Op-Ed: 75 Years On: The struggle of the Enmore Martyrs remains relevant

June 16, 2023, marked 75 years since five sugar workers, Rambarran, Pooran, Lallabagee, Surajballi and Harry, were killed at Enmore by police while protesting with hundreds of others for better working conditions.

Just after on the fateful morning of June 16, 1948, the five sugar workers were brutally shot to death at Enmore Estate in Guyana. Their protest was against the harsh “cut and load” system which demanded that the workers cut and fetched the canes to load into punts. They wanted that system to be scrapped and replaced with “cut and drop” where they cut and others load the punt.

At that time the sugar workers were also poorly