Dear Editor,
In response to Mr Robin Williams’ letter in the SN dated May 14 and captioned ‘We should not cherry-pick when it comes to right and wrong,’ I have this to say. In the same way we objected to Mr Bisram for equating slavery with indentured labour Mr Williams should be criticised for attempting to equate what I wrote about to the non-issue of radio station licences and the unfair distribution of ads.
As I recall, when persons opposed to the Burnham dictatorship attempted to equate what was happening here to apartheid, I criticised them, for here again the two cannot be equated.
This is why I cannot understand Mr Williams’ attack on me, as the issue I was dealing with is fundamental, serious and so oppressive that I am surprised that he is equating it with the issue of licences for radio stations, the abuse of the state media and the unfair distribution of ads to one set of capitalists rather than to another. In the same way a cross-section of the working people fought in two world wars. Around sixteen million died in World War I alone, and these were wars to re-divide the world among the capitalist countries.
Throughout the world the workers are used to fighting for and dying for rights that they cannot enjoy because they do not have the economic wherewithal to enjoy them. I was hoping that because there is a lack of this kind of debate that other writers including Robin Williams would take up this issue. It is a known fact that discussions of this nature are sadly lacking in the media both locally and internationally – I guess as a consequence of the monopoly the capitalist class has over the media.
The reality is that Mr Williams seems to want to ignore the class issues. Slave owners were members of a class. Slaves were members of the oppressed class. Businessmen are members of the capitalist class. Employees are members of the working class. Their incomes fall into specific categories. There are capitalists of all colours, though they are predominantly white, and there are workers of all colours. Black, Indian and white capitalists treat their workers in the same way. They do not say that the colour of the workers is the same as I am and therefore I would ensure they get a living wage. No. They extract as much as possible and drink blue label Johnny Walker and hop around the world while their employees cannot even afford to drink milk.
I was dealing with ideological and macro-issues. In America as elsewhere there are two parties both ideologically the same (capitalist). The media may blast anyone and any policy of both parties and we consider this to be freedom of the press, but almost all of the press tends to be pro-capitalist, anti-communist and fashions the minds of the readers in this way. That’s why the press is not free; it is not objective.
The press is used to impose cultural hegemony over the minds of the working class, and many of us are victims but we do not realise this. Yes, we should have more radio stations so that a few more persons can make some more profits.
The government ads should be distributed so that the spoils are shared in a more democratic manner. What we would not have are any fundamental changes in the ideas being disseminated. They would continue to pedal the interest of the Africans and the Indians as if they were homogeneous units, forgetting the class stratification of these two groups, and eventually the lower class section of these two groups could possibly be incited to fight against each other to ensure the elites of both races get their share of the wealth.
In the same way that it was and is, the workers and their children would generally fight the wars and become cannon fodder.
I was not cherry-picking. I was addressing the structures, the real issues and unless we revolutionise our thinking, recognise and appreciate our ideological bias, open our minds to ideas that we have been conditioned to reject automatically, most would continue to be at the bottom of the economic ladder as the few climb on our backs to get on top.
The same occurs at the international level with the few countries getting richer and the majority getting poorer. Fortunately for them a large number of Guyanese have migrated to the rich countries and so share in the spoils (remit some home) and illogically conclude that these countries are the model for us to follow.
They shout ‘long live capitalism, down with communism’ as they regurgitate the fruits of the cultural and ideological impositions of the ‘free press’ on their minds, as if they were generated by their brain in the same way that liver produces bile. They fall and lay prostrate before the cathedrals of capital built with the blood sweat and tears of the slaves, the indentured labourers and the working class who continue to walk and peep between their columns only to find themselves dishonourable graves.
Capital is the greatest representation of the alienation of man from the product of his labour, and man from his fellow man. We all need money and not each other.
Yours faithfully,
Rajendra Bissessar
