The Guyana Agricultural and General workers Union (GAWU) says that the primary participants in emancipation month activities, African-Guyanese, must be motivated to “analyse and assess just where the historical moment finds them” after the celebratory events in the groups, villages and towns.

In its Freedom Day message, GAWU also noted that it has hundreds of members who are descended from the emancipated slaves, today’s African-Guyanese, and the union holds fast to the conclusion arrived at a few years ago by an official of the African Cultural and Development  Association that “without emancipation there would have been no Arrival Day.

“Historical events revolving around one of our earliest groups have impacted upon all of us in one manner or the other,” and this is a truth that all Guyanese should ponder at this time.

In that light, GAWU called on the African-Guyanese community “to contemplate how much of this shared history has thrown up circumstances which determined their status in Guyana today.”  The union said they should study too “how other groups of the population benefited from the history and lessons of their own fore-parents.”

Moreover, GAWU urged that they consider if  today’s status has been foisted because of unfair or inequitable distribution of resources and opportunity, and  what can be done to ensure fairer representation and adequate access to needed resources.

This emancipation anniversary should be used to really free-up that which is pent up and “public and private entities which benefit from the generosity of African-Guyanese must be made to give back,” GAWU declared.