bean, Vice Chairman: Rishiram Mahasechand, Secretary: Uranie Heeram, Assistant Secretary/Treasurer: Ernest A Mangal, and Committee Members: Sham Jabar, Chetranie Edmohamed, Rajendra Persaud Churan, Fredinand Guptar, Michelle Mc Bean, Terena Davis, Daimattie Hardath, Herelene Lewis, Hemwattie Persaud, Derick Clark, Jennifer Williams, Thomas Crannum and Zalina Gomes Albion Estate Branch Committee Chairman: Venkatasammy Sevapatti, Vice-Chairman: Hernie Parks, Secretary: Ram Persaud Singh, Assistant Secretary/Treasurer: Chandranath Singh, Organising Secretary: Ganga Persaud Shivdyal, and Committee Members: Deodat Anderson, Odonna Corlette, Loleta Skette, Stephen Indardat, Victor McKenzie, Issac Sookraj, Premchand Pooran, Saywack Ramjas and Deonarine Narine Rose Hall Estate Branch Committee Chairman: Sohanauth Rabindranauth, Vice Chairman: Sheik A. Mohamed, Secretary: Charles Cadogan, Assistant Secretary/Treasurer: Francis Alabi, and Committee Members: Glenn McLeod, Michael Loknath, Jairaj Ramotar, Eusi Bruce, Linden Bess, Badewattie Sookdeo, Richard Cort, Geron Hitnarine, Dwain Kesney, Samuel Sanchara, Shenella Wills, Chetram Sukhu and Lakeram Doodnauth COMBAT: January/February, 2015

Rambissoon, Vice Chair-

man: Sookram Persaud, Secretary: Laloo Tekchand, Assistant Secretary/Treasurer: Andrea Ramdin, and Committee Members: Lakeram, Mohamed Haniff, Jadonauth Singh, Seepersaud Sewchand, Penelope DeFretias, Michelle Robinson, Nester Farrel, Norbert Collins and Chaitram Narine Wales Estate Branch Committee Chairman: Gobin Persaud, Vice Chairman: Leo Alleyne, Secretary: Denis Leacock, Assistant Secretary/ Treasurer: Mohamed Khan, and Committee Members: Rickey Rambeer, Michelle Farley, Talat Khan, Leslie Alleyne, Gordon Thomas, Clarence Wrights and Sanjay Rahaman Uitvlugt Estate Branch Committee Chairman: Abid Hoosein, Vice Chairman: Lochan Khandai, Secretary: Anwad Bhagwandin, Assistant Secretary/Treasurer: Janice Fowler, and Committee Members: Govinda Seenath, Bibi Hanif, Corinne Greene, Helena Broomes, Letitia James, Abiola Morrison, Rahobeer Frank, Parasram Lallbehair and Ondair Damodar

Sweet, then bitter-sweet... continued from page one The sugar planters continued to fiercely resist the call for the recognition of a Union of the workers’ choice. The MPCA, which was deemed a company Union just a few years after it was recognized, was at the planters’ service. It took almost three (3) decades of resistance and hard struggle by workers in the industry to secure the recognition of GAWU, which took place on February 27, 1976. The death of the Enmore five in 1948 occasioned Dr Cheddi Jagan to pledge his life-long dedication to acheiving working-class justice. The struggle for recognition from successive PNC-Burnham governments steeled the will of GAWU to be relentless in its duty to represent sugar workers, even when in modern times – under Desmond Hoyte’s regime in 1988 ,and in 2010, when GuySuCo angered GAWU and its affiliates in FITUG by threatening to “de-recognise” the Union – efforts were made to test its rock-like resolve. Poor policies, bad management, uncertainty GAWU is these days, left to wonder why the poor, calamitous policies hold sway in the sugar industry. GuySuCo’s continuous failure to manage the vital, historic industry is having serious implications for the industry’s thousands of workers. Currently, the industry should be producing close to 300,000 tonnes sugar, not taking into account the new Skeldon Factory, which is highly underperforming since its commissioning. The factory’s output is set at 110,000 tonnes sugar per year, but it is grossly under performing

at just about 35,000-odd tonnes per year as much as the old factory. The dramatic, continuous slide became an acute crisis when, in 2013, sugar production plummeted to 186,807 tonnes and in 2014 to 216,358 tonnes, two (2) of the lowest levels of sugar production since 1992. GAWU has been prolific with its advice at all levels. It has called for an Inquiry into the industry. This investigation must then disclose what immediate remedial actions are necessary for the survival of an industry still too big to fail. And is the state aware of the horrific fallout from even a partial closure of sugar in Guyana at this time? The unemployment consequences of social dysfunction into crime, prostitution, broken families, and repercussions for the entire economy must not be lost sight of. The future… GAWU now calls on all political parties vying for office on May 11, 2015 to:- state clearly, their immediate and long-term policies and programmes for sustaining the vital sugar industry. This strategic manifesto of measures must indicate honestly any new government’s approaches to such elements as infrastructure for survival, re-financing, export markets, peasant cane-farming, any and every other aspect to be discussed and implemented for sugar’s sustenance. GAWU, and its thousands of members and their families, will be waiting and watching. Perhaps thousands of votes will hinge on what they see, hear and expect.

