NATUC leader: I invited Alyssa to Labour Day march

OT­TO CAR­RING­TON

Se­nior Re­porter

ot­to.car­ring­[email protected]

Na­tion­al Trade Union Cen­tre (NATUC) Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary, Michael An­nisette, has con­demned the ar­rest of ac­tivist Alyssa Phillip dur­ing Fri­day’s Labour Day march in Fyz­abad, de­scrib­ing the po­lice ac­tion as “re­gret­table,” “un­for­tu­nate,” and an af­front to de­mo­c­ra­t­ic free­doms.

Speak­ing yes­ter­day, An­nisette said Phillip had been par­tic­i­pat­ing in the march at his in­vi­ta­tion and was walk­ing di­rect­ly be­hind him while he led the labour move­ment’s demon­stra­tion when po­lice in­ter­vened.

“She was in­vit­ed by the Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary of NATUC, which is me, to par­tic­i­pate in the march. She was with us, right be­hind me, lead­ing the demon­stra­tion when she was ar­rest­ed,” An­nisette said.

He main­tained that Phillip had com­mit­ted no of­fence that war­rant­ed the ac­tion tak­en against her.

“She com­mit­ted no armed crime, and it is un­for­tu­nate and re­gret­table that we are reach­ing this stage,” he said.

Yes­ter­day, the Po­lice Ser­vice, in a state­ment, said a so­cial ac­tivist and a small group of fol­low­ers, who were not mem­bers of the Trade Union move­ment, at­tempt­ed to join the pro­ces­sion, and af­ter checks by of­fi­cers, it was de­ter­mined they were not part of the trade unions’ au­tho­rised pro­ces­sion.

An­nisette feared the ar­rest ap­peared to be aimed at in­tim­i­dat­ing the ac­tivist and those who sup­port her.

“It seems it was a mea­sure of in­tim­i­da­tion against the young la­dy and her fol­low­ers,” he said.

An­nisette said he was per­son­al­ly dis­turbed by the man­ner in which the ar­rest was car­ried out, claim­ing of­fi­cers moved ag­gres­sive­ly to iso­late Phillip from the peace­ful demon­stra­tion.

“I was tak­en aback. I’m not nor­mal­ly shak­en, but I was shak­en by the ac­tion and the con­duct of the po­lice in this mat­ter,” he said.

De­scrib­ing the in­ci­dent as un­nec­es­sary and ex­ces­sive, An­nisette ar­gued that such ac­tions have no place in a de­mo­c­ra­t­ic so­ci­ety.

“That kind of be­hav­iour has no place in our mod­ern de­mo­c­ra­t­ic so­ci­ety,” he said. “It was un­called for and un­nec­es­sary.”

He called on the Gov­ern­ment to in­ter­vene, warn­ing that the is­sue ex­tends be­yond the ar­rest of one in­di­vid­ual and touch­es on cit­i­zens’ con­sti­tu­tion­al rights.

“I call on the Gov­ern­ment to in­ter­vene in this mat­ter in the in­ter­ests of our democ­ra­cy and the right to protest and dis­sent,” he said.

An­nisette said the labour move­ment would be is­su­ing a for­mal state­ment on the mat­ter and an­nounced that NATUC and al­lied labour or­gan­i­sa­tions are ex­pect­ed to hold a me­dia con­fer­ence to­day to ad­dress the ar­rest of Phillip and her moth­er and the im­pli­ca­tions for civ­il lib­er­ties.

An­nisette’s com­ments came amid mount­ing crit­i­cism from trade unions, ac­tivists and civ­il so­ci­ety groups fol­low­ing the ar­rest of Phillip and her moth­er, Camille Cares­quero, dur­ing Labour Day ac­tiv­i­ties in Fyz­abad.

Move­ment for So­cial Jus­tice leader David Ab­du­lah de­scribed the ar­rest as a vi­o­la­tion of peo­ple’s rights.

Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les al­so con­demned the ar­rest and said it was un­for­tu­nate, es­pe­cial­ly dur­ing an oc­ca­sion such as Labour Day.