Tackling poverty must be multiracial- WPA’s Hinds

Last Updated on Sunday, 11 May 2025, 20:57 by Writer

Amid concerns that mainly socio-economically disadvantaged Afro-Guyanese youths looted businesses during sporadic protests triggered by the controversial death of 11-year-old Adriana Younge, Working People’s Alliance (WPA) Co-leader Dr David Hinds said the fight against poverty must target Guyanese of all races.

“We prefer to focus on the broad group of impoverished people of all races, and that group that they are calling scrape-heads maybe fall in that category but we don’t feel it is that category of young people that we need to focus on,” he told Demerara Waves Online News.

While the WPA acknowledged that “unfortunate” incidents such as looting and burning occur during protests, he said such activism should not be defined by such acts.

Many youths identify themselves as “scrapes” or “scrape-heads”, but the WPA Co-Leader was cautious about confining the protest to working-class, young, mostly Black men.

“To do that is to give the protest that particular description which we don’t think is very accurate,” he said.

He said the protest was much more broad-based rather than by unemployed, young Black men.

Chairman of Vigilent for a New Guyana, Dorwain Bess had called on the ‘scrapes’ to join peaceful protests with the objective of bringing about meaningful change.

“This movement is not going to stand with any Guyanese to destroy property, is not going to stand with any Guyanese to destroy homes of people…we do not condone that. But we need citizens to understand; the scrapes, as they call them to come out and to continue the protests but protest to bring an end to this culture. We must know we are protesting,” he said.

However, the WPA Co-Leader stressed the need to place emphasis on the broad category of working class, young, poor people in towns and rural areas.

Poverty alleviation at the level of households, he said, must be a primary focus of any government.

Dr Hinds said cash transfers should be used as a means of empowering households economically.

He said one of the conditions for such transfers is for families to take the responsibility of sending their children to school.

“The combination of economic empowerment and education empowerment is one of the ways that we plan to tackle poverty so that the cash transfers is not just a way of giving money to people. It’s about using money from the oil as a means of empowering people so that they can become much more productive,” he said.

The WPA politician said if youths attend school, they would become more employable instead of joining that “band” of unemployed persons “hanging around”.

Asked whether he feared that putting school attendance as a condition for cash transfers could cause the opposition to lose rather than win votes, he said the WPA was not aiming for votes.

“Our objective is not to get votes so we wouldn’t be worried by that,” he said.

He said the WPA would not lie to the electorate because it wants to win their votes, but would stick to its policy objective in or out of office to alleviate poverty.

Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo last week Thursday admitted that more needed to be done to address poverty.

He said there were jobs and educational opportunities through the Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL) or at technical-vocational institutions.

Mr Jagdeo said the problem of youths hanging around in communities and sometimes committing crimes is among Afro- and Indo-Guyanese.

For his part, Dr Hinds agreed that the WPA’s model to tackle poverty must be backed by a feasibility study and a pilot project to “tell us where the problem is and how it should be addressed.”

Meanwhile, the WPA said the recent unrest in Georgetown and other areas of Guyana was an inevitable response by the public to efforts at placing the death of Adriana Younge under the lid.

“The linkage between police coverup and government’s apparent turning of the proverbial blind eye could not be concealed any longer,” that party said.

The WPA rejected the thesis of the government and some sections of the political opposition that the events in the wake of Younge’s death were the work of thugs, scrape-heads, looters, and robbers.

“For the WPA, the events of that night reflected the frustrations of a section of the population that has (grown) tired of being beaten by their government and State. They did what human beings do when cornered by oppressive blows. It was a night of collective release,” the party said in reference to the unrest in parts of Georgetown on April 28.

The WPA questioned how is it that blocking roads in public protest is a socio-political sin.

“Our party has no hesitation in saluting the general protests of the people in the various forms as representing the fullness of Walter Rodney’s praxis of Self Activity of the people.

WPA throws its full support behind the continuing mass action of Guyanese in and out of Guyana. Stand up and stand firm. The voice of the people is the voice of justice. Do not let the threat of bullets deter you. Guyana is Adriana and Adriana is Guyana,” the party added.

Like others, the WPA says it does not promote destruction of public and private property as normal forms of protest.

At the same time, it sought to justify actions of those who were being shot at by police.

“It is understandable that they would reach for extra-conventional forms of retaliation. WPA therefore condemns the police military assault on unharmed citizens as the root cause of the nature of Monday night’s actions.”

The WPA also rejected attempts by the government and sections of the opposition to link the looting and robberies which took place in the general protests.

Describing those acts as “regrettable”, the WPA contended that it is well known that legitimate protestors have no control over such activities.