Union wins 27 year struggle for recognition in Guyana Maccie Hamid represents more than 26,000 sugar workers in his native Guyana. In addition to be- ing the general secretary of the Guyana Agricultural:and General ‘Workers Union (GAWU), the largest single union in the coun- try, Hamid is also a member of the Central Committee of the People’s Progressive Party of Guyana, the country’s Marxist- Leninist Party. Hamid. spoke to the Canadian Tribune while he was in Canada recently on his way to the German Democratic Republic. Struggle is not something which he is a stranger to. He has been a member of Parliament for the PPP for a number: of years, until the last elections when he lost his seat. Also his’ union, GAWU has just completed a 27- year struggle to win recognition as the bargaining agent for the coun- try’s sugar. industry workers. Having gained recognition in the industry Dec. 31 with a 97.9% margin the workers are still fighting to win their first contract from the recently nationalized Maccie Hamid, general secret- ary of the: Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union. Sugar Producers. Association. Even as he spoke to the Tribune, Hamid pointed out the sugar workers had struck the industry to pressure the government to sign a collective agreement. 30% UNEMPLOYMENT Failure on the goverment’s part to implement a coherent de- velopment plan consistent with the needs and interests of the Guyanese people, Hamid said, is aggravating such other pressing social problems as unemploy- ment which runs as high as 30% today in the country. : “‘There are many forms of prostitution in Guyana’, Hamid said, ‘‘people cannot find jobs, children leaving school can’t find work.’’ Wages in the coconut, and sugar industries he said are well below what workers in Bar- bados, and Jamaica are getting. The government for its part im- posed a levy in 1974 which col- lected $135-million in excess of the revenue accumulated from sugar exports. In spite-of severe strikes in °75 it was able to collect $245-million. GAWU has protested this quite strongly, Hamid told the Tribune, sending resolutions across the country protesting the govern- ment’s attitude. The Guyanese union leader pointed out that. in Jamaica, where the government collects a much smaller levy, most of it has been reinvested in the industry and the salaries and ! wages of the workers have since been doubled. In Guyana the tre- mendous wealth extracted from the workers in the sugar industry s used to develop and further en- trench a massive bureaucracy while wages for the people are among the lowest in the hemi- sphere. LEAVING FARMS In the rice industry Hamid said, about 45,000 families are involved in planting and harvesting. How- ever markets are scarce and wages are very low causing a great deal of frustration among the workers who in some cases are refusing to plant because it is not economically viable to do so. Many are leaving this type of life and seeking jobs in the cities and townships to find some sort of security for their families. Hamid said that sugar and the workers that harvest and process it are the saviors of the Guyanese economy. With the nationaliza- tion of the industry following the certification of GAWU as the bar- gaining agent for the workers, a commission was established at the union’s request to investigate the profits in the industry from 1974 onward. The government is now investigating how the sugar industry used other costs to mask its fantastic profits prior to the nationalization. _ CRITICAL SUPPORT Mr. Hamid outlined the long struggle of his Party in parliament and election rigging that has marked this process. Following a period of ‘boycott, the PPP de- cided in 1975 to re-enter the par- liamentary arena with a policy of critical support for the ruling People’s National Coalition. Critical support of the govern- ment Hamid told the the Tribune, means that his party will support the government on progressive measures that it introduces, but on the basis that it serves the bests. interests of the people and opens the doorway to socialism in Guyana. This policy has achieved some measures of success with the Ss Sty $ In Guyana 45,000 families are in government’s recognition of GAWU in the sugar industry as'‘an example. In the area of nationali- zation of industry such as the’ sugar and bauxite industries, the PPP stresses not only state ownership of these industries, but also the workers must have full control and a full say in all the administration of the industry. “In this regard’’ Hamid said, “‘we oppose the government’s proposals for works councils to ‘continue whereby workers ‘are admitted into management com-' mittees with management and its deputies having overriding power. These councils as they are pre- sently constituted will only serve to divert the workers and are an excellent vehicle for bribing and corrupting some workers while they deny representation by genuine militant trade unionists. P.P.P. POLICY The PPP has a 17 point program which is advanced by the party’s. 14 members in parliament, as well as outside of the parliamentary arena. Hamid outlined some of the main points for the Tribune which includes: nationalization of all foreign banks and insurance companies; a progressive land re- form policy; an end to discrimina- tion in all forms of economic and : 3 oe, es volved in planting and harvesting. cultural