THE Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG) yesterday presented a Statement of Support and Solidarity to President Donald Ramotar to commemorate International Action Day of the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU).

FITUG made its presentation in response to a request emanating from its affiliate, the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), which is a member of the WFTU.
FITUG joined hundreds of working-class representative organisations worldwide in demonstrating, in some manner, their abhorrence of anti-worker policies, actions and aggression.
This year’s International Day of Action was based on the slogan of the WFTU: ‘Food, Clean Water, Books, Medicines and Housing is a Right for All the Workers and the Peoples’.
A press release from FITUG said that strikes, demonstrations, protests and gatherings outside parliaments, popular courts, outside the gates of the factories and multinational organisations will be organised all around the world.
International Action Day seeks to highlight and focus attention to the serious and grave conditions under which billions of humans, especially in the developing world, must face up to and exist in our day.
“Instead of declining, the statistics indicate that the situation is becoming horrifyingly worse. The systemic crisis that has gripped the “developed” world since 2008 has pushed untold millions across the world into the ranks of the poor and powerless. With no end in sight to the global crisis that has beset capitalism, those ranks will certainly be further swollen,” FITUG stated.
FITUG said it recognises the advances made in Guyana in the social sectors on which International Action Day focuses. At the same time, it recognises that much work lies ahead.
FITUG said, too, that it is sympathetic to the view reiterated by the WFTU that a country’s resources should go primarily to the well-being of its people, and the country’s development thrust.
According to FITUG’s press release, that federation looks forward to sustained efforts from the international community, international organisations, and national leaders to address the myriad problems identified, and urges that collective and sustained efforts be made to seek a change of the system that places profits before people.