Greenidge says new emerging industries will be more rewarding than sugar
—during remembrance ceremony for Rose Hall Martyrs
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carl Greenidge, during the 106th remembrance ceremony for the Rose Hall (Canje) Martyrs on Wednesday stated that new emerging industries in Guyana will offer better rewards for citizens than the sugar industry.
Greenidge stated that 106 years after the Rose Hall martyrs incident, “Our battle[s] have not all been won”.
“We have not all [been] afforded the same chances as to which we might aspire, such as maintaining or ensuring a sound education, equal opportunities to employment, the opportunities to enhance the wellbeing of our children and their descendants,” Greenidge stated.
However, he added, “I think we are much closer today than we were in [1913]—new opportunities, new industries are emerging and these opportunities and industries [bring] transformational change involving the generation of new skills, new job opportunities, facilitating new aspiration, and ensuring that with the improved skills we can exploit better markets,” he said, stating that these industries will be able to reward workers in ways better than the sugar industries have been able to.
Greenidge told the gathering, which consisted mostly of government and regional officials and school children, that, “In our march towards that brighter future and as we face whatever challenges may emerge, I think we must remember those such as the Rose Hall Martyrs who endured unimaginable hardships, and we must be inspired by their sacrifices and the example that they set”.
He then urged the gathering, many of whom he said are the “lifeblood” and “brains” of Guyana, to always keep the national motto in mind. He said the motto should remind Guyanese that their destiny is bound to unity, “and that we need to ensure that we pursue goals not for one but goals that enhance the wellbeing of all of us”.
He noted that the Rose Hall Martyrs’ sacrifices will be honoured by continuing the fight for workers’ rights with the same passion and unity that the martyrs displayed in 1913.
“The resilience and industry of the people of Rose Hall rest on historic foundations and today it has emerged even stronger and has long been a model of a community development in Guyana,” he stated. He further urged everyone to build upon the sacrifices made by the martyrs 106 years ago.
Meanwhile, Greenidge stressed that the struggle of the Rose Hall Martyrs, who died on March 13, 1913, was a struggle that ultimately resulted in better conditions, better pay, and respect for the rights of workers, not only in Rose Hall, Canje but workers across all of Guyana.
According to Greenidge, in the decades that followed, the sight or even the acknowledgement of the struggles of the workers were ignored “But today, 106 years late, this monument that we have built, this monument that we’ve built in concrete and supplemented by flora, is a monument that should constitute a reminder to future generations of the sacrifices that are necessary if freedom is to be achieved, and more importantly it is a reminder— or should be a reminder in fact— that