Acting Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams has granted permission to the labour movement for tomorrow’s mass demonstration planned for Port-of-Spain, despite Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s appeal to the nation to boycott it. Williams said on Tuesday evening that he saw no reason not to grant permission for the march because the unions usually complied with the rules. He said if the Joint Trade Union Movement (JTUM) failed to comply, then that would not augur well for its future.
President general of the Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union, Ancel Roget, said he had all confidence police permission would have been granted. Speaking at the UNC’s Monday night forum in Caroni, Persad-Bissessar had referred to the march, which is scheduled to culminate at the Office of the Prime Minister, as an attempt to destabalise the country.
She said: “Those of you who love T&T, those of you would want to promote democracy, integrity and transparency in T&T, do not march on July 5. Do not march on July 5.” The Prime Minister said this was nothing more than a political move designed to embarrass and destabilise the Government during the 34th meeting of the Caricom Heads of Government meeting in Port-of-Spain which started yesterday.
“That march is tainted, that march is not a labour march for the rights of workers. That march is an attack on your government.” She said when she embraced the labour movement in 2010 she was unaware that they were closet supporters of the People’s National Movement (PNM). Hours after her pronouncement, members of the JTUM were in the PM’s Siparia constituency and later in Tobago, drumming up support for tomorrow’s demonstration.
Led by Roget and Movement for Social Justice (MSJ) leader David Abdulah, JTUM supporters even stood in front of Persad-Bissessar’s constituency office in Penal, where they met and spoke with constituents about the march. Abdulah said the Government was quite capable of embarrassing itself.
“Government has embarrassed itself, especially when you look at the issue of Section 34, the firetruck fiasco, people being appointed to state boards, nepotism, corruption and those issues which make regional and international headlines and embarrass all of us.” To the charge that the MSJ left because Abdulah did not get what he wanted, he said that was true.
“She is dead right, I did not get—citizens and the MSJ and the labour movement—did not get good governance, integrity and an end to discrimination, respect for farmers, workers being put at the centre, local government reform or constitutional reform. We did not get those things, and that is why we left.”
Abdulah also dismissed Persad-Bissessar’s claims that the march was politically motivated. He said it was not about the PNM but about the workers’ agenda and bad governance. Roget also dismissed that, saying whenever someone challenged the government, they were labelled “PNM.” He accused the PM of betraying the movement and being ungrateful and vowed: “We will deal with that on Friday.”
He said the Government was bordering on desperation because only desperate people would pull out the race card at this point in time. He said the fight was not about race. “Ours is about a better T&T. We are identifying ourself as one who want a different T&T, a better T&T.” The labour movement, he said, believed Persad-Bissessar genuinely wanted a better T&T at the time they signed on to support the People’s Partnership.
“Now,” he said, “we recognise what she is about, continuing along the same lines of corruption, nepotism and so on. We are grossly disappointed. “We are about exposing them and letting the people see what they stand for—absolutely no integrity.”