ANOTHER anniversary of Enmore Martyrs’ Day has come around. GAWU has reflected long and hard as to what could be our theme, our message for this occasion, now an event that seems to hurry up upon us with deceptive frequency.

The Guyana Agricultural and General Workers’ Union (GAWU) has decided that the message of sacrifice -in their case, the ultimate sacrifice - is that which we should share, in the face of an apparent climate of uncertainty and attempted destabilisation of both government and the peaceful social order.

As the major representative of an recognised bargaining agent for the nation’s sugar workers, GAWU does not wish to impose the concept and virtue of sacrifice on a people who have endured struggle and sacrifice for most of their lives. Our forefathers suffered on the sugar plantations. Our grandparents endured the ignominies of colonialism and imperialism.

Even after the achievement of political independence Guyanese, as a nation, did not enjoy the good life all our natural resources and human potential had promised. Sacrifice, we could argue, has not fully compensated us materially. However, spiritually, the sacrifice of Cuffy, Damon, the Heroes of Numerous Sugar Dispute Fatalities; of Hubert Nathaniel Critchlow, the Enmore Martyrs, Kowsilla and Cheddi Jagan, have imbued us with a sense of resilience and determination to overcome.

Sadly, the seeds of disunity are now being sown by selfish interest groups. These seeds of unreasonable dissension can undermine our national cohesion and attempts at national solidarity. Guyana’s current murderous crime wave is, unfortunately, internationally, known.

Though the crime is not peculiar to our country, the viciousness and senselessness of recent and current execution is affecting the environment necessary for production and productivity for job-creation, commerce and industry for both local and foreign investment. This can benefit no group in the long run.

The escalation of crime and the hold-up of bandits as heroes can have a negative deadening effect on our young impressionable minds. GAWU, instead, offers the sacrifice of the Enmore Martyrs in 1948 as an event that should inspire today’s generation to agitate and demonstrate, within the provisions of our laws, for what they know to be right and just. Threats, intimidation and callous attacks on innocent, hard-working, law-abiding workers and citizens will seriously disrupt normal productive relations among various groups. This should be cease forthwith.

GAWU recognises Enmore, Buxton-Friendship, Kitty and other villages as exemplary locations wherein the anti-colonial, freedom struggles were waged. Let not these historical sites be desecrated by criminality and racism. A few of our members, workers in the sugar sector, have been harassed and threatened whilst on their way to or from work. Ill-will can spread like wild-fire. If this is the objective of some, let us, the majority who truly put Guyana first, shun and reject it - along with those who seem to be promoting it.

The message from Enmore Martyrs is one of sacrifice for the greater good. Not of destruction of all which has been achieved, or is being achieved - GAWU urges reflection on this Enmore Martyr’s day.