Anniversary of the attacks on Charlie Hebdo - Condolences from the GWU

The Secretary-General, Mr. Josef Bugeja, read out the following message:

GWU stands in solidarity with the people of France.
Your Excellency,
We as General Workers’ Union are here today to express once again our solidarity with the French people.
Our visit is part of a European Trade Union Confederation action in commemorating all the French victims of the cowardly terrorist acts of the past year. We together with other European Trade Unions are joining forces against all sorts of terrorism.
We want to take this first anniversary from the Charlie Hebdo attack to urge all those of good will to never cease in their struggle against acts of terror and hope that the murderous attacks on the friendly people of Paris will not serve to shut down our liberties as civilized Europeans. These terrorist acts are against our way of living.
We should not allow such bloody acts to destroy all the efforts for a better, social, just and peaceful world.
We, together with the European trade union movement, condemn without reservation these barbaric murders. There can be no justification for the deliberate, cold-blooded taking of people’s lives, for causing injury and trauma, for bringing grief to the family and friends of the victims. Religion is about peace and cannot be used as a pretext for terrorists to attack and kill innocent people. There is no place for extremism and fundamentalism in today’s world.
We commend the bravery of the police, security and emergency services, and ordinary citizens, during and after the attacks.
We all stand firm against those who want to create fear, and turn the citizens of Europe against each other. We reject any attempt to divide us by religion, nationality, ethnicity, skin colour or any other irrelevant difference.
We are proud of our work towards a more tolerant and social Europe and we will continue to foster tolerance, and to respect and celebrate diversity.
We stand together with the French People for all the values of solidarity, social justice, democracy, tolerance and peace. We will work effortlessly on National and European level with all others social partner to defend and promote these values.
The GWU will remain committed, both at local and European Level, in its plight towards unity between peoples and for a just and peaceful society built on reciprocal respect for diversity of views, beliefs and opinions.
Once again in name of the GWU administration, Section Secretaries, National Council I express our sincere condolences for the loss of life and to stand in solidarity with the people of France.

The French Embassy wishes to thank the General Workers Union in Malta (GWU) and all those who have shown their support in memory of the victims of the attacks of January 2015.