FORMER PRIME MINISTER Owen Arthur is calling on the labour movement not to see Barbados’ affairs in partisan terms.
Speaking at Sunday night’s Barbados Labour Party (BLP) St Peter branch meeting at Alma Parris Secondary School, Arthur said that for 14 years his BLP Government had to treat the unions with the utmost respect amid protests on behalf of police and nurses, wages cuts and wages freezes.
“What is happening in Barbados today would not be accepted of a Barbados Labour Party Government,” he said to loud applause from an audience that included former ministers Rommell Marshall and Noel Lynch and Opposition advisor Dr Clyde Mascoll.
“We want a new approach to the labour movement that does not see Barbados’ affairs in strictly partisan terms, such that when the BLP is in office it believes it has to bleed the state, and then when the DLP comes it believes it can sell out the workers of Barbados,” he said in a fiery speech in the constituency he has represented for 30 unbroken years.
Arthur said the country would fail if the labour movement did not get its act together, and accused it of “taking workers of this country for a ride” and “making the working class available to be purchased”.
“There’s no easy way to send home 3 000 people but you all are being asked to believe that the labour movement is doing something for you, that they’re finding the right process,” he stressed.
He therefore called on his party, which is in its 75th year of existence, to put together a competent team for the next election in light of what he termed the “ineptitude” of the present Government.
Noting that former Prime Minister Sir Lloyd Erskine Sandiford had recently advised the ruling Democratic Labour Party to draw on the experience of its tried and tested members, Arthur said the Opposition now has to “huddle and put our heads together, go back through the manifesto” and avail itself of its 75 years of sound leadership and competence. (RJ)