“Capitalist barbarism, crisis and Imperialist wars, or socialism” Page Two

FITUG 5th Delegates’ Conference successfully concludes

Scenes from the FITUG Conference on February 25, 2015

The fifth (5th) Delegates Conference of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG) under the theme “Upholding Democracy and Struggle for Social Transformation” was successfully concluded on (Wednesday) February 25, 2015. The one (1) day Conference brought together approximately sixty (60) delegates from the Federation’s four affiliates – the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), the National Association of Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial Employees (NAACIE), the Clerical and Commercial Workers Union (CCWU) and the Guyana Labour Union (GLU) – to review the work and performance of the organization since the 4th Conference in 2012, and to chart goals for the ensuing triennium. FITUG’s President, Cde Carvil Duncan, in his Presidential Address to the delegates and special invitees at the Opening Session at the Cheddi Jagan Research Centre, reflected on the Federation’s activities. He also noted the current international situation, pointing out the growing inequity in the world, the increasing militarization throughout the planet, the effects and harms of climate change, among other matters. Cde Duncan also used the forum to reiterate the Federation’s call for a united trade union movement, and he noted that the division of the working-class has been detrimental to the nation. FITUG’s President also called for peaceful and violence-free elections, which will take place in seventyfive (75) days’ time, and challenged political parties to ensure that workers and their families take a prominent COMBAT: January/February, 2015

position in their proposed policies and actions. Minister of Labour, Dr Nanda Gopaul, delivered the feature address and declared the Conference open. The Minister, in his address, recalled the circumstances in the country which led to the formation of FITUG, and recalled, too, his personal involvement in the setting-up of the organisation. He called on employers to treat with workers and their trade union representatives in a fair and equitable manner, and chastised employers who are utilizing union dues’ remittances and credit union savings from the Union which ought to be promptly paid over to the unions concerned. He also touched on the legislative and other improvements to further protect the nation’s workers. During the plenary session at the GAWU Conference Room, FITUG’s General Secretary, Cde Kenneth Joseph, presented the Report of the Executive Committee, which outlined the work of the organization and other important national and international issues. The eleven (11) page report addressed many issues, including FITUG’s educational programme; participating in national and international events; the prevailing global situation; issues affecting affiliates; meetings of the Executive Committee, among other things. Following the report’s presentation, delegates engaged in a spirited debate; and, where necessary, responses were provided by the leaders of the Federation’s affiliates. The Conference also unanimously approved five (5) resolutions - on the general international situation and

the growing struggle of workers and peoples, on Trade Union Unity, on endorsing GAWU’s and NAACIE’s call for an inquiry into the sugar industry, on solidarity with the CCWU, and on Tax Reform. These resolutions will now be sent to different agencies and bodies for their attention. A fifteen-person Executive Committee was also elected by those present. Those elected were Cdes Carvil Duncan, President; Komal Chand, First Vice President; Sherwood Clarke, Second Vice President; Kenneth Joseph, General Secretary; Irma Glenn, Principal Assistant Secretary; Bhagmat Hochand, Assistant Secretary; Seepaul Narine, Treasurer; Michael Stephens, Organising Secretary; Harvey Tambron, Assistant Organising Secretary; Aslim Singh, Education Secretary; Jagdeo Paul, Press and Publicity Secretary; and Roxanne Garraway, Narda Mohamed, Savitri Thomas and Elmy Ishmael as Executive Members. The elected committee will be responsible for the Federation’s functioning until the sixth (6th) Conference. The Conference was concluded with a Charge given by former President of FITUG and former General Secretary of the Clerical and Commercial Workers Union (CCWU), Cde Grantley Culbard. From all accounts, the 5th Conference of FITUG was a genuine workers’ forum, which concluded successfully.

