The Burnham Regime heavily oppressed workers and the National Associa-tion of Agricultural, Com-mercial and Industrial Employees (NAACIE) became a target for surveillance after forming an alliance with Dr. Walter Rodney, Labour Minister Dr. Nanda K Gopaul said.
Dr. Gopaul, former General Secretary of NAACIE, yesterday testified at the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the 1980 killing of Walter Rodney that the government used legislation to oppress workers and the people.
He stated that the population cringed in the fear of victimization for speaking against the government. This fear, he said, was one of the driving factors that caused the union to form alliances with any political party that was pro-democracy.
He testified that he maintained very “close ties” with political parties that were fighting for democracy, adding that it was the belief of NAACIE that the general elections during that period were “rigged”.
“There was a fear on the land,” he said, noting that people were afraid to speak out for fear of losing their jobs. He said that workers were threatened and terrorized.
His book, Resistance and Change: The Struggle of Guyanese workers in 1964-1994 was admitted as evidence at the inquiry yesterday. He said that the working conditions for sugar workers had deteriorated massively during the period of 1978 to 1980.
He argued that workers were denied the right to bargain collectively because by that time there was centralized bargaining. He said an agreement was entered between the government and the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) and a minimum wage of $14 which should have been implemented in 1979 was not.
He further stated that there was an amendment to the Labour Act, which brought strong condemnation from the entire Bar. He noted that increments given to NAACIE workers were also withdrawn, causing fierce industrial action to be taken in the form of strikes.
Dr. Gopaul recalled one incident during a strike where the President of the Clerical and Commercial Workers Union, the late Gordon Todd was taken on a helicopter ride and threatened.
He stated that Todd told them that he was taken on a helicopter by military personnel and shown a part of the Atlantic Ocean which was shark infested. He said Todd told him that he was warned that if he persisted in the “activities” he would end up in those shark infested waters.
He stated that Todd was later returned to Ogle. Dr. Gopaul explained that when Todd disappeared the General Secretary of the GTUC, Joseph Pollydore, was contacted and he called Prime Minister Forbes Burnham. Dr. Gopaul stated that they were informed that Todd would be at Ogle.
He stated that he could not recall if the government denied Todd’s allegation. “I can’t recall anyone in the government or any statement anywhere denying that Gordon Todd was held…and taken over shark infested waters…” he said.
He noted that in 1979 scores of workers held a strike and 82 were sacked. He stated that the workers were protesting peacefully with placards when they were beaten while asking for their payments to be restored.
He stated that other workers were brought in to break the strike and they opened the store as the 82 workers who were striking got fired.
The workers, he said, who managed to keep their jobs nonetheless suffered some other forms of victimization. He said some of them received warning letters while others who were on probation were fired when the period was up.
Massive mobilization
Dr. Gopaul indicated that there was a massive mobilization of personnel from the Guyana Police Force, the House of Israel and the Guyana National Service to take the place of the dismissed workers.
He said the people carrying out the beatings were men in police clothes. However, these men did not possess any badges or name tags. He stated that the men were in the company of policemen with badges, who did not nothing to stop them. “I have never seen ruthlessness of that nature before…in the presence of policemen with badges,” he said.
It was a norm, he said, for these men, dressed in police clothes, not to wear badges because they could “commit criminal activities” and not be easily identified. He said in the incident in which 82 workers were fired, the then Labour Minister Hamilton Green, who was present along with senior police officers, made scathing comments that people wanted to overthrow the administration. He said Green was furious.
Dr. Gopaul said when he confronted some of the policemen in badges they stated that even though they worked with these men, they did not know who they were. He stated that the policemen were apologetic for what was happening to the workers.
“Fear stalked the police force,” he said, noting that many police were subdued.
He contended that in this “bitter period” the government “literally declared war” against anyone who challenged the status quo. He added that the oppressive measures taken at that time against workers were “centrally directed” and that 95% of the strikes between 1978 and 1980 came from the sugar industry. He stated that bauxite workers had also joined the strike with sugar workers.
However, even though NAACIE worked actively to have workers’ rights upheld, there was no surveillance from the government of the union, he said. He stated that observation came only after interactions with Dr. Rodney started.
He stated that Rodney had sought an appointment to lecture at the University of Guyana but was denied employment by the university’s Board of Governors and NAACIE was against their action.
Condemnation
He said NAACIE issued its condemnation over his non-employment and made recommendations for Rodney’s employment at the university on several occasions.
But the Board of Governors of were adamant against Rodney’s hiring. He said: “The board of governors were highly politicized”.
After that, he said Rodney started to visit NAACIE’s office and they would interact. Dr. Gopaul said he started to attend People’s Progressive Party (PPP) and the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) public meetings. He said he even spoke at four union public meetings and that the joined voices with the political parties created awareness among workers.
He said police would stake out the building, filming persons entering and leaving it.
He mentioned one instance where the union was hosting a national symposium and police officers were seen running electrical wires with microphones to the fence of the building.
He stated that on August 10, 1979 the police descended on NAACIE’s headquarters and ransacked the place. He said they produced a warrant but he knew it was not a warrant.
He said the police grilled his secretary on his whereabouts but she told them that she did not know where he was. Dr. Gopaul said he was opposite the building, watching the entire ordeal.
He said he saw police take his secretary, Bibi Khan, away in their vehicle along with NAACIE documents and equipment.
The secretary was carried to the Police Headquarters in Eve Leary for interrogation and when he returned to the building, he discovered his office was ransacked. “…it looked like a hurricane,” he said.
NAACIE, he said, viewed the incident as an act of intimidation and harassment and released a statement to the media. “They thought if you put someone in lockups they would volunteer information,” he said.
In spite of the surveillance, he said Rodney would urge them to “move ahead” instead of focusing on their oppressors. He stated that Rodney never indicated that the struggle should be fought with violence.
“He wanted the people to come together.”
“He was creating an impact in a short period of time and (I) couldn’t see why he would want to resort violence when people were listening to him,” Dr. Gopaul said, indicating that Dr. Rodney was a man of peace.
“Dr. Rodney didn’t have room for violence,” he said.
He recalled that the State did not hesitate to victimize or to charge workers and to “introduce laws which oppress and violate workers’ rights”. He noted that over 100 union activists were locked up with “trumped up” charges against them.
He stated that shortages in the country were another form of oppression by the state and that the economy became bankrupt.
For almost a decade, he said, there were no audit reports but it was noted that there was overspending on the military.
“We didn’t know how the money was being spent,” he said, adding that housing programmes and school feeding programmes were halted. “School children were made to suffer…they had to resort to sugar water and sugar cake,” he said.
“Clearly there was an absolute neglect in these areas…there was a misuse of public funds, lack of accountability and…. human rights,” he declared, noting that statistics showed all of this.
He said Rodney was one of the people who exposed these things. He stated that there were attempts to injure Rodney during WPA public meetings but people had protected him.
Even after Rodney’s death, the union continued to face “major oppression”. In addition, he said some 1700 bauxite workers were laid off between 1980 and 1981.
Dr. Walter Rodney was killed in 1980 after a walkie-talkie given to him exploded in his lap on John and Bent streets.
