Pls get off your fat ass, walk over to ur gas stove, turn on all the burners, walk back and grab a chair. Then sit down and inhale slowly

somehow i think you right until some body with a little money and guts pick up the gun

Cobra, let's set aside the cat and the fish for now.

Let's single out the cuss part. I agree with you. Totally.

Please, Cobra, please. Tell Jagdeo and Priya and Rohee and even Ramotar who called Moses a "jackass" that they mustn't cuss and get on bad. Thanks in advance, Cobs.

Cobra is hissing for his dinner.

Now the PPP/C is in office they no longer fight for the rights of the sugar workers

JULY 7, 2014

Dear Editor,

Over the years we heard of the fight for the rights of sugar workers by the PPP\C so that they would not be trampled upon by any government. Before 1992 workers’ rights was strongly represented by GAWU and we saw workers strike and get what they wanted. We heard then that there was no way a government should be in bed with the union because then the rights of workers would be trampled on, and GAWU was fighting for the working class in the industry and the PPP was fighting for the working class in Guyana. But all things were said before 1992.

I can recall during the years 1990-92 on May 1 (Labour Day), five young men including myself led the march from Bath Settlement Old Well Square to Dhanar Old Road Square, Cotton Tree, West Coast Berbice, and thousands of workers, especially sugar workers gathered and marched showing their fight for the rights of workers. Many delivered speeches, and the programme was normally chaired by the vibrant Navin Chandarpal. The workers would listen carefully to the leaders of the PPP, especially the great Dr Jagan, who continued to assure workers that their rights would never be trampled upon as long as the PPP got into power, and that workers would stand to benefit more from the industry in the years to come and would have better living conditions. Those sentiments were echoed firstly by Moses Nagamootoo who normally set the stage for the great leader Dr Jagan to join in and take the workers to great heights of expectation under a PPP government.

Later in 1992 (October 5) the PPP/C was given the mantle of creating a better Guyana and a better life for sugar workers. But lo and behold all that was promised to the sugar workers before 1992 was now on the back burner of the PPP/C agenda after winning the elections.

After the 1992 elections, the rallies that had been held in West Berbice on Labour Day were stopped. Workers were abandoned and had no way of reaching their leaders, both PPP and GAWU, face to face. The rights of the workers were no more as GAWU continued to have a relationship with the PPP and started to sleep in the same bed with PPP/C government. The workers become their doormats to opportunity. All that the great leader Dr Jagan fought for and said to the workers was in vain.

We saw the President of GAWU becoming an executive member of the PPP/C and a member of parliament for the said party. We saw many regional GAWU representatives being chosen because of their political affiliations to the ruling PPP/C. We saw less or no representation now from GAWU, as workers’ rights were being trampled upon every single day by GuySuCo and nothing was being done. No one from the PPP/C-GAWU stands up for the rights of the workers today. Where are the PPP/C leaders today when workers are striking for better wages, benefits and working conditions? Well I must admit that there is one who is continuing that fight, and that is Moses Nagamootoo.

We saw the PPP/C using the sugar workers for their political gain once again in 2014 by fooling them into a wrongful protest in front of Parliament before the 2014 National Budget debate, to protest for something that will have no benefit for them. Workers were told by the PPP/C that the AFC, especially Nagamootoo and Ramayya wanted to cut the money for sugar workers and GuySuCo. During that protest we heard the fight by Mr Nagamootoo in Parliament for sugar workers to be given better wages and also to have better working conditions in the industry. We heard Dr Ramayya telling the National Assembly that workers were being used and trampled upon every day by this government and GuySuCo. But workers ‘cussed down’ Moses Nagamootoo that day and the PPP/C rejoiced. The GAWU President stood in front of Parliament and asked why they were protesting. A few days after that the workers at Blairmont Estate staged a strike for better wages which lasted two weeks, but no one from the PPP/C and GAWU came to their rescue; it was the same Mr Nagamootoo, Dr Ramayya and the AFC that highlighted the plight of the workers.

