President Janet Jagan pleads for genuine national unity
by Terrence Esseboom
PRESIDENT Janet Jagan yesterday pleaded with Guyanese to strive for genuine national unity. The Guyanese leader made the appeal while addressing the 51st anniversary of the slaying of five sugar workers of the Enmore Estate. The ceremony was held at the Enmore Martyrs Monument, Enmore, East Coast Demerara. Referring to the present-day urban turmoil caused by the ongoing labour dispute, Mrs Jagan called for peace as a forerunner to unity. "...there must be peace in this land, for without peace...we will not progress further and people will suffer. There must be an end to this strife that has been thrown upon this nation." "With one voice we must call for an end to this...and move forward...to the goal of genuine national unity," President Jagan continued. The President had some harsh words for the leaders of the now seven-week old strike called by the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) and the Federation of Unions of Government Employees (FUGE) for a 40 per cent wage hike for their members. She accused them of sowing seeds of division in the nation and observed that the strategy has so far brought only "punishment and problems to the people". Touching on the 1948 incident, Mrs Jagan observed that the tragedy was a turning point in the history of the 33-year old Cooperative Republic. It marked the decisive point in her late husband's life when he made a personal commitment to dedicate himself to the improving the lot of the downtrodden. She remarked too, that the killing of the sugar workers by the colonial police "triggered the independence movement (and) has great significance in ending exploitation in this country". The occasion "... was the historic watershed, an important aspect of all that is happening in our country," Mrs Jagan explained. However, it must not be equated with the current GPSU/FUGE strike, she argued. "Let me say categorically there is no connection...it would be pitiful for anyone to suggest that the noble aims of the striking sugar workers had anything to do with what is happening in Georgetown today." The sacrifice of Lallabaghee, Pooran, Rambarran, Surujballi and Harry who died in the struggle for better wages and working conditions must not be in vain, she said. At yesterday's ceremony, several foreign dignitaries and local organisations laid wreaths at the symbolic monument. There were also cultural presentations from the Guyana Police Force Band, the President's Choir, Wales Estate Drama group comprising schoolchildren, and a special poem `We have Survived' by the well-known dramatist and Sitcom actor Rudy Pateedeo called `Puddock'. Mr Komal Chand, President of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), and Mr Reuben Khan, Executive member of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) also made interventions at yesterday's formality. Chand said that during the almost three-decade rule by the People's National Congress (PNC) administrations, sugar workers were the "trail blazers" in the fight for the restoration of democracy in the country. He also condemned the upheavals in the City associated with the industrial dispute. The GAWU official accused the two workers' agencies of attempting to reverse the gains of the country. "Guyana is held at ransom," Chand charged. Meanwhile, Khan in his speech traced the history of the Enmore strike and noted that like then, a living wage is still needed by the nation's workers today. 
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