Combat June/July, 2015 by GAWU

Issue#3 Volume#36

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

EDITORIAL | EDITORIAL | EDITORIAL

THE SUGAR COMMISSION OF INQUIRY

The operations and performance of the sugar industry in recent times has been, without a doubt, challenging. In the last few years, we have learnt, through reports in Combat and other sources, about the state of the industry and the setbacks it has encountered.

June/July, 2015

GuySuCo targets 227,000 tonnes sugar for 2015

Challenges notwithstanding, our three-and-a-halfcentury-old sugar industry continues to be an intrinsic component of our country’s economy and our national tapestry. The industry, Combat must remind, is basically responsible for the multi-ethnic character of our society, being a reflection of the slave, indentured and contracted labour brought from Africa, India, Portugal and China to work on the sugar plantations. The domineering influence of the sugar plantocracy in its heyday, which lasted for centuries, significantly influenced our country’s social, economic and political landscape, especially in the earlier colonial years. Today, sugar still holds a prominent place in our country, and we cannot fail to note some of the striking characteristics of the industry at this time:1. It employs the largest number of workers in the country, some 16,000 persons 2. Its factories facilitate the canes grown by about 2,000 farmers 3. All told, about 120,000 Guyanese – whether as employees, cane farmers suppliers of materials, or service providers – and their dependents benefit tangibly from the industry 4. As a nett foreign exchange earner, the industry accounts for a significant proportion of our country’s annual foreign exchange earnings 5. A significant proportion of the industry’s multibillion-dollar revenue base is circulated locally, thus enhancing all businesses 6. The industry’s expansive drainage network throughout the sugar belt facilitates the drainage of many surrounding villages 7. The yearly training of skilled graduates from the Port Mourant School benefits many enterprises in the country 8. What future would our famous Demerara Rum have without our sugar industry? 9. ETC Continued on page three (3) COMBAT: June/July, 2015

The Guyana Sugar Corporation Inc (GuySuCo) has committed itself to produce 227,491 tonnes sugar this year. The first crop production stood at 81,191 tonnes sugar, thus requiring the industry to produce 146,300 tonnes sugar in the second crop, as follows: Skeldon Estate -30,594 tonnes sugar, Albion Estate – 33,377 tonnes sugar, Rose Hall Estate – 22,538 tonnes sugar, Blairmont Estate – 21,471 tonnes sugar, Enmore Estate – 19,137 tonnes sugar, Wales Estate – 12,069 tonnes sugar and Uitvlugt Estate – 7,114 tonnes sugar. Sugar production of 227,491 tonnes is challenging. Some hectares of this crop’s cane had already been reaped in the closing weeks of the first crop harvest. Skeldon and East Demerara Estates, however, will reap some unharvested first crop cane in the current crop. The production over the last three years is as follows: 2012 – 218,060 tonnes sugar, 2013 – 186,807 tonnes sugar and 2014 – 216,359 tonnes sugar, creating an average of 207,075 tonnes sugar.

The industry’s production must incrementally climb to the Corporation’s objective of attaining 420,000 tonnes sugar – a goal which should have been achieved since 2013. Each of the seven (7) grinding estates is highly under-producing vis-à-vis the production assets of the industry. Poor prices for the industry’s sugar in the European Union and low productivity have bedeviled the industry for the past years. This year, the Central Government injected G$3.8B into the industry to keep it afloat. Further inflows are required later this year, as the industry will vigorously set about the harvest of the second crop, given favourable weather conditions. The former Chief Executive Officer, Cde Rajendra Singh, who ceased to hold the post from the end of May, 2015, had opined that the industry might have to cease its operations on all estates with effect from May 31, 2015. The industry averted such happening owing to the Government’s financial support to the industry in early June, 2015. Page One

Sugar Commission of Inquiry begins work - to formulate 15 year plan for the industry • Management (organization quality, communication and reporting, legal obligations, etc.) • Procurement (timeliness, efficient materials management, cost effectiveness, waste, and poor practices and transparency concerns) • Finance (cash flow, profitability, indebtedness, investment screening and evaluation, etc.) • Marketing (bulk and value-added products, by-products e.g. molasses, etc.) • Private cane growers (long-standing, recent and future recruits) • Community obligations (housing, roads, services, etc.) Members at the Commission of Inquiry meeting with Anthony Vieira who provided a number of suggestions • for the future of the sugar industry to commissioners

