Human dignity is the basis of all fundamental human rights. The UN’s 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights enshrined this principle in its preamble: ‘recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world’. The treatment accorded to the 5,700 sugar workers who, from Demerara to Berbice, have been fired in the past year has stripped them of their dignity, and all Guyana must now stand up and be counted in their corner. Today it is sugar workers; tomorrow it could be any one of us.
Human dignity demands that individuals not be humiliated; but this is exactly what had been inflicted on the fired sugar workers. Not only were they not treated as subjects who had agency and should be consulted, workers at Wales were not even INFORMED that they were going to lose their job at the end of 2016, when the estate would be shut down. To add insult to the wounds of humiliation, even after this newspaper revealed the callous plan, the Minister of Agriculture did not see fit to visit the location and address the fired workers face to face. This would have implied they were fit to be engaged, and it was denied.
As 2017 unfolded, the Administration even refused to follow the terms of the labour contract that had been extracted after over a century of struggle: that workers cannot be forced to be transferred to another work location more than ten miles from their residence. This demand had its origin from the days of slavery, when the “masters” owned human beings as chattel – property – and could do whatever they wanted to their bodies. No dignity was accorded to “beasts of burden”.
The announcement that three other estates would be closed was made early in 2017; but, soon afterwards, Government spokespersons announced it would be delayed until 2018. As that date approached, however, closure was abruptly announced, throwing 4,000 sugar workers into the streets without any alternative employment.
And this is where the humiliation by the Government via GuySuCo was deepened into degradation. Just before Christmas, the traditional period of joy in Guyana, The workers were simply given letters informing they were being fired. Unlike at Wales, where most of the workers were given their severance pay as demanded by the law (apart from the approximately 300 who were ordered transferred more than 20 miles from their home to Uitvlugt) and could therefore try to create some form of self-employment, these 4,000 workers were informed there was no money to give them their severance pay.
They were therefore presented, in the season of joy, with a situation of absolute degradation: not being able to provide even bread to their families, much less “holiday fare”. Out of shame, desperation and extreme humiliation, two of the fired workers committed suicide. While the Government obviously does not see the workers as deserving of being treated with dignity, these workers – even though poor and downtrodden — have an innate sense of dignity: that they could take care of their families. Once this was stripped away, their sense of self was eroded, and ending their lives was seen as the only way out.
Today, in the US, is Martin Luther King Day, and this great man’s legacy has always reverberated in Guyana, since his work for dignity for US blacks coincided with our own struggle for independence from Britain. We were exhorted then by our leaders that human dignity is inviolable and must be respected and protected from the depredations that started with slavery, lasted through indentureship, and culminated with non-recognition of sugar workers’ representatives. And this was what “independence” promised.
It is not merely ironic, but tragic that, fifty years after indentureship, a “Guyanese” Government has once again stripped sugar workers of their dignity. Our history has come a full circle back to slavery.
