Sugar workers will speak again at the polls

Dear Editor,
In discussions on the topic of the retrenchment of the sugar workers and the payment of their severance, one salient fact is being overlooked, if not underreported; that is: the violence factor. Yes, the violence factor.
It is an all-too-familiar, sordid piece of our history, wherein the disaffected party would resort to violence.
However, so far, there has been no incident of violence or any such “vulgar” behaviour by the aggrieved workers. To date, there are no reports of any shooting or looting, as is customary when persons affiliated to the PNC are on protest marches.
There has not even been the burning of sugar canes; none of the above has taken place, only pure and simple protest for what is rightfully theirs — their severance.
And with good reason, violence could have been a part of the workers’ protest, because you cannot tell me hundreds of workers (most of them with families) could have been so brutally axed from their main source of income just before Christmas and no severance paid to them. That in itself was a call for a violent, insane reaction.
The actions of this Government are low, unreasonable, and unconscionable enough to make any normal person revolt.
Even when they were told that their severance would not be paid in one instalment, the sugar workers still did not go the violent route of protest.
With the help of the Opposition, the workers are making their voices known, that: in spite of all the odds, we look far beyond this transitory, heartless and ruthless Coalition to a peaceful and prosperous tomorrow.
The sugar workers are not like other workers, prime example being the bauxite workers of Linden. When asked to pay a few more dollars for their electricity, their response was a prompt and open show of violence.
The results are there, the violent response to the Government’s asking for a slight reduction on the subsidy of their charmed life. Violence became their response.
Probably that is what the powers had hoped for: a situation of violence, for them to now turn loose the security forces on the hapless workers.
There would have been mayhem had the workers played into the hands of the Police.
But this part of their bullyism was thwarted because the sugar workers did not allow that dubious and draconian part of the PNC-led coalition to take shape.
But lest they take the workers’ peacefulness for weakness, I will say this: come next election, those same workers and thousands more will speak again. I rest my case.

Regards,
Neil Adams