Rhon­da Krys­tal Ram­bal­ly

Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Dwayne Gibbs has blanked the re­quest of the joint trade union move­ment to stage a walk against crime on Oc­to­ber 30. Re­quests were al­so de­nied on Sep­tem­ber 9 and 16 to host pub­lic meet­ings and march­es in To­ba­go and Point Fortin re­spec­tive­ly. Gibbs al­so re­fused to grant per­mis­sion to the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) to hold its cus­tom­ary post-Bud­get pub­lic meet­ing at Pig­gott's Cor­ner last Fri­day. Last Mon­day, pres­i­dent of the Oil­fields Work­ers' Trade Union An­cel Ro­get said the labour move­ment want­ed to show its sup­port in the fight against crime with a march on Oc­to­ber 30.

Pres­i­dent of the Bank­ing In­sur­ance and Gen­er­al Work­ers' Union Vin­cent Cabr­era and pres­i­dent of the Sea­men and Wa­ter­front Work­ers' Trade Union (SWW­TU) Michael An­nisette have ex­pressed con­cerns.

In an in­ter­view yes­ter­day, An­nisette said the trade unions are be­ing tar­get­ed. He re­ferred to a march or­gan­ised by the To­ba­go Or­gan­i­sa­tion of the Peo­ple in To­ba­go last month and for which per­mis­sion was grant­ed by Gibbs. An­nisette said unions will con­tin­ue to mo­bilise and ed­u­cate their mem­bers by hold­ing in­door meet­ings. He said a prayer ser­vice is ex­pect­ed to be held soon at a church in Port-of-Spain.

In an SWW­TU state­ment, An­nisette said: "The fight against crime in all its di­men­sions, re­quires the ac­tive par­tic­i­pa­tion and in­volve­ment of all or­gan­i­sa­tions and cit­i­zens of Trinidad and To­ba­go if we are to be suc­cess­ful as a peo­ple in rid­ding our na­tion of crime and crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ties." The state­ment added it was against that back­drop that the SWW­TU joined those who cher­ished free­dom and democ­ra­cy in con­demn­ing Gibbs' sense­less/base­less re­fusal to grant the labour move­ment's re­quest to march.

Cabr­era, in a state­ment said Gibbs served as gov­ern­ment's in­stru­ment of op­pres­sion and sup­pres­sion and left the trade union move­ment in no doubt about the re­al po­lit­i­cal in­tent be­hind the state of emer­gency by deny­ing the PNM's and the unions' re­quest.

Cabr­era's state­ment said: "From the very be­gin­ning of the de­c­la­ra­tion of the state of emer­gency, the trade union move­ment had warned that the state of emer­gency was an elab­o­rate ruse by the gov­ern­ment to block trade union ac­tiv­i­ty and grow­ing pub­lic dis­sat­is­fac­tion with the gov­ern­ment."

Ef­forts to con­tact Ro­get proved fu­tile.