EDITORIAL

It finally appears that some common sense is prevailing among the main battling participants on the controversial 5% National Reconstruction Levy which some prefer to call an Income Tax.

And GRENADA TODAY must compliment the Grenada Chamber of Industry of Commerce (GCIC) and the Conference of Churches of Grenada (CCG) for their mediating role in helping to lessen the tensions that were fast building up in the country.

We are very optimistic that the church men and the business leaders would be able to bring some sense of reasoning around the table and get both sides to reach a common ground.

There is no doubt in our minds that Grenada would have been the loser in a showdown between the TUC and the Mitchell government. The Prime Minister has really lost touch with what is happening on the ground politically and seemingly not aware of the pressures being built up in workers over the years due to the many bad and reckless financial decisions of the administration.

The trade unions were spending the past two days doing the ground work among the workers in the key sectors of the economy and quietly soliciting the support of busmen, truck drivers and others to bring the country to a crippling halt.

Grenada was fast running the risk of being plunged into darkness as the militant Technical and Allied Workers Union (TAWU) would have gotten its support base at GRENLEC to pull the plug at the right time.

The mandate given to the chamber and CCG is indeed very timely. The Government Information Service (GIS) had already charted a war path course against the GTUC with nothing put the peddling of plain ties and untruths.

The Director of GIS, Selwin Noel had reminded us very much of the Propaganda Minister under the Eric Gairy government in the face of challenges to the regime by the New Jewel Movement (NJM) of the late Maurice Bishop. It was rather sickening to hear Mr. Noel tell a blatant lie and untruth about the TUC’s position on income tax.

This newspaper challenges Mr. Noel to provide the evidence of the TUC advocating the return of Income Tax instead of the government going ahead and implement the 5% National Reconstruction Levy. It was the chamber grouping that was advancing and quite rightly so in our view the return of income tax to Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique.

The policies of the Mitchell government over the past 10 years have failed and would not take this country out of the present desperate situation. The sad thing about Mr. Noel is that he does not know that he knows absolutely nothing about propaganda. He needs to go for a lesson in propaganda from the people who know all about engaging in serious propaganda.

It is clear to us that one thing which came out from the onslaught of GIS against the trade union leaders is that the Mitchell government had started to panic in the face of the threats of mass protest action by the unions. This could have been seen from the body language of the Prime Minister himself and the Minister of Labour, Claris Charles in recent days.

The fallen trade union leaders might all be turning in their graves to think about the role now being played by Mrs. Charles who rose from the ranks of the trade union movement to gain a position in the Mitchell Cabinet as a senior minister.

Here was a lady who was once admired by workers in this country for her contribution as President of the Grenada Union of Teachers. It was Mrs. Charles who informed teachers that she was leaving their ranks to join the government to help them see a better day.

What has the goodly lady done for the teachers of the country since going into the government? It is left to her to answer the question in her own time.

But as the current President, Marvin Andall indicated, “The harsh reality is that teachers and other workers are at their wits end with scant disposable income. Yet many teachers have to give even more financial assistance to pupils in their charge. It is inhumane, heartless and cruel to take any money from such workers”. This newspaper clearly remembers that it was the same Mrs. Charles who used to meet as a trade union leader in the 1990’s with Senator Chester Humphrey and Dr. Keith Claudius Mitchell then in the opposition and Governor-General, Sir Daniel Williams, then Deputy Political Leader of the NNP to fight against the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government of Sir Nicholas Brathwaite.

Was it politics then? Is it politics now? As Herbert Blaize said, ‘what goes around comes around”. Do we need to remind Mrs. Charles of a particular placard she was holding back then that read something like this: “Down with the NDC government”. Did she sell out teachers to Prime Minister Mitchell and his NNP administration?

GRENADA TODAY is confident despite the charged atmosphere in the country that the business leader and our churchmen would be able to find a solution to the impasse and help the Spice Isle return to some form of order.

But the message that must be clear to the Mitchell government is that it is no longer business as usual in this country with the NNP doing whatever it pleases because workers will continue to take a stand if they feel that something wrong is about to take place that will affect their pockets.