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Komal Chand prepared to back workers over party affiliation
President of the Guyana Agriculture and General Workers Union (GAWU), Komal Chand, said yesterday that he will continue to place the needs of workers above political considerations.
Chand, a Member of Parliament for the opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP), has come under criticisms for leading the union in a meeting with Government on January 19, last, to discuss the way forward for over 7000 workers who were cut from the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo).
“I have always stood with the workers. GAWU is a mass organization. We are not affiliated with the PPP as we were in the mid-70s. I have always stood very firm with the workers. My loyalty first is with the workers,” Chand told Kaieteur News.
President David Granger, and members of his Cabinet, met with GAWU and the National Association of Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial Employees (NAACIE) at the Ministry of the Presidency to discuss the future of the sugar industry.
A Government release stated that after more than two hours of discussions, the parties were able to find common ground and the Unions agreed to fully cooperate with the Government to find a solution, which can benefit all stakeholders.
Chand stated that the meeting was based on a request from the membership which wanted to get certain matters clarified, including the payment of severance.
At a press conference yesterday, Opposition Leader and General Secretary of the PPP, Bharrat Jagdeo, expressed personal issues with the statement in the press release of the parties working on common grounds.
He said that the Government scored public relations points from the meeting and questioned the common grounds which were agreed upon between the two parties.
“The unions came away with nothing and the Government came out with a wonderful statement. We met, big photo [opportunity] around the world; they agreed with the union to work on a common ground for the future. What is this future?” Jagdeo questioned.
The Opposition Leader’s criticisms followed an article published in the Guyana Times that called for Chand’s removal as president of GAWU. The Times newspaper is owned by Jagdeo’s best friend, Dr. Ranjisinghi ‘Bobby’ Ramroop and has over the years been labeled as a mouthpiece of the PPP.
Several political analysts believe that the meeting has angered the leadership of the PPP and attempts are being made to have Chand removed as the union' president.

 

Chand said it is suspicious that an article calling for his removal would appear in one newspaper and not the other parts of the media. He noted that people call for the removal of union heads on a regular basis, but it is not carried on the front page of a national newspaper.
“I have had no problem with the PPP with all the previous leaders and General Secretaries. They have not caused any problem because they understood that we are an independent organization,” Chand noted.
He added, “I am the leader of the union, having been elected. I am serving the workers. If the PPP or any organization I am in wants to change my position on issues on behalf of the sugar workers and wider membership I will have to take the position of the workers and if that organization wants to part company with me then what can I do about that?”
Jagdeo downplayed that the meeting between the unions and Government had caused a rift in the PPP.
“The Party has no rift between anyone. I am just telling you issues that I have concerns about, but the party and GAWU are allies. In this case we are fighting for the same cause,” Jagdeo noted.
Jagdeo pointed out that GAWU is an institution where workers, who pay their dues, determine their leadership.
“They are free to elect their leaders and they are free to call for their removal at anytime. That is not the PPP’s business. Somehow, some newspaper article was sold by some as the PPP’s position,” Jagdeo stated.
He maintained that the Government cannot pay the workers all of their severance yet the union found them as a good partner to talk with.
“They decimated half of your membership and there is no promise to help them in the future. What is, if not a PR exercise? The PPP is an old party; we can see it. We saw Granger’s efforts to do public relations. We are not going to show there for meeting just to satisfy Granger’s government public relations when they don’t mean anything,” Jagdeo stated.

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Mitwah we don't need you to promote crabdog hate between brothers and sisters.  There must be unity between the leaderships of the PPP and GAWU always. Learn from history.  Brothers and sisters united will never be defeated by Anti-Koolie Racial Hate.

Prashad
Last edited by Prashad
Prashad posted:

Mitwah we don't need you to promote crabdog hate between brothers and sisters.  There must be unity between the leaderships of the PPP and GAWU always. Learn from history.  Brothers and sisters united will never be defeated by Anti-Koolie Racial Hate.