The APNU/AFC Government elected in May, 2015 has appointed a Commission of Inquiry to investigate the operations and functioning of the Guyana Sugar Corporation Inc (GuySuCo) from 1976, when the entity was nationalized by the Government. The Terms of Reference of the Commission are as follows:1. Investigate and inquire into the current state of cane cultivation, production and marketing of sugar, molasses and other by-products, including power as well as (i) GuySuCo, the state-owned enterprise, which has been operating since 1976 the nationalized Bookers Sugar Estates Ltd, and (ii) private cane farmers. COMBAT: June/July, 2015

2. Coverage of the investigation and inquiry should ensure that its reporting and recommendations address the following operational areas: •

•

Agriculture (mechanization vs “mechanical-friendly” field layout, etc.); tillage and planting (ratooning, flood and legume fallowing, husbandry practices, etc.); accessibility and cane transport (tractors, punts, roads, canals, etc.); drainage & irrigation; cane quality. Factories (maintenance, repairs rehabilitation/replacement, recovery and other efficiencies)

•

Environment (floods, drought, chemical applications, health and water-borne ailments, etc.) Weather events (community and industry weather events adaptation, long-term climate threats, etc.)

•

Previous industry-wide plans (Strategic Blueprint 2009 -2013 and Strategic Plan 2013-2017)

•

Diversification (in the widest sense: new uses for industry assets, by-products utilization value-added, and industrialization of sugar)

•

Special circumstance of Skeldon (re-visit Skeldon Sugar Modern-

ization Project) •

Research & Development (special areas: mechanization, Drainage & Irrigation, raining, technology applications, capital expenditure evaluation)

•

Human Resources (labour supply, industrial relations training and skills development, health and safety)

3. Any other related matters 4. Prepare a road map for the way Ahead for 2016- 2030, structured into five-year intervals which state goals and modalities of implementation A ten (10) man Commission, namely:Dr Clive Thomas, Dr Harold Davis, Aslim Singh, John Piggot, John Dow, Joseph Alfred, George James, Nowrang Persaud, Claude Housty and Vibert Parvatan as Chairman, has been appointed. Except Dr Clive Thomas and Aslim Singh, the members of the Commission had worked in the industry in different capacities in the past. The industry’s yearly expenditure far outstrips its revenues. This major industry has been kept afloat by Government bailouts over the last few years. The productivity and the level of sugar production remain at standards below the field and factory capacities of the seven (7) grinding estates of the industry. It is expected that the Commission will ensure the industry remains in business, considering its behemoth role in the country’s economy. The negative social consequences without the industry may not be fully imaginable at this time, but the fact that there are not possibilities to absorb the thousands of displaced workers and farmers - especially hundreds with small holdings - at this point in time, would inform the authority that the country’s sugar business should not be disrupted at this point in time. Page Two

KNOW YOUR LABOUR LAWS

The Termination of Employment and Severance Pay Act changed, the worker must be made redundant. Severance and Redundancy allowances On terminating an employee without cause and by notice or for redundancy, the following allowance must be paid. Individual employment contract or CLA can provide superior benefits. 1. one week’s wages for such completed year of service for the A group of students attending a 5-day course at the GAWU Labour College, during the course students are first five years ,includexposed to the Termination of Employment and Severcance Pay act, among other subjects ing the entitlement year; Continued from last edition Concept of unfair dismissal The concept of unfair dismissal was introduced into our local industrial relations by the Act, which lists a number of reasons that do not constitute good and sufficient cause for dismissal or the imposition of disciplinary action. The reasons are as follows:1. an employee’s race, sex, religion, colour, ethnic origin, national extraction, social origin, political opinion, family responsibility, or marital status; 2. an employee’s age, subject to any law or collective bargaining provisions regarding retirement; 3. a female employee’s pregnancy or a reason connected with her pregnancy; 4. an employee’s absence from work because of sickness or injury certified by a registered medical practitioner; 5. an employee’s absence from work due to compulsory military service or other civic obligation in accordance with any law; 6. an employee’s participation in industrial action in conformity with the provisions of any law or collective labour agreement; 7. an employee’s refusal to do any work normally done by an employee who is engaged in industrial action as described in subsection (1) (f); 8. the filing by an employee of a comCOMBAT: June/July, 2015

plaint or the participation in proceedings against an employer involving alleged violations of any rule or law. Grounds for redundancy An employer can make a worker redundant because there is need to reduce the work force because of 1. the modernisation, automation or mechanization by the employer of all or part of the business; 2. the discontinuance by the employer of all or part of the business; 3. the sale or other disposition by the employer of all or part of the business; 4. the re-organisation of the business by the employer to improve efficiency; 5. the impossibility or impracticability for the employer to carry on the business at its usual rate or level, or at all, due to • • • •

a shortage of materials; a mechanical breakdown; a force majeure; or an act of God;

