Caribbean Trade Union Movement Under Threat, Workers Must Unite

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One Caribbean Nation.

By William Skinner


As COVID-19 exposes the frailties of the regional economies, workers must maintain vigilance in defending the gains made in the post-independence era. Many unscrupulous employers and their complicit political minions will use this period to undermine the trade union movement. Weak governments that have put all their economic targets in the tourism basket, are now realizing, as was predicted by progressive thinkers, that it is a visionless strategy, dependent on a fragile industry. Glamour does not equate to sustainable development and cannot replace socio economic reality.

We made a conscious decision to abandon agriculture and failed to develop, agro based industries. The food basket, that Dr. Eric Williams spoke about in the 1970s, never materialized and Guyana, with its vast agricultural resources, never became the breadbasket of the region. We allowed the destruction of small farmers and basically ignored our rural agricultural communities.

Chasing butterflies by embracing so-called global developmental models, have been our undoing. It has taken the debilitating shock of the COVID pandemic, to make us at least recognize, if not accept, that our economies need comprehensive reform. Such reform should not be designed by international lending agencies, such as the International Monetary Fund, or financed by superpowers, that would want to force us into dependency

Against this dismal economic background, there will be attempts, to place once more, the burden on the backs of the working class. They will be told that a half a loaf is better than no loaf at all. They will hear the old rhetoric of the pre -independence period and some will try to convince them, that the empty glass is half full. The promise of “joy in the morning” will echo through the corridors of corrupt power.

We therefore urge trade unions, to be fearless and avoid, supporting policy directives, that are presented in the “national interest” but are really tools, to keep the decadent status quo alive and in control of the region. Workers can no longer afford, to give comfort to those whose greed is limitless, and who see our region in pure terms of wealth accumulation at the expense of the working class.

William Skinner is a Caribbean social commentator.


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