Maharaj: Labour must get involved in politics

Nirvan Maharaj, President General of the All Trinidad General Workers Trade Union (ATGWTU) called for labour to unite in order to ‘heal the country,’ and for a greater involvement in politics.

Maharaj, one of the speakers at the Labour Day Rally hosted by the National Trade Union Centre of TT on Tuesday at James Park, Scarborough, told hundreds of workers gathered, that there was no difference between trade unionism and politics.

“Labour must unite in a political way and challenge both the UNC and the PNM and tell them that enough is enough. There is absolutely no difference between politics and trade unionism because every single policy or programme implemented by a government that affects the working class, affects trade unions. It affects our members and therefore as trade unions we must become involved in politics,” he said.

Maharaj said one important question should be asked in needed to be asked in Trinidad and Tobago.

“How is it that a land as rich as ours, so wealthy in oil and gas, natural resources and a people so intelligent, could descend into the realm, into the pit of corruption and nepotism, of crime and brutality never before experienced in this country. “The answer to that question, my brothers and sisters, is that we, the leaders of our society, we have failed our people because we have forgotten the lesson of the past, we have forgotten about patriotism, we have forgotten about nationalism, we have forgotten about country and love of country and what we have done is placed our personal interest and our organisational interests over the interest of our nation,” he said.

Maharaj said: “As long as we do that, our sons and daughters will continue to be slaughtered in the killing fields of Trinidad and Tobago, as long as we forget, thousands will be retrenched, as long as we forget, our children will continue to bully and beat each other in the streets, as long as we forget, our children will continue to be abused and violated as our women are. We must put a stop to that.”

He said the greatest asset of any nation was its people and the spirit of its people, and that when politicians attempt to break the spirit of a people and that spirit is broken, then the nation faces its greatest danger.

“Trade unions must begin to educate us - that no one has a divine right to your support because they look like you, they have to serve the divine interest of the country. When you were born, your birth paper never said that you have to vote the PNM or the UNC till you dead, you have freedom of choice. “You are an intelligent people and you can choose. If you continue to allow yourselves to believe you are a PNM or a UNC until you dead, then your children will suffer, and your children’s’ children will suffer because the same cycle of abuse and disdain and contempt that they treat you with will continue,” Maharaj said.

Leaders and members of the various unions - National Union of Government and Federated Workers (NUGFW), Public Services Association (PSA), Seamen and Waterfront Workers Trade Union (SWWTU), Transport & Industrial Workers Union (TIWU), Inter-Isle Transportation Company Ltd (TTIT), along with students of the Cipriani College of Labour and Co-operative Studies, participated in the First Historic Labour Day march on Tuesday.

The march began at Shaw Park, with participants walking through the heart of Scarborough to James Park, uptown Scarborough, for the afternoon rally.

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"Maharaj: Labour must get involved in politics"

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