 Hello and welcome to People's Dispatch. Today we're joined by Ozzie Warwick, the Chief Educational and Research Officer of the Oil Field Workers Trade Union of Trinidad and Tobago. The workers of the OWTU are on the verge of a historic achievement and will soon take over the factory in which they work and run it on their own. Ozzie to start with could you just give a brief history of the company and the workers movement. Thank you for the opportunity to share this indeed historic experience. It's important to note that in the past, in our colonial past, the oil companies that were in Trinidad and Tobago were mainly multinationals and it was really through the calls and the struggle of the workers themselves that we have had the nationalization of our oil industry both in terms of production but also in terms of refining. The refinery at Trinidad and Tobago has been operated for almost a hundred years but of course the plant has been upgraded over a period of time and the workers movement has been very very active to ensure that we protect and defend the national patrimony of Trinidad and Tobago and when you have a major sector such as the energy sector being sold out literally to private interests we felt that at this moment necessary for workers to take a stand and step in in order to protect defend and guarantee that the national patrimony stays with the people of Trinidad and Tobago. And what are the latest developments in the issue right now because I think the union is on the verge of forming a separate company to take over the sector? The union actually has already established a separate company and it's actually in the process of preparing for a bid for the refinery and just to be clear how we see it ideologically this is about workers ownership. It is how workers can take the control and own assets in order to protect it from private interest in order to protect it for the people of Trinidad and Tobago. So that is what makes this move particularly historical and this is why we think in this particular moment in time this step is necessary. Now remember the government has closed down the company and they said that they're going to sell it but sell it to whom and in the end we're talking about energy sovereignty how would we maintain our sovereignty and our independence as a country if an important resource such as fuel ends up in the hands of private interest or even worse ends up in the hands of a multinational external to Trinidad and Tobago and this is why we feel we felt it necessary to take this step. And you also work in the area of educational research so could you describe the process of actually talking to workers while taking this step as in because it's such a huge step the workers actually running for management over there it's a massive step so what are the kind of processes that took place in organization. Well first of all you have to have a lot of mobilization meetings to meet with the workers even before the closure and after the closure in order to continually give a feedback to the workers but also to get the workers feeling a sense of patriotism to defend this important assets by taking ownership so the mobilization mass meetings is absolutely critical it's it in other words this is about how the working class can challenge the status quo by protecting national assets and the national patrimony from the hands of the elite few. And what has been the response of the state to this move by the workers? Well the state has made the offer so once the proposal is completed and submitted it will be interesting to see how the state will respond. We are of the beauty state may not be so interested to give it to the workers because of course they would like they would prefer to give it to their elite the elites but we feel by having a mass mobilization having a mass education and just to mention it's not only information and education in terms of the workers but also the general population you see a move like this will also require the support of communities it will require the support of working people across Trinidad and Tobago not only workers in the energy sector. And the final question we are in Venezuela right now to express solidarity with the Bolivarian Revolution so how does the working class of Trinidad and Tobago actually see this issue? Well I can tell you as we speak right now you have the social movements of organized demonstration where they have gathered outside the Venezuelan embassy and will be marching on to the US embassy in order to express what we see as to keep this region as a zone of peace because for workers we don't need aggression imperialist aggression in our region and especially remember Venezuela is very close to Trinidad and Tobago so there will be a knock on effect and I don't and what I'm sure about is that workers do not want to have their lives disrupted because you have a powerful neighbor to the north wanting the resources the natural resources of our neighbor to the south. Thank you Ozzy. Thank you. That's all we have time for today. Keep watching People's Dispatch.