Dear Editor,
Early Tuesday morning Guyanese woke up to the sad news that Mr. Ashton Chase, a trailblazer on the political and trade union front, and a legal luminary had passed away quietly at the age of 96. Any effort to analyze the life and work of Ashton will take several publications and research to span a period of almost seven decades. He was the last surviving member of the Political Affairs Committee (PAC), the forerunner to the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) in 1950. He also played a crucial role in the election of Dr. Cheddi Jagan to the legislative in 1947.
After joining the juvenile section of the British Guiana Labor Union in the 40’s, he rose to the position of Assistant Secretary and later General Secretary of the union. Dr. Cheddi and Janet Jagan met Ashton Chase at Jocelyn Hubbard bookstore in Water Street and they subsequently agreed to set up the PAC in 1946. When the PAC celebrated its 50th anniversary in September 1996 Ashton was one of the panelists along with Cheddi and Janet Jagan at a seminar in Georgetown. He stated that the main idea behind the setting up of the PAC was to enhance political awareness and struggle to reduce poverty in British Guiana. He remarked that two militant PAC groups, one in Kitty led by the late Boysie Ramkarran and another in Buxton led by the then Sydney King actively promoted the idea of the formation of a political party in 1947.
The formation of the PPP in 1950 and its subsequent victory in the 1953 election led to Ashton Chase becoming the Minister of Labour, Trade and Industry. The government was removed after 133 days in office with the suspension of the constitution and the rest is history. Ashton left for London to study law in 1954, after his return in 1958 he continued to be active with the PPP, becoming President of the Senate in the 1961-64 period and a Member of Parliament until 1968. He made an unsuccessful bid for the President of the GLU in the mid 60’s. The trade union was very militant during that period; Ashton, along with Bertis Bangaree, helped transitioned the Sugar Estate Clerk Association (SECA) to National Association of Agricultural Commercial and Industrial Employees (NACCIE) in 1970, this allowed the union to broaden its membership to represent field and factory supervisors and sugar boilers. He was very active promoting the rights of the workers and very vocal at the TUC annual delegates conferences.
Ashton’s activism was not only limited to the political and trade union front but was prominent in the halls of the courtroom. He was part of a battery of lawyers that successfully defended PPP activist Arnold Rampersaud on framed up political charges. When the PNC government curtailed press freedom with draconian methods, he successfully represented Eusi Kwayana in the Dayclean trial in 1976. He along with Fenton Ramsahoye represented the Mirror newspaper at the Court of Appeal that strangely upturned Justice Frank Vieira’s decision that a denial of newsprint is tantamount to the denial of freedom of expression.
However, his most famous of legal battle was when Seeram Teemal, a clerical worker at Leanora sugar estate, successfully challenged the non- payment of the minimum wage and merit increment that the PNC government agreed upon with the TUC in 1977. After the court decision and in effort to prevent workers from receiving their rightful dues, the PNC passed the controversial Labour Amendment Act (1984) that wages will no longer have the safety accorded and could be reduced unilaterally or retroactively by government. Justice Clifford Baburam upheld Ashton Chase’s arguments that this amendment was unconstitutional, the case was finally heard and successfully settled at the Court of Appeal in a landmark decision on a matter that lasted more than ten years. Ashton Chase will be remembered for his positive contributions on many fronts the political, economic and social but last and by no means least his writings especially his seminal publication, A History of Trade Unionism in Guyana. Rest in Peace, Ashton, your good work shall live on.
Sincerely,
Rajendra Rampersaud
