Dear Editor,
Just recently a most respected friend and colleague called to ask whether or not I could confirm the rumour being circulated that the late Dr. Cheddi Jagan was responsible for conceptualising and initiating the development of houselots for sugar workers – in what the sugar industry described as Extra Nuclear Housing Areas.
Actually, the imaginative social development programme resulted from the much earlier British Colonial Government sponsored Venn Commission of Inquiry of 1938, caused by the Social Disturbances throughout the British West Indies, into the employment and living conditions of sugar workers throughout the West Indies.
However, the intervention of World War 2 during the early 1940s postponed any immediate action by those sugar producing countries except Trinidad and British Guiana. The latter government passed its Special Funds Act in 1947 – constituting of:
i) Sugar Industry Rehabilitation Fund.
ii) Sugar Industry Price Stabilisation Fund.
iii) Sugar Industry Labour Welfare Fund.
The initial allocations were to:
– Rehabilitation Fund – levied at $4.50 for every ton of sugar produced.
– Stabilisation Fund – levied at $6.00 for every ton of sugar produced; and
– Labour Welfare Fund – levied at $2.40 for every ton of sugar produced.
The Labour Welfare Fund was managed by the Sugar Industry Labour Welfare Fund Committee, consisting of
a) Bookers Sugar and Demerara Company;
b) Manpower Citizens Association (MPCA) – now GAWU – and
c) Sugar Estates Clerks Association (SECA) – now NAACIE.
Estate management served as agents for the Committee in organising and delivering a most comprehensive infrastructural development of ‘funded’ sugar worker communities, while at the same time utilising industry resources to construct Community Centres and Girls’ Clubs that hosted a wide range of sports and social activities for males and females respectively. Apart from outdoor activities few alive would recall the drama groups who competed regionally, then to the finals – celebrated at the Theatre Guild which still continues to be very active ever since its establishment by the industry’s expatriate theatre enthusiasts.
While a senior executive at that time and one of the industry’s representative on the SILWF Committee, there was no record of a relationship with Dr. Jagan regarding the industry’s acclaimed social development programme.
Sincerely,
E. B John