6. a reduced operation in the employer’s business made necessary by economic conditions, including a lack of or change in markets, contraction in the volume of work or sales, reduced demand or surplus inventory. Lay off Instead of making a worker redundant an employer can lay off the worker, but the period cannot exceed six weeks. If, at the end of six weeks, the situation has not

2. two weeks’ wages for each completed year of service after the fifth year and up to the tenth year; 3. three weeks’ wages for each completed year of service in excess of ten years up to a maximum of fifty-two weeks. However, the allowance shall not be paid

in cases of redundancy if an employee refuses to accept an offer of re-employment by the employer at the same place of employment or within a radius of ten miles therefrom, under no less favourable conditions; or is employed by a partnership and the partnership is dissolved, and the employee enters into employment with one or more of the partners or unreasonably refuses to accept an offer of employment by any such person on no less favourable terms. Retirement The Act stipulates a retirement age of 60 years. Parties can agree to a different age. On retirement, an employee is entitled to receive a severance allowance. However, if, on retirement, the employee is entitled to a gratuity or pension or both from his employer under any law, CLA or contract of employment, whether such entitlement is under any contributory or non-contributory pension scheme, NIS excluded, he shall not be entitled to the severance allowance. However, if the gratuity is less than the severance allowance, the severance allowance shall be paid.

THE SUGAR COMMISSION OF INQUIRY Continued from page one (1)

the decision-making process.

It is against this background, we believe, that the newly-elected APNU/AFC Government, during the 2015 elections campaign, had pointed out that the industry was “too big to fail”, and that it could not do away with the industry, but, rather, find innovative ways of engendering a turnaround. The PPP/C, through its Presidential Candidate, signaled that it would be prepared to inject as much as G$20B to see that the industry becomes viable once again.

We also expect that the Commission will see the industry not only from a bottom line dollar position, but from a comprehensive, macro and holistic position of what it contributes to our nation. Those who harbour thoughts of doing away with the industry must think again, as there will surely be severe social consequences attending this development. The sugar industry remains an important pillar of the economy and country. It is an industry which, in its better days, contributed significantly to the nation economically and socially. Difficult as the situation is at this time, the industry certainly has the potential with Government support to rise again to a viable state.

Combat views the Government’s decision to appoint a Commission of Inquiry (COI) in this vein. Readers will recall that, through a past edition, GAWU also echoed a call for such a Commission. The Commission, we expect, will bring into focus the problems and issues which plague the industry and its workforce, and may also take in its consideration the existing turnaround plan by GuySuCo. We expect, too, that workable and practical solutions would be proffered, and in the process the workers and the unions will be fully involved, not excluding in

We must be reminded, too, that many developed and developing countries continue to maintain their vital agricultural industries through appropriate interventions and support. These interventions are not premised solely on narrow financial factors, but they also take into account economics generally and the social and national relevance of the industries. Page Three

America’s endless air wars

the Islamic State beheading videos on TV or YouTube, but we never see videos of people decapitated or children dismembered by the bombs. Apologists claim that U.S. bombing is morally superior to the “terrorism” of America’s enemies, because the U.S. killing and beheading of civilians is “unintentional” rather than “deliberate.” Millions of ‘Enemies’

F-15 Eagles from the 493rd Fighter Squadron at Royal Air Force Lakenheath, England, taxi to the runway during the final day of Anatolian Eagle June 18, 2015, at 3rd Main Jet Base, Turkey.

By Nicolas J S Davies U.S. Central Command’s latest figures on its aerial bombardment of Iraq and Syria reveal that this is the heaviest U.S. bombing campaign since President George W. Bush’s “Shock and Awe” campaign against Iraq in 2003. In the campaign’s first ten months from - August 2014 to May 2015 - the U.S. and its allies conducted 15,245 air strikes, or an average of 51 air strikes per day. This is only the latest campaign in a 15-year global air war largely ignored by U.S. media, in which the United States and its allies have conducted at least 118,000 air strikes against other countries since 2000. The 47,000 air strikes conducted in the 6 ½ years since President Barack Obama took office are only a small reduction from the 70,000 in eight years of the Bush administration, and the current campaign will easily make up that deficit if it continues at this intensity until Obama leaves office.

