Next to take their places on the protest line was a group of about 15 protestors, with placards reading, ?Have a heart. Resign.?

At shortly after 10:00, the unions? protestors paraded up the sidewalk leading to the stairway, and joined the small group of protestors. Among those represented in the group were the Belize National Teachers Union, the Public Service Union, the Belize Communication Workers Union, the Belize Energy Workers Union, the Belize Water Services Workers Union, and University of Belize students.

More demonstrators joined them later, while others who did not take the front line sat or stood around, under the shade of the trees and stalls in the vicinity, observing from a distance. All in all, there were about 350 to 400 protesters and supporters in the area?a small crowd compared with that of January 21, 2005, when thousands demonstrated against the new tax measures. Since that protest, Government and the unions had been in negotiations over the taxes, but the unions are still not satisfied that the Government has revised the taxes enough to alleviate the burdens they would place on the working class.

Based on the opinions we canvassed from a number of demonstrators and from a number of demonstrators and union leaders, they are of the opinion that both the Government and managements intimidated many union members, while information on the protest was withheld from some union members. Some also pointed to the failure on the part of the unions themselves to effectively mobilize their membership.

Despite the disappointing turnout, the spirit of those who protested was high and they sounded their message without resorting to violence.

Amandala interviewed some of the protestors to find out what they really want from the Government.

Anthony Lopez, a demonstrator from Dangriga, who came out with friends, carried a banner, ?Have a heart. Resign. He told us, ?I would want a change for my country, because the things that the Government are doing are not fair to Belizeans? They are not doing good things and a lot of people are suffering.?

A second demonstrator from Belize City commented, ?A lot of things are happening in our country. You know what is going on in this country. We have to come here and fight for our rights. Too much nonsense is going on. You know that it?s true.

?Musa has gotta go. It?s poor people who are punishing. Run those guys. We are taking a licking here. We don?t even have a job. That man is messing us up. He sells everything. BTL?but everything he sells.?

?But he says he will sell BTL to Belizeans,? we told the protestor. To this he replied, ?To Belizeans? That?s propaganda. He sold that long time behind our backs. We?re sleeping and they are doing things behind our backs.?

A female protestor from Belize City shouted out, ?The children of tomorrow, what will they go through??

Ramon Witts, another demonstrator, told us, ?The people want to once again show this Government that we are not going to sit down and accept all the taxes that they are pushing on us. We are prepared to come out here peacefully and show that we are discontented.?

?What is your issue with the taxes?? we asked.

?As you know, salaries are not going up,? Witts replied. ?Salaries remain stagnant and the more they take out of our salaries, the less the people have out here to spend, the less parents have to feed their children, the less parents have to actually clothe their children and give them the school books they require to go to school. So basically, it is a regressive kind of tax. It might be progressive for them, but it is regressive for the masses of the people.?

?So if Government needs more revenues, what do you think Government should do to raise those additional revenues?? we probed.

Witts replied: ?There are several ways that the Government can handle it. First of all, they are spending huge amounts on unnecessary politically appointed [contract] officers. These people are being paid in the vicinity of $12 million a year to do nothing. There are many other things that can be done, like for example, get back the $17.9 million from the Belize Bank. Let the people that can afford it, for example, a beer company, or as everybody knows, Mr. Barry Bowen, let him pay his fair amount of taxes. That I think is where the Government can start. Don?t come to us.?

Joseph Ingram, a member of the Belize Water Service Union, said, ?My big issue today is to support the union?the National Trade Congress Union. We are out here?it?s not about UDP, it?s not about PUP; it is about our country?

?The Government is saying that this country is not broke, but I want to get one thing straight and clear, the Government is not broke. The PUP ministers they are not broke, but the country, on a whole, is broke. And you know that for a fact, everybody knows that…? Ingram said. ?I don?t think that Government should put all this burden on the poor class of people and this is what is causing violence in this country, because people cannot get money to keep their homes. The cost of living is very high and the wages are very, very low. How could you meet your demands??

We asked Ingram: ?How do you think that our problems should be solved??

?I think one of the main things is that the country is being mismanaged. We have trusted people that I think, no shadow of a doubt, who can really run this country? But if we leave this administration to govern, we will always be in this problem. They should step down. But I am not out here for a political campaign, telling the PUP to resign. I am not. But in the interest of the people of this country, I think that this government should step aside and give a new tribe the chance to govern this beautiful jewel of ours.?

Educator Ernest Banner, remarked, ?My main issue is the taxes, because last year they came with something called rebalancing. They wanted to raise 54 million dollars. This year it?s another 50 something million dollars and what are we doing? Every year it?s taxes, taxes? We ask them to reform. They said they are going to reform. However, two weeks after the strike of the unions, they came back and borrowed 217 plus million [US] dollars. So what type of reform are we talking about? You want to make laws then you go contrary to what is there. So that?s my main issue. Either you reform or resign.?

Asked why he decided to join in the demonstration, Mr. Pelayo, Roaring Creek Village, said, ?One: I am a Belizean. Two: I think I am out here to support the unions, especially the unions, because I think they need the support of the people. I work privately, but I think it?s my right to still be out here to support the unions and I would still support them 100%.

?I think my first message to the Government is the taxation. I think the taxation for the poor is very, very high and we cannot afford it. We cannot afford it and the higher the tax goes, the poorer we will get??

?What do you want them to do about the taxes?? we asked.

