Statement on Labour Day 2004

published on 23/06/04 - In the Express & Newsday Newspapers

Having regard to the several erroneous statements and downright falsehoods being repeated through the media regarding Labour Day 2004 and the position of the Oilfields Workers Trade Union, its President Genera; and other senior officers of the Union, we are constrained to publicly set the record straight.

  1. While the OWTU does not “own” Fyzabad, we have over the years ensured, sometimes single-handedly, that the entire nation and indeed the world, recognizes the rightful position of Fyzabad as the birthplace of the 1937 General Strike and anti-colonial revolt and that on the 19th  - “all roads lead to Fyzabad”. Thus in the early 1960’s – ten years before June 19th was made a public holiday the OWTU, under the then leadership of George Weekes, joined the Butlerites in celebrating June 19th in Fyzabad. And for the ten years after June 19th 1972, when it was first declared a public holiday, the OWTU and its allies in the trade union movement celebrated “Labour day” in Fyzabad. The rest of the movement went elsewhere. In 1982 and 1983 there was a single celebration in Fyzabad but in 1984 those forces that did not then – and perhaps still do not – recognize Fyzabad tried to shift the celebrations out of Fyzabad. The OWTU stood firm and insisted that “June 19th is Fyzabad and Fyzabad is June 19th!” In the years since, some unions have chosen not to come to Fyzabad on June 19th and in 2001 even went to Arima. The OWTU therefore has a historical responsibility to ensure that on June 19th appropriate activities are organized and held in Fyzabad to commemorate this most important anniversary. If some want to call this “ownership” so be it.

 

  1. The Hindu Credit Union, it is to be noted, has only once sought to come to Fyzabad on June 19th. Last year, for example they went to Port-of-Spain. So much for their recognition of Fyzabad and their “desire to identify with the Labour Movement”.

 

  1. There are other forces such as the “Fyzabad Improvement Committee” which would like to see June 19th turned into another Carnival – complete with mas. We oppose this trend as vigorously as we oppose those forces that wish for purely opportunistic reasons to ride in to Fyzabad on Labour Day to seek a platform to pursue their agendas.

 

  1. Neither the OWTU nor FITUN, to which we belong, sought to stop anyone from marching in Fyzabad on June 19th. We have always maintained that “the road make to walk on June 19th in Fyzabad”.  Thus, when on Tuesday last an official of the HCU contacted David Abdulah, the OWTU’s Chief Education and Research Officer and Interim FITUN president, to inform him that the HCU was planning to come to Fyzabad he was informed that all organizations would be welcome to come and march.

 

  1. The HCU official also stated that his President wished to speak at eth Rally. The official was advised that this was not possible since the platform for the Rally was a FITUN platform and that the programme had been finalized and that only the agreed upon speakers would be addressing the Rally.

 

  1. It would seem that this refusal to speak on the FITUN platform at the rally incensed the HCU President. We wish to make it abundantly clear – nobody has the right to speak on Labour Day or any other occasion for that matter. It is the right of the organizers of an event to decide who shall speak. We could not presume to attend a function hosted by another organization and expect to speak. So the HCU President is totally out of place to believe that he should have been given a chance to speak. Our Labour Day Rally is not a radio call in programme for everyone to say their piece!

 

  1. It is extremely clear to the OWTU that the HCU President, perhaps pursing an agenda other than that of the Credit Union, decided that he should seek a confrontation with the OWTU this Labour Day. We say this because on the 17th June at a function organized by the Fyzabad Improvement Committee, and at which the OWTU received an award, the HCU President in his “feature address” attacked the leadership of the Union and engaged in a tirade of unprovoked nonsense about the OWTU.

 

  1. This was  followed on the morning of June 19th when shortly before 10:00 a.m. at Avocat Junction the HCU President, surrounded by his bodyguards, interrupted a discussion which the Union’s Chief Education and Research  Officer was having with the President of the PSA, and proceeded to harangue about the denial to speak. It was obvious that the HCU President was not interested in any civil discussion of the issue.

 

  1. Shortly after this there was an announcement over the large PA system mounted atop a truck that “the HCU will be staring the march this Labour Day”. The truck itself was driven forward to the consternation of the FITUN units – OWTU, CWU, TICFA etc that were already assembled to lead off the march. Further, the HCU truck and another vehicle then blocked off the road making it making it difficult – and later on impossible – for other workers to join their colleagues. Indeed, the HCU attitude of trying to “control” Labour Day resulted in T&TUTA having to use an alternative route to bypass the HCU contingent that was blocking the free movement at Avocate Junction with their vehicles. Moreover, it is our information that this also caused a massive traffic jam frustrating those who wished to come into Fyzabad to participate in they march and/or rally.

 

  1. Given what we saw as a possible confrontation developing, we made it clear to the police that we were not opposed to the HCU or anyone else marching. What we insisted upon however is that there be some order to the proceedings. And that if the HCU wanted to march they would have to do so behind the trade unions.

 

  1. A decision was taken to delay the start of our Rally at Fyzabad Junction in order that those organizations that were not part of our march could pass along without either disrupting our proceedings or causing any conflict. When the HCU music truck came down Lum Tack Hill to the Junction it was obvious that they were singing chants attacking the OWTU and its President General and FITUN and its Interim President. In order to avoid confrontation, our sound system played a popular soca song.

 

  1. Apparently not satisfied with the lack of confrontation, the HCU President accompanied by some bodyguards came to the front of our stage and proceeded to verbally attack the President General of the OWTU who was seated on the stage with Dean Knolly Clarke and a number of FITUN leaders. He was ignored by the leaders on stage since any response could have led to our members responding in kind. After several minutes of his haranguing, OWTU officers escorted the HCU President away from the stage area and following this our Rally proceeded.

 

  1. The OWTU wishes to make our position abundantly clear. None of the statements made on Labour Day by our President General could remotely be considered as “racist”. Any effort by certain people to twist Comrade Mc Leod’s criticism of the HCU into an “anti-Indian or anti-Hindu” remark is just a desperate attempt to whip up support for their untenable position by appealing to ethnic emotions.

 

  1. Similarly, nothing that Comrade Mc Leod said could be interpreted as being against credit unionism or the credit union movement. Indeed, the trade union and the credit union movements share much common history. Further, if there is any organization that has defended the interests of workers and the poor against big business it is the OWTU. To say otherwise is to seek to distort the truth in order to gain cheap popularity.

 

  1. It is obvious that the HCU President wants to grab headlines. That’s fine by us once the method used does not seek to disrespect the office of President General or the denigrate the OWTU or, as also in this case, to detract from the significance and meaning of Labour Day and Fyzabad.

 

  1. We have taken due note of his wild ranting in the media as well as the fabrications and dis-information peddled by certain erstwhile trade unionists on the HCU radio station. We will respond to these as we deem fit. Suffice it to say that we will not tolerate either the OWTU or its officers being slandered.  

 

The OWTU is a workers’ institution that has survived many attacks in the past, ranging from the most vicious multinational employers to agents of foreign governments to the sate forces of this country. We have withstood them all, as we shall withstand this latest attack by elements that are far less significant than those who have tried and failed before. We have publicly responded simply because we are aware of the adage that “a lie repeated often enough becomes the truth”. And to those who are unfamiliar with the history of this Union we wish to inform them of the old adage, which is as true now as it was when first uttered many decades ago “He who tries to destroy the OUT ends up destroying themselves”.