President Bharrat Jagdeo and other government officials and members of the diplomatic corps were among scores of persons paying tribute to the five Enmore Martyrs on the occasion of the 63rd anniversary of their deaths on June 16th at the monument erected in their honour.
The annual ceremony saw wreaths being laid at the base of the monument by Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, representing the state, and leaders of the various labour unions besides relatives of the slain men.
Prime Minister Samuel Hinds laying a wreath at the Enmore Martyrs Monument on behalf of the state
In delivering the feature address, President Jagdeo paid tribute not only to the Enmore Martyrs, but to those who have kept the memory of the martyrs alive, and to others who have been ready to make the necessary sacrifices to make Guyana a better place. He urged sugar workers to not only struggle for their immediate concerns, but for those concerns that influence national development as well. To qualify his statement, he pointed to the efforts of the People’s National Congress Reform to stop the work of the Ethnic Relations Commission – a body that Jagdeo says has been working to unite Guyanese across ethnicity and religion.
Presidential candidate of the People’s Progressive Party, Donald Ramotar, in his address, acknowledged the change Guyana has seen since the era in which the martyrs lived. According to him, the government has made numerous interventions to ensure workers’ rights are maintained.
Meanwhile, Kenneth Joseph, General Secretary of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG), in out lining the relevance of trade unions in Guyana, called for unity of the labour movement in addressing the concerns of the working class.
He said it was important that FITUG and the Guyana Trades Union Congress find ways of collective and constructive co- existence for this purpose. “FITUG therefore invites consideration with respect to sitting around a peaceful table to identify common challenges to our movement, to define combined approaches to the forces of evil, anti- working class aspirants in our midst,” Joseph qualified. He believes that the spirit of 1948 – the year of the Enmore Martyrs – would find compatibility with those aspirations.
President Jagdeo, in his address, said unity of the working- class is more than unions supporting each other. “True working class unity will only come when all workers can see beyond race and religion and they can see common struggles for better lives in this country,” the president outlined. Thursday marked 63 years since the Enmore Martyrs: Lallabagee Kissoon; Surujballi, called Dookie; Harry; Rambarran; and Lall, called Pooran, were gunned down in protest of harsh working and living conditions imposed by the British.
