Sugar workers did help Bauxite workers

Dear Editor,
I write to applaud Dr David Hinds (WPA co-leader) for calling on the coalition A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Government to address the difficult conditions facing the unemployed former workers of the closed Wales Sugar Estate and other estates on the government list for impending closure. I thank Hinds for focusing attention on the sugar workers who are facing many socio-economic challenges without Government support. But Hinds erred in stating that the sugar workers (meaning Indians) did not offer support to bauxite workers (meaning Africans) when the bauxite industry was divested.
The sugar workers were very supportive (directly and indirectly) of the bauxite workers. When the bauxite workers went on strike in Linden, Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice) during the 1970s and were fired upon, sugar workers went on solidarity strike calling for justice of the affected workers and their families in the greater Linden community. Bauxite workers did not go on strike to support sugar workers when the latter took strike actions during the 1970s and 1980s for higher wages and better working conditions.
The sugar workers also provided financial support for bauxite workers. The People’s National Congress (PNC) dictatorship imposed a tax levy on sugar profits that were supposed to be shared by the sugar workers. The sugar levy yielded tens of millions of US dollars that were included in the Government’s national annual budget; these were used to subsidise the money losing bauxite industry. It is well established and penned in the media that the communities where sugar workers resided were neglected and marginalised by the PNC to the benefit of PNC supporters including the communities where the bauxite workers lived. So the sugar workers were aiding the bauxite workers. And this Government policy continued long after the PNC lost office in relatively free and fair elections in 1992.
The People’s Progressive Party (PPP), while in Opposition, condemned the sugar levy calling on the PNC Government to give the sugar workers their full due of the returns on their labour and predictability. But in Government, the PPP continued the PNC sugar levy. So the hapless sugar workers contributed their profits earned from their industrious labour to fund the Government operations which benefited communities where sugar workers don’t live.
It should be noted that it was genuine worker advocates like Ravi Dev, myself, and others who championed the removal of the sugar levy so workers can enjoy the full fruits of their labour. The PPP Government eventually caved in and eliminated the levy. But by then, the industry had begun a decline.
It should also be noted that it was the PNC, the Government supported by bauxite workers that closed and privatised the bauxite industry. It is the same “bauxite supported government”, having returned to power in 2015 because of the significant support from sugar workers, that has now closed Wales and announced plan to close other sugar estates. So sugar workers have consistently supported bauxite workers even assisting the bauxite backed PNC (APNU) party in capturing the Government. Unfortunately, the Government has moved against the workers.

Yours truly,
Vishnu Bisram