Afghanistan has been the most heavily bombed country, with at least 61,000 air strikes since 2001. Iraq had already suffered about 34,000 air strikes since 2000. But until the new campaign in Iraq and Syria, the bombing of Libya was the heaviest bombardment, with 7,700 air strikes in seven months. NATO and its Arab monarchist allies plunged Libya into intractable chaos and violence, exposing “regime change” as a euphemism for “regime destruction.” NATO’s destruction of Libya spurred Russia to finally draw the line on its 20-year acquiescence to Western aggression and military expansion. Since then, the U.S. and its allies have persisted in their “regime destruction” policy in Syria and Ukraine, threatening strategically important Russian naval bases in Tartus and Sevastopol. Drones have also played a growing role in the U.S. air war, but they still account for only a fraction of total U.S. and allied air strikes - several thousand out of 118,000 air strikes in 15 years. None of these figures include Israeli air strikes against Palestine, the current Saudi-led bombing of Yemen, or French operations in West Africa, as I haven’t found comparable figures for those campaigns; but they must COMBAT: June/July, 2015

add many thousand more air strikes to the real total. Keeping the people in the dark In a recent article, Gareth Porter reported that the Pentagon is seriously opposed to putting more “boots on the ground” in Iraq or Syria, but that the generals and admirals are prepared to keep bombing them more or less indefinitely as the political path of least resistance for themselves and the White House. But it depends on keeping the public in the dark about several critical aspects of this policy. First, there is little public resistance to this policy, mainly because few Americans know that it’s happening, let alone understand the full scale of the bloodshed and devastation perpetrated in our names for the past 15 years. The second thing the Pentagon doesn’t want you to think about is the deceptive role of “precision” weapons in U.S. propaganda. Considering how accurate these weapons really are in relation to the huge numbers of them raining down on country after country, it is not surprising that they have killed or wounded millions of civilians and destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes and civilian infrastructure. A direct hit with a single 500- or 1,000-pound bomb will cause death, injury and destruction up to hundreds of feet from its point of impact, so even accurate air strikes inevitably kill and maim civilians and destroy their homes. Body Count, a recent report published by Physicians for Social Responsibility, confirmed previous estimates of well over a million people killed in America’s wars since 2000. This and previous studies document the horrific results that “you can’t drop (100,000) bombs and not kill (hundreds of thousands of) people.” Another element in the Pentagon’s shaky propaganda is its effort to obscure what bombs and missiles actually do to their victims. Americans watch

In fact, U.S. armed forces are waging war on millions of people for whom becoming combatants in a war would be the last thing they would ever consider if we had not brought our war to their doorsteps. When military forces attack or invade a country, many ordinary people feel compelled to take up arms to defend themselves and their homes. The essential first step to breaking the escalating spiral of violence is to force the aggressors to cease their aggression in the affected countries. Then legitimate diplomatic initiatives can begin the difficult work of resolving the complex political and humanitarian problems. The war that the United States is waging today is proving no different. Armed resistance is spreading throughout the affected countries, spawning new ideologies and movements. U.S. leaders still fail to grasp what Richard Barnet concluded as he studied the U.S. defeat in Vietnam, “at the very moment the number one nation has perfected the science of killing, it has become an impractical instrument of political domination.” The last 15 years of war have served to confirm Barnet’s conclusion. After 118,000 air strikes, millions of casualties, trillions of dollars squandered, and country after country plunged into chaos, the U.S. has failed to gain political control over any of them. But U.S. war-making is not just dangerous and irrational. It is also a crime. The judges at Nuremberg defined aggression, attacking or invading other countries, as the “supreme international crime, differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.” The UN Charter goes one step further and prohibits the threat as well as the use of force. Benjamin Ferencz is a fierce critic of illegal U.S. war-making. He has dedicated his life to establishing an International Criminal Court (ICC) that could prosecute senior officials of any government who commit aggression and other war crimes. His vision of “Law Not War” remains unfulfilled as long as his own country, the United States, refuses to recognize the jurisdiction of either the ICC or the International Court of Justice (ICJ). By rejecting the jurisdiction of international courts, the U.S. has carved out what Amnesty International has called an “accountability-free zone,” from which it can threaten, attack and invade other countries, torture prisoners, kill civilians and commit other war crimes with impunity. Page Four

Historical whitewash: Great Britain must be held accountable for its role in the Nakba “I do not admit that the dog in the manger has the final right to the manger, even though he may have lain there for a very long time. I do not admit that right. I do not admit, for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America, or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to those people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher grade race, or, at any rate, a more worldly-wise race, to put it that way, has come in and taken their place. I do not admit it. I do not think the Red Indians had any right to say,