Page Three

Why the Rise of Fascism is Again the Issue to the catastrophes in Afghanistan and Iraq, Syria and Libya, and Ukraine. Since 1945, more than a third of the membership of the United Nations - 69 countries - have suffered some or all of the following at the hands of America’s modern fascism. They have been invaded, their governments overthrown, their popular movements suppressed, their elections subverted, their people bombed, and their economies stripped An armoured personnel carrier damaged after heavy fighting in the eastern Ukrainian city of Uglegorsk of all protection; By John Pilger oil reserves in US dollars. Gaddafi audatheir societies subThe recent 70th anniversary of the lib- ciously planned to underwrite a common jected to a crippling siege known as “sanceration of Auschwitz was a reminder of African currency backed by gold; estab- tions”. The British historian Mark Curtis the great crime of fascism, whose Nazi lish an all-Africa bank, and promote eco- estimates the death toll in the millions. In iconography is embedded in our con- nomic union among poor countries. every case, a big lie was deployed. sciousness. Fascism is preserved as histoThe “humanitarian war” against Libya The tragedy of Afghanistan rivals the epic ry, as flickering footage of goose-stepping drew on a model close to Western liberal crime in Indochina., Zbigniew Brzezinski blackshirts, their criminality terrible and hearts, especially in the media. In 1999, writes that if America is to control Eurasia clear. Yet, in the same liberal societies, Bill Clinton and Tony Blair sent NATO to and dominate the world, it cannot sustain whose war-making elites urge us never to bomb Serbia, because, they lied, the Serbs a popular democracy, because “the purforget, the accelerating danger of a mod- were committing “genocide” against eth- suit of power is not a goal that commands ern kind of fascism is suppressed; for it is nic Albanians. Both Clinton and Blair popular passion... Democracy is inimical their fascism. evoked the Holocaust and “the spirit of to imperial mobilisation.” He is right. As Had the Nazis not invaded Europe, the Second World War”. The West’s he- WikiLeaks and Edward Snowden have Auschwitz and the Holocaust would not roic allies were the Kosovo Liberation revealed, a surveillance and police state is have happened. Had the United States Army (KLA), whose criminal record was usurping democracy. and its satellites not initiated their war of set aside. With the NATO bombing over, In the 1960s, a popular revolution aggression in Iraq in 2003, almost a mil- international forensic teams descended swept Afghanistan, the poorest counlion people would have been alive today; upon Kosovo to exhume evidence of the try on earth, eventually overthrowing and Islamic State, or ISIS, would not have “holocaust”. The FBI failed to find a single the vestiges of the aristocratic regime in us in thrall to its savagery. They are the mass grave, and went home. The Spanish 1978. On July 3, 1979, the White House progeny of modern fascism, weaned by forensic team did the same. A year later, secretly authorised support for tribal the bombs, bloodbaths and lies that are a United Nations tribunal on Yugoslavia “fundamentalist” groups known as the the surreal theatre known as news. announced there was no genocide. The mujaheddin. The aim was the overthrow Big lies are delivered with the precision “holocaust” was a lie. The NATO attack of Afghanistan’s first secular, reformist of a metronome: thanks to an omnipres- had been fraudulent. government. The mujaheddin were the ent, repetitive media and its virulent cenBehind the lie, there was serious pur- forebears of al-Qaeda and Islamic State sorship by omission. Take the catastro- pose. Yugoslavia had stood as a political and received tens of millions of dollars in phe in Libya. and economic bridge in the Cold War. cash from the CIA. In 2011, NATO launched 9,700 “strike Most of its utilities and major manufacIn 1986, the CIA and Pakistan’s intelsorties” against Libya, of which more than turing were publicly owned. This was not ligence agency recruited people from a third were aimed at civilian targets. The acceptable to the expanding European around the world to join the Afghan jiRed Cross identified mass graves, and Community. had. Osama bin Laden was one of them. UNICEF reported that “most [of the chilAt the 1999 Kosovo “peace” conference, Operatives were given paramilitary traindren killed] were under the age of ten”. the Rambouillet Accord included a se- ing at a CIA camp in Virginia. This was The murder of then Libyan President cret Annex B, which the US delegation called “Operation Cyclone”. Its success Muammar Gaddafi was justified with a inserted on the last day. This demanded was celebrated in 1996 when the last familiar big lie - he was planning “geno- the military occupation of the whole PDPA president of Afghanistan, Mocide” against his own people” through the of Yugoslavia, the implementation of a hammed Najibullah, was hanged from a fabrication of Islamist militias facing de- “free-market economy”, and the privati- streetlight by the Taliban. feat by Libyan Government forces. sation of all government assets. No sovThe “blowback” of Operation Cyclone Gaddafi’s true crime was Libya’s eco- ereign state could sign this. Punishment was September 11, 2001. Operation Cynomic independence and his declared followed swiftly; NATO bombs fell on a clone became the “war on terror”, in intention to stop selling Africa’s greatest defenceless country. It was the precursor which countless men, women and chilCOMBAT: January/February, 2015

dren would lose their lives across the Muslim world, from Afghanistan to Iraq, Yemen, Somalia and Syria. The common thread in fascism, past and present, is mass murder. Today, the world’s greatest single campaign of terror entails the execution of entire families, guests at weddings, mourners at funerals. These are Obama’s victims. According to the New York Times, Obama makes his selection from a CIA “kill list” presented to him every Tuesday in the White House Situation Room. He then decides, without a shred of legal justification, who will live and who will die. Responsible for the deaths of thousands of Jews, Poles and Russians during the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, Ukrainian fascism was rehabilitated and its “new wave” hailed by the enforcer as “nationalists”. This reached its apogee in 2014 when the Obama administration splashed $5 billion on a coup against the elected government. The shock troops were neo-Nazis known as the Right Sector and Svoboda. These fascists are now integrated into the Kiev coup government. No western leader has spoken up about the revival of fascism in the heart of Europe - with the exception of Vladimir Putin. Robert Parry wrote recently, “No European government since Adolf Hitler’s Germany has seen fit to dispatch Nazi storm troopers to wage war on a domestic population, but the Kiev regime has ,and has done so knowingly.” The rulers of the world want Ukraine not only as a missile base; they want its economy. They want Ukraine for its abundant gas; The manufacturers of GM seeds, companies such as the infamous Monsanto, want Ukraine’s rich farming soil. Above all, they want Ukraine’s mighty neighbour, Russia. They want to dismember Russia and exploit the greatest source of natural gas on earth. They want control of the Arctic Ocean and its energy riches, and Russia’s long Arctic land border. Their man in Moscow used to be Boris Yeltsin who handed his country’s economy to the West. His successor, Putin, has re-established Russia as a sovereign nation; that is his crime. The responsibility of the rest of us is clear. It is to identify and expose the reckless lies of warmongers, and never to collude with them. It is to re-awaken the great popular movements that brought a fragile civilisation to modern imperial states. Most important, it is to prevent the conquest of ourselves: our minds, our humanity, our self respect. If we remain silent, victory over us is assured, and a holocaust beckons. Page Four

