Former Wales Sugar Estate workers say they remain without answers to longstanding requests for land they believe could help rebuild their livelihoods after the estate’s closure, raising renewed questions about the economic future promised to communities affected by the restructuring of Guyana’s sugar industry.
The issue carries added political significance because sugar workers and their communities have historically been regarded as an important support base for the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), while the party has maintained strong political ties to Guyana’s sugar belt.
The PPP/C, while in opposition, promised to reopen the country’s closed sugar estates if returned to office.
In 2020, then PPP General Secretary Bharrat Jagdeo said the party had decided that the closed estates would be reopened if it regained government. The PPP/C returned to office that year, but Wales was ultimately excluded from the reopening programme.
President Irfaan Ali said in September 2020 that Wales could not be reopened because its assets had been sold or dismantled. Instead, he said the Government would pursue alternative development opportunities for the community.
Six years later, former workers say they are still waiting to see what those alternatives mean for them.
In a letter published Sunday, former Guyana Agricultural and General Workers’ Union and Guyana Cane Farmers Association member Shyam Balkarran said hundreds of laid-off workers had applied for between five and 10 acres each to pursue farming, poultry, livestock, aquaculture and other economic activities.
According to Balkarran, the workers have received neither approval nor acknowledgement of their applications.
A Workers-Farmers’ Committee established by former employees, he said, collected the names and signatures of between 350 and 400 workers seeking access to agricultural land.
Copies of the petition were submitted to the Office of the President, Office of the Prime Minister, Ministries of Agriculture and Labour, GAWU and NAACIE.
Balkarran says none of the institutions has provided a substantive response.
The closure of Wales was more than the loss of a workplace. Sugar provided employment and an economic foundation for generations of families along the West Bank Demerara corridor.
With the estate closed, former workers were left to find alternative sources of income and employment.
They now argue that access to productive land could help transform them from displaced sugar workers into independent farmers and producers.
Balkarran claims that more than 9,000 acres associated with the former estate remain idle or abandoned, while portions of the former cane lands are being considered for housing and other developments, including the Wales Gas-to-Energy project.
Those claims require verification by the relevant authorities, including the precise acreage available, ownership, existing allocations and the status of proposed developments.
But the fundamental question remains: what economic future was created for the workers who lost their livelihoods when Wales closed?
The former workers say they have already followed the principle of organising themselves and seeking productive opportunities. Their committee has presented government and union authorities with a list of hundreds of workers seeking land.
Their request is not simply for assistance. They want access to an asset that could allow them to produce, earn and build economic independence.
The Government has repeatedly promoted agriculture, small business and ownership of productive assets as ways of expanding economic opportunity.
The Wales workers are asking whether those promises apply to them.
If Wales cannot be reopened as a sugar estate, they want to know what concrete alternative has been created for the people who depended on it.
If land is available, they want to know why former sugar workers cannot access some of it for productive purposes. If it is unavailable, they want an explanation and a viable alternative.
The political dimension is difficult to ignore. If sugar workers have long been viewed as part of the PPP/C’s traditional support base, the treatment of former Wales workers raises questions beyond land allocation — it raises questions about whether political promises made to communities that supported the party have translated into tangible economic opportunities.
The Government and the institutions named in the petition should now provide clear answers: Were the applications received? Who controls the land? What criteria govern its allocation? How much is available? And what specific economic opportunities have been created for the former Wales workers?
The PPP/C’s return to office in 2020 raised expectations among communities affected by estate closures following its promise to reopen the shuttered estates. Wales did not reopen.
The question now is what replaced it.
Years after the gates closed, former Wales workers say they are still waiting — not simply for land, but for evidence that the economic future promised to them was ever delivered.