Ass hole, I am just the messenger. You are an ignoramus if you think that only Koolies are affected by what's happening in the sugar industry. BTW, you have betrayed Koolies by diluting your genes.  Get lost you piece of worthless shit.

Mitwah
Prashad posted:

Mitwah we don't need you to promote crabdog hate between brothers and sisters.  There must be unity between the leaderships of the PPP and GAWU always. Learn from history.  Brothers and sisters united will never be defeated by Anti-Koolie Racial Hate.

Mitwah can deal with his Dogsyhte AFC and shyte head Moses and Ramjattan.

FM
yuji22 posted:
Prashad posted:

Mitwah we don't need you to promote crabdog hate between brothers and sisters.  There must be unity between the leaderships of the PPP and GAWU always. Learn from history.  Brothers and sisters united will never be defeated by Anti-Koolie Racial Hate.

Mitwah can deal with his Dogsyhte AFC and shyte head Moses and Ramjattan.

Keep talking – perhaps someday you’ll say something intelligent.

Mitwah

The historic relationship between GAWU and the PPP needs to be restored  à la Jagan time.

In 1948, the then unrecognized GIWU, forerunner of GAWU, called a strike at Enmore Estate that led to the martyrdom of 5 workers. "“At the graveside the emotional outbursts of the widows and relatives of the deceased were intensely distressing and I could not restrain my tears. There and then I made a silent pledge. I would dedicate my entire life to the cause of the struggle of the Guyanese people against bondage and oppression,” Dr Cheddi Jagan wrote in his memoir.

So, two years later, Jagan founded the PPP to mobilize people for the struggle against bondage and oppression. And the PPP was quick to establish strong links with the GIWU/GAWU. For many years the PPP Leader served as GAWU's Honorary President. The two bodies did not always coordinate their strategy and tactics during the Jagan era but their relations remained strong and respectful.

Not so during the Jagdeo era, unfortunately. First, then President Jagdeo openly threatened to get GAWU de-recognized by GuySuCo. And now the present crisis. It's clear from news reports that Mr Jagdeo does not have unanimous party support in his current quarrel with GAWU. That should be a sobering reality check for the PPP Leader. Humble up and mend up.

FM

End of Chand’s tenure as GAWU head in sight – Ramkarran.

Jan 29,2018.

Source

Komal Chand

With the PPP leadership irked at his attendance at a meeting with President David Granger on the sugar crisis, the end of the tenure of Komal Chand as head of the union, GAWU is near.

This is the view of former long-serving PPP member and commentator Ralph Ramkarran who in his column in yesterday’s Sunday Stabroek entitled `What’s going on in the PPP?’ also asserted that the PPP leadership is in transition and unless they depart in orderly fashion, older leaders in the party will face increasing questions.

Addressing reports of a rift between Chand and the PPP leadership, Ramkarran said that former President Bharrat Jagdeo’s incumbency as General Secretary of the PPP and Opposition Leader makes him the most authoritative figure within the PPP.

“The ease with which he swatted away the dominant influence of (former President) Donald Ramotar, (former General Secretary) Clement Rohee and Komal Chand in serious decision-making within the upper reaches of the PPP after the loss of the 2015 elections, testifies to his now enduring control of the direction of the PPP, last manifested when he secured the nomination of Donald Ramotar as the presidential candidate in 2011”, Ramkarran said.

He stated that Chand had always been a vocal and independent minded leader within the PPP which derived more from his inclinations than from the power base he held as General Secretary of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU). Noting that the need for restructuring of the sugar industry arose at around the time of Jagdeo’s accession to office in 1999. Ramkarran said that Chand’s positions in debate, particularly in relation to the sugar industry, became more pointed and vocal as time went on, especially during the 2006 to 2011 period when serious problems began to arise.