Pelayo replied: ?I think that they will have to do a new restructure of the tax measures that are in place right now, because you have a lot of people that should pay taxes who are not paying taxes. Only the poor class is paying the taxes right now.?

Demonstrator Curtis Gillett, told Amandala, ?I feel that the measures being taken by the Government are certainly not fair to the working Belizean, but I think the thing that a lot of people are forgetting are those who are not working, like myself. I am willing to work, I am able to work, I am capable of working; however, I am unemployed and I truthfully believe that the reason I am unemployed is because of political victimization. I have been vocal as an artist against a lot of the things that are going on in the Government, and for that, I feel that that is why I cannot get a job in the area for which I am trained.

?But that aside, in unity there is strength and at the same time my daughter is always with me because I say to her, this is a lesson in civics, this is a lesson in social science to see that in order for people to get something, they must be willing to stand up for what it is they want to get. They must always stand up for what they believe in, which is one of the reasons I am out here.?

To our question: What do you hope the demonstration could achieve? Gillett replied: ?I would hope the demonstration would let the Government understand that we are not going to take any more. I very much applaud the stance taken by employees of BTL in walking out of BTL and turning off the phone for a couple of hours, and I truthfully hope that at the end of the day the Government will sit back and put conscience into work, and realize that they are not doing a very good job in managing the finances of this country, and eventually say, you know what, we are resigning and we are going to call new elections.?

A number of union leaders addressed the protestors during the course of the day. Past president of the Public Service Union, Hubert Enriquez, said, ?This is only the beginning. More is going to come. Keep the faith. We are on the right side and we are going to win. At some point, we are going to win.?

George Frazer, NTUCB?s general secretary commented: ?My brothers and sisters, we have a copy of the [$1 million Barry Bowen] cheque right here. Look! We have a copy of the cheques [a donation to the ruling People?s United Party]. That?s why they don?t want to raise the [excise] tax [on beer]. You hear right here, you are hearing the man?s [Prime Minister] speech: the taxes are performing, we don?t want [more taxes] and the liad son of a gun went right there and asked for more things [taxes].?

He further remarked: ?They know the strength that we have. They better tighten up and respect the Belizean people. So we stay together. We see the different unions here and we will take back the different utilities. We will start with BTL. We are going to take back our country and we are going to take back our utilities. They promise they will lower the rates; all we get are more taxes??

Senator for civil society, Rene Gomez, also addressed the protestors. He said, ?The time now is for action and that action, hopefully, is being carried out right now that they are passing legislation for the new reform. We?re hoping that very soon, that will reach the Senate, whereby we are going to discuss it and ensure that that is what we want and that it will become law? But definitely, we are here to ensure that these reforms come about, especially when it comes to accountability, we need to have that. So, in regards to resign, I do endorse that, because I am of the opinion that they cannot govern. They have misspent our monies and just a couple of weeks ago, they passed in the House a bill and they sent it to the Senate to be able to borrow more monies.

?What we are saying is that if they are borrowing more monies, then they don?t need to tax us, because, on the contrary, those monies, we will be paying for it anyway. So we are tripling and quadrupling all of these taxes to us, the working people.?

Zenaida Moya, vice president of the Association of Public Service Senior Managers (APSSM), told the gathering: ?Not because they promised us that we will get our salary increases means that we will back down. Because salary increase was not the reason why we were protesting from the onset, [but also] reform?serious reform?increase in taxes that are inequitable; taxes that affect you and me, but don?t affect certain people. That is the whole reason why the National Trade Union Congress of Belize decided to take up this fight.

?Nothing has changed. They went through, they went through with the taxes. So why are we just going to sit back and allow that? We cannot. Today, we are out here. This is just one other demonstration.?

Mark Butler, president of the Belize Energy Workers Union, said, ?If you all could see the back of my shirt, Belize under fire. We?re burning up; we?re burning up because of this mismanagement of the politicians in this country. So we have to get rid of those people there. I don?t have any doubt about that. If you?re not doing your job the right way, you have to go? You have to manage this country right. As what Mr. Fuentes said, Cisco Construction charges one million per mile. These men are wasting a million dollars; we could have had better streets in this country?

?We have to stay together and all people who are not unionized, you are free to come to us, come to the National Trade Union Congress. We will show you how to get unionized. So all those guys who are with Barry Bowen, don?t be afraid to come forward, because we don?t need to drink beer and his products. What we need is for them not to raise taxes on the necessities: rice, flour, sugar, lard, beans, pigtail?These are everyday Belizean things. We were all brought up eating those things. So we are saying no new taxes??

Regardless of the protest outside the National Assembly on Friday, the legislators of the House approved the disputed tax measures, including an increase of the environmental tax from 1% to 2%, whereas the unions had demanded that there be no increase at all on the tax, since the tax?chargeable on imports?would affect all consumers. The Government had originally planned to increase the tax to 3%.

Another bone of contention for the unions was Government?s refusal to return the excise tax on local beer to $13.66 per gallon, the level it was in 1998. The unions have accused the administration of refusing to hike the tax because it wants to protect one of its party financiers, Barry Bowen, who owns the brewery. In response, the administration has said that its decision to increase the tax from $1.80 to $4.00, and not to the recommended $13.66, is a matter of economics and has nothing to do with what the unions have claimed.

The unions ended their demonstration at 2:00 p.m. Friday, at which time the House was still debating the taxes.