Today Guyana will be observing the 69th Enmore Martyrs Day. The remembrance this year is significant as it comes at a time with great challenges for the sugar industry which has been dealt with a significant blow, leaving its future ambivalent.
The Enmore Martyrs – Lallabagee Kissoon, Pooran, Rambarran, Dookhie, Harry – were shot and killed in 1948 as they were protesting the struggles of workers who were suffering in the prime of colonialism in Guyana.
More so on that fateful day sugar workers were on strike demanding the abolishment of the existing “cut and load” system that existed. Kissoon, 30, was shot in the back; Pooran, 19, was shot in the pelvis and leg; Rambarran died from wounds in his leg while Dookhie and Harry died a day later in the hospital. Following the incident, thousands marched from Enmore, East Coast Demerara to La Repentir Cemetery in Georgetown, a distance of about 16 miles, to bury the five.
The funeral procession was led by former President the late Dr. Cheddi Jagan along with a number of trade unions. Every year, on this day, Guyana pays homage to the five, who lost their lives in the struggle for the betterment of their working conditions that existed across the sugar belt. Sixty-nine years later, sugar in Guyana is at a cross-road as dismantling of the industry has had impacting consequences on entire communities. These consequences are not only significant to the lifeblood of communities but have economic repercussions for the country.
What has been argued by analysts and commentators is the fact that had the Government conducted a social and economic impact assessment before making life changing decisions on the sugar industry, it would have had first-hand information on how such would have dire bearing on the sugar belt.
As was previously stated, very little was mentioned about how the Administration intends to deal with the communities that would be affected due to the large number of persons who will be out of employment. As a matter of fact, economists have argued that about 10,000 persons are going to be shifted from having stable employment and a financially healthy standard of living to unemployment and a bleak, devastatingly uncertain future, but with almost absolute certainty of transforming into livelihoods engulfed in poverty.
It should also be noted that more than 48,000 dependents will be adversely affected immediately. While Agriculture Minister Noel Holder did speak of diversification as a means of cushioning the impact, nothing has been said on how this will be done.
It is peoples’ livelihoods that would be affected by the decisions of the Government and this newspaper supports the view that they deserve to be fully engaged on what matters to them. As has been argued, policymakers cannot just make decisions at the top and proceed with implementing those decisions without taking into consideration how peoples’ lives would be impacted.
The martyrdom of those five had served as a catalyst for the significant changes that ensued afterwards but today those struggles are eminently returning. Today as we remember and commemorate the death of the Enmore Martyrs, Guyanese should ensure that we guard ourselves from the emergence of new forms of repressions which were fought by the five men who lost their lives in the struggle for a better life.
