Enmore Martyrs Day: PPP says will continue the fight to safeguard freedom and rights

A Message from the PPP on the occasion of the 72nd anniversary of the Enmore Martyrs

June 16, 2020, marks the 72nd anniversary of the shooting to death of five sugar workers at Enmore, East Coast Demerara in 1948. The five – Rambarran, Pooran, Lallabagee, Surajballi, and Harry – are national martyrs whose lives were snuffed out during the struggle by sugar workers for better working and living conditions and higher wages on the sugar estates.

Their fearless and selfless sacrifices have not only remained relevant at present and a source of inspiration but led the late Dr. Cheddi Jagan to make a silent pledge at the gravesite of the five slain workers at the Le Repentir Cemetery in Georgetown, to dedicate his entire life to the cause of the struggle of the Guyanese people against bondage and exploitation. Dr. Jagan subsequently founded the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) in 1950,

This incident added motivation and propelled Dr. Jagan and the PPP to fight against colonialism and for the betterment of the lives of all Guyanese. Those unrelenting struggles, during which he became a political prisoner, have characterized the PPP in their efforts to advance Guyana and the lives of Guyanese as is evident from the unprecedented growth and development that hallmarked the various periods while it was in government.

Today, those struggles continue as the PPP, along with law-abiding Guyanese and well-wishers, are fighting for the preservation of our hard-fought democracy following the glaring and unashamed attempts by the APNU+AFC to steal the March 02, 2020, General and Regional Elections.

Having blatantly disregarded the Constitution on numerous occasions, the APNU+AFC Coalition seeks to trample upon the will of the Guyanese people in an effort to hold on to the seat of government.

The PPP has led many struggles to oppose the brutal People’s National Congress (PNC) dictatorship, which oppressed Guyanese through the suppression of their freedoms and rights. The inept and corrupt PNC also mismanaged the country plunging it into bankruptcy.

Today, the PNC, in the form of APNU+AFC, is once again suppressing our freedoms and rights by strangling democracy and has squandered the country’s financial resources, once again making it bankrupt.

Over the past five years under the APNU+AFC Coalition, financial ruin and hardships have been inflicted upon Guyanese who have seen their standards of living deteriorated after having experienced unparalleled growth, development, and modernization during the PPP’s twenty-three-year tenure which followed the return to democratic rule in 1992.

The sacrifices of the Enmore martyrs, therefore, have tremendous relevance in today’s context given renewed and unremitting struggles that intensified following the historic no-confidence motion (NCM) against the APNU+AFC government on December 21, 2018; struggles which continue to prevent a most uncaring regime from subverting democracy.

The PPP wishes to state that it will not only continue to honour the memory of the five martyrs so that their sacrifices will not be forgotten, but it will remain steadfast in dedicating its efforts to oppose all attempts by the illegal APNU+AFC Coalition regime to oppress Guyanese and to strangle democracy.

As we remember the Enmore martyrs 72 years after their horrendous deaths, let us be inspired by the fact that hope will never be lost and that we will endeavour together to safeguard our freedoms and rights.

Over the past 100-plus days, we have persisted together and the People’s Progressive Party wishes to thank the opposition political parties, civil society, and our regional and international partners for standing with us in the fight to preserve our democratic gains.

People’s Progressive Party