The struggle of Venezuela against ‘a common enemy’ an interview with John Pilger

By Michael Albert Albert: Why would the United States want Venezuela’s Government overthrown? Pilger: There are straightforward principles and dynamics at work here. Washington wants to get rid of the Venezuelan Government because it is independent of US designs for the region, and because Venezuela has the greatest proven oil reserves in the world and uses its oil revenue to improve the quality of ordinary lives. Venezuela remains a source of inspiration for social reform in a continent ravaged by an historically rapacious US. An Oxfam report once famously described the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua as ‘the threat of a good example’. That has been true in Venezuela since Hugo Chavez won his first election. The ‘threat’ of Venezuela is greater, of course, because it is not tiny and weak; it is rich and influential, and regarded as such by China. The remarkable change in fortunes for millions of people in Latin America is at the heart of US hostility. The US has been the undeclared enemy of social progress in Latin America for two centuries. It doesn’t matter who has been in the White House: Barack Obama or Teddy Roosevelt; the US will not tolerate countries with governments and cultures that put the needs of their own people first and refuse to promote or succumb to US demands and pressures. A reformist social democracy with a capitalist base - such as Venezuela - is not excused by the rulers of the world. What is inexcusable is Venezuela’s political independence; only complete deference is acceptable. The ‘survival’ of Chavista Venezuela is a testament to the support of ordinary Venezuelans for their elected government - that was clear to me when I was last there. Venezuela’s weakness is that the political ‘opposition’ - those I would call the ‘East Caracas Mob’ - represent powerful interests who have been allowed to retain critical economic power. Only when that power is diminished will Venezuela shake off the constant menace of foreign-backed, often criminal subversion. No society should have to deal with that, year in, year out. Albert: What methods has the US already used, and would you anticipate their using to unseat the Bolivarians Pilger: There are the usual crop of quislings and spies; they come and go with their media theatre of fake revCOMBAT: January/February, 2015

elations, but the principal enemy is the media. You may recall the Venezuelan admiral who was one of the couppl otte rs against Chavez in 2002, boasting during his brief tenure in power, ‘Our secret weapon was the media’. The Venezuelan media, especially television, were active participants in that coup, lying that supporters of the government were firing into a crowd of protestors from a bridge. False images and headlines went around the world. The New York Times joined in, welcoming the overthrow of a democratic ‘anti-American’ government; it usually does. Something similar happened in Caracas last year when vicious right-wing mobs were lauded as ‘peaceful protestors’ who were being ‘repressed’. This was undoubtedly the start of a Washington-backed ‘colour revolution’ openly backed by the likes of the National Endowment for Democracy, a user-friendly CIA clone. It was uncannily like the coup that Washington successfully staged in Ukraine last year. As in Kiev, in Venezuela, the ‘peaceful protestors’ set fire to government buildings and deployed snipers, and were lauded by western politicians and the western media. The strategy is almost certainly to push the Maduro government to the right and so alienate its popular base. Depicting the government as dictatorial and incompetent has long been an article of bad faith among journalists and broadcasters in Venezuela and in the US, the UK and Europe. One recent US ‘story’ was that of a ‘US scientist jailed for trying to help Venezuela build bombs’. The implication was that Venezuela was harbouring ‘nuclear terrorists’. In fact, the disgruntled nuclear physicist had no connection whatsoever with Venezuela. All this is reminiscent of the unrelenting attacks on Chávez, each with that peculiar malice reserved for dissenters from the West’s ‘one true way’. In 2006, Britain’s Channel 4 News effectively accused the Venezuelan president of plotting to make nuclear weapons with Iran, an absurd fantasy. The Washington correspondent Jonathan Rugman sneered at policies to eradicate poverty, and presented Chávez as a sinister buffoon, while allowing Donald Rumsfeld, a war criminal, to liken Chavez to Hitler, unchallenged. The BBC is no different. Researchers at the University of the West of England in the UK studied the BBC’s systematic bias in reporting Venezuela over a ten-year period. They looked at 304 BBC reports and found that only three of these referred to any of the positive policies of the government. For the BBC, Venezuela’s democratic initiatives, human rights

