In its independence message the Guyana Agriculture and General Workers Union (GAWU) said it celebrates the Guyanese defiance of dictatorship and applauds current attempts to rescue the country’s socio-economic independence from both internal and external factors and enemies.

According to the union the “existence of constitutional freedoms and human rights is an appropriate environment for the new millennium’s developments we now experience determined to take root – in agriculture where sugar still thrives…”.

It said the country has come a far way in the areas of housing, health and education and with the social services guaranteed in every national budget since 1993. There has been major advancement in industrial and information communication technology and investment, even in the constant structural battle to thwart the consequences of climate change, the rains and the floods.

The union said that while there is bound to be a debate about just what political/governmental independence has brought the country, when economic survival, let alone independence, has been an elusive challenge, it has always argued that there are significant, lasting achievements to celebrate and to persevere.