Dear Editor,
As a retired UK trade unionist, trying to keep up with what black youth up here call the ‘runnings’ at home, please allow me to comment on Al Creighton’s letter ‘Executive of UG Workers’ Union has not been elected‘ (SN, November 26)
First of all, without questioning any of his assertions about the undemocratic nature of the UGWU in general and the alleged illegitimacy of its chief cook and bottle-washer, Freddie Kissoon, I note that Mr Creighton chose to air his longstanding concerns just a few days before the general election. If this UG official is not, like the former head of the Ethnic-Relations Commission, Bishop Edghill, formally engaging in the PPP election campaign, cynics might conclude that he is being prevailed upon (subconsciously?) to involve himself in it.
When officers of any organization, public or private, complain about the “poor“ quality (and lack) of representation by a trade union, as Mr Creighton is now doing , anyone can smell a rat all the way up here in London. Lawbreakers do not normally complain about the absence of quality or legitimacy of serving Scotland Yard detectives. But Mr Creighton goes further: he seems to want to choose his ‘investigator’ as well. Not literally, of course, but just so that your readers can get the ‘picture like a picture.’
Incredibly, Mr Creighton is yearning for the good ‘ole‘ days when the management at UG enjoyed the scrutiny of a “strong and militant UGWU“ under the stewardship of a “true“ and most popular workers‘ representative. Clearly the impression Mr Creighton wants to convey is that whatever Guyana has become under the PPP since 1992, the UG enclave he helps to manage at Turkeyen has made a UDI (Unilateral Declaration of Independence) and is now a true Marxist Workers‘ Paradise.
If only the 60 sacked bauxite workers and GAWU had been aware of this… and we could have saved Critchlow Labour College by dragooning Mr Jagdeo and the entire PPP Central Committee from Robb Street into the UG workers enclave for what the Vietcong called ‘Reorientation and Rehabilitation.’ Miltant and firebrand Marxist trade unionists like the Arthur Scargill and his Mineworkers Union here in Britain could have sent delegations with nuff foreign exchange for UG courses in order to take on Margaret Thatcher.
But don’t be misled. This ‘militant’ that Mr Creighton is referring to is not our Freddie Kissoon (the PPP’s nemesis and AFC supporter) but one Mr Adams, who has only recently left (not the union) but UG, and who presumably was a member of staff for whom Mr Creighton was once responsible.
Those in Guyana much better acquainted with local ‘runnings’ would not be surprised that Mr Creighton has now decided to play politricks attacking Freddie Kissoon at this election time.
The sad reality is that our Mr Creighton really cannot be expected to protect and defend what does not exist, and what has not existed since 1992 and even prior to 1992 – the academic freedom of UG lecturers like Freddie Kissoon, the independence of the university and its freedom from political interference.
Officer of the university Al Creighton did not take the opportunity in his letter to publicly denounce ‘Good Governance’ Minister Gail Teixeira about the recently publicised instructions to current UG management to terminate the contract of certain lecturers. His failure to mention this is very revealing. His concern here is peculiarly parochial. He confines his concerns strictly to ‘illegitimacy’ within an imaginary chalk-line surrounding the PPP’s Turkeyen called UG which he helps manage.
Why hasn’t he used his elevated perch in the UG Ivory Tower to write letters over the years about the need for a strong and militant Guyanese trade unionism in order to protect and defend Critchlow Labour College? Or 60 illegally sacked bauxite workers? Or the rights of rice farmers and sugar workers? Instead, he has now decided to launch a transparently veiled political attack upon Freddie Kissoon’s ‘illegitimacy’ as a trade unionist when as far as I have been informed, he has himself has done little to dispel the unfortunate impression that he himself is not troubled and has no similar concerns about the avalanche of ‘illegitimacies’ of the PPP since 1992.
Moreover, after his recent anointment (and acceptance) of a National Award for his “contributions to culture,“ apparently what was being demanded of him at a critical time for them, was not mere silent collusion but more overt expressions of loyalty and appreciation. After all, culture has always been subordinated to capital. His attack on Freddie Kissoon should therefore be read and understood in this context.
Al ‘workers champion’ Creighton has just rendered a little service, not to any struggle for bread and social justice, but towards the continuing and escalating debasement, especially after 1992, of our institutions like UG in particular and of Guyanese political culture in general.
Yours faithfully,
Errol Harry