legislation, food programmes, healthcare initiatives and poverty reduction programmes did not exist. Mission Robinson, the greatest literacy programme in human history, received barely a passing mention. This virulent censorship by omission complements outright fabrications such as accusations that the Venezuelan Government are a bunch of drug-dealers. None of this is new; look at the way Cuba has been misrepresented - and assaulted - over the years. Reporters Without Borders has just issued its worldwide ranking of nations based on their claims to a free press. The US is ranked 49th, behind Malta, Niger, Burkino Faso and El Salvador. Albert: Why might now be a prime time, internationally for pushing toward a coup? If the primary problem is Venezuela being an example that could spread, is the emergence of a receptive audience for that example in Europe adding to the US response? Pilger: It’s important to understand that Washington is ruled by true extremists, once known inside the Beltway as ‘the crazies’. This has been true since before 9/11. A few are outright fascists, asserting US dominance is their undisguised game and, as the events in Ukraine demonstrate, they are prepared to risk a nuclear war with Russia. These people should be the common enemy of all sane human beings. In Venezuela, they want a coup so that they can rollback some of the world’s most important social reforms - such as in Bolivia and Ecuador. They’ve already crushed the hopes of ordinary people in Honduras. The current conspiracy between the US and Saudi Arabia to lower the price of oil is meant to achieve something more spectacular and tragic in Venezuela, and Russia. Albert: What do you think the best approach might be to warding off US machinations, and those of domestic Venezuelan elites as well, for the Bolivarians? Pilger: The majority people of Venezuela, and their government, need to tell the world the truth about the attacks on their country. There is a stirring across the world, and many people are listening. They don’t want perpetual instability, perpetual poverty, perpetual war, perpetual rule by the few. And they identify the principal enemy. Look at the international polling surveys that ask which country presents the greatest danger to humanity: the majority of people overwhelmingly point to the US, and to its numerous campaigns of terror and subversion. Albert: What do you think is the immediate responsibility of leftists outside Venezuela, and particularly in the US? Pilger: That begs a question: who are these ‘leftists’? Are they the millions of liberal North Americans seduced by the specious rise of Obama and silenced by his criminalising of freedom of information and dissent? Are they those who believe what they are told by the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Guardian, the BBC? It’s an important question. ‘Leftist’ has never been a more disputed and misappropriated term. My sense is that people who live on the edge and struggle against US-backed forces in Latin America understood the true meaning of the word, just as they identify a common enemy. If we share their principles, and a modicum of their courage, we should take direct action in our own countries, starting, I would suggest, with the propagandists in the media. Yes, it’s our responsibility, and it has never been more urgent. Page Five

Skeldon GAWU Branch in solidarity with Daniel Stephen Resolution approved by Branch Conference on February 08, 2015

Blairmont worker injured after loading board breaks

A worker manually loading canes, he is walking on the loading board in order to drop his canes into the punt which is in the canal alongside the field

Delegates attending the Skeldon Branch Conference on February 08, 2015

We, delegates and observers of the Skeldon Estate workforce meeting at our annual GAWU Branch Conference, have again considered and reiterated our solidarity with the suspended fellow worker Cde Daniel Stephen (Cde Stephen who was “disciplined” on September 19, 2014 by the Estate Manager) Since then, we are aware and we also note:1. That our solidarity strike ended with our Union and GuySuCo approving a Terms of Resumption Agreement which included the replacement of Daniel’s dismissal with suspension; 2. The Ministry of Labour, which countersigned the Agreement, provided conciliatory services with a view to resolving the dispute. The Chief Labour Officer, on October 01, 2014, having heard the presentation of the Union and GuySuCo, recommended that Cde Daniel be reinstated without any loss in pay; the recommendation was rejected by GuySuCo and the dispute was referred to Arbitration; 3. On December 29, 2014, the Arbitrator, Mohamed Akeel, ruled that Daniel remained dismissed – a decision which our Union contends did not correspond with what he had said earlier on November 26, 2014; 4. Our Union, in the circumstances, legally challenged the decision, and the COMBAT: January/February, 2015

Chief Justice (ag.), Ian Chang, has granted an order directing the Corporation to recognize Cde Daniel as a suspended employee until a determination of the court matter; 5. That this is a straightforward labour dispute which has caused and will occasion millions of dollars being expended by the parties, which we believe is really uncalled for, moreso at this time of financial straits experienced by the industry; In view of such consideration, be it Resolved: 1. That this Skeldon GAWU Branch Conference, held on February 08, 2015 at the Skeldon Community Centre, again expresses its full solidarity with Cde Daniel Stephen; 2. That this Conference calls on the authorities – Government and Industry - to seek a mutually agreed Resolution to this matter that would lead to Cde Stephen returning to his job without delay, a decision which will result in the court proceedings being brought to an end; 3. Direct the General Secretary of our Union to forward this Resolution to all the relevant persons in the Government and GuySuCo, and to all other branches of the Union and fraternal organizations.

A young cane cutter, Farouk Juman, of GuySuCo’s Blairmont Estate hit his face on the gunwale of a cane punt on February 14, 2015 while he was loading cane into a punt. The loading board spanning the parapet to the punt’s gunwale collapsed, causing the victim’s face to collide with the punt’s gunwale, resulting in the fracture of his upper jaw and the loss of two (2) teeth, among other things. Juman was hospitalized at the Georgetown Public Hospital for a few days, and

subsequently underwent a facial surgery at the Cheddi Jagan Dental Centre. Cane cutters across the sugar industry had been seeking for the past crops to have an adequate number of cane loading boards which are used by them to transport canes across the fields to the cane punts, and to have the aged and weak ones replaced. The cash-strapped industry unfortunately seems unable to provide adequate and safe boards.

