Trade Union Street Demonstration Held in Rose-Hill on 5 March

08.03.2011

On Saturday 5 March, LALIT members participated in the street demonstration organized by the Confederation Travailleurs Secteur Prive, marching from the Bus Station to the Plaza. The demonstration was well-attended, mainly by members of the unions affiliated to this Confederation. Well known LALIT people present included Alain Ah-Vee, Rajni Lallah, Ram Seegobin, Ragini Kistnasamy, Jean Yves Dick, Rada Kistnasamy, Lindsey Collen, Ally Hosenbokus and Roland Boussac. The demonstration, one of the biggest in recent years, was the first in a series of planned trade union demonstrations building up towards a unified demonstration on 9 April. Leaders of other trade union federations were also present.
The avant-garde working class present will have been disappointed by the paucity of strategic programmatic thinking in the speeches, in an otherwise excellent demonstration.
After the demonstration, the rather pro-MMM Press in the country is punishing the trade union leaders like Reeaz Chuttoo who quite rightly said he was not inviting the MMM to their demonstration and he reasoned their stand. The Press then goes and reports that the demonstration was relatively small, mentioning ridiculously low figures like 400!
In fact, what the demonstration shows is that a large working class mobilization is possible against bourgeois parties in Government even when the bourgeois party in official opposition is expressly not invited.