UK Prime Minister David Cameron addresses the Knesset

Nothing more exemplifies the historical whitewash of British rule in Palestine between 1917 and 1948 than the response (or lack of) to David Cameron’s speech in the Israeli Kneeset in March 2014. Therein he briefly propounded the much overlooked fact that Britain was the main Western supporter of the Zionist colonial experiment in Palestine from the very beginning. “From the early pioneers,” boasted Cameron, “the men and women of the Palestine Exploration Fund, who saw the Jewish history in this land and the possibilities for the future to the Balfour Declaration – the moment when the State of Israel went from a dream to a plan - Britain has played a proud and vital role in helping to secure Israel as a homeland for the Jewish people.” Cameron clearly defined the Balfour \ Declaration as the moment Israel went from “a dream to a plan.” This plan was then ‘secured’, which strongly seems to be euphuism for implemented. Moreso, he then, somewhat self-incriminatory, said that British imperialism “played a proud and vital role in helping to secure Israel as a homeland for the Jewish people.” Not one commentator in the UK, critical or otherwise, latched on to this crucial point. Presumably, it’s far less taxing on one’s moral conscience to emulate American, Arab and even Israeli commentators on the current Palestinian situation than face up to your own government’s historical criminal culpability – a culpability which Cameron drew attention to at the Knesset of all places. Obviously, Cameron naturally never COMBAT: June/July, 2015

outlined how Britain ‘secured’ the homeland for the Jewish people. However, it was in these years, viz 19171948, that the “only democracy in the Middle East”, as Zionist propagandists lovingly refer to their colonial project, was secured by Britain by first denying Palestinians representative democracy, which would have inevitably limited colonial immigration to their country. Secondly, when the first Palestinian uprising finally exploded in 1936, it was the British that led the repression against the Palestinian resistance, and in doing so, also educated the nascent Zionist-settler forces on how to militarily crush and oppress the indigenous population.[1] By the time the state of Israel was declared, on 14th May 1948, 400,000 Palestinians and 250 villages and towns had already been ethnically cleansed by the Zionist, forces under Britain’s secured watch. Further ethnic cleansing took place after the Zionists declared their state. Ghassan Kanafani, the Palestinian revolutionary, was to argue that the Zionists, in the late 1940s, were plucking “the fruits of the defeat of the 1936 revolt which the outbreak of the war had prevented it from doing sooner.”[3] Progressive British activists, writers and politicians rarely acknowledge, if ever, the central role played by their Empire in laying the foundations and facilitating the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. Cameron’s and Great Britain’s national hero, Winston Churchill, on the other hand, specifically justified the “proud and vital role” of the Empire at the Peel Commission on Palestine in 1937 on this basis:

‘The American Continent belongs to us and we are not going to have any of these European settlers coming in here’. They had not the right, nor had they the power.” As Churchill strongly implies, the Zionist project with its attendant occupation and ethnic cleansing of Palestine, i.e. the Nakba, had nothing to do with Jewish history, as discovered by the socalled ‘Palestine Exploration Fund’, and everything to do with racist colonialism backed by the power of the foreign policy of an Empire that has escaped accountability for its role in this ongoing tragedy.

Battered by drought, forests lose ability to fend off climate change

Forests play an important role as “carbon sinks” by absorbing and storing CO2 emissions, but a new study finds that droughts—expected to become more frequent with climate change—deal that climate-buffering power a blow. The findings, published this week in the journal Science, show that forests don’t recover as quickly after a drought as had been previously thought, indicating a need to adjust climate models. Researchers gathered tree ring data from over 1,300 sites across the globe to measure growth in periods after severe droughts that have occurred since 1948, and found that for the majority of the forests they studied, trees suffered yearslong effects post-drought. The researchers write: “We found pervasive and substantial ‘legacy effects’ of reduced growth and incomplete recovery for 1 to 4 years after severe drought.” They found that it took an average of 2 to 4 years for the trees to resume normal growth, with the first year growth hap-

pening about 9 percent more slowly than expected, and five percent more slowly the second. That’s in contrast to previous ecosystem models that had assumed a quick recovery after drought. “This really matters because, in the future, droughts are expected to increase in frequency and severity due to climate change,” stated lead author William R.L. Anderegg, an assistant professor of biology at the University of Utah. “Some forests could be in a race to recover before the next drought strikes,” he said. What’s the bottom line in terms of the impact on climate change? Just looking at semi-arid ecosystems, these ‘legacy effects’ would mean 1.6 metric gigatons of carbon dioxide over a century. A press release for the study says that amount is roughly equal to one-fourth of the entire U.S. emissions in a year. “If forests are not as good at taking up carbon dioxide, this means climate change would speed up,” Anderegg stated. Page Five

