FITUG says this generation of Guyanese should reflect on the act of emancipation and decide on what freedom truly means.
In a press release the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG) which represents the majority of workers today should look at emancipation from various perspectives. “Who really gained between 1833, 1834 and full freedom in 1838?” FITUG asks. “More importantly, did emancipation really usher in true liberation for the Africans whose descendants celebrate the events of those years, over this weekend?”
The nation should use this period of observance to evaluate and contemplate what true full, freedom means, it said, adding “Is it not a state of mind and attitude, as well as the physical, material status of being an independent agent?” FITUG said the nation “must consider carefully which modern day disguised slave masters would deny workers their civic and human rights. And when government or private sector employer seeks to compromise the working-class their just rewards, should not all collective solidarity be labour’s response?” it asked.
FITUG said citizens should enjoy the festivities but they should also analyse for the working-class quality of life as it is now and then let “our representatives, all of them, be made to [respond] to our needs.”
