Dear Editor,
The workers of any country are the pillars of government and of the country’s development. This human resource element is the most vital resource, but unfortunately, instead of being protected, finds itself in constant riff with employers and government as they seek to capitalise on profits on the backs of their employees. This vulnerable asset, without the protection of the often taken for granted labour union, would not have been able to gain improved condition of work and other compensatory benefits had it not been for early guilds and labour unions formed during the era of the industrial revolution. In Guyana, we had Hubert Nathaniel Critchlow who challenged the merchant class in the early 1900s.
Having struggled over the centuries, many workers are today taking for granted the struggle of their predecessors that brought them to a place, where some are having a false sense of security. Instead of engaging with government and employers to protect historical gains there is growing complacency that is allowing employers to exploit labour in an unfair and unjust manner. In Guyana, workers face the greatest challenge to labour from a regime that once prided itself, under the leadership of Dr. Cheddi Jagan, having arisen from the working class, to be more sensitive to working class needs. The People’s Progressive Party (PPP), in its quest for political power and total domination, has made it its duty to orchestrate division in the trade union movement, which the regime continues to do in an effort to separate and create ethnic and racial imbalances.
Let us not be fooled that the PPP is merely anti – trade union; the truth of the matter is the PPP is anti-independent trade union, working class and anti-poor. This opportunity is taken to remind the nation watching on, largely silent, that the teachers’ battle is against an uncaring, discriminatory government. It is a grave injustice to our vulnerable teachers and the nation’s children not joining the teachers struggle and demanding that the government respects the rule of law and engage teachers across the bargaining table. If in 2024, after seeing the worst in the Jagdeo/Ali regime, their inconsistencies and deceptions, their discrimination and obvious pursuit to take Guyana down a pathway of anti-democratic and authoritarian rule, when will we see it? When will Guyanese workers and other leaders in society come together and say, “No More?”
The caring services of teachers transcend all our nation’s children. We are all products of teachers. Our children need teachers. There is no society that can develop without teachers. Yet we allow an uncaring regime to disrespect the rights of our teachers and trample on them continuously because of political misdirection. Parents remain silent even as they witness the learning loss that their children must bear because of the government being hard headed and stubborn. It is painful that the parents of deprived children, that the people of Guyana are content to remain divided on an issue that impacts all. Divided, as the government seeks to mislead the gullible among us, the inattentive and socially unaware, that the desperate stand of the teachers to force the government to respect their rights and the rule of law governing collective bargaining is unjust.
It is becoming evident the PPP has a sinister plot to limit the country’s education exposures and increase illiteracy numbers to satisfy their twisted belief that such would give them greater opportunity to control and subjugate the masses. How else can the regime explain the imposition of fees at the University of Guyana (UG) in violation of the Constitution of Guyana, which enshrines the right to free education from nursery to tertiary. Recent statement by President Irfaan Ali that UG students will pay is unacceptable given the entitlement of university students to free education which was available even when oil was not being drilled. Teachers, parents and youth must not ignore the violation of this sacred right to free education and must also demand that those university students who have been burdened with an illegal fee to be reimbursed the sums paid.
It is a dark day when the sister federated body of FITUG, with the largest percentage of agricultural workers, most of whom have children dependent on the public teaching service to groom their children, remain silent, ignoring the genuine cry of a significant number of the nation’s working class are being discriminated against and denied a living wage in this oil rich Guyana, touted as the fastest growing economy in the world. The adage of taking “one’s pigs to fine market” comes to mind as our people, opposition and others in society with the ability to help hold this regime to account turn a blind eye to its atrocities. One day there will be no one left to struggle when they come for the last among us. The writing is as clear as day on the wall, and the people of Guyana face imminent danger not only from the government but from ourselves. It is time we wake up and unite against our greatest threat to all.
Sincerely,
Lincoln Lewis