Editor, with all that, I am now wondering – and I know many are doing the same – as to what will happen to the industry. Many questions are being asked but the PPP\C and GAWU are not interested in answering them correctly. All they are doing is playing the cat and mouse game with the workers and their families. They are telling the families of these workers that the AFC, Nagamootoo, Ramayya and Ramjattan want to take bread and butter out of their mouths by not supporting the budgetary allocations for GuySuCo in 2014.

But it bothers me to know that this same PPP/C government when it was in opposition used to strike for better wages, working conditions and benefits for the workers and used to get what they wanted. But today when workers strike for better payment, working conditions and benefits the same PPP/C is telling the workers they can’t give them anything more because GuySuCo is in debt. The PPP/C and GAWU should know that when they were in the opposition this country was in debt, but yet the PNC used to find the money for the sugar workers and adhere to the conditions that were demanded by the PPP, GAWU and the workers. So, what nonsense is the PPP/C and GAWU telling the workers today?

GuySuCo is in debt and yet they can afford to treat management as kings. They can buy window curtains, renovate the houses in the compounds, buy gas, provide transportation for managers’ children, etc, free, and also pay these managerial people their full month’s salary. How can a company that is in debt do all these things? How can a company that is in debt hire a man from overseas to run the day-to-day affairs of the company when he is living overseas? How can GuySuCo afford to pay this man’s airfare twice monthly as well as hotel expenses and they are in debt, while this man still collects his monthly salary plus other benefits? Where are the PPP/C and GAWU now on this matter?

But yet President Donald Ramotar has made a dreadful move to further trample on workers’ rights by offering GAWU President Komal Chand a place on GuySuCo’s Board. GuySuCo is a company and GAWU is a union that ought to represent the rights of the workers against this company.

Komal Chand cannot even stand up for the rights of the people he represents. What makes President Ramotar believe that Komal Chand will make a difference on GuySuCo’s board? He himself as President once sat on GuySuCo’s board. We heard GuySuCo say there will be no pay rise for the sugar workers in 2014 because the corporation is in debt.

Well, here are a couple questions for the President, the PPP/C and GAWU. How can a company not cater for its workforce in a whole year’s budget but still wants to meet its target? How can a company not want to pay an increase in wages and benefits to its workforce for a whole year but yet raises it production target for the year? It’s more work for people and less pay.

The President, the PPP/C, GuySuCo and GAWU must stop playing with the lives of the sugar workers. They should stop their politics in relation to the welfare of the workers in this industry and start putting in place measures that will see workers being given their rightful salaries and benefits with strong representation on all things. They should not increase the production target and leave the worker’s salary at a standstill. A time will come when workers will once more be rightfully represented.

I call on Moses Nagamootoo, Dr Ramayya, Khemraj Ramjattan, Charrandass Persaud and the entire AFC to continue the fight for the workers. They should continue to highlight the plight of the working class of this land.

Yours faithfully,

Abel Seetaram

 

http://www.stabroeknews.com/20...ights-sugar-workers/

Cobra, Some real bad man on GNI.  Jay Leno there is a new Sheriff in Town.

In fairness to Cobra, I don't think that is true. I don't believe Cobra takes his plate to the PPP for sustenance.

He seems to be self-sufficient in Brent Hardtland.

I think Cobra loves the PPP for other reasons.

One: Sam Hinds is an Indian.

Two: Faith Harding, who may join the PPP, looks like an Indian.

[Cobra himself said One and Two today in another thread.]

Three: Cobra is an Indian.

Bottom line: ethnic loyalty is the basis of Cobra's support for the PPP. He wouldn't disagree with this statement. Watch and see.

cobra support the ppp because when they come to NY they buy him free rum

OK.  If only he could take off his blinkers for a moment.

THAT will be tough he born with it

Gilly, I disagree with your statement partially. I will give you a full report tomorrow. You made a good assessment, though.

and the right way is????

Follow your instinct.

