The Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) is once again sending its members and the Guyanese nation at large, the very best wishes for a glorious but peaceful Christmas, and the well planned, successful 2011. Every year, we at GAWU are reminded about the powerful pull this Christian Festival has on nearly all of our peoples. Indeed, Christmas has become a premier national celebration on Guyana’s Cultural Calendar of Events.

Non-Christians seem not to be able to resist the lure of even the non-Guyanese physical aspects of the festival – the decorative holly and ivy, Father Christmas, pine Christmas trees and winter songs. Many of our own members – Christian and non-Christian alike – use the children or the year-end as excuses to decorate, to refurbish, to splurge. There is nothing wrong with joining in Christmas celebrations within one’s means.

The Christian Christ Child, born of humble working-class parents in a stable, did not inspire extravagance and wastage. So, as GAWU reminds all of the spiritual, religious significance of the season, we remember those who, right now in Guyana, have just experienced unfortunate challenges and set-backs. We refer to those who, this year, suffered the dire, sometimes ultimate, consequences of domestic violence, traffic accidents, violent crime, and hinterland-oriented and universal disease. We refer to our brothers and sisters at Barama and in the bauxite sector who have lost their jobs. We refer to our FITUG colleagues who faced employment and other industrial problems at GPL or DDL and elsewhere. Our own workers in the sugar industry have had to endure a very insensitive attitude from the employer. We hope that the spirit of this season will lead to a more humane treatment in the year ahead.

Religious inspiration drawn from the Christmas-time legacy of gifts from others must be directed to those who are in greater need. Faith keeps all races and religions going; but, so too, does actual bread and butter. As GAWU wishes our national leaders and decision- makers a good Christmas, we urge them to match their seasonal greetings with real, rather than symbolic gestures. Give bonuses; give practical plans and assistance to your workers for a better quality of life. They need to be balanced in their approach to labour and capital. As they do so much to encourage those with the capital, there must be a special effort to recognise and appreciate the circumstances of those who labour. Such an approach is necessary if we are to give hope for a great Guyanese future.

That, after all, is what the birth and life of the Christian Christ Child is about. Peace and goodwill to all mankind, joy to the world, including Guyanese. A peaceful, happy Christmas from GAWU.
May 2011 bring better days, weeks and months.