Confusion in British Guiana

...The British, however, continued to be non-committal...

...In many cases, they gave way after a few years to more thoughtful and stable kinds of leaders—although Bustamante remains an exception to this rule...

...The remainder consists of a variety of people of British, Chinese, Portuguese, American Indian and mixed ancestry...

...The population of the country consists of something under 45% Negroes, a bit more than 45% people of East Indian origin or descent, whose forebears were brought into the colony as indentured servants after the Negroes abandoned the sugar plantations in the wake of emancipation...

...With the separation of Burnham and others from the PPP to form the Peoples National Congress, the PNC leaders violently attacked the Jagans and their friends for their pro-Communist leanings...

...The British, as is their wont, took warning from this uprising of 1937-38...

...Sydney King, a member of the 1953 cabinet, was the chief figure in this group, most of whose members soon abandoned their overt Communist sympathies...

...Some miles into the interior there are rich deposits of bauxite, which have been developed by Reynolds and Alcoa, and this product constitutes the second most important export...

...It is not clear to this day who was responsible for the riots...

...The principal figures in this movement were often very picturesque...

...It shares the problems of the Latin American republics and of the countries newly emerging to independence...

...With adequate development of these resources, British Guiana could undoubtedly support a population many times its present size...

...The immediate cause of the insurrection was a new tax program of the Jagan government, which involved not only excess profits levies but increased imposts on small incomes as well...

...It proclaimed its objective to be self-government for British Guiana, and announced that it was "independent Marxist" and "Socialist...

...A great deal of capital is going to be needed for this endeavor, and this capital is going to be hard to obtain...

...Cheddi Jagan himself was listed in those days as the British Guiana representative of the World Federation of Trade Unions, and unions under PPP control belonged to the WFTU...

...However, the economic potentialities of the nation are great...

...Tension reached the point of explosion in February 1962, when serious riots broke out in Georgetown, during which much of the commercial part of the city was burned to the ground...

...The PPP won for the third time in 1961...

...The overdevelopment of the sugar industry in the latter half of the 18th century had ended the era of fabulous prosperity of the landowners of the region, which had resulted in many fortunes, as well as in the transport of hundreds of thousands of Africans to the region to do the work in the cane fields, people whose descendants make up the bulk of the population throughout most of the Caribbean area to this day...

...Thus, the old evil of British Guianese politicsracism— was revived in full force...

...At the same time, the economic situation of the colony has not been such as to allow the government to engage in any spectacular economic development program which might generate widespread backing...

...The PPP ignored the question of race...

...For a century thereafter, the islands and mainland colonies of the region were the scene of vast misery, grinding poverty and the steady decline of the institutions of self-government established in the 18th century...

...So, it seems highly dobtful that the PPP will be able by an anti-British campaign to recapture the ground which they have lost...

...British Guiana has participated fully in this anti-colonial revolt of the last quarter of a century...

...If Jagan should fall, a general election would probably not give a clear majority to any party...

...However, it is clear that the government undertook to introduce into the legislature a law patterned after the Wagner Act, which would undoubtedly have resulted in the elimination of the Man Power Citizens Association, which was controlled by anti-Jagan elements, and the substitution as the chief labor organization of the colony the PPP's own Guiana Workers Industrial Union...

...He made several trips to London to discuss the matter, and although the British reiterated their intention ultimately to give complete sovereignty to the colony, they were exceedingly reluctant about fixing a final date for independence...

...The Jaganites received about 42% of the total vote, Burnham and the Peoples National Congress received approximately 41 0, with the rest going to a new party organized a few months before the election, the United Force, headed by a well-to-do businessman of Portuguese origins, Peter Daguiar...

...the party's paper Thunder was unashamedly pro-Soviet and engaged (albeit in somewhat muted tones) in most of the international Communist propaganda campaigns of the period...

...It is still not clear what motivated the British to overthrow the first PPP government...

...However, after his death in the mid 1940's the MPCA declined in militancy and popularity, and by the early 1950's was virtually a company union, a state from which it has been rescued only in very recent years...

...However, this time its majority was greatly reduced...

...Most of the Guianese are exceedingly poor...

...This had been foreshadowed for some time...

...Second, when this party did appear, it was Communist-oriented...

...The desertion of two more PPP members would result in the fall of the Jagan government, and a new election...

...Even more serious from the PPP point of view, however, is the fact that the riots seem to have provoked a split in the solid ranks of the East Indian supporters of Jagan and the PPP...

...If Jagan is able to work this procrastination up into a popular issue, he may be able to save the political position of his party...

...The effects of the riot have been adverse for the PPP...

...Generally, the urban population is Negro, the countryfolk are East Indian...

...At the same time, its common borders with Venezuela and Brazil and its nearness to the European colonies and ex-colonies, gives it considerable strategic importance...

...This is due in large part to the clear racial delineation which became evident in the 1961 poll...

...Second, the riots gave the British authorities a chance to opine once again that independence remained "somewhat in the future," which observation brought forth a bitter denunciation by Jagan and a statement that he was now dubious about whether British Guiana would remain in the Commonwealth once it had achieved independence...

...Since the February events, the middle class and wealthy Indian traders have become increasingly dubious of the government party...

