Dear Editor,
On the occasion of the International Day of solidarity with working people commonly called May Day, we at Public Interest Research send our greetings to the working people of Guyana and further afield in the Caribbean.
Indeed, the working people of the world are marking this day in the midst of a series of deep and profound crises affecting their lives.
Here in Guyana, we face a seemingly intractable and protracted political crisis which started December 2018 with the passage of the no confidence motion in the Granger Government followed by the March General Elections, the results of which have not yet been officially and legally declared. The ruling PNC refuses to accept the results which are in their possession as they had refused to accept the no confidence vote and are using every trick and delaying tactic to rig the results in a barefaced manner.
In this exercise, they are abetted by the riggers in GECOM itself and in the Secretariat. Additionally, the workers, indeed the entire population are facing the problems of the COVID-19 but it is the workers who are facing layoffs, high unemployment, greater poverty and desperation. COVID-19 has exacerbated the crisis in the economy which started long before COVID-19. The health crisis has exposed the complete failure of the Granger Government in the area of crisis preparedness. They are just not ready.
There has been no announcement to help the Guyanese deal with the crisis. The only principal announcement concerns the unclear acquisition of a private hotel with vast sums of money being spent on it. The other important announcement concerns the failure of the de facto Granger Administration to access loans for COVID-19 and of course, the useless “Task Force” with new faces of retired military men.
The social crisis in the society is getting worse with every passing day, that is, more crime, greater domestic violence, corruption, lawlessness of every type, murder and mayhem. It is difficult to recall a time when the working people of Guyana were faced with a multiplicity of crises simultaneously, a political crisis, an economic one plus a health calamity and disaster in the social area. Add to this, our children are not in school.
May Day 2020 finds the working people in truly a desperate situation with no leadership or help from what passes for a trade union “movement” in Guyana divided over the last 20 years and showing no signs of wanting to restore solidarity and unity of the “movement”, basic principles of trade unionism, which they all claim brazenly to support.
Most (not all) of them allow party/political affiliation and race politics to intrude upon their work of building unity and properly representing the workers of Guyana. They all appear quite comfortable with a national minimum legal wage of $2040 per day, appalling wages and conditions for nurses and medical personnel and other staff on the “frontlines”, massive non representation and non-unionization of workers of Guyana. They have failed miserably and spend more time contriving and manipulating to remain in office forever. Many of them have long outlived their usefulness and are a compete disgrace, living the good life from the union dues.
No wonder then that the working people of Guyana have nothing to celebrate May Day 2020. The poverty, hunger, desperation, joblessness, inequality, poor wages, lack of proper representation and mobilization will continue until the workers themselves take matters into their own hands and create new unions with conscientious and honest leaders to provide proper leadership with integrity.
This is the major lesson to be drawn from the calamity that has befallen the working people of Guyana. It is only by means of a consistent struggle based on solidarity and unity that the working people will free themselves from the crises and the political hustlers, tribalists, and opportunists that have failed them.
The liberation of the working people is the task of the working people themselves and nobody else. Working people of Guyana Unite.
Yours faithfully,
Ramon Gaskin