The Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) salutes the women of the world on this International Women’s Day. It is indisputable that women have played an important role in the advancement of civilization and, increasingly today, they are engaged in all spheres of human endeavour in many countries of the world.
In-as-much that women have made worthy contributions to mankind’s development and generally made notable strides in their own lives they must still contend with multi-faceted problems – poverty, economic inequality, discrimination in work life, oppression and various manifestations of violence. Today, the heavy burden of austerity affect women – job opportunities are scarce; services they rely on are discontinued or are cut; working-women face exploitation; millions live with oppression literally on a daily basis, and yet millions make up the most recent phenomenon of refugees driven from their homes and countries mainly due to destructive wars of aggression and severe bombardment of their countries.
This year the United Nations (UN) theme is “I am Generation Equality: Realizing Women’s Rights”. We feel this is a laudable objective but recognize too that such lofty goals can only be realized societies which uphold democratic practices. We contend that undermining of democracy brings other rights, including the rights of women, into serious question and even doubt. In the struggles for the restoration of democracy our womenfolk played a pivotal role. It appears that today this generation of our women will have to walk in the footsteps of their foremothers to ensure that their rights are respected and democracy is upheld.
We are convinced that the women of the world and working-women especially remain a formidable force in mankind’s struggles to address unequal relationships and to bring about a just, democratic and peaceful world. With this in mind, we take this opportunity to express solidarity with our womenfolk worldwide and more so with our Guyanese womenfolk.
