Dear Editor,
June 16 marks the 75th anniversary of the Enmore Martyrs when five striking sugar workers namely Rambarran, Pooran, Lallabagee, Kissoon and Surijballie were brutally gunned down by the colonial police while demonstrating in front of the Enmore factory to highlight their grievances. The strike began on April 22nd 1948 at Enmore and it soon spread to other estates when Bookers arbitrarily changed the method of reaping from ‘cut and drop’ to ‘cut and loan’ for cane cutters. As the strike gathered momentum, the workers demanded the recognition of the Guyana Industrial Workers Union (GIWU). Despite not having their grievances being immediately addressed, June 16, 1948 is remembered as a “red letter day” in the history of Guyana. This event had laid the foundation for the worker’s struggle for political and economic emancipation in British Guiana.
Cane cutting is considered the most arduous labour task in the world, except for coal mining that is also extremely dangerous.
The cut and load method introduced by Bookers is considered as an accident waiting to happen especially in bad weather conditions. The workers were therefore justified when they took strike action under the slogan ‘better to sit and starve rather than work and starve’. The recognized union in the sugar industry was the Man Power Citizen Association (MPCA) and considered a company union that enjoyed little support among the sugar workers. MPCA was strongly challenged by the GIWU led by Dr. J.P Latchmansingh as president, Amos Rangela -vice president and Jane Phillips-Gay as general secretary as the union with the strongest support among the sugar workers.
Apart from the GIWU, local political leadership played a major role in motivating the workers on strike. Veteran trade unionist and foremost Senior Counsel on labour law, Mr. Ashton Chase, in his seminal publication ‘A History of Trade Unionism in Guyana’ stated that Dr. and Mrs. Jagan played a major role in the strike.
They inspired the workers to stay united in their action. Chase further stated that Dr. and Mrs. Jagan paid considerable attention to the day-to-day organization of the strike, helped raised funding and organized “soup kitchens” for the strikers. The strike lasted four and a half months as Bookers held out and starved the striking workers back to the job without addressing the major contentious issues. The funeral procession for the five workers cumulated in a march from Enmore to Le Repentir cemetery and was considered the greatest demonstration for freedom and justice in Guyana.
Local and international solidarity continued on the issues that led to the strike that forced the then colonial Governor Sir Charles Wolley to appoint a commission of enquiry into the shooting of the workers. The whole process was a mere smokescreen intended for a massive cover up that forced leading advocates like Mr. J.A Luckhoo (a former chief Justice), Mr. Jainarine Singh, Dr. J.P Latchmansingh and Dr. C.B Jagan to walk out and refused any further participation into this farce. After being embarrassed by the perfunctory report of the commission, the British Secretary of State for Colonies in London appointed a new commission led by J.A Venn, President of Queen’s College, and Cambridge University Lecturer in History and Economics as Chairman to investigate the conditions in British Guiana’s sugar industry.
The famous Venn Commission arrived on Christmas Eve day in 1948 and started working immediately.
The Venn Commission took evidence in most sugar estates in the country with over 193 participants giving evidence and very prominent was the well-documented written and oral presentations by Dr. Cheddi Jagan to which the Commission was very grateful. The final report and recommendations of the Venn Commission, even though was selectively implemented by Bookers, would transform the lives of sugar workers especially in housing, health, access to potable water and the setting up of the Sugar Industry Labor Welfare Fund (SILWIF).
SILWIF was a major success in the area of sport in the sugar estates. Professor Emeritus, Winston McGowan in one of his Walter Rodney Chair lectures at the National Library (2004), stated that in response to the Venn recommendations, Bookers appointed two distinguished cricketers, Robert Christiani and Clyde Walcott, as welfare officers and sport organizers in sugar estates, Walcott’s influence resulted in the emergence from obscurity in the period 1954-1956 of Rohan Kanhai, Basil Butcher, Joe Solomon and Ivan Madray and their selection in to the national team. He continued that “the success of Kanhai, Butcher, and Solomon in first -class as well as test cricket enabled Berbice to gain such great international renown that soon games against the “Ancient County” were accorded first-class status by the M.C.C, an amazing development”.
There were many recommendations by Venn that I did not touch upon but an important one was that inter-religious marriage between Hindu and Muslim be treated as legal. However, the two main recommendations by the Venn Commission 1) the setting up of a wages board and 2) the establishment of a contributory pension scheme for sugar workers was not implemented immediately. It would take another two and half decade before a poll was held in the sugar industry for the recognition of GAWU in December 31, 1975 under the leadership of the late Boysie Ramkarran as President and Macie Hamid as general secretary as the union of workers choice.
It took the newly elected PPP government to implement an old age pension for all Guyanese in 1993 with the removal of the draconian means test and the passing of the Trade Union Recognition Bill in 1997.
Finally, it is widely accepted that the Enmore Martyrs did not die in vain, apart from the comprehensive Venn Commission’s recommendations, numerous other changes to the conditions of work in the sugar industry that benefited all sugar workers were to follow in subsequent negotiations.
Sincerely,
Rajendra Rampersaud
