Dear Editor
Soulless is a nation that mistreats and oppresses its teachers and when a government tramples on the livelihood and rights of our nation’s educators, the entire country must stand up to that government and stand with the moulders of our nation’s children. The Guyana Trades Union Congress, the umbrella body of trade unions in Guyana must act boldly and mobilise workers across Guyana to walk, march and hold hands in solidarity with our embattled teachers. The duty of the GTUC does not stop at opinion pieces in our dailies and on talk-shows. It must strategise and act! It must engage the private and public sector and opposition political parties and the man and woman in the street. And it must agitate until the government is forced to acquiesce to the demands of the teachers and their union.
Vice President Jagdeo talks about the politicisation of the teachers’ strike even though he is fully cognisant that currently that is not the case. It is a preemptive move to cast shadow over what must become the inevitable. An Opposition party must be seen as a government in waiting and the political representative of all the people of the country. Its foremost purpose is to hold government accountable in and out of Parliament. We are faced with an unusual situation in which a government seems to be able to bully the union and Opposition into submission and therefore such a scenario signals to us that any chance of hope for a better Guyana under the PPP regime is a fleeting illusion.
It does not augur well for the defenders of the people against a dictatorship and while they fail to act decisively in holding the regime accountable, the people must hold them accountable. The teachers’ strike must inevitably culminate into a national struggle for justice and fair play. It must become the catalyst to bring a halt to the runaway train of dictatorship in Guyana. Two weeks on and those who have to prepare us for life after childhood, stand alone in the rain and sun, losing pay and being victimised for asking for decent and liveable wages and salaries.
Sincerely,
Norman Browne
Social and Political Activist
