There is no reason to despair

Aug 02, 2023 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Kaieteur News – On the surface, the recent Day of Standstill, called by the publisher of this newspaper, may have appeared to be an abysmal failure. Admittedly, there was a disappointing response from the public.

This led one lawyer, who has often adopted positions supportive of the PPPC government, to ridicule the call for a Day of Standstill.  He however is too young to recall that during the struggle for free and fair elections, the PPP did support calls, on more than one occasion, for Days of Rest. These Days of Rest petered out no differently from that of Monday’s Day of Standstill.

And it was not because of the lack of support for such calls. Rather the poor response has often to do with the fact that Guyanese then, as today, were scrambling for their daily bread and cannot afford to not work, especially considering the number of holidays which amount to unpaid labour for the self-employed.

The lack of a larger response to the call for a Day of Standstill should not be confused with a lack of public support for such a call. But perhaps that logic may also be difficult for the lawyer to grasp.

The Day of Standstill and the Long Walk undertaken by Ray Daggers have helped to re-legitimize peaceful protests. Such protests have been marred in the past when they descended into violence, as for example during the protests against a police killing of man at Golden Grove.

Days of Standstill were used by both Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King as part of their civil resistance. It is therefore a tried and tested method of peaceful protest which needs time and repetition to gain traction in our country.

Glenn Lall has never asked anyone to do anything that he himself would not do. He made a great sacrifice on that day losing revenue from his radio and newspaper, including advertising and sales revenues. He took a stand and his staff supported him.

Others took a stand and stayed at home. Other refrained from making purchases on that day. However, like in the past when the PPP supported Days of Rest, the numbers who were not sufficient to create a standstill.

But great movements have started small. Both the movement for Independence in India and the Civil Rights Movement in the USA had inauspicious beginnings. The small numbers of persons who stay away from work last Monday have showed their personal commitment to change. That commitment, under the rights conditions, can be infectious.

The race for economic justice is not for the swift but rather for those who can endure to the end. And the struggle for a better deal for Guyana will continue using peaceful means of civil resistance.

The primary objective of the Day of Standstill was to protest foreign exploitation of our country’s valuable resources on unfair terms. While it is admitted that the public response was not as overwhelming as expected, it would be a mistake to dismiss the day as a complete failure. Instead, we must take a closer look at the underlying reasons for the poor response.

One of the most significant challenges faced by those who fought for Guyana’s political independence was helping people understand the need to take a stand and how foreign exploitation affects them. Unfortunately, this connection remains elusive for many citizens today.

The Day of Standstill provided an opportunity to begin bridging this gap and helping people to come to appreciate why Guyana will never become a prosperous nation with a 2% royalty, 12.% profit-sharing, a 75% cap on expenses, no ring-fencing and unknown interest on the oil companies investments.

The day allowed for an assessment of the public militancy on the oil and gas sector. I am sure that if the Day of Standstill was called 2 months earlier and for an entirely different reason, namely protesting the Mahdia tragedy, there would have been a greater response.  However, when  it comes to the oil and gas industry, there is a need for much greater public engagement and public education.

More work has to be done by those who want to secure a better deal. No mobilization was done for the Day of Standstill. No one went out to speak to those in the transportation sector or to the market vendors or to the farmers or store owners. People were left to make their own choice. Going forward, there has to be greater mobilization.

Different groups and individuals in society have different reasons for wanting a better deal. Some, like Glenn Lall, want a renegotiation of the terms of contracts in the mining sector. Others want to see greater protection for the environment. Others have an interest in greater transparency. And still others question how the revenues from mining are shared among the people.

These various groups are all operating almost separately. What is needed is to bring them together for a single protest. Each of these groups have their own constituencies and even though these may be small, when combined together, they can have a snowballing effect.

The struggle for economic justice has never been easy. It often pits the poor and powerless against the might of the rich and their backers in the government. But we must learn from history and learn to fight on despite the disappointments.

Glenn Lall is certainly not disappointed. He took a stand and stayed home, and had the support of the Kaieteur family and others across Guyana.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.)

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• Government, newspaper, Peeping Tom, PPPC, Standstill

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