GAWU Credit Union in business again The Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) Co-operative Credit Union Society Limited is operational once again. Workers’ savings have re-commenced from work week July 05 – 11, 2015. The Guyana Sugar Corporation Inc (GuySuCo) and the Credit Union agreed that all prospective savings on a monthly basis would be remitted to the Credit Union within two (2) weeks in the ensuing month. The huge sum of one hundred and fifty-four million, four hundred thousand, five hundred and twenty-five dollars ($154,400,525) owed to the Credit Union

Minister of Finance consults FITUG on 2015 National Budget

by the Corporation for the period November, 2015 to April, 2015, excepting March, 2015, is yet to be settled as the Corporation seeks in the future to settled its indebtedness to many creditors based on its cash flow situation. It is recalled that the Credit Union directed GuySuCo to cease the deduction of workers’ savings from their earnings with effect from May 30, 2015. The work- LEFT: Finance Minister Winston Jordon and RIGHT: FITUG President Carvil Duncan ers’ savings had been utilized unlawfully The Federation of Independent Trade into value added production by the Corporation, thus compelling the Unions of Guyana (FITUG), in response 7. The income tax threshold to be inCredit Union to secure bank loans which to an invitation by the Minister of Ficreased to a minimum of $65,000 had enable savers’ withdrawals from their nance for a consultative meeting on matand for the income tax rate to be savings in the Credit Union. ters which FITUG would wish to be renot greater than 25 per cent, and the flected in this year’s National Budget, met granting of tax allowances for depenwith the Minister and his team on July 17, dents such as children and spouses 2015 in the Boardroom of the Ministry of 8. A similar percentage increase in the Finance. National Minimum Wage to the risein-pay of public servants, and also FITUG’s delegation comprised Cdes the various sectorial minimum wages Carvil Duncan, President; Kenneth Jobeing similarly addressed seph, General Secretary; Sherwood Clarke, Second Vice President; Seepaul In providing a short overview of the With militarization and military adNarine, Treasurer; and Irma Glenn and state of the economy to FITUG members, ventures going on apace in the wider Aslim Singh, Executive Members. The Minister Jordon referred to what he deinternational arena, we cannot feel insuMinistry’s team included Minister of Fi- scribed as growing challenges in the rice lated from its consequences or isolated nance, Winston Jordon; Junior Finance and sugar sectors, but he quickly assured from the schemes of certain countries. Minister Jaipaul Sharma and three (3) of the Government’s support to these This day offers a timely reminder that, other officials of the Ministry. After ob- important industries. He then thanked at the 2014 meeting of the Community servation of the usual protocol, FITUG, FITUG for the suggestions and noted of Latin American and Caribbean States in its presentation sought to have the that many of them were very practical, (CELAC), an organization in which Budget address the following matters:and that some of the proposals would be CARICOM nations are members, there taken on board in the 2015 budget. was the declaration for Latin Amer1. Reduction in the Berbice Bridge toll Also, he advised that the Government ica and the Caribbean to be a “Zone of 2. Significant salary increases (of at will soon establish a tax reform commitPeace”. In keeping with this sentiment, least 12%) for all government work- tee to have a comprehensive review of all it is implied and expected that disputes ers, including nurses, teachers, secu- taxes in the country, and thus any changshould be peacefully resolved and diarity personnel, public servants, em- es to the tax regime will be made after the logue and negotiations be the preferred ployees of all government companies committee concludes its work. tools to arrive at settlements of disputes and public corporations (including Many of FITUG’s proposals were based between and among nations. GuySuCo) on the undertakings by the APNU/AFC 3. Reduction of the rate of VAT, and in their campaign to be elected as GovThough we have many critical issues complete removal of VAT from food, ernment. that require our collective attention and building materials and other essenThe 2015 National Budget, according co-operation – security, economic, ential items to the Minister, will be presented to the ergy, climate and yet others - the GAWU 4. Significant increase in old age pen- National Assembly on August 10, 2015. looks at the tomorrows of our Region sions (to at least $20,000 per month) The Budget ought to be presented to with optimism. Gradually, but surely, 5. An adequate provision to address the the National Assembly before the end of we are forging ahead, and all the while, pressing issues of debunching in the April each year. However, arising from essentially, we have stayed united while public sector the dissolution of Parliament in March to zealously safeguarding our democratic 6. A substantial subvention within the allow for the May 11, 2015 National and institutions and promoting democratic budget to finance the recovery of the Regional elections, the 2015 Budget prenorms and practices. sugar industry within a few years, in- sentation could not take place for its apcluding required capital injections to proval by the National Assembly before Happy CARICOM Day 2015 modernise the factories and diversify the end of April, 2015.

