Skip to main content

Jan 30,2018.

Source

Dear Editor,

I note with some consternation news stories and commentaries stating that Komal Chand’s tenure as head of GAWU is at an end because of a rift between himself and the PPP (read Bharrat Jagdeo).

I do not personally know either gentlemen, but I do know that Komal Chand (and GAWU) stood up for sugar workers’ rights extracting severance pay from the APNU+AFC government of President David Granger.

Komal Chand needs to hold his ground and not be cowed by Bharrat Jagdeo and/or his supporters. It is Bharrat Jagdeo who needs to bow out gracefully from the PPP so that a new leader can take over and the PPP can have the opportunity to regenerate. Bharrat Jagdeo has had his time as President twice; a third term is not necessary or wise.

Yours faithfully,

Sean Ori

Replies sorted oldest to newest

‘I don’t have to consult with PPP’

President of GAWU, Komal Chand

…Chand says GAWU’s members are from all the parties

PRESIDENT of the Guyana Agricultural and General workers Union (GAWU), Komal Chand says he does not have to consult with the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) on matters concerning retrenched sugar workers. He insisted that the union is independent and represents workers who are supporters of all of the political parties in the country.
General Secretary of the PPP, Bharrat Jagdeo at a news conference on Saturday said he was upset with Chand for the position he took at a meeting with the government two Fridays ago. Jagdeo also hinted at the removal of Chand as President of GAWU saying that the union had young bright minds who can lead it. A top union source said that they will fight Jagdeo in his attempts to destroy Chand a long standing trade unionist. Sources in the PPP had told the Guyana Chronicle that the attack on Chand has widened the inner-party divisions. Chand is seen as one of the few Jaganites remaining in the PPP. The source said these divisions were caused by Jagdeo, who unilaterally dumped the long-standing policies of both the party and the union against privatisation of the sugar industry. “Jagdeo discarded a policy held sacred since Dr. Jagan was at the helm. He did so without the consent of the Central Committee or party congress,” one stalwart said, asking not to be identified by name.

Jagdeo had declared: “Now that the termination has been done … we were opposed to it — closure of these estates but we will push…we hope that we can get decent private investment into these estates. This is a position that we have changed, because we were saying ‘no closure,’ but now that there is closure, there is no job that we can… we can get decent investments into this,” Jagdeo was quoted as saying by Demerara Waves. He said the PPP would support any initiative with “decent investors” to get jobs for sugar workers, adequate land, more cash for small loans and immediate payment of accurately calculated severance.

NO NEED TO CONSULT
Meanwhile, in an interview with Guyana Chronicle on Monday Chand declared that there was no need to consult with the opposition party, despite him being a senior member of that organisation and a Member of Parliament representing that body. After much resistance toward government’s plans to transform the financially strapped Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo), the conclusion of a meeting between unions and the government two Friday’s ago saw GAWU and other unions commending the government for seeking to honour payments to retrenched sugar workers and claiming the positive exchanges that were had.

However, Chand himself posited that a “smear campaign” has been launched against him for what seems to be his support for government as they feverishly search for a sum of $4B to pay the retrenched workers. Chand explained that despite being a longstanding member of the PPP and a MP, GAWU is independent and separate from the party. “We are GAWU, we have our organisation. There was no need to consult with them (opposition). We do not having to meet with the opposition about this issue or that issue. Our union has members who belong to the APNU and AFC, all the parties. So we have to be careful, we have mass members, we can’t represent the PPP, AFC or APNU positions.” The trade unionist continued that prior to meeting the government team two weeks ago, GAWU spoke with the representatives of the thousands of workers within GuySuCo and a collective stance was taken. “…you could not physically reach all the persons, but we consulted with the representing body, the executive committee. So we had a collective position…,” Chand stated.

However, the position to not report to his political party may have cost Chand some points, since a call for his removal as head of GAWU is coming from his own colleagues at Freedom House, some observers say. It is believed that Chand’s failure to discuss the union’s plans with his party may have upset the organisation’s primary leader(s) since again, observers believe, any sense of stability or partnership between government and the union would spell negatively toward the PPP/Opposition’s agenda.

