Georgetown: Some are born great, it is said, whilst others have greatness thrust upon them. Kowsilla, called Alice, an active member of the Women’s Progressive Organisation (WPO), probably had no intention to become heroine or martyr. She merely demonstrated her freedom to protest at the virtually inhuman and exploitative nature of the then Sugar Baron’s greed over Guyana’s natural resource, sugar – and the wealth it generated for Britain. Even after slavery, Kowsilla’s defiance against the Leonora sugar estate’s management, just two (2) years before political independence, resulted in her ultimate sacrifice. Her cruel death, however, was not at all in vain. Her crushed body and spilt blood fertilized the struggle for working-class justice and victory for representation of the sugar workers’ first choice.
Today, the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) honoured and psays tribute to its own home-grown heroine,Kowsilla, on this the fiftieth (50th) anniversary of her savage demise.
The Chinese have declared that “women hold up half the sky”. Guyana’s women-folk should be today fortified in the role that their predecessors have played in militantly confronting colonial and post-colonial injustices alongside their male counterparts. GAWU asserts that Kowsilla martyrdom, today fifty (50) years old, fulfills all the criteria for that status.
In a few words, the Kowsilla story is now embedded in the nation’s sugar industry, labour-union movement and collective psyche. In January of 1964 hundreds of PPP-friendly, Jagnite-oriented sugar workers and other aggrieved Guyanese staged a mammoth citizens march to protest the imposition of Proportional Representation, a then unknown electoral system upon British Guiana by the British Colonial Secretary, Duncan Sandys.
It is reasonable and fair to assume that the managers of the various sugar estates many of them expatriate British themselves, did not take kindly to the participation of “their employees” in this political protest against the British government’s decision. They, most likely, harboured an innate disdain for this perceived insolence by those they regarded as mere “coolie” labourers – the downtrodden producers of their wealth, never-the-less. They waited for an opportunity and excuse to punish the participants, apparently.
So that when the workers, except for a few scab-traitors, staged a vigorous strike against the vindictive actions of the Leonora Estate management who offered little work after the January 1964 protests or work at severely-reduced rates, the Estate Manager, a Mr Roy Ryder, did everything to break the industrial action which significantly paralysed his fields and factory operations. From some divide-and-rule tactics to outright intimidation and threats, he abused the striking workers but failed to break their resolve.
On March 06, 1964 he ordered that a tractor driven by a scab, be used to clear a main bridge, close to the factory, on which Kowsilla and her comrades were squatting. They were resisting the use of the tractors by a few scabs who were trying to keep the estate working. Kowsilla bravely stood her ground as the tractor approached. She was crushed to a grisly death. Fourteen (14) other females who formed the peaceful human barricade were seriously injured with some unable to work again.
Kowsilla’s passing provoked wide-spread dissent and led to new levels of struggle, resulting in estate management meeting directly with workers delegations. The majority of sugar workers then resorted to abandon the then companyunion – the Man Power Citizens Association (MPCA). This was the movement that made a reluctant government to recognize GAWU in 1976.
Kowsilla exemplified bravery. Her death held high the banner of the recognition struggle, and showed the ferocity with which it was waged. The adamancy of the sugar plantocracy not to recognise GAWU was met by a stubborn workers’ struggle. Workers fought with determination and, in February, 1976, the GAWU obtained Union recognition by the Sugar Producers Association (SPA). The workers won that class war. Kowsilla’s sacrifice was not in vain.
Sugar workers waged a long and hard struggle for almost three (3) decades in order to replace the Man Power Citizens Association (MPCA), which was deemed a Company Union, by the Guiana Industrial Workers Union (GIWU) and later the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU). In that fight, many workers stood up courageously, made sacrifices and performed selfless deeds.
Cheddi Jagan’s militant spirit obviously dwelt in Kowsilla’s being and soul. For years he was GAWU’s ideological guide and Honorary President. Fifty (50) years on Kowsilla’s indomitable will and spirit still dwell in the hearts, minds and memory of GAWU’s members and friends.
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