“But the problems which have been emerging in the sugar industry and the length of time for which Mr Chand has held leadership office in GAWU ? since about 1985 ? have weakened his grip. Thus, he lost his position as a member of the executive committee of the PPP after the 2016 congress of the PPP. Composition of this body is determined by a select few a day or two before the vote and a sufficient number of members of the central committee, which elects the executive committee, are given the word as to whom to support. Mr Chand’s orchestrated loss would have told him that his time in the leadership of the PPP and GAWU was drawing to an end”, Ramkarran said.

Ramkarran, who was a member of the PPP for nearly 50 years, said the first salvo against Chand appeared in the Guyana Times of January 23 which he said is believed to reflect the views of Jagdeo. An article headed ‘Sugar Workers call on Komal Chand to Resign,’ said that sugar workers felt betrayed  following the meeting with Granger and were calling on Chand to resign.

“GAWU is not quite outside the control of the PPP executive because it would normally take cognizance of those decisions. But while Mr Chand is the head of GAWU, it is not fully under the control of the PPP.  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 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. The end of Mr Chand’s tenure as the head of GAWU is within sight”, Ramkarran posited.

Ramkarran noted that he had previously stated that the PPP leadership is in transition.

“Some know when to leave.  In early 2011, already knowing that I would not secure the nomination of the PPP, I indicated to several people, one of whom was in the leadership, that I would retire from active politics from the Party Congress after the elections. However, I was forced to resign before the Congress”, Ramkarran said.

He added that unless older leaders seize the opportunity to exit in an orderly fashion, they will face and have to defend complaints that changes in the demographics of the country are being engineered against the PPP by the forced migration of Indian Guyanese stemming from the closure of sugar estates.

“In this regard the PPP will also have to anticipate its response to migration from the Caribbean when the oil economy brings about a severe labour shortage. These new concerns and analyses will have to be reconciled to the still existing Marxist-Leninist orientation of the PPP”, Ramkarran said.

Django

Jagdeo needs to give the process a chance and time to see what comes out of the discussions. If the Sugar Workers are going to benefit and respected then the Union would be successful, if not Jagdoe concerns/suspicion will be confirmed.

Nehru

Many say the PPP under BJ stewardship screwed over the sugar workers and industry.  Most of my relatives residing in Guyana feel that way.  There may be some merit.

Anyway, he needs to back off and let the workers representatives address the workers wellbeing with the decision makers.  

BTW, this would be the opportunity for this mysterious new leader for 2020 to project him/herself.  Why is Jagdeo running out front?  Alyuh funny!

FM
cain posted:

 Baseman how is it we see the problem and not those inside the PPP..are they fearful of BJ..he must have them on a tight leash?

Outside looking in sees it differently from inside looking out. When caught in a whirlpool, no option but to follow the flow!

This happens everywhere all the time with everyone.  Even in personal and corporate life.   This is why people seek outside opinion and perspectives!

FM
Prashad posted:

Mitwah we don't need you to promote crabdog hate between brothers and sisters.  There must be unity between the leaderships of the PPP and GAWU always. Learn from history.  Brothers and sisters united will never be defeated by Anti-Koolie Racial Hate.

Exactly. Just shut your mouths, stop thinking and follow blindly.

GTAngler
cain posted:

 Baseman how is it we see the problem and not those inside the PPP..are they fearful of BJ..he must have them on a tight leash?

The answer is yes.  Its only when a PPP official leaves the PPP are they allowed to speak their piece. 

Contrast that with the PNC where Granger was openly challenged on many occasions. Even chased out of Linden once.  By the Linden PNC officials.

FM
Last edited by Former Member
GTAngler posted:
Prashad posted:

Mitwah we don't need you to promote crabdog hate between brothers and sisters.  There must be unity between the leaderships of the PPP and GAWU always. Learn from history.  Brothers and sisters united will never be defeated by Anti-Koolie Racial Hate.

Exactly. Just shut your mouths, stop thinking and follow blindly.

Prashad is a namakaram crabdaag to his race. 

Mitwah

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