Former long-serving PPP member and public commentator, Ralph Ramkarran weighing in on the issue in his Sunday Stabroek News column stated that, “Chand’s tenure as head of GAWU is within sight.” Ramkarran who had served the PPP for almost five decades, believes that the attack against Chand and calls for his resignation could be the work of the Opposition Leader who has so far positioned himself as head of the party, surpassing senior members such as Clement Rohee, and former President Donald Ramotar, among others. Ramkarran claimed that with Chand as head of GAWU, the union is not fully under the PPP control. He said, “By meeting with President Granger, perhaps without consultation with the PPP leadership and taking a position which may not have been cleared with the leadership beforehand and which runs counter to the campaign of the PPP against the closure of the estates, thereby demonstrating a modicum of independence, it has clearly attracted the ire of the PPP leadership.”

Django

Calls for Chand’s removal misplaced

Source
Jan 30,2018.
PPP, Member of Parliament, Clement Rohee

-Rohee warns against upmanship

CLEMENT Rohee, former General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party has said that the calls for the removal of Komal Chand as President of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers’ Union (GAWU) are misplaced, declaring that the union is not a political party nor a branch of the PPP.

He also said in a Facebook post that though the party and union are enjoined in the same fight, differences of a tactical and strategic nature can arise between those leading the struggle “but care must be taken to ensure that those differences do not result in upmanship of one over the other, since it will be taken advantage of by the enemy who in this case is the APNU+ AFC and who will waste no time in exploiting the seeming differences.”

Bharrat Jagdeo, the leader of the PPP on Saturday blasted Chand for hailing the meeting with government and the sugar union two Fridays ago as a success. “I have personal issues with these sorts of statements…if that is the case it means that all that has been done before didn’t make sense… how many times we have tried to engage this government and have been trying to ask for studies to be done,” he said. Although he was not pleased with what was said by the President of the union, the Opposition Leader said he does not have anything against an individual of the union. “What I can say is, we support the union, but I will not defend individuals… the workers are the ones who pay the dues, so the workers determine their leadership… they are free to elect [a] leader, that is not the PPP’s business,” said Jagdeo.

Rohee, seen as an ally of Chand, in his Facebook post last week said that the hullabaloo over the GAWU’s meeting with government has to do with whether the meeting should have taken place at all, and a claim that the union accepted at the meeting the offer by government in respect to payment of gratuity to sugar workers which the union represents. Rohee said on the first matter, the union in a statement issued said that after consultations with its leadership and members it was agreed that they should accept the invitation to meet that was extended by government. In respect to the second matter, Rohee said it is to be recalled that the Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan in introducing the Bill calling for the supplementary provision, made it very clear to the House that neither GAWU nor NAACIE accepted the offer made by government at the meeting concerning payment of gratuities to sugar workers. “In other words, both unions at the meeting rejected government’s offer.”

SPURIOUS CLAIMS
Rohee also alluded to a statement issued subsequently where GAWU made it clear that at the meeting the union did not accept the government’s offer. “Therefore to claim that GAWU ‘sold out the sugar workers’ by accepting government’s offer is not only spurious, it is without foundation and is essentially a fabrication. Since the decision was a collective one made at the top level of the union and not solely by Komal Chand then, the call for his resignation is misplaced and misdirected,” Rohee wrote.

“GAWU is not a political party nor is it a branch of the PPP. It is a bona fide registered trade union with many years of experience under its belt. It has fought many battles winning most of them,” the former Home Affairs Minister said. According to Rohee, in the current battle to keep the estates open GAWU has fought tooth and nail and it is still fighting the good fight.

He said as is to be expected, the PPP, the union’s political ally, joined in the fight and has done considerably well. Rohee said trade unions are there to represent their members. “They are well versed in industrial disputes and struggles for better wages and working conditions of its general membership. The political parties fight at the political level. There are times when the political and industrial struggles coincide. Under such conditions the coordination, collaboration and cooperation between the political parties and the trade union leaders is of utmost importance if the interests of the working class in particular, and the working people as a whole are to be protected and advanced.”

