Dear Editor,
I am replying to the editor’s note appended at the bottom of my letter titled ‘MT Lowe remembered differently by some’ (SN, December 2). The editor claimed, citing Fr Andrew Morrison’s book, Justice, that some of my facts are in question regarding protests in Georgetown relating to the Corentyne students and faculty strike of 1977. The editor is mixing up two separate issues and two separate protest events (February 1977 about the punitive measures against my teachers and August 1978 about NIS).
The protest in Georgetown did take place in February 1977 as I claimed. Unlike some other writers, I do not manufacture information or facts. I do not know about the NIS teachers’ strike in Georgetown as I had emigrated in 1977 and enrolled at City College of NY in the pre-med programme in September meeting stalwarts who participated in the strikes and reminiscing about our struggles against victimization at the hands of Burnham.
As I recall, protests around the Ministry of Education relating to the vicitimization of CHS teachers – Dr Chaitram Singh, Dr Indradat Jagnandan, and Ms Vijaya Tewari – began in late January and were covered in the media – the Mirror (Jan 30, 1977) and Catholic Standard (Jan 30, 1977). The February Georgetown demonstration, which the editor feels is in question, was covered in the February 17 edition of the Catholic Standard. I also faintly recall reading about it in the Mirror newspaper as well but do not have access to that article. The Catholic Standard article about the February protest reported about the St Stanislaus students picketing against MT Lowe and had an accompanying photo of Jesuit Priest Ron Peters holding a picketing sign condemning the disciplining of the three teachers. The title of the report was ‘Students’ protest spreads to city.’ Fathers Chirah (who was also disciplined) and Malcolm Rodrigues and Mr SK Singh (who was headmaster at Lower Corentyne and now a headmaster at an East Coast Demerara school and was also penalized with a transfer) can confirm the protests.
As the editor correctly noted, Fr Morrison wrote about the student protests and strikes in his book (p 245-50). Morrison penned: “Thousands of students and about three hundred teachers went on strike in January, 1977. They felt strongly that the decision of the ministry (to punish their teachers) was arbitrary and unjust. Sympathy strikes were held in Georgetown schools and in many other schools in the country.”
Clearly, reference to the sympathy strikes could not have been about NIS strike of August 1978.
Referring to punitive actions against some teachers who supported the Corentyne and Georgetown strikes, Fr Morrison penned: “Written protests from teachers of St Stanislaus and St Joseph’s in Georgetown, as well as others on the Corentyne, met with the same stony silence from the Ministry.” This quote again confirms the February 1977 protest.
Fr Morrison continued: “As the strike entered its fourth week, two meetings were held at Tain and Hampshire, attended by huge crowds of students, teachers and parents. One of the speakers was Fr Malcolm Rodrigues, who had once taught at CHS, and had taken a leading role in the struggle to obtain the reinstatement of Singh and the rescinding of the transfer of Jagnandan and Tewari. Walter Rodney of the WPA and Feroze Mohamed of the PPP also spoke at the meetings. The communities gave overwhelming support to the cause of the teachers and students.”
Commenting on the punitive sanctions taken against striking educators, some of the most brilliant educators, Fr Morrison wrote: “The entire episode was obviously designed to silence the teachers and students. The Chief Education Officer (MT Lowe) admitted that orders came from above [meaning Burnham] and that he was there to execute them! From January 1977, a dark cloud of fear and frustration descended upon teachers. Most of the able ones, who could go to North America or to the Islands, went as soon as they could get away. Education in Guyana nose-dived.”
The editor’s assertion that the creation of the Teaching Service Commission in April 1977 would have prevented MT Lowe from carrying out higher orders against teachers flies in the face of (Morrison’s comment above and) political realities in Guyana of what took place in the Burnham era. Consider, for example, that Guyana had an Elections Commission. Does anyone still believe that the 1968, 1973, 1980; 1985 elections, as well as the 1978 referendum, were not rigged because we had an election commission?
The fact also that the 1974 Declaration of Sophia making the PNC paramount over all national institutions, rendered lame and irrelevant all sub-national organizations, commissions, etc. Indeed, it is universally the nature of autocratic regimes not only to infringe on the fundamental rights of their citizens, but often to do so by trampling on institutions set up for their protection. The Burnham dictatorship was no different.
On a minor correction, Fr Darke, who was killed by goons sent by the regime, taught Chemistry (subject to correction), not Maths. His students and colleagues can confirm this fact. I cannot confirm if Fr Darke took the photos on the February 1977 demonstration or wrote the story but he was sympathetic with the striking Corentyne teachers.
Editor, you can verify my account with Fr Rodrigues and or re-examine the relevant pages of Morrison’s book.
May I remind readers that the purpose of my missive is not to vilify MT Lowe but to document correctly an important episode in our history especially as it relates to education and oppression in Guyana. As I indicated, Lowe had 25 years to clear his name and repudiate Burnhamism and he did not.
Yours faithfully,
Vishnu Bisram
Editor’s note
The editor’s note in question did not dispute the events in 1977 surrounding the dismissal of the Corentyne teachers, including the fact that there was a “picketing demonstration” (Mr Bisram’s words) outside the Ministry of Education in sympathy with the Corentyne students and teachers, although it was not specifically mentioned. We will accept what Mr Bisram says about that demonstration, namely, that it included some students from St Stanislaus, among others. Having said that, these were not the largest demonstrations of students and teachers in the capital; that came later.
As it is, it is not the editor who ‘mixed up’ two separate events, it is Mr Bisram who left large gaps in the sequence in the first instance. After relating the Corentyne incidents he went on to say, “Shortly after the protest Sister Hazel Campayne, who was sympathetic to striking students and staff on the Corentyne, was removed from St Rose’s, and shortly after that there were other reprisals.” In other words, he has conflated the sequence of events. As the note indicated, where the demonstrations in “the Georgetown education system” were concerned (as opposed to those deriving from the Corentyne) they began in earnest in 1978, reaching a crescendo in 1979. As for Sister Campayne, she was not interdicted until June 18, 1980, more than three years after the events of 1977 which Mr Bisram describes.
Mr Bisram has misunderstood the comment in the note about the Teaching Service Commission. The issue is not about Burnham’s exercise of power; it is about through which agency that power was exercised. After the establishment of the Teaching Service Commission towards the end of April 1977, Mr Lowe could neither appoint nor dismiss teachers; that role was assumed by the commission. We will draw Mr Bisram’s attention to the fact that Sister Campayne received first her transfer notice, and then her notice of interdiction by way of letter from the Teaching Service Commission, not the Chief Education Officer.
Lastly, Fr Darke may well have taught various subjects at one time or another in his teaching career, but prior to his death, he certainly taught Mathematics.