GAWU is acutely aware that the country is also in the vital preparatory mode for General andRegional elections in the Independence month of May – a little over two (2) months away. That expression of our democracy, coming virtually two (2) years before it’s constitutionally preferred, speaks to the 45-year-old Republic’s credentials as a democracy, preserved through all attendant sabotage, political and constitutional challenges, and doses of economic hardship. So amidst the Republic’s Anniversary observances – including the artistic, cultural, entertaining Mashramani celebrations – Guyanese will consider political choices and will grapple with consistent, conflicting and aggressive messages and appeals by old and new politicians. As a people, our will must be expressed according to our ultimate choices. GAWU takes this opportunity to remind the nation, especially those youthful citizens under forty, that four (4) years after the 1966 Independence, there was again political consensus among our major parties and groups that we should become a Republic within the Common-

wealth in February, 1970. Our major political leaders agreed that our Independence should be solidified and given the patriotic, nationalistic status of a Republic. That ushered in a Presidency, added governmental responsibilities, and, later, a new Constitution. The years 1970 to 2015 were not without setbacks, but they also saw tremendous progress from the standpoint of what obtained during the colonial era. Many will argue that 1992 onwards reintroduced a new era of democracy and development. GAWU will urge serious introspection and assessment at this time. As a union, GAWU uses workers’ quality of life from by-gone periods to the present as a yardstick of personal and collective measurement. GAWU members, workers and all Guyanese are hereby urged to celebrate the Republic’s forty-fifth to the fullest or modest extent, all the while considering your country’s choices for the continuing development of our country and a progressive future beyond May 11, 2015. The future, then, is in our hands. A Happy, Reflective Mashramani 2015

GAWU’s Republic Day Message

Page Six

GAWU pays tribute to Cde Albert Boodhoo

Cane and Weeds

Best agricultural practices to arrest the declining fortune of the sugar industry continue to be lacking in the embattled sugar industry, as evidenced from the poor yearly production, averaging 220,000 tonnes in the past seven (7) years. An average yield of eighty (80) tonnes sugar cane per hectare should be the norm; rather the yield per hectare for

the above stated period is approximately sixty (60) tonnes. The recently taken picture shows a grass and weed infested field. Such conditions are prevalent in many fields across the industry. Indeed, the grass and weeds stultify the development and natural growth of the young canes, resulting in low and uneconomical cane yields.

Cde Ramkarran Dass passes on General Council member of the Guyana Policing Group. Dass had advised that he Agricultural and General Workers Union was inspired by the late Dr Cheddi Jagan, (GAWU) and part-time Field Secretary whose ideological advocacy he embraced. of the Union attached to union members Thus he became an active member of the of Caricom Rice Mills Limited (CRML) People’s Progressive Party (PPP) several of Anna Regina, Essequibo, Ramkar- decades ago. ran Dass, also known as Stakes, passed Last December, Dass fell ill, and in away on January January he died 13, 2015 at aged from Cardio sixty (60). Pulmonary ArDass was once rest while he was employed by hospitalized at the Guyana Rice the Georgetown Board, which Public Hospiwas divested in tal Corporation the late 1980s (GPHC). and renamed He leaves to Caricom Rice mourn his wife Mill Limited Rameena, three (CRML). At (3) children: CRML, he was Bhojkarran, elected a shop Lakeram and steward by his Veronica, two colleagues, and (2) daughtersthey also elected in-law, a son-inhim a Branch law and ten (10) member of the grandchildren. GAWU CRML He would be Cde Ramkarran Dass Branch when remembered, GAWU became recamong other things, for ognized by the CRML in early 1990s. his mobilizing work which ensured sucShortly after, he became a member of the cessful yearly May Day Rallies at Damon GAWU’General Council. Later, he re- Square, Anna Regina. A number of union signed his job at CRML to operate a small leaders, including Dass himself, would business, and thereafter was appointed a address the gathering. part-time Field Secretary of the union. GAWU takes the opportunity to express He also served as a member of the Board its condolences to his wife, children, of Guardians of Region Two (2), and was grandchildren, siblings, other relatives an active member of the Anna Regina and friends. COMBAT: January/February, 2015

The Guyana Agricultural and General situations characterized by police intimiWorkers Union (GAWU) learnt with dis- dation and semi-suppression of union may of the passing of Albert Boodhoo, actions by the powers that be in his time. widely and popularly known as Thicker In the rich history of GAWU, a number Persaud Khalideen. Cde Albert as we of illustrious comrades have emerged, would fondly call him, died forged and nurtured by the at aged 72 in New York, workers’ struggles. Cde AlU.S.A. on (Friday) Februbert Boodhoo has been one ary 20, 2015. of these, and one who made Cde Albert Boodhoo, a a worthwhile contribution trade unionist and also a to our workers’ all-round political stalwart, served betterment. the GAWU in different caCde Boodhoo, who was pacities, including in the cremated in New York on high office of president of (Monday) February 23, our union. As a member 2015, has earned the respect and leader of the Union, of sugar workers and, by exhe represented the Union tension the workers of Guyin different workers’ fora ana, for his contribution in overseas and in Guyana. He their overall class battles of also served in the Executive our past. These battles are Committee of the Guyana still ongoing, and the courTrades Union Congress age displayed by comrades ,and in the Federation of such as Cde Albert BoodIndependent Trade Unions hoo is sorely needed as we of Guyana. continue in the arduous In many of the long and tasks of defending and winCde Albert Boodhoo bitter battles GAWU had ning other victories for our waged to become the working people. recognized Union in the sugar belt to GAWU salutes Cde Boodhoo and exreplace the Man Power Citizens’ Associa- presses its condolences to his wife, chiltion (MPCA), Cde Boodhoo displayed dren, siblings, other relatives and friends. courage, consistency and firm leadership. He stood his ground despite the daunting