GAWU’s Caricom Day Message The Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) takes the opportunity to extend greetings and well wishes to all Guyanese and other CARICOM citizens as we observe CARICOM Day 2015. The Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM), which now stretches from Bahamas in the north to Guyana and Surname in the south and encompasses some 14 million people demonstrates the growth and enduring fraternity we have experienced since its establishment. This Institution, now in its forty-second (42nd) year, in our view continues to have a relevant and important role with respect to the integration of the Caribbean, and also to confront the several challenges that currently beset our Region, and still others that threaten us. We are also of the view that two (2) of CARICOM’s important pillars – the free movement of people and unhindered trade among members – at this time require more attention. The meeting of the Heads of Government always provides an opportunity to explore, review and make decisions to set up mechanisms to pursue the objectives of CARICOM. COMBAT: June/July, 2015

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GAWU’s leadership FITUG concerned over meets with union current spike in crime members at BEV

A section of the workers at the meeting

The President and General Secretary of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), on July 15, 2015, took the opportunity to interact with members of the Union’s bargaining unit at BEV Processors Inc. The overwhelming majority of the 350-person workforce of this fish and shrimp processing company gathered in the large canteen of the company at Houston, East Bank Demerara to facilitate what was described as a most productive meeting. The Union leaders spoke to the wage rise of 7 per cent arising from the Union and Company negotiations which were conducted in March this year. Also approved from the negotiations were higher monetary benefits for breakfast, lunch and dinner allowances as follows: $400, $500

and $525 respectively. New vacation allowances are $14,500 for 1 – 4 years’ service; $16,500 for 5 – 7 years’ service; and $18,500 for over 7 years’ service. Work attendance allowance was increased to $10,000 per month. Improved medical payment through the company’s medical scheme was also approved. After the addresses by the Union leaders, workers advised the Union to seek to remove some conditions which determine payments of some monetary benefits. The increase of union dues by 7 per cent was also a matter on which the workers sought clarification. The two-hour meeting ended with better understanding by the workers.

“Capitalist barbarism, crisis and Imperialist wars, or socialism” COMBAT: June/July, 2015

Over recent weeks, media reports have indicated that Guyana is experiencing yet another spike in the crime situation. This development, and more particularly, the violent dimensions and their frequency, have raised concerns in various sectors of our population. As an organisation representing a significant class, FITUG wishes, once again, to call for greater attention and efforts from the relevant authorities to contain, reduce and eventually stamp out this menace from our midst. FITUG is aware that, as a social phenomenon, crime has a global presence and is everywhere posing challenges to all societies. Acknowledgement of that fact should not lull us into a state of accepting crime in our lives. Indeed, the maximum knowledge of this menace ought to require the appropriate security bodies primarily to fashion effective and enduring responses. While we recognize that our law-enforcement personnel are hard-pressed by today’s criminal enterprise, we hold the view that much can be done within the existing parameters to make a greater positive impact on crime-fighting. Systems which are effective and give assurances to communities, like the patrol systems, too often become irregular and lose their effects. Police-community relations are desirable, and ongoing and regular interaction should be held in the various Police divisions. Consistent work to nurture policing groups, in-as-much as this is demanding, should proceed. And, our law-enforcement agencies, with decades of experience behind them, we are sure, can draw from a rich arsenal of tested methods to confidently respond to the

prevalence of criminal activities. The situation today again calls for an increase in intense police activities to be pursued within our legal framework. More activities, to be sure, would require resources and training. With this in mind, we would support at this time the Ministry of Public Security making reasonable resources, as required available. This Ministry may also want to take initiatives beyond law-enforcement to complement the policing efforts. Importantly, the workable efforts must be sustained, and not be employed in fits and starts. FITUG’s concern over the crime situation stems from the anxieties it is causing in the various layers of our society, including in our membership and their families. Such concerns can only aggravate the oppressive climate in which many must live. Moreover, we are of the firm view that no society can promote national development to the fullest if the population feels insecure. Guyanese homes and businesses must always be safe havens. We believe, too, that prevalence of crime can very well discourage investment – local and foreign. Seemingly, crime is widespread and may require a national effort today. In these efforts, as we can, FITUG stands ready to offer its assistance in crimeprevention and crime–fighting. We have high expectations that the perpetrators of crime will be brought to justice, and that soon we will see the unmistakable indications that the situation has significantly improved. Page Seven