Rohee added that insofar as the closure of the sugar estates is concerned and the coincidence of the political and industrial merged, it became clear to the nation that the union and the party were enjoined in a common struggle. “The ruling elite were not comfortable with this solid unity of action and therefore began thrashing around to throw a spanner in the works. Was the invitation to the union for talks a means to do so? Did the union make a tactical mistake by accepting the invitation for talks with the government?’ Rohee questioned.

He said on many occasions the GAWU has been branded a political union and a branch of the PPP- something which he said the union can do pretty little about it being branded one way or another “but at the same time, it has to be careful that its membership, which comprises members and supporters of different political parties, as well as different shades of ethnicity do not perceive their union leaders to be fighting a political rather than an industrial battle on their behalf.” He said herein lies the complexity of the struggle in times like these when the political and industrial converge.

Django

BJ needs to stop his bullying tactics.  GAWU is a trade union, not a political party.  Bad policy screwed over the sugar workers, not GAWU!

BJ sees a threat.  If the workers are given a square deal, turn out in 2020 might be low!

Baseman
Nehru posted:

The PNC always fooling their supporters that GAWU and NAACIE are PPP organization and the FILTH HEADS usually go fore the crap!!!

This is because the PPP used GAWU to call strikes which were politically motivated.

Baseman
Nehru posted:

Base, you actually have hope that the PNC and the Namakaram Crabdaag will care about Sugar Workers?? If you do, you are living in La La Land Buddy.

Majority of PNC supporters live in cities and do not care to work in the sugar industry.

FM
Nehru posted:

However, as Champion of the Guyanese people and of the Earth, Bharat Jagdeo has a God Given Right to be concerned!!!

Anyone needs to be concerned, but don’t try to bully the union head!  He is free to deal with who ever he needs to address the membership interest!

Baseman
Nehru posted:

Base, you actually have hope that the PNC and the Namakaram Crabdaag will care about Sugar Workers?? If you do, you are living in La La Land Buddy.

Leh we see nah.  I may be wrong, but leh we see!

Baseman
Nehru posted:

However, as Champion of the Guyanese people and of the Earth, Bharat Jagdeo has a God Given Right to be concerned!!!

bai too late if only u had a voice when they was stealing your people will still be on the mountain top

FM
Baseman posted:
Nehru posted:

However, as Champion of the Guyanese people and of the Earth, Bharat Jagdeo has a God Given Right to be concerned!!!

Anyone needs to be concerned, but don’t try to bully the union head!  He is free to deal with who ever he needs to address the membership interest!

jag is a thief and a ass the ppp will lose the next election with him there

FM
Gilbakka posted:

Komal Chand made a significant point: GAWU's membership comprises PPP, APNU and AFC supporters. 

And which party does GAWU support when elections roll around?

Please don't fool yourself that they are neutral.

FM
Last edited by Former Member
Baseman posted:

 

BJ sees a threat.  If the workers are given a square deal, turn out in 2020 might be low

Of course.  His screams of "black man a starve ahbe" fall flat.  I don't recall the PPP being hugely generous to sugar workers when they closed down estates.

Of course the PPP wishes people to forget that estates were closed on their watch or that they had previously stated plans to shut down all estates except for those in Berbice.

FM
caribny posted:
Gilbakka posted:

Komal Chand made a significant point: GAWU's membership comprises PPP, APNU and AFC supporters. 

And which party does GAWU support when elections roll around?

Please don't fool yourself that they are neutral.

While GAWU leadership openly supports PPP during election campaigns, it did not and could not compel all its 16,000 members to cast their ballots for PPP. A few thousand members voted APNU+AFC in 2015, I'm sure. Actual votes are what matter.

FM
caribny posted:
Baseman posted:

 

BJ sees a threat.  If the workers are given a square deal, turn out in 2020 might be low

Of course.  His screams of "black man a starve ahbe" fall flat.  I don't recall the PPP being hugely generous to sugar workers when they closed down estates.