GAWU observes 39 years of recognition in the sugar industry

Continued from page eight The Union immediately galvanized support against the Corporation from the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG), its members and friends, compelling the then President of the country to issue a statement that GAWU would never be derecognized under his watch. Apart from genuine representation and negotiated benefits secured from employers by way of collective bargaining, the union also offers bursary awards and a death benefit, and provide credit union facilities. It publishes a bi-monthly newspaper, Combat, which is distributed to Union members and to the leadership of other Unions as well as libraries and international fraternal unions etc. The Union also maintains a proud record of accountability. Since its recognition, the Union has never failed to have its yearly accounts audited promptly by the Auditor General. All of its audit statement are free from any wrong-doing. Education of its members is treated as a high priority. The Union, in March 2010,

commissioned a Labour College – the GAWU Labour College – which boasts dormitory facilities for 35 persons, two classrooms, and a library among its facilities. It replaces the Union’s School which was destroyed by fire during the 2001 post-national and regional elections’ disturbances. The College is being used to impart labour education to the Union’s rank and file. At the international level, GAWU is an affiliate of the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), which has a membership of 80 million in 120 countries; and to the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers Association (IUF), which represents 336 organisations in 120 countries and comprises a membership of some 12 million workers. Locally, GAWU is an affiliate of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG). The unions affiliated to FITUG are organized in many strategic sectors of the country’s economy, and they represent approximately thirty-five thousand (35,000) of the fifty thousand (50,000) unionized workers in the country. Page Seven

GAWU observes 39 years of recognition in the sugar industry

Representatives of GAWU and the Sugar Planters Assocation signing the Recognition Agreement on February 27, 1976

Thirty-nine (39) years ago, on February 27, the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) was officially recognised by the Guyana Sugar Corporation (Guysuco), formerly the Sugar Producers Association (SPA), as the bargaining agent of the field and factory workers of the sugar industry. It was after three decades of the formation of the Guiana Industrial Workers Union (GIWU) in 1946, which heralded the replacement of the Man Power Citizens’ Association (MPCA). GIWU itself became defunct, and GAWU was formed in 1961, under the name Guyana Sugar Workers Union (GSWU). There were many battles between the GAWU and the SPA over the recognition of GAWU. There was no law to require an employer to recognise a Union of the workers’ choice till 1997, and thus GAWU’s members and followers had to counter the force employed from time to time, utilized by the SPA to deny GAWU recognition status. It was known that the SPA had the then incumbent Man Power Citizens’ Association (MPCA) in its bosom, a few years after that union became the main bargaining agent of the sugar workers in 1939. One of the early highpoints in GIWU’s support of sugar workers was in the 1948 struggle of the workers at Non Pareil, Lusignan and Better Hope, to address the then imposition of the cut-and-load system in the place of the cut-and-drop system. The objective of the strike also included the recognition of GIWU, and the protestation against the miserable working and living conditions in the sugar belt. That struggle witnessed the brutal death of five (5) sugar workers and injury to fourteen (14) others on June 16, 1948 by the colonial police, who collaborated with the sugar plantocracy. About seven (7) years after what turned out to be the last killing of workers in the sugar industry, the GIWU became fully defunct following a split within the leadership of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) in the same year. Another challenging Union, the Guyana Sugar Workers Union (GSWU), was formed and registered in 1961. It was renamed

the Guyana Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU) in 1962. GAWU continued the struggle for union recognition. The sugar planters were determined not to recognise GAWU despite the fierce struggles mounted. There were strikes called by GAWU which at times closed or seriously affected the functioning of the industry for days and weeks. Striking workers and their agitators were dismissed, disciplined; and at times, those who refused to withdraw their support from GAWU were sanctioned in different ways by the planters. They were also harassed by the state apparatus. There were incidents when they were brought before the court on trumped-up charges. Another important incident in the recognition struggle was the death of Kowsilla. On March 06, 1964, outside the Leonora Factory gate, she squatted along with striking sugar workers who were protesting against their denial of work and at the same time highlighting the call for the recognition of GAWU. The General Manager of the Estate reportedly instructed a scab-driven tractor to drive onto the bridge, causing Kowsilla’s death and the serious injury of fourteen (14) others. There is yearly commemoration of her memory conducted by GAWU at her gravesite at Anna Catherina Cemetery. She is indeed a heroine who gave courageous and exemplified leadership. It took many forceful battles under GAWU’s leadership for the SPA, at last, decide to have a poll conducted by the Ministry of Labour on Old Year’s Day 1975. The change of the SPA’s stance was attributable to the changing political climate and situation in the country. The result of the poll vindicated GAWU’s claim that it had overwhelming support of the sugar workers. Of the 21,655 votes cast by workers, the MPCA ignominiously received 376, or 1.71 per cent; 92 votes, or 0.42 per cent, were deemed spoilt; and GAWU deservedly obtained 21,487 votes, or 97.87 per cent of the votes. Since December 1997, workers in Guyana no longer have to go through the travail like GAWU and the sugar workers to secure employer’s recognition of their Union. The PPP Government enacted a

