Friday, July 5, 2013

PRESS RELEASE : July 5th March 2013


President General of the All Trinidad General Workers Trade Union Attorney-at- Law Nirvan Maharaj is advising the national community that the All Trinidad General Workers Trade Union will not be taking part in the July 5th labour march.

Mr. Maharaj wishes to emphatically register his support for the idea behind the Joint Trade Union’s decision to March, as a symbolic gesture in calling upon the Government to implement the Workers Agenda adopted in 2010. He is also reiterating his call for a united labour movement and his support for the JTUM, in its efforts to address issues of national importance.

Mr. Maharaj is however asserting that as a matter of principle the All Trinidad General Workers Trade Union will not at this point in time; take part in any March, in which officials of the Peoples National Movement (PNM) will be attending.

Mr. Maharaj is categorically stating that the callous and brutal shutdown of the Sugar Industry without any proper mechanisms in place to alleviate the subsequent hardship of thousands of persons dependant on the Industry and the treatment of the Ex-Caroni workers at the hands of the PNM was tantamount to an abuse of power and the blatant discrimination perpetuated on one segment of the population of our Nation.

Mr. Maharaj is also claiming that the appeal of the Deyalsingh judgment of 2007 by the then PNM regime, which ordered that each Ex-Caroni worker by 2008, be allotted the 2 acre agricultural plot and residential lot legally due to them through the VESEP package, was a violation of all moral and ethical principles and a heartless attempt by the PNM to deny the Ex-Caroni workers their legitimate expectation and just due. In fact because of the PNM and their agents in several state agencies such as EMBD, The Office of the Commissioner of State Lands and Caroni (1975) Ltd, Ex-Caroni workers had to wait 10 years and is still waiting for the process to completed, in order to receive their entitlement under the Court Order. The actions of the PNM have caused untold dismay, suffering, pain and frustration among the Ex-Caroni workers and cannot easily be forgiven

Mr. Maharaj is ardently declaring that as long as one Ex-Caroni Worker is still to receive a lease or be allocated a 2 acre plot or residential lot, the All Trinidad will never march hand in hand with the PNM, for to do so will be a betrayal of our former membership, their families and the thousands of people who suffered as a result of the actions of the PNM with regard to the sugar industry and the Deyalsingh judgment.

In fact according to Mr. Maharaj in addition to the brutal treatment of the Ex-Caroni workers, the PNM as a Political Party was probably the worst anti -working class entity this nation has ever seen. This can easily be borne out by the vicious brutalisation of workers in the Bus strike in 1967, by the PNM passing of the Industrial Stabilisation Act in March 1965, thereby banning protest and strikes among the working class and by the unleashing of the police, batons, bullets and teargas on workers in the march for bread, peace and justice in 1975.

Mr. Maharaj is of the view that the PNM joining the labour march is political tricky at its worst and a hypocrisy that knows no bounds. As such the All Trinidad In good conscience cannot and will not march with the PNM.



Press Coverage : TTNewsFlash : http://ttnewsflash.com/?p=36551

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