MSJ's Labour Day message: Time to take back power from politicians

THE theme of this year’s Labour Day celebration, “People power, People Matter” is indicative that the masses hold the power and political leader of the Movement for Social Justice (MSJ) David Abdulah says it is time people take back that power from the hands of the politicians.

In a message on the eve of Labour Day, Abdulah, who served for many years on the executive of the Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU), said while people have the power, they can only own and control it if there is unity.

He said they must engage in mass disciplined action similar to what occurred during the 1937 labour and 1970 Black Power Revolutions in TT.

“To be able to take united disciplined mass action first requires that we must have a revolution of the mind.

"Real people power is not voting to move one neo-colonial party and replace it with another one. We have been doing that consistently since 1981. Real people power is now needed to change the status quo, change the neo-colonial system and remove from political office all those who have propped it up over the years with their racial, divide and rule party politics.”

“On the occasion of the anniversary of the June 19, 1937, revolution, workers must strike a blow against the neo-colonial state and the whole neo-colonial structure,” Abdulah said.

He said Labour Day should not be viewed as just another holiday but one which has ushered in fundamental changes in the lives of the ordinary men and women.

“Without June 19, 1937 – and similar strikes and revolts in other West Indian territories – the British colonial power would have not been pushed to the point where they had to end their colonial rule. We therefore owe our status as an independent nation to the struggles and sacrifices of the 'warrior workers' (as the Chief Servant Tubal Uriah “Buzz” Butler called them) of 1937.

Without June 19, 1937, he said, the modern trade unions would not have been formed and TT would have taken much longer to develop.

He spoke to the many benefits workers enjoy from paid vacation, maternity, sick leave, pension and medical plans, 40-hour work weeks, overtime pay, right to join and be represented by a trade union, to occupational health and safety standards and more.

He also said 86 years later, there was a complete turnaround in the progress made by the labour movement with the State now "striking a blow at workers."