The 77th anniversary of Enmore Martyrs’ Day, intended as a solemn tribute to the five slain sugar workers of 1948, was transformed into a partisan political display, according to former Prime Minister and Vice President Moses V. Nagamootoo. On the June 16, 1948, Lallabagie, Harry, Pooran, Rambarran, and Surajballi were killed during a strike at Plantation Enmore
In a reflective op-ed on his social media titled “Martyrdom and Mockery?”, Nagamootoo described the government-led event on June 16 as a spectacle, complete with Guards of Honour, ceremonial fanfare, and a drumroll from the Police Force band, all set before a not-so-enthusiastic civilian audience. “It was a day for harmony,” he wrote, “yet, inexplicably, the Enmore Martyrs’ Day became an elections campaign event.”
He recounted how President Irfaan Ali, flanked by the Prime Minister Mark Phillips, was introduced by a “party zealot” as “our Comrade Leader,” shortly before the head of Seepaul Narine, Guyana Agricultural and Workers Union (GAWU) publicly endorsed Ali’s re-election bid. “That, in cricket parlance, was a heavy roller on the pitch for the hostile political balls to come,” Nagamootoo noted.
A Day of Remembrance Turned Political Stage
The former Prime Minister questioned the heavy use of state resources for what he saw as a politicised event, complete with defectors in the front rows, public servants as props, and state-owned media playing the role of “propaganda mouthpieces.”
“Defections seem in style, like a banana split,” he said, referring to politicians shifting allegiance among the 28 parties vying for the 2025 elections, scheduled for September 1. He pointed to a recent government initiative in Linden, traditionally an opposition stronghold, where $10 billion was reportedly handed out to first-time contractors “literally on the eve of fresh elections.” “Two months before elections? You gotta be kidding me!” he remarked.
Disrespect at a Sacred Site
Nagamootoo criticised what he called “theatrical frenzy” during the President’s address at the Enmore Martyrs’ Monument — a monument built and commissioned in 1977 by then Prime Minister Forbes Burnham. He recalled the fleeting unity of that era, when arch-rivals Burnham and Minority Leader Cheddi Jagan shared a moment of national cooperation and contrasted it with today’s political atmosphere.
“Those transient symbolisms of a search for unity have long disappeared,” he wrote, lamenting the shift from the old slogan “every citizen, a soldier” to what he called the new, unwritten mantra: “every post, a soldier,” referencing the political flags now strung on electric poles.
Revisiting the Sugar Debate
Addressing a key theme of the day — the sugar industry — Nagamootoo pushed back against the government’s narrative that the A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance for Change (APNU-AFC) coalition made 7,000 workers redundant without compensation. He clarified that between 2016 and 2017, 4,763 workers were laid off as part of a restructuring process and were eventually paid $7 billion in redundancy.
He noted that workforce downsizing in sugar predates the Coalition, pointing out that the PPP had already reduced the workforce by 11,000 since taking office in 1992. He cited the 2010 closure of Diamond estate under the Jagdeo administration and GAWU’s subsequent legal battle to secure severance for workers — a move that nearly cost him his place in the PPP. “I was on the edge of being expelled from the PPP after I wrote an article, ‘Light a Candle for Sugar Workers,’” he recalled.
A 2021 International Labour Organization (ILO) Study (p. 24) reported that in October 1992, when the PPP/C assumed office from the People’s National Congress (PNC), the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) employed 28,081 workers. At the time of nationalisation in 1976, employment stood at 28,406, indicating a reduction of just 325 workers under the PNC governments of Presidents Forbes Burnham (1964–1985) and Desmond Hoyte (1985–1992).
By May 2015, when the PPP/C lost office, GuySuCo’s workforce had declined to 16,927 employees, including 15,387 field and factory workers (p. 25). This represents a reduction of 11,154 workers during the PPP/C’s tenure (28,081 – 16,927 = 11,154), compared to the 325 jobs lost under the PNC and 5,160 under the APNU+AFC administration.
Nagamootoo pointed out that though the PPP/C provided periodic bailouts totaling $48 billion to rescue the debt-ridden industry, these interventions created “ethnic unease” among non-sugar working populations. He also criticised the G$40 billion invested into the modernisation of Skeldon, calling it a failed project that resulted in “a white elephant.”
He said that by the time the Coalition took over, sugar was already “on life support.” His administration injected another $47 billion into the industry and made a $30 billion bank loan available — a plan cut short by what he called a “treacherous no-confidence vote.”
Industry in Decline, Workers in Doubt
Today, Nagamootoo argued, the industry is in even deeper trouble. While the PPP had promised 500,000 tonnes of sugar, by late 2024, production had dropped to below 70,000 tonnes, with only 40% of that target achieved by October. Meanwhile, production costs have soared to US$1.31 per pound, far above the market price of 35 cents.
“On December 21, the government threatened that ‘heads will roll’,” he said, suggesting that with elections looming, the PPP has kept “its axe under the bed” while offering “sugary promises” of “revitalisation,” “mechanisation,” and “modernisation.”
The statistics show that GuySuCo produced:
- 183,615 tonnes in 2016
- 137,298 tonnes in 2017
- 104,641 tonnes in 2018
- 90,246 tonnes in 2019
- 89,000 tonnes in 2020
The 2021/2022 target stood at 143,000 tonnes.
In stark contrast, under the PPP/C’s stewardship, production has plummeted:
- 58,995 tonnes in 2021
- 58,025 tonnes in 2022
- 60,204 tonnes in 2023
- 47,130 tonnes in 2024
- 15,980 tonnes for the first crop of 2025
He accused the government of repackaging its failure, noting the shift in focus to “other crops” while sugar workers wait for the reopening of closed estates. “It had coined its own MAGA slogan — to ‘make sugar great again’ by taking sugar out of the industry,” he remarked.
The former prime minister ended with a warning to the PPP party: “Sugar workers will see through the gaffe. If not now, later. They know all too well from their own struggles that ‘the power of the people is greater than the people in power!’”
