Georgetown, Guyana — Dr. David Hinds, presidential candidate of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA), reaffirmed the party’s stance on Guyana’s struggling sugar industry, noting it is in “urgent need of restructuring.” At a virtual press conference on November 4, Hinds and other WPA executives stressed the party’s belief that continued government subsidies for GuySuCo’s operations are unsustainable, while also calling for a reassessment of the industry to better address workers’ welfare and the country’s economic future.
“The solution is to make the industry a profit-making enterprise and not a burden on the government,” Hinds stated, echoing the WPA’s longstanding view that any decision to right-size the industry should balance fiscal realities with the socioeconomic impacts on the sugar workers. He pointed to a 2015 Commission of Inquiry (COI) on GuySuCo led by economist Dr. Clive Thomas, which ultimately advised against closing the sugar estates but recommended broad reforms for sustainable operations.
Despite those recommendations, Hinds said, the government’s recent approach appears to rely on subsidies funded by oil revenues. He cautioned that this strategy, often termed “Dutch disease,” could lead to an unhealthy dependence on oil revenue to support non-viable industries, ultimately jeopardizing economic stability. “They are transferring oil windfall to the sugar industry, and that is not sustainable,” he said. “We would support another COI to see where the industry stands at present.”
Hinds also voiced concerns about GuySuCo’s silence on the industry’s performance, suggesting that the government might be waiting until after the next election cycle to make difficult decisions. “They intend to ride out this GuySuCo crisis until the next election…they depend a lot on the votes of sugar workers,” he added, hinting at a potential strategy to defer tough economic decisions for electoral gains.
Tacuma Ogunseye, another WPA leader, stressed that any future changes in the industry would be best pursued through a “political solution to the country’s governance structure” that prioritizes political reconciliation and shared governance. The WPA supports diversification within GuySuCo, maintaining a commitment to minimizing the hardships on workers while transforming the industry into a viable economic entity.