Of course the PPP wishes people to forget that estates were closed on their watch or that they had previously stated plans to shut down all estates except for those in Berbice.

Can you name the sugar estates that the PPP closed???

K
caribny posted:
Gilbakka posted:

Komal Chand made a significant point: GAWU's membership comprises PPP, APNU and AFC supporters. 

And which party does GAWU support when elections roll around?

Please don't fool yourself that they are neutral.

Who does CCWU support?

K
kp posted:
 

Can you name the sugar estates that the PPP closed???

Sugar workers are being ‘screwed’- Nagamootoo tells Canje rally

Nov 08, 2011

source:

Sugar workers and their rights have been trampled upon, according to former PPP/C Executive Member, Moses Nagamootoo. At a recently held political meeting in Adelphi, Canje, on Saturday, Nagamootoo spoke about the poor standards in the lives of sugar workers and treatment meted out to them by the current administration.
“I told them that they had to treat sugar workers with honesty. They had promised that no sugar worker would be sent packing or factory would be closed”, he said. He noted the closure of several sugar factories in Demerara and warned the Berbicians that they (the closures) “are coming this way”.
The government did not have a plan for the sugar industry, he said.
He noted how the industry lacked good payment and increases for the workers and that the current administration supported this.
“They said GuySuCo had no money and they started to shift money, to give them $8M to bail them out because Nanda Gopaul is working in Jagdeo’s office! Gopaul is Jagdeo’s man and he, Jagdeo, put him to run GuySuCo!” Nagamootoo told the audience.
The politician added that Gopaul sent a letter in 2010 to the union that the industry would de-recognize the union, if it did not withdraw the five per cent Annual Production Index (API).
“They will ban the union; the union office will close down. Komal Chand will have to look for work”, he posited.
Alluding to the story of Greek Oedipus whereby the son killed the father and started to sleep with the mother, Nagamoootoo drew similarities with this to the sugar industry and the president.
“The sugar workers are the womb from which the PPP came! Remember the Enmore Martyrs? That is when Jagan made a pledge that he will not turn back in his fight from oppression! Through this, the PPP was formed in 1950. I have lived to see the day, that our father [Jagan] is dead, and you, Jagdeo, are screwing our mother!” Nagamootoo stated.
He recalled when he wrote a statement to the press, explaining the “disgraceful things happening at Freedom House” and that “Guyanese should light a candle for sugar workers” and that the “sugar workers were being screwed”. Three days later, a meeting was called and he alleged that Jagdeo said, “We gotta expel Moses from the party”.
Nagamootoo said the AFC has the PPP on the run, regarding the fight for the sugar workers. He alluded to the three per cent increase offer to public servants and sugar workers, which he said, works out to $900 more a month, or $30 per day.
“You can’t buy a fudge with that. You can’t buy anything with that, you can’t buy a bottle of sweet drink, or mauby with that!”
He suggested that President Jagdeo take the three per cent and “put it where the monkey put the peanuts”.

Mitwah
Mitwah posted:
kp posted:
 

Can you name the sugar estates that the PPP closed???

Sugar workers are being ‘screwed’- Nagamootoo tells Canje rally

Nov 08, 2011

source:

