Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carl Greenidge, during the 106th remembrance ceremony for the Rose Hall (Canje) Martyrs on Wednesday stated that new emerging industries in Guyana will offer better rewards for citizens than the sugar industry.
Greenidge stated that 106 years after the Rose Hall martyrs incident, “Our battle[s] have not all been won”.
“We have not all [been] afforded the same chances as to which we might aspire, such as maintaining or ensuring a sound education, equal opportunities to employment, the opportunities to enhance the wellbeing of our children and their descendants,” Greenidge stated.
However, he added, “I think we are much closer today than we were in [1913]—new opportunities, new industries are emerging and these opportunities and industries [bring] transformational change involving the generation of new skills, new job opportunities, facilitating new aspiration, and ensuring that with the improved skills we can exploit better markets,” he said, stating that these industries will be able to reward workers in ways better than the sugar industries have been able to.
Greenidge told the gathering, which consisted mostly of government and regional officials and school children, that, “In our march towards that brighter future and as we face whatever challenges may emerge, I think we must remember those such as the Rose Hall Martyrs who endured unimaginable hardships, and we must be inspired by their sacrifices and the example that they set”.
He then urged the gathering, many of whom he said are the “lifeblood” and “brains” of Guyana, to always keep the national motto in mind. He said the motto should remind Guyanese that their destiny is bound to unity, “and that we need to ensure that we pursue goals not for one but goals that enhance the wellbeing of all of us”.
He noted that the Rose Hall Martyrs’ sacrifices will be honoured by continuing the fight for workers’ rights with the same passion and unity that the martyrs displayed in 1913.
“The resilience and industry of the people of Rose Hall rest on historic foundations and today it has emerged even stronger and has long been a model of a community development in Guyana,” he stated. He further urged everyone to build upon the sacrifices made by the martyrs 106 years ago.
Meanwhile, Greenidge stressed that the struggle of the Rose Hall Martyrs, who died on March 13, 1913, was a struggle that ultimately resulted in better conditions, better pay, and respect for the rights of workers, not only in Rose Hall, Canje but workers across all of Guyana.
According to Greenidge, in the decades that follow-ed, the sight or even the acknowledgement of the struggles of the workers were ignored “But today, 106 years late, this monument that we have built, this monument that we’ve built in concrete and supplemented by flora, is a monument that should constitute a reminder to future generations of the sacrifices that are necessary if freedom is to be achieved, and more importantly it is a reminder— or should be a reminder in fact— that freedom, once achieved, has to be safeguarded by those who wish to enjoy the freedom, by being alert and defending their freedom and enduring many, many type of sacrifices and privations,” he stated.
Trade union
According to the minister, within a year of the deaths of the 15 martyrs, a New Amsterdam reverend sought to organise workers and established a trade union in New Amsterdam to protect the rights of workers. However, he noted, those efforts failed due to retaliation by plantation owners and others.
“Whilst that particular effort didn’t last very long, in a relatively short space of time, Guyana was home to the first functioning trade union throughout the British empire,” he further noted, referencing the influence of Hubert Nathaniel Critchlow.
The minister stressed that in striving to improve Guyana and by ensuring that the interests of all Guyanese are pursued, citizens can ensure that their efforts bear fruit in the long term and that they achieve their goals by focusing on more “narrow personal or sectorial interests”.
Additionally, he noted that there are many chapters in the history of Guyana’s struggle for justice, acceptable working conditions and recognition of the rights of workers. “The sacrifice of the Rose Hall workers is but one chapter in a long and extensive book of episodes that describe the experiences of the workers, their working conditions and the reactions to their efforts to improve those conditions,” he said.
According to Greenidge, the struggle for change touched relations between employers and labourers, and also between government and labourers. “Because at that time, even picketing posed a problem and in law was effectively defined in such way, that even peaceful picketing could land those accused of it— those accused specifically of hindering other workers from work, even if they didn’t use violence—it could involve them in being jailed and exposed to the full force of the law,” he related.
Also present at the wreath laying remembrance ceremony in Rose Hall, East Canje, Berbice, were Ministers Keith Scott, Karen Cummings, Khemraj Ramjattan, George Norton and Jaipaul Sharma and Regional Chairman, David Armogan, who delivered brief remarks. Also present were children of some of the martyrs and members of the East Canje Humanitarian Organisation.
