Dear Editor,
Linden Town Day celebrations started in the year 1996 with three days of activities which were intended to showcase Region 10 as it relates to culture, drama, art and craft and agriculture, among other things. It saw an invasion of local and overseas visitors, which give Linden Town a look like that of Labour Day in Brooklyn, New York, where Guyanese are caught up in various activities yearly.
Starting with Friday night and the Wismar shore, the Saturday night pageant at the Mackenzie Sports Club ground and Sunday‘s exhibition and Street Lime on Republic Avenue, Linden Town Day, as it was called, was extended to one week when it was held by the Kashif and Shanghi organization, and continues to be so until now. It is held during the last week of April every year and concludes on the last Sunday. In some cases, Labour Day and Town Day or Town Week activities are caught up in the same time period, which is of great concern to trade unionists. They claim the Town Week celebrations have imposed themselves on the May Day activities, thus rendering these less important. In my honest opinion – and I know I’m not alone in my views – with the absence of Linmine, which had the largest and strongest union movement in Linden town, workers generally have become complacent, disenchanted and less interested in unions; some workers have also openly expressed dissatisfaction with some of the unions‘ executives.
Many years ago, May Day rallies saw the participation of a wide cross-section of Lindeners, and included workers from Linmine, the post office, GT&T, housewives, market vendors, taxi and minibus drivers, also non-working people, schoolchildren, the Mayor and Town Council Constabulary, the Linmine Constabulary and band – and the list goes on.
Owing to the unemployment situation today in Linden town, people have lost faith in their leaders and have become non-supportive not just of May Day, but of many other things. While the unionists are shouting foul at the Town Week‘s organizers, let them not forget people have their right to choose whether they want to participate in May Day activities or not. I’m a strong supporter of labour, but it‘s my view that people‘s non-participation in May Day activities has nothing to do with the Town Week celebrations; we just want to have a jolly time.
One of my greatest concerns is that Linden town needs a massive, massive clean-up campaign. How can we celebrate such an occasion in garbage? It‘s time to clean up our leaders also.
Yours faithfully,
B Winslow Parris
