Emancipation Day a time to reflect on working-class struggles

Members of the Pan African Coalition of Organisations will be hosting an Emancipation Day celebration on Sunday, August 1, at the Bussa Statue in Haggatt Hall, St. Michael.

According to David Denny, General Secretary of the Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration (CMPI), that day should be used not only to reflect on our colonial past and slaves gaining freedom from their slave masters, but Barbadians should give some consideration to the many working-class issues with which workers now struggle, that need to be addressed.

Denny was at the time joined by Pan Africanist Wayne “Onkphra” Wells on location at Art Form in Pelican Village yesterday, for a press conference which was convened by the CMPI, the Pan African Coalition of Organisations and the Israel Lovell Foundation, to discuss the celebration for the upcoming Emancipation Day. Whilst the celebrations will be held on Sunday, Barbadians will recognise the Emancipation Day bank holiday on Tuesday, August 3.

“Our emancipation struggle must be seen as a movement for working-class people’s struggle, during this period. Emancipation during the Bussa period was slaves against the slave masters for their freedom. In the Clement Payne and Israel Lovell period, it was for social changes for working-class people against the high level of exploitation by the colonial class, but in today’s world, especially here in Barbados, there is still an emancipation struggle and that struggle is to empower the workers and for workers to be able to work under better working conditions,” Denny stressed.

He added, “The trade union movements in Barbados, they have all failed to deal with a lot of the issues that are affecting the workers, especially those at the bottom. For instance, a worker at the Sanitation Service Authority is no different from a worker such as a nurse or a doctor. The nurses and the doctors cure us when we are sick, but the sanitation workers prevent us from getting sick and both of them are two important sectors of workers in Barbados, but the sanitation worker is not treated like that and that’s why sanitation workers’ conditions of work need to be changed, so that they can enjoy a better standard of living.”

Pointing to other categories of workers such as grave diggers, school meals workers and even those in the National Assistance Board who work as home helpers who at times lack the requisite uniforms and equipment to do their job or who need allowances to accompany their pay, Denny stressed, “That is part of the emancipation struggle today, empowering the workers, fighting for better working conditions for the workers, fighting for a better salary structure for the workers, especially those workers at the bottom.”

Regarding the actual Emancipation Day celebrations to be held, Denny says the programme will get started at 8:00 a.m. and run for two and a half hours, to allow persons to come at intervals and lay flowers at the Bussa Statue, whilst observing the COVID-19 protocols.

“The programme will have a number of speeches, cultural presentations and spiritual (underpinnings). We have a list of speakers, because we want to give as many organisations that work with us an opportunity to bring a solidarity message and we have also extended invitations to the Embassy of Cuba and the Embassy of Venezuela,” Denny noted.

Onkphra Wells meanwhile stated, “COVID protocols will be in place, so we expect you to abide by them, but we still have a historical responsibility to pay homage to those who made it pos-sible for us to be emancipated, because every right-thinking person will know that on the foundation of emancipation rests every other freedom that we can possess.” (RSM)