June 4, for instance, was designated World Environment Day, aimed to focus attention on the importance of a clean, safe and healthy environment. The very next day, June 5, was designated International Day of Innocent Children and Victims of Aggression, again to remind us of the tens of thousands of children and young people who are the victims of abuse - physical, sexual and emotional. Then there is Cancer Survivors' Day, which was observed on June 6 to focus attention on the millions of people in the world who are today living with cancer but still continue to lead productive and rewarding lives. Other important dates include World Refugee Day, observed on June 20, and International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, which was observed on June 26. And of course there was Father's Day, which was observed a few days earlier.

It is not too difficult to lose track of important days these days but there are two others, which should not be allowed to escape our notice if only because of the defining roles both events played in the evolution of our unfolding democracy. The first is the death anniversary of Dr. Walter Rodney, which was observed on June 13, and the other, Enmore Martyrs' Day, that was observed on June 16.

In the case of the Enmore Martyrs' the shooting to death of the five sugar workers by the colonial police had in the words of Mrs. Janet Jagan, a "thunderbolt effect" which radically transformed the political landscape of the country from one of general passivity to that of active resistance. The groundwork for this resistance was laid with the entry into the political arena of Dr. Cheddi Jagan in the early 1940's and the subsequent formation of the Public Affairs Committee. It was the shooting to death of the five sugar workers that reinforced the need for a political party to effectively represent the case of the workers at the highest decision-making forum - the Legislative Assembly.

The flippancy of the colonial administration to the killings was demonstrated in the response to a question posed by Dr. Jagan in the Legislative Assembly which went as follows: "Will Government state what action it intends to take against those held responsible for the shooting at Plantation Enmore?"

The response: "Government has given full consideration to this matter and does not intend to take action against the Police concerned in the shooting, as the facts and circumstances do not justify it doing so." Instead of being reprimanded, the leader of the firing squad, lance corporal Hubert Fitzgerald James, was honored a year later with the Police Medal for Meritorious Service.

It was a result of these injustices and other forms of oppression that gave birth to the People's Progressive Party in January of 1950, a mere one and a half years later. One of the major objectives of the PPP was to gain the right to vote and for a wholly elected Legislative Council. Members who did not have any political constituency were nominated at the Governor's pleasure.

Because of continual agitation and effective representation by the PPP, Universal Adult Suffrage, or the right vote without income or property qualification, became a reality in the elections of 1953, which the PPP won with a landslide, obtaining 18 of the 24 contested seats.

The right to vote was, however, taken away by the PNC administration after it was catapulted into office in 1964 by what was referred to by a former British Prime Minister as a "fiddled constitutional arrangement" imposed by the British Government to remove the PPP from power.

It was this rupture of the democratic process and the repression that followed the democratic rupture that resulted in the militant struggle waged by Dr. Rodney for the restoration of democracy and the rule of law that ultimately led to his untimely death.