life; dismantling the huge bureaucratic apparatus of the government and using the funds for the maintenance of economic and cultural: development; ex, pand budget expenditures for in- — creased social services; estab- — ‘lishment of genuine cooperatives under democratic conritrol; full democratization of social life, im- plementing workers and farmers control involving all of the people in Guyana’s economic \develop- ment and making a complete break with imperialism. z : | * oe Unemployment aor as high as 30%. Wages are well below those in other countries in the area. Ireland faces struggle to gain autonomy By pays /© 3,100 OF TWO PARTS) < CORK, Ireland — It seems that the only real obstacle to rapid economic progress in Ireland is a government which suffers, at best, from a combina- tion of ignorance, sluggishness, and— at the same time — downright arrogance: Some examples will help illustrate this. It is acknowledged that the Navan mine is one of the largest of its kind in the world. Yet nobody — except perhaps Tara Mines themselves — seems: to know its exact size. Tara Mines have never issued any detailed reports on the results of their appraisal drilling, except for some early holes. They have offered no public opinion on the size of the deposit except for what can best be described as a ‘‘guess esti- mate’’, of 77 million tons made as far back as 1972. In this estimate, 10 million tons was ascribed to the section of the deposit which was subsequently trans- ferred to Bula Ltd. When Bula did its own survey, it found over 20 million tons of ore, and this in itself is probably a conservative estimate. All the signs, therefore, are that the Navan mine is, in fact, much bigger than Tara are prepared to acknowledge. Yet there has not been the slightest hint that the government knows any more than the ordinary public on this vital issue. MORE SECRECY Alternatively, take the case of Esso, which discovered oil off the Cork coast over two years ago. This company has yet to make any public statement on the size of this oilfield, despite the urgent nature of such knowledge. Again, there is no sign of the government bringing any pressure to bear on the company for its perhaps sinister sluggishness. It is not unreasonable to suggest that the proven existence of a substantial oil- field would have had a major bearing on the negotiations between the govern- ment and the various oil companies which have been swarming around wait- ing for a shot at the exciting possibilities offered by the Irish offshore area. Yet the government has gone ahead and signed eleven licences in the absence of such vital information. We have here a rare example of the government acting with unwarranted speed! MORE OIL DEALS But perhaps the most outrageous example of all concerns the price which the Irish Government, through An Bord ‘Gais, is to pay the Marathon Oil Com- pany for the product of the Kinsale gas field. The government has gone to extra- ordinary lengths to conceal this essential piece of information, without which it is impossible to assess the deal made with Marathon. In fact, the responsible minis- ter Mr. Barry, has expressed the hope that the annual accounts of An Bord Gais - will be so complicated as to make it impossible to estimate the price paid. In a supposedly democratic society, this is an outrage. It also falls a long way short of the ‘‘open government”’ which the National Coalition promised us in its election camppaign. Without any knowl- edge of the price paid, it is impossible to judge the validity of Mr. Barry’s claim that the Kinsale gas field will contribute £75-million per annum to the country’s balance of payments. If, as seems likely, Marathon receives the international mar- ket price, then there will be no benefit at all to the country’s balance of payments, - as we may as well be importing the gas since Marathon will simply repatriate the profits. oie LITTLE COMFORT It is little comfort to suggest that we can tax these profits. In the first place, expert book-keeping can minimize the apparent level of profits. In the second place, under the agreement made with Marathon, the government has limited itself to a maximum of 40%, in royalties and taxes, of Marathon’s profits. At a time when the few oil-producing coun- tries which have not already nationalized their oil companies are taxing them at in or around 90%, the fact that this agree- ment has not long since been re- negotiated is itself an indictment of the present government. We are faced, then, with a combina- tion of incompetence, self-interest, and ideological obscurity in the present gov- ernment. I mention ideological obscurity in reference to John Kelly’s now- celebrated advocacy of ‘‘localism’’ as the solution to Ireland’s economic prob- lems. At a time when more and more of the world is being carved up by a select band of giant multinational corporations, . _ for a minister of state to come up with this kind of notion makes one tremble _ with despair. It is obvious from this that the political struggle before us is a tough one. At the same time it is a worthwhile one. In fact, it is the only one possible if this country is to have any economic future. favor of absorption by its political wing, the Sinn Fein. The fact that part of Ireland is under British control has pushed three genera- tions toward a program of national reuni- fication..