GAWU Enmore Martyrs Day Address

A section of the audience at the Enmore Martyrs Rally on June 16, 2015

On behalf of the leadership and members of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), I wish to express our acknowledgement of this significant event in our nation’s history, as well as to recognize one of the epic struggles by the working class in Guyana. This annual national event serves not only to keep the memory of the Enmore Martyrs alive, but is also a reminder that the achievements of our day have been fertilized with the blood and heroic struggles of our working people. At this time, GAWU recalls that the deaths of the workers, which occurred in Enmore in 1948, were observed initially by the Political Affairs Committee (PAC), and subsequently by the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) and the GAWU. We need to also recognize two of the central figures of the Enmore struggles and the subsequent observances were Dr Cheddi Jagan and his wife Janet Jagan. It was only in the mid-seventies, after Independence, that the then Government appropriately recognized the Enmore struggles, acknowledged as Martyrs those who had fallen and declared a day for national observances. Dr Jagan, a central figure of that struggle, later wrote that he had made a silent pledge at the Martyrs graveside: “I would dedicate my entire life to the cause of the struggle of the Guyanese people against bondage and exploitation.” Indeed, Dr Jagan lived up to that pledge. The martyrdom of Rambarran, Pooran, Lallabagee, Surujballi and Harry must be seen in the context of the wider anti-colonial struggle which was beginning to grow in intensity at the political level. It was those rural and urban workers’ struggles strengthened by political actions and demands for freedom, which that saw an end to colonial rule and ushered in political independence.

Today, as we mark another anniversary of the Enmore Martyrs, GAWU remembers also those who fell at Devonshire Castle in 1872, at Non-Pareil in 1879, at Friends in 1903, at Lusignan and Friends in 1912, at Rose Hall in 1913, at Ruimveldt in 1924, and at Leonora in 1939. We also recognize the struggles and challenges and threats and sacrifices to workers in the industry and in our country after Enmore 1948. Our history, which is our legacy, is a history filled of struggles against oppression and economic exploitation perpetuated by British colonialists and the sugar plantocracy. It is also a history of self-sacrificing struggles for Guyana’s freedom, its economic independence, and for a society based on democratic norms. Over the years since 1948, we have come a long way and have scored several landmark achievements, including independence, a vibrant economy with encouraging prospects, a return of democracy in 92, growing respect internationally, and steadily improving living standards. Even as we take pride in these developments, we must show concern over certain trends around us. More and more, there is talk of the emergence of new colonialism with its local collaborators and looting of countries’ resources. We see austerity measures piled on the backs of workers, a rollback of gains made by the working class, undermining of democracy, and unjust wars.

nance directly to 16,000 workers and indirectly to tens of thousands more. This is apart from its other social and infrastructural responsibilities. The GAWU is on record that it is confident that the industry can make it through this difficult period with the correct plans, policies and focus. The answers will not come easily, but the industry was turned around in the early nineties, and we are sure the industry can be viable again. We believe, too, that privatization is not the answer, as some are harping about today. We hold firmly to the view that workers are an indispensable part of a viable industry. It is time that they be involved in meaningful ways in the decision-making process also. Relationships which take into account the workers’ interests, concerns and well-being must be hammered out. These are steps which, will most certainly redound to the future success of the sugar industry. In such practical ways, concrete content can be given to the recognition of the Struggles of 1948 and in honouring the memory of the Enmore Martyrs. Comrades, in these times in which we live, there is continuing relevance and great significance in the 1948 Enmore struggles which gave us the Enmore Martyrs. They stood up against injustice; they fought for a fair deal; they demanded better conditions in their work, in their lives, and for their families’ future.

In the face of such challenges, we need to be vigilant. We need unity of the working people, and we need to draw inspiration from the Enmore Martyrs to attain a society - and indeed a world order - that is based on peace, democracy, economic justice, respect for sovereignty and social progress.

In their struggles, a major blow was dealt for our freedom against the British colonial exploiters. Let us ensure, comrades, that the colonial empire, the old or the new one, never again dominates us as a people or plunder our resources. This also is the enduring message of our Martyrs.

With respect to the sugar industry, its current trials are generally known. Nevertheless, its importance needs to be emphasized, as it is estimated that it provides suste-

Long Live Enmore Martyrs! Long Live Our Ongoing Struggles! Fight on for further victories!

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

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