law to ensure workers’ right to belong to a union of their choice, and to have their union recognized and respected by the employer. The PPP, in Government in 1953 and 1963, got debated appropriate legislation for union recognition. Unfortunately, in 1953, just as the Government was approving the legislation, the British Government, our colonial master, removed the Government on charges that the Government was influenced by communist ideology. In 1963, the combined parliamentary opposition, fully supported by the workers’ umbrella body the Trade Union Congress (TUC), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the British Intelligence, the American Institute for Free Labour Development (AIFLD) and other hostile anti-Socialist bodies, opposed the law and, therefore, the PPP Government had to withdraw the Recognition Bill after it had tabled it in the light of the hostile and united confrontation to the proposed legislation. In our annals, it must be indelibly recorded that the culmination of the long and hard struggle of GAWU’s recognition is inextricably linked to the guidance and leadership given by the Union’s then Honorary President, Dr Cheddi Jagan, who later became the Executive President of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana. As a foremost politician and a trade unionist, he tirelessly advocated for GAWU’s recognition in the Legislature, in the street corners, and in papers presented at foreign and local fora whenever he referred to workers’ struggles for betterment and changes. Indeed, Cde Cheddi was an outstanding colossus who rendered relentless support to the workers in the long and bitter recognition struggle. From the days in 1943, after his return from studies in the United States of America, and especially after the martyrdom of five workers at Enmore in 1948, he stood as a true ally in every workers’ struggle. He stood with all workers in the promotion of their rights and in improving their working conditions. From 1947, Cheddi Jagan, the youngest Parliamentarian, stood alone supporting the sugar workers in the Legislature, defending their interests against the plantocracy and their allies in that August body. He agitated equally on behalf of other workers. Cheddi Jagan, as leader of the Political Affairs Committee and the Peoples’ Progressive Party (PPP), as well as head of the PPP Governments in 1953, 1957, 1961 and 1992, remained steadfast to his commitment towards the promotion of the welfare of the working class in Guyana. Since GAWU’s recognition in 1976, workers from many occupations have turned to GAWU for union representation. The Union today, undoubtedly the largest Union in the Caribbean, represents twenty thousand (20,000) workers drawn from the Guyana Sugar Corporation (Guysuco), the Sugar Industry Labour Welfare Fund (SILWFC), the Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL), Caricom Rice Mills Limited, BEV Processors Inc., Noble House Seafoods, the Demerara Timbers Limited, the Guyana Forestry Commission, the Demerara Harbour Bridge Corporation, the Mahaica/Mahaicony/Abary Agricultural Development

COMBAT is a publication of the Guyana Agricultural & General Workers Union (GAWU) 59 High Street & Wights Lane, Kingston, Georgetown, Guyana, S.A. Tel: 592-227-2091/2; 225-5321 , 223-6523 Email: gawu@bbgy.com Website: www.gawu.net

Authority, the National Parks Commission, and the Berbice Bridge Company Inc. To make the Union’s name reflective of its growing membership outside of the sugar industry, at the Union’s 8th Congress, in 1978, the Union’s name was finally changed to the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), but the acronym “GAWU” was retained. A period of 39 years as a recognized Union has been different from the 30 years during which the Union had been fighting for recognition in the sugar industry. During the last 38 years, GAWU has had to advance the pay levels of its members, represent improvement of their conditions of work, and obtain greater benefits for them. Representation outside of the premises of the employers has not been neglected, since GAWU does not restrict itself to defend workers’ rights and promote workers’ welfare only at their workplaces. Because of the massive role of sugar in the country’s economy, its contribution to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product, its being a net foreign exchange earner, its now employment of 16,000 Guyanese, and the militancy of its workforce, many politicians attempted to organize the sugar workers away from GAWU. They saw that sugar workers would enhance their political aspirations. Sugar workers, however, aware of GAWU’s commitment and ardent work which resulted in improvement of their welfare, have not allowed themselves to be used opportunistically, and they remain fully supportive of GAWU. No efforts are spared in the organizational building of the Union. The functioning of groups and branches of the Union is promoted to empower rankand-file members in their involvement to address issues, especially at their workplaces. Of utmost importance, the Union ensures that, in every decision taken with regard to pay rise, working conditions and securing of new fringe benefits, the workers in every bargaining unit of the Union are fully involved in negotiations with their employer through their shop stewards or representatives. Not only were attempts made to woo away GAWU members and to divide the unity of the workers for some politicians’ selfish aggrandizement. Two distinct attempts have been made to derecognize GAWU in the sugar belt. There was an attempt by the Hoyte Administration in 1988, when GuySuCo suspended its relationship with the Union for about two (2) weeks, and starved the Union financially through the non-deduction of union dues. Opposition to the Government’s action and the fear of reprisal by the Union’s membership caused GuySuCo to restore its relationship with the Union. Five (5) years ago, the Union came under intense pressure as it heightened its struggle to secure appropriate pay for its members in the sugar industry, noting that higher cost of living deserve higher pay in a market economy. Union-supported industrial action attracted criticism from the Government, and in December 2010, the Corporation issued a written threat to derecognize the Union. Continued on page seven

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