Different
cracker, same whip
Interview
with Errol
McLeod, President
General of the Oilfield Workers Trade Union
By BC Pires
Trinidad Express
Port Spain
Petroleumworldtt.com
09 04 07
President General of the Oilfield Workers Trade
Union, Errol McLeod, is not certain Trinidad and
Tobago is independent in any way other than name.
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Q: How old were you on the eve of Independence
in 1962 and what were your expectations?
A:
[Laughs] I was 18! I was quite excited, like
almost every bright-eyed youth at that time.
I
had been following a lot being said by people like
George Weekes, CLR James, Tubal Uriah "Buzz" Butler
was still in some form. There was something in
my mind about our being on our own. I was very
much involved in the youth movement and had a little
sense about the politics and the things being said
about nationhood and our being in ownerships and
control of the commanding heights of the economy.
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And 45 years on..?
[Laughs heartily] I am not completely disillusioned.
I think we have made some important strides forward.
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What are the critical measurements of Independence?
I will consider our being in charge of our own
lives, directing our own destiny, all of that represented
by our own national anthem and flag. I witnessed
with a lot of pride the lowering of the Union Jack
and the hoisting of our own red, white and black
and the very profound statements we were making
in Pat Castagne's national anthem, Forged From
the Love of Liberty and this Padmore lady's pledge.
Are we remotely independent in truth?
I
think what we have now really represents how
do I put this? Fig leaf independence, really.
We
don't seem to be in charge of anything. We have
a set of neo-colonial rulers - and I'm trying to
be at my kindest. Of course, the whole situation
in the world has changed and I don't know that
we can proclaim that any small nation is totally
independent. I think it is more a case of us developing
such relationships with other nation states that
there is a sense of interdependence, giving meaning,
really, to this thing of "being my brother's
keeper". But so much reversals have been taking
place; we are identifying at official levels that
we are in charge - but in truth and in fact, we
are continuing to take instructions from those
whom we were ruled by and their allies. We have
moved from British domination and dependences to
American imperialist independence over the past
45 years.
Â
Is there any genuinely independent estate in the
republic?
[Sighing deeply] No, no. I thought that the media-the
fourth estate-was moving to that; but when one
sees the three daily publications sometimes carrying
the same editorial and a distinct lack of real
investigative reporting - and you hear about which
newspaper editor is in the back pocket of which
party leader and which minister, I don't think
any of our estates is truly independent. This leads
to the setting up of the Caribbean Court of Justice
as one of the very important vestiges of independence,
our moving from the British Privy Council to our
own final court here: politicians on [all sides]
are arguing against our going that way-even when
the British themselves would like to be relieved
of the cases we bring.
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Is our judiciary an independent institution that
can be trusted?
I think a former Chief Justice has had some things
to say on that in very recent times. I don't know
that we can close our eyes and say we trust what
we have. Our institutions are being eroded and
losing respect in the eyes of the man on the street.
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Are we doing anything the way a grownup state
should?
I don't think we are doing near enough on the
occasion of our 45th birthday. I saw our becoming
independent as akin to a young man and woman leaving
their parents' homes to forge their own families.
For some time, maybe a couple of years, they'd
like to know they can go back to Daddy and Mummy
for advice and assistance-but after 15, 20 years,
one ought to be able to stand on one's own feet
and not be mendicant in any sphere, as we seem
to have been mendicant in so many spheres.
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What's holding us back?
The politics has to be changed! And I don't know
I have the answer as to the change that is necessary;
what I know: it has to be changed. We have to move
away from this constitutional dictatorship we now
have, where Prime Minister decides who joins him
in collective responsibility at Cabinet level,
when he appoints the person whom he may fire tomorrow,
if they did not agree with him. I'm not pointing
fingers at current Prime Minister [but at] a system
that allows for that kind of behaviour. We have
to mash that up.
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We're electing Governors-General?
Indeed.
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So whose fault is that, the elected Governor-General
or the people who don't demand more?
Both!
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Should we be building palatial residences for
public servants when the British prime minister
lives in a terraced house?
[Laughs] When I said I was not pointing my finger
at current Prime Minister, I meant in so far as
his being Prime Minister with all these powers.
He did not put himself there but now that he is
there, he is not mindful of the deleterious effects
that his being what he is, is having on the body
politic. This $148M mansion, at which the national
awards ceremony [was] held when [conventionally
they] are held at President's House, I think is
a little bit obscene and ought to be condemned.
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Are we talking of a crisis of leadership?
There is a crisis of leadership [and] at all our
institutions.
Â
And so we come to the labour movement: is it not
in as bad or even worse a state than all the others?
I think all of our institutions have seen an erosion
of their effectiveness and one has to bite the
bullet and do something about it. There must be
the active participation of all in the labour movement,
the politics and the economic sphere of our country,
the social activists, all of us have to identify
these issues and come up with a national approach
to dealing with them.
Â
Everyone says all the right things but it doesn't
convert to action?
That leaves the social activists, NGOs, the labour
movment, community organisations and so on to bell
the cat. We are, in the next couple of weeks, doing
as much as we believe we can do at this time about
the situation.
Â
Why aren't you doing more personally as the leader
of your union to bring the labour movement together?
Okay, I don't know if you're familiar with a declaration
I made, which was supported by the throngs in Fyzabad
on June 19th last, that an effort was going to
be made to bring all the labour unions together
on particular issues: the PSNC [Public Sector Negotiating
Committee]; interference in the collective bargaining
process; the International Monetary Fund threatening
the cost of living allowance; and then the ridiculous
adjustment of just one dollar on the minimum wage.
At the same time that we do an 11 per cent increase
on $9, one is talking about a $100,000 dinner plate
as fundraiser to fool people again. But, as to
your question about the labour unions coming together,
I have since written all of the unions and some
of us have come together and begun a discussion.
And, in the next couple of weeks, we are going
to be putting on a show some place in Port of Spain,
and about which we are going to inform everybody.
Â
That's the talking I was talking about; isn't
it critical that the labour unions come together
to work for the dispossessed?
Of course, and that is part of the mission and
is included in the initiatives which we have recently
taken and about which we are talking now.
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But you have lived comfortably with a split in
the labour union?
It has been [sighing] almost forever, you know.
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Yet you have lived comfortably with it; is the
labour movement not the least independent of all
our estates and institutions?
Well, there are some of us in the labour movement
who are not independent labour unions at all, yes?
Are tied up with one party or the other. I know
serious difficulties have been experienced only
on the basis that some people are prepared to take
action only when certain other people are in office.
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Can we be independent when the economy leans so
heavily on energy?
I know the economy is based essentially on the
energy sector and will remain so for some time.
That does not point to our being independent. The
big players in the energy sector are not about
the interests of Trinidad and Tobago. They are
not local businessmen, yes? Even in the private
sector. They are largely the foreigners.
Â
Is that not our own failing as a people?
Certainly. I know we have to come to serious loggerheads
with the powers that be, the current administration
and those before it, on the question of, to what
extent we exert national influence on our own national
resources. The whole thing about us being able
to reorganise our economy to suit the kind of development
all of us in a multi-sector setting must come to
organising and so on.
Trinidad
Express
Sunday, September 2nd 2007
Copyright
©2007 Trinidad Express. All Rights Reserved.