Sugar workers and their rights have been trampled upon, according to former PPP/C Executive Member, Moses Nagamootoo. At a recently held political meeting in Adelphi, Canje, on Saturday, Nagamootoo spoke about the poor standards in the lives of sugar workers and treatment meted out to them by the current administration.
“I told them that they had to treat sugar workers with honesty. They had promised that no sugar worker would be sent packing or factory would be closed”, he said. He noted the closure of several sugar factories in Demerara and warned the Berbicians that they (the closures) “are coming this way”.
The government did not have a plan for the sugar industry, he said.
He noted how the industry lacked good payment and increases for the workers and that the current administration supported this.
“They said GuySuCo had no money and they started to shift money, to give them $8M to bail them out because Nanda Gopaul is working in Jagdeo’s office! Gopaul is Jagdeo’s man and he, Jagdeo, put him to run GuySuCo!” Nagamootoo told the audience.
The politician added that Gopaul sent a letter in 2010 to the union that the industry would de-recognize the union, if it did not withdraw the five per cent Annual Production Index (API).
“They will ban the union; the union office will close down. Komal Chand will have to look for work”, he posited.
Alluding to the story of Greek Oedipus whereby the son killed the father and started to sleep with the mother, Nagamoootoo drew similarities with this to the sugar industry and the president.
“The sugar workers are the womb from which the PPP came! Remember the Enmore Martyrs? That is when Jagan made a pledge that he will not turn back in his fight from oppression! Through this, the PPP was formed in 1950. I have lived to see the day, that our father [Jagan] is dead, and you, Jagdeo, are screwing our mother!” Nagamootoo stated.
He recalled when he wrote a statement to the press, explaining the “disgraceful things happening at Freedom House” and that “Guyanese should light a candle for sugar workers” and that the “sugar workers were being screwed”. Three days later, a meeting was called and he alleged that Jagdeo said, “We gotta expel Moses from the party”.
Nagamootoo said the AFC has the PPP on the run, regarding the fight for the sugar workers. He alluded to the three per cent increase offer to public servants and sugar workers, which he said, works out to $900 more a month, or $30 per day.
“You can’t buy a fudge with that. You can’t buy anything with that, you can’t buy a bottle of sweet drink, or mauby with that!”
He suggested that President Jagdeo take the three per cent and “put it where the monkey put the peanuts”.

MAY I ASK, NAME THE SUGAR ESTATES THE PPP CLOSED?????i DON'T WANT TO HEAR WHAT THE fat CROOK HAD TO SAY, HIS WORDS MEAN nothing. Remember his words, Sugar too big to close.

K
Gilbakka posted:
.

While GAWU leadership openly supports PPP during election campaigns, it did not and could not compel all its 16,000 members to cast their ballots for PPP. A few thousand members voted APNU+AFC in 2015, I'm sure. Actual votes are what matter.

So if GAWU is not neutral when it comes to politics in Guyana then how well did it represent the interests of its members who felt oppressed during the PPP era? Clearly NOT!

GAWU is a PPP tool and furthers PPP interests!

FM
kp posted:
 

Can you name the sugar estates that the PPP closed???

Name the EC Demerara estates which are still open and which ones were open in 1992. That will give you the answer.

FM
caribny posted:

So if GAWU is not neutral when it comes to politics in Guyana then how well did it represent the interests of its members who felt oppressed during the PPP era? Clearly NOT!

GAWU is a PPP tool and furthers PPP interests!

Shortly after APNU+AFC got power, Harmon disclosed that cane cutters were earning as much as $1 million yearly and they shouldn't complain. This tells me that cane cutters did well with GAWU under the 1992-2015 PPP era.

On your second point, neither Burnham nor Hoyte ever threatened to de-recognize GAWU. But Jagdeo did that. This tells me that GAWU was not furthering PPP interests.

FM
caribny posted:
kp posted:
 

Can you name the sugar estates that the PPP closed???

Name the EC Demerara estates which are still open and which ones were open in 1992. That will give you the answer.

You don't know shit. I asked to name the estates.

K

http://guysuco.gy/index.php/en...rview/item/2-history

By 1967, there were eighteen (18) estates: Albion, Port Mourant, Blairmont, Providence, Diamond, Enmore, Lusignan, Houston, LBI, Ogle, Leonora, Rose Hall, Lochaber, Skeldon, Uitvlugt, Versailles and Wales serving eleven (11) factories, nine of which were owned and/or managed by Booker McConnell Limited, the other two, by the Demerara Company. Total acreage under cane cultivation in 1967, including fallow land was 113 474 acres; sugar production for that year (1967) was 343 922 tons (this compares with the 1950 figure of 195 652 tons and the 1975 figure of 300 350 tons).

In 1973, the main ownership of the sugar industry was in the hands of two London-based companies - Jessels Securities which owned two factories and accounted for about fifteen percent (15%) of the total sugar production; five percent (5%) was produced by an independent Guyanese factory, owned by the Vieiras and eighty percent (80%) by Booker McConnell.

