PCD Calls For Street Protests

THE People’s Progressive Party and the Working People’s Alliance, the two major parties in the Patriotic Coalition for Democracy, have both called on workers to take action from the bottom if their trade union leaders continue to allow themselves to be manipulated by government.

The WPA’s Eusi Kwayana accused trade unions of not utilising resources at their disposal (members), while the PPP’s Cheddi Jagan called for a return to the street protest politics of the 40s and 50s. He felt that this was the only way justice could be achieved in Guyana.

Kwayana who made his remarks during the PCD’s after-march rally at Kitty Market Square, said union leaders should not only bargain “on your seats” but should take members out on the streets and proclaim their demands.

At the heart of last week’s aftermarch rally was the stalled wages and salaries negotiations between the government and the Trades Union Congress

The Democratic Labour Movement’s (DLM) Paul Tennassee questioned the usefulness and value o f government’s $19.40 per day wages offer.

Kwayana said the significance of last week’s march lay in the fact that it is the beginning of a renewed struggle in Guyana. Jagan, the last of several speakers at the rally, reiterated the PCD’s commitment to the day-to day struggle of the Guyanese people, so that they “could live like human beings.”

The TUC leaders are selling out, he said, adding that they have been corrupted by Government over the years. The only way to end this is to take to the streets in protest as was the case 40 years ago.

He denounced the National Assembly as a place of information suppression...a place where a lot of members have never said anything in favour of workers.

Tennassee called on President Hoyte and Prime Minister Hamilton Green to prepare a meal on any given day in Guyana that would cost $19.40.