Descendants must benefit from the toil and sacrifice of ancestors on the sugar estates

Dear Editor,

The souls of our ancestors cry from the hallowed grounds of the sugar estates for common sense; the sugar estates in large part constitute Guyana’s history insofar as it has been written. This was where our ancestors were visited with the most terrible forms of human oppression as they laboured to eke out a living for themselves and their descendants.

Dr Walter Rodney spoke of cosmic forces in his pro-working class and resistance book, Groundings with my Brothers, and noted, “You have to listen to them and you hear them talk about Cosmic Power and it rings a bell”. It is my belief that the sugar estates in Guyana carry a cosmic power that could positively influence the lives of the descendants of the enslaved and indentured labourers.

The bloodshed and lost lives of our ancestors should not be further impaled by misplaced economic priorities. Let the labour of our foreparents that took place under the most oppressive of conditions not become purposeless, and not end in a way that speaks more to the triumph of division over unity that will cause irreparable harm.

In the Executive Summary of the CoI into GuySuCo, section 5.45 states: “The possibility of closure of some estates based on their comparative low levels of production and consistent loss positions, received much discussion and even debate. In the final analysis, two commissioners supported closure, while the remaining eight opposed such a recommendation”. Eight of the ten commissioners were against closure of the sugar estates, yet we are now hearing of the closure of Rose Hall and Enmore Estates by the end of 2017 (‘Govt plans to close Rose Hall, Enmore factories by yearend –PPP’ Stabroek News, February16).

The first two recommendations by the CoI are not premised on the position taken by a substantial majority of the commissioners. See section 5.25 of the CoI: Final Recommendations of two of the six:

  1. The Privatization of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GUYSUCO), which is a state owned entity, incorporated and regulated under the companies. The process should start as early as practicable and aim to be completed within a three (3) year period.
  2. As a consequence of (1.) above, the state divests itself of all assets, activities and operations currently associated with GUYSUCO.

So here we have a minority “final recommendation” that allows for the final recommendation to be contrary to the substantive position of the majority of the Commissioners. We can split hairs about closure/privatization/divestment/re-engineering and such like – the reality is that in the final recommendation it is proposed to close GuySuCo.

A colleague of mine in response to my question on why the government was closing the sugar estates said “the estates were making big losses”. I asked my colleague if the substantial majority of the workers and families were supporters of the current APNU+AFC coalition, would the government have sanctioned the closure of the estates? The answer was silence. We must not call a spade a fork. We Guyanese must reject these oppressive actions against the working class. It is easy to find conditions in Guyana where economic factors can be used to justify repugnant acts, there are multiple such cases in each region of Guyana. Nor should we forget all the international grants and soft loans that have come to Guyana as a result of disruptions in the sugar industry, and evidenced by IDB loans signed in this month of February 2017.

The cosmic forces are within us and the great son of Guyana, Dr Walter Rodney, noted in his epic analysis of the working class, the underemployed and unemployed and the underprivileged in his book Groundings with my Brothers: “you get humility, because look who you are learning from”, and I say you have to use the messages emanating from our ancestors who laboured on the sugar estates and ensure that their descendants benefit from our ancestors’ toil and sacrifice.

Maybe our ancestors once dreamt of Guyana discovering massive oil reserves off the coast of Guyana in the devilish Atlantic Ocean that claimed so many of their lives. There is always a better way, always.

Yours faithfully,

Nigel Hinds