The Caribbean As­so­ci­a­tion for Fem­i­nist Re­search and Ac­tion, Trinidad and To­ba­go (CAFRA TT) has ex­pressed con­cern over the ar­rest of ac­tivist Alyssa Phillip dur­ing Labour Day cel­e­bra­tions in Fyz­abad, de­scrib­ing the in­ci­dent as a trou­bling de­vel­op­ment for free­dom of ex­pres­sion and as­sem­bly.

In a me­dia re­lease is­sued on Sat­ur­day, CAFRA TT said it was “deeply alarmed” by events that un­fold­ed dur­ing this year’s Labour Day ac­tiv­i­ties—a day it de­scribed as one tra­di­tion­al­ly ded­i­cat­ed to ho­n­our­ing work­ers’ strug­gles for dig­ni­ty, fair work­ing con­di­tions and recog­ni­tion of their con­tri­bu­tions to na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment.

The or­gan­i­sa­tion said Labour Day has his­tor­i­cal­ly pro­vid­ed a plat­form for cit­i­zens to protest, as­sem­ble pub­licly and call for ac­count­abil­i­ty from the State.

CAFRA TT said women’s or­gan­i­sa­tions have par­tic­i­pat­ed in the an­nu­al Fyz­abad march for years be­cause they view labour jus­tice as close­ly linked to peace, equal­i­ty and eq­ui­table de­vel­op­ment.

The group al­so raised con­cerns over re­ports that some peo­ple were pre­vent­ed from join­ing the march be­cause they were not trade union mem­bers.

“On what le­gal ba­sis were cit­i­zens pre­vent­ed from walk­ing on a pub­lic street dur­ing a pub­lic march? And why now?” the or­gan­i­sa­tion asked.

CAFRA TT said the re­ports raised se­ri­ous ques­tions and sug­gest­ed the pos­si­bil­i­ty of tar­get­ed reprisal.

The or­gan­i­sa­tion al­so point­ed to a video cir­cu­lat­ing on so­cial me­dia that ap­peared to show more than 20 po­lice of­fi­cers in ri­ot gear sur­round­ing and de­tain­ing two women dur­ing the cel­e­bra­tions.

CAFRA TT ques­tioned the lev­el of force used and said both women were un­armed and ex­er­cis­ing their con­sti­tu­tion­al rights.

“This is not the first time that Alyssa Phillip has been ar­rest­ed, and we note that each of her ar­rests has been linked to her calls for po­lice trans­paren­cy, ac­count­abil­i­ty and ac­cess to jus­tice,” the or­gan­i­sa­tion said.

CAFRA TT ar­gued that the in­ci­dent could be viewed as an at­tempt to in­tim­i­date not on­ly Phillip but al­so oth­ers who ques­tion the ef­fec­tive­ness or ac­count­abil­i­ty of the po­lice ser­vice.

The or­gan­i­sa­tion praised Phillip and her moth­er for what it de­scribed as their courage and com­mit­ment to jus­tice.

“To­day, we call on the State to end its puni­tive ac­tions against Alyssa Phillip. We make this call not on­ly for her, but for all of us who live in Trinidad and To­ba­go and who un­der­stand that down this road, the road of unchecked pow­er and the sup­pres­sion of dis­sent, is a threat to our rule of law and democ­ra­cy,” CAFRA TT said.

The or­gan­i­sa­tion added that Labour Day should serve as a re­minder of the im­por­tance of col­lec­tive ac­tion and the need to pro­tect cit­i­zens’ rights.

CAFRA TT is the Trinidad and To­ba­go chap­ter of the Caribbean As­so­ci­a­tion for Fem­i­nist Re­search and Ac­tion, a re­gion­al non-prof­it or­gan­i­sa­tion that pro­motes so­cial jus­tice and the em­pow­er­ment of women.