Only the industrialists, FN? What about Goan trade unions ...
people like George Vaz, Narayan Palekar and their then
junior comrade Christopher Fonseca were not waiting to roll out
a red carpet to "Doctorsaheb"? I remember the general public
sentiment was against Dr. Samant's brand of trade unionism.
Remember that this happened (the attempted foray into Goa)
after Dr. Samant, for all his virtues, imperilled the future of
lakhs of Mumbai's mill workers.
I think you will agree that we Goans don't mix with militancy of any
kind -- Doctorsaheb's or Muthallik's.
Rgds, v
----- Original Message -----
From: "Frederick [FN] Noronha * फ्रेडरिक नोरोन्या " <[email protected]>
To: "Goa's premiere mailing list, estb. 1994!" <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, March 17, 2009 7:21 PM
Subject: Re: [Goanet] stand together
2009/3/16 Valmiki Faleiro <[email protected]>:
I endorse Dr. Babita Angle's view. Such fringe lunatics must be
prevented -- as when, some decades ago, Goa stood together
to stop Dr. Datta Samant's foray into Goa's trade unionism. I only hope a
well-regarded professional like Dr. Babita will take
the lead to form a core group and take the idea further.
In Dr Datta Samant's case, it was the Goan industrialists who stood
together! Class interests are of course thicker than blood, which in
turn is thicker than water!
Whatever one might say about the late Dr Samant's style of
functioning, his shoot-from-the-hip style of negotiations, and his
role in the deadly and gamble-that-didn't-pay-off historic Bombay
textile strike... the fact of the matter is that he delivered results
for the workers. Even if "results" was sometimes judged entirely in
terms of non-ideological, take-the-money-and-run rupee results.
I recall the panic that "Doctorsaheb's" entry into Goa caused,
including among a tyre factory, and how a section of the media was
used to discredit him.
More background on him here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datta_Samant
FN