Instinct is for snakes.  My intuition says LGE first.

How can you make LGE happen, Mitwah?

The same way how you rise up to the sound of the baansuri.  The people should learn from the Cuban Revolution.

We can do this all day and nothing will happen, Mitwah. You don't even know what course of action to take. Try praying and see if it works.

THE PPP HAS BEEN CAUGHT NAPPING

The political protests by rice farmers on the Essequibo Coast should cause deep introspection on the part of the ruling People’s Progressive Party. These protests reveal, yet again, the Achilles Heel of the party. The AFC has once again outfoxed the ruling party. It has penetrated deep into the party’s support base in a Region which the PPP has swept in all the free and fair elections since and including the 1992 elections. That alone should be a frightening development for the PPP. It should be recalled that in 2011, the AFC lost support in Region Four. But where it penetrated deeply was in Regions Five and Six, more the latter than the former and stole valuable votes and seats from the PPP. The AFC owed the support it got in those two regions to the hard work done by remnants of Ravi Dev’s ROAR who went over to the AFC after the demise of ROAR. The AFC can no longer count on the former ROAR membership to rally support in Berbice. And to compound the AFC agonies in Regions Five and Six is the fact that the PPP has done its homework. Just after the 2011 elections, it began a concerted campaign to regain the votes that it lost. There is no need for an opinion poll to assess the extent to which this has been successful. You just need to ask the people on the ground in those Regions about the AFC. Their answers will confirm that the people do not wish to hear anymore about the AFC. The AFC is a spent political force in Berbice. The PPP has regained the ground that it lost there. But while the PPP has been concentrating its efforts in Berbice, it has neglected another of its strongholds, the Essequibo Coast. And the AFC did not need former ROAR activists to pounce on the PPP’s neglect. The AFC capitalized on concerns of rice farmers and led a strong protest that descended into unlawful actions such as the blockading of roads. Another PPP stronghold has been penetrated and the PPP will have to ask serious questions about the work of its own activists on the ground in the Essequibo Coast. The AFC has gained traction in that area and this comes at a time when the PPP is facing the strong possibility of an AFC no-confidence motion in parliament. The AFC used a traditional tactic to penetrate into the PPP’s base. It used an economic concern, this time the plight of the rice farmers. In the run up to the 2011 elections, the AFC sided with sugar workers who were demanding outstanding benefits. The PPP seeing how the sugar workers rallied to the side of AFC protests at Diamond were forced to relent its opposition to paying severance pay to the sugar workers of Diamond Estate which was being closed. But even the payment to these workers and a stirring rebuke by the PPP leadership of the AFC could not change things for the PPP. The sugar workers in Diamond collected their lawfully due severance pay and stayed away from the polls while their colleagues in Berbice told the then President Jagdeo that “boat done gone a falls”. The boat may not have yet gone over the falls in terms of the PPP support in Essequibo but there must be concern about the protest in Essequibo. The PPP has two issues to address in relation to these protests. The first is its leadership in Essequibo. The PPP has traditionally had problems with the quality of its leaders in the rural areas. In these modern times, it has persisted with the traditional method of recruiting and identifying its leaders. The people have long lost confidence in many of the PPP leaders in rural Guyana and this cost them handsomely in Berbice in the 2011 polls. The PPP has to look closely at who are and how it determines its leaders and activists in Essequibo and indeed in other parts of the country. Now that it is in government, it has lost many of its hardworking activists to official duties and therefore it has to ensure that there is quality leadership on the ground. The second concern is the fact that it did not see these protests coming. The AFC pounced on an issue that was of great concern to the people of Essequibo. They should never, from the perspective of the PPP, have been given that opportunity. The concerns of the people should have long been attended to. The PPP will have to ask serious questions about how this threat was not detected earlier and what were its cadres and leadership in Essequibo doing about the issue. But more importantly, it will have to ascertain why the Ministry of Agriculture did not act more swiftly on the matter before it became a lightning rod for the AFC.