We welcome retirement of TG District Officer

Equality Rights group GGR has today welcomed the announcement of arrangements for Luis Montiel's departure from the post of TGWU District Officer as of next month, saying that “it is good to see that Union Headquarters has arranged for the happy retirement of Mr Montiel. It will be for others now to deal with the legacy of decline in membership figures and disillusionment among the membership. And this despite TG's strong and progressive social politics. We are glad to see, however, that in his final phase Mr Montiel has made an effort to assist in obtaining some benefits for his members.”

“We trust that in choosing a new District Officer both TG Headquarters and the Gibraltar branch will have read the message of the last 11 years and learnt the lesson that workers in Gibraltar must no longer allow the kind of incursions of power interests which have permitted the kind of right wing hold on Gibraltar’s progress that we have seen and return the Union to its crucial role as a vital social agent in Gibraltar.”

Nothing positive about new political party!

Equality Rights group GGR has commented on the launch of ex Government-Minister Keith Azzopardi’s recently launched new political party by saying that “It is in our view fair comment to say that to believe that a politician who has occupied the highest levels of Government for several terms and done nothing to bring about the “progressive” politics he now wishes to sell us until the moment when his own political career prospects have been affected says very little about Mr Azzopardi’s party being any kind of “political alternative” whatsoever!”

“The candidacies of Rosemary Peach and Marilu Guerrero are similarly questionable. On the one hand, in our opinion, never has the Women’s Association been as inactive or expressed less solidarity with the community of Gibraltar than during Ms Peach’s chairmanship. In fact, in our view, she has been spectacularly unforthcoming in supporting the many disadvantaged sectors of our society when her role might have been helpful. She did nothing, for instance, to campaign either for the introduction of legislation against child sex offenders or to support the disabled in Gibraltar. She is not, in our view, a candidate to inspire hope in anything other than a desire to reach a political position. Ms Guerrero, while a strong personality and hard worker in her own corner, has, similarly not been known for “moderate” solidarity with social progress which Mr Azzopardi wishes to project as the centre of his campaign. Given the, in our view, singular track record of both Ms Peach and Guerrero in always sitting on a fence and thus avoiding being seen to support any social causes by always insisting they were “not political”, we are amazed at their new-found political consciousness! All in all, Mr Azzopardi’s new-fangled party lacks credibility or substance!”