Two years later, the Demerara Company estates were nationalised becoming DEMSUCO.

In a decisive move along the road towards owning and controlling all the resources of the nation, the Guyana Government acquired the Booker Sugar Estates in Guyana in May, 1976.

To these were added the two nationalised Demerara Sugar Company estates to form, in amalgamation, the Guyana Sugar Corporation - GUYSUCO - comprising six estates of Skeldon, the East Berbice Estate (merging of Albion/Port Mourant & Rose Hall), Blairmont, the Est Demerara Estate (almalgamation Enmore, LBI/Diamond Estates), Wales and Uitvlugt/ Leonora.


 

Re-fresher on Sugar Estates.

Django
kp posted:
caribny posted:
kp posted:
 

Can you name the sugar estates that the PPP closed???

Name the EC Demerara estates which are still open and which ones were open in 1992. That will give you the answer.

You don't know shit. I asked to name the estates.

It's you who don't know shyte. I gave you the years. You are too ignorant lazy and stupid to look up the names. Get lost! 

Mitwah
Mitwah posted:
kp posted:
caribny posted:
kp posted:
 

Can you name the sugar estates that the PPP closed???

Name the EC Demerara estates which are still open and which ones were open in 1992. That will give you the answer.

You don't know shit. I asked to name the estates.

It's you who don't know shyte. I gave you the years. You are too ignorant lazy and stupid to look up the names. Get lost! 

You uneducated invalid, I asked over and over to NAME the Sugar Estates that were closed by the PPP!!! If you and Carib don't know any, Well shut your poop hole.

K
kp posted:
Mitwah posted:
kp posted:
caribny posted:
kp posted:
 

Can you name the sugar estates that the PPP closed???

Name the EC Demerara estates which are still open and which ones were open in 1992. That will give you the answer.

You don't know shit. I asked to name the estates.

It's you who don't know shyte. I gave you the years. You are too ignorant lazy and stupid to look up the names. Get lost! 

You uneducated invalid, I asked over and over to NAME the Sugar Estates that were closed by the PPP!!! If you and Carib don't know any, Well shut your poop hole.

You are truly a dunce. You are no match to CARIB. You are too dense.  When the PPP closed those estates after 1992 you were very silent. 

STFU. 

Mitwah
Mitwah posted:
kp posted:
Mitwah posted:
kp posted:
caribny posted:
kp posted:
 

Can you name the sugar estates that the PPP closed???

Name the EC Demerara estates which are still open and which ones were open in 1992. That will give you the answer.

You don't know shit. I asked to name the estates.

It's you who don't know shyte. I gave you the years. You are too ignorant lazy and stupid to look up the names. Get lost! 

You uneducated invalid, I asked over and over to NAME the Sugar Estates that were closed by the PPP!!! If you and Carib don't know any, Well shut your poop hole.

You are truly a dunce. You are no match to CARIB. You are too dense.  When the PPP closed those estates after 1992 you were very silent. 

STFU. 

WHICH ESTATES.

K
kp posted:
Mitwah posted:
kp posted:
Mitwah posted:
kp posted:
caribny posted:
kp posted:
 

Can you name the sugar estates that the PPP closed???

Name the EC Demerara estates which are still open and which ones were open in 1992. That will give you the answer.

You don't know shit. I asked to name the estates.

It's you who don't know shyte. I gave you the years. You are too ignorant lazy and stupid to look up the names. Get lost! 

You uneducated invalid, I asked over and over to NAME the Sugar Estates that were closed by the PPP!!! If you and Carib don't know any, Well shut your poop hole.

You are truly a dunce. You are no match to CARIB. You are too dense.  When the PPP closed those estates after 1992 you were very silent. 

STFU. 

WHICH ESTATES.

Stop the screaming and loud outburst. You were silent in 2003 and 2011. Go look it up and STFU. 

Mitwah

Add Reply

×
×
×
×
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×
×