– as Jagdeo promotes Ramotar’s Presidential qualitiesBy Sharmain CornetteThough the gathering was somewhat scanty at the National Park, with workers primarily occupying the eastern stand,NFL Jerseys Outlet, the rally orchestrated by the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG) to commemorate Labour Day yesterday saw speakers echoing the call to sustain the fight for the betterment of the working class.The event was graced by President of the Republic of Guyana, Bharrat Jagdeo, who delivered the feature address.? The President pointed out that FITUG has over the years grown in reputation even as he underscored that the umbrella body which covers four unions – the Guyana Labour Union (GLU), the Clerical and Commercial Workers Union (CCWU) and the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) – has consistently fought for the rights of all Guyanese and not just the working class. He amplified too that FITUG continues to demonstrate the capacity to lead the trade union movement “at this critical juncture in our history when most things are changing in the world and we too are changing here in Guyana.”? According to the President, local efforts are being directed at creating a modern economy which could satisfy the needs of our people.”A section of the gathering stands as they sing Solidarity Forever.Though he did not speak at length yesterday, the President hinted at the possibility of being able to speak more extensively with the workers at a later date. He however urged those in attendance to seek after information about economic recession, a state of affairs that has gripped the world.? He pointed out that today the world is faced with one of the worse economic recessions since the 1930s, which as a consequence, has caused millions of people to become unemployed.?? He speculated that there are perhaps 50 million people who have lost their jobs across the world with 10 million alone in the United States of America. He revealed further that in the United States alone, 15 million people have lost their homes or are on the verge of losing their homes because of their inability to pay their mortgages even as a massive reduction in social welfare occurs in Europe. Most of these countries today, he noted, exhibit features that Guyana once had, inclusive of a declining economy, a growing fiscal deficit and debt service figures that would by any standard make them bankrupt.? “Countries like Spain and Portugal and the others have to seek external help to get out of bankruptcy. We were there once in Guyana! We were there when 94 percent of our revenue went to service debts; we were there when our debt was seven and a half times the size of our economy.? Do you know where we are today? Our debt today stands,cheap nfl jerseys, if you take out the Paris Club Creditors, at some 35 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and we use four percent of revenue to service our debt.”The developed countries on the other hand, President Jagdeo added, have gone in the other direction.? He pointed out that while Governments in some developed countries have been cutting finance to universities, Guyana has been increasing such funding. He revealed, too, that thousands of people are marching across Europe in retaliation to governmental moves to increase the age for pension and even freeze its availability altogether. “Thousands more are marching because their wages are frozen and their government is laying-off massive numbers like the United Kingdom. In fact, half a million people in the next three years would be laid off in the United Kingdom.”“This poses one question…If things were so bad in Guyana in the past how did we manage, without harming workers’ rights, to bring the macroeconomic fundamentals back to stability? This comes back to the nature of the Government that we head – the People Progress Party/Civic Government.”? He asserted that even from the days of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and even when the party was in opposition, to the days after it assumed power, “we have never succumbed to the IMF prescription that there should be large scale lay-off in the Public Sector. We have never ever done that.”The President further emphasised that if one was to look at wages and salaries from the time that the PPP/C assumed office, the percentage increased is in fact over 500.? According to him “those who talk about Guyana’s inflation can adjust those to US dollars inflation and you will see the massive changes there.”But although there has been a significant effort to increase wages, President Jagdeo noted that the Government yet recognises that it has a long way to go, adding that “you will never hear any PPP leader claim that we are where we want to be.” Wages and salaries,NFL Jerseys Cheap, he said, must grow with the economy, a phenomeno