...They took over the government in June 1953 and remained in power until October of the same year...

...For whatever reasons, the British government in October 1953 landed troops in the colony, suspended the constitution and removed the Jagan government...

...As if by common accord a wave of unrest, punctuated by widespread strikes and violent political demonstrations spread throughout the British, French and Dutch parts of the Caribbean...

...And at this point it is not at all certain that Cheddi Jagan and the PPP will be the ones to pilot it into the sea of complete sovereignty...

...However, there is no doubt that racism tinged the riots, some of the principal victims being the East Indian merchants of the capital...

...Although sugar, which is sold principally to the British, is the country's main crop, there has been a considerable increase in rice production during recent years...

...This movement resulted in the establishment of two different kinds of institutions in each colony—a trade-union movement and one or more political parties—which were usually closely intertwined, and frequently had an identical leadership...

...As a result, there has been no opportunity to establish a dictatorship...

...Only a relatively slight shift of Indian voters would deprive the Peoples Progressive Party of its majority...

...Suddenly, in 1937-38 this whole situation changed...

...Thus, the future of British Guiana remains somewhat obscure...

...Meanwhile, in January 1955 a split occurred within the PPP...

...The abolition of slavery during the first half of the 19th century completed the destruction of the era of sugar prosperity...

...In organization and name patterned after Norman Manley's Peoples National Party in Jamaica, it differed from the PNP in basic political orientation...

...They have not even enjoyed the sympathy of much of the civil service, which is largely of Negro extraction...

...The population has been increasing rapidly in recent years, and the economic development of the country has not kept up with the rising number of people...

...British Guiana is essentially a sugar colony...

...This process is now entering its last phase, with Jamaica and Trinidad already having achieved their independence, the rest of the British Caribbean islands organized in the East Caribbean Federation likely to be a sovereign nation collectively within another couple of years, and British Guiana also having been promised independence, with no definite date being set for it...

...At the same time, he also had to drop his tax plans, with the result that the government has been faced with a rising deficit...

...A full-fledged Communist victory in British Guiana might potentially be of much greater significance to the hemisphere than the advent of the Castro regime in Cuba...

...Although Jagan has constantly proclaimed his desire to encourage foreign investment, fear of what he will do once foreign investors have come into the country has hampered his attempts to bring in new enterprises...

...Ever since the election, the country has been characterized by mounting political tension...

...The nearest thing to political parties which existed were two loose organizations of citizens of East Indian and African descent, and racism was the chief ingredient of political discussion...

...Finally, the whole situation has been very much confused and complicated by a serious race division within the country...

...They have not had charge of the police and armed forces...

...However, in spite of Jagan's pre-election protests that the British had gerrymandered election districts to the disadvantage of his party, the PPP won a majority of nineteen of the thirty-five members of the legislature...

...However, in spite of Jagan's optimism, British Guiana still appears to be some distance from full independence...

...A few months after the 1961 election, Cheddi Jagan visited the United States and Canada, seeking financial aid for the economic development of the country...

...They began a process of political reorganization in the area, which in a series of steps turned the government of the individual colonies over to elected representatives, and also gave some encouragement to moves to diversify their economies...

...Soon after his return, Jagan was elected to the colonial legislature, and thereafter he set about the task of organizing a real political party...

...The PPP has expelled one of its East Indian ministers from his post and the party, and his joining the opposition has reduced the PPP to a majority of only two...

...Jagan won out, and during the 1953 government was the recognized leader of the elected ministers...

...In the virtually uninhabited interior, it has vast forest regions, tremendous hydro-electric resources, and virtually unexplored and unexploited mineral reserves...

...If Jagan remains in power, the British will probably continue to procrastinate as long as possible about granting independence to the colony...

...Even in 1953 there had been a struggle within the party over the leadership, with L.F.S...

...There is little doubt that Jagan and his friends have had the hardest time faced by any pro-Communist group which has had power in any country in recent decades...

...A government with a frank Communist leadership might be able to get some aid from the Soviet Union and its satellites...

...The present situation in British Guiana must be traced back to the years immediately preceding World War II...

...However, it met with immediate success...

...Then right after World War II there returned from schooling in the States a young East Indian dentist, Dr...

...For one thing, the initial revolt of 1937-38 gave rise only to a trade-union movement, and it was more than a decade before a political party appeared on the scene...

...It included within its ranks Indians such as Jagan and Dr...

...Jagan made it clear that if his party won, he would go to London for "final" negotiations...

...First, they entailed a full-fledged investigation by a British commission, which did not enhance the prestige of the Jagan government...

...During 1937-38 the revolt in British Guiana brought into existence a new trade-union organization with the unique name of the Man Power Citizens Association, which had its main strength among the sugar workers, who made up the largest work force of the colony and were predominantly of East Indian extraction...

...Burnham and Ashton Chase, secretary general of the colony's oldest labor organization, the British Guiana Labor Union...

...Nevertheless, the British went ahead with a program of extending self-government in the colony, and as a result of the first (and last) elections under a new constitution in 1953, the Peoples Progressive Party won an overwhelming victory...

...He discussed this problem not only with government officials of the two northern nations, but likewise with businessmen who might be interested in investing in British Guiana...

...A small group of predominantly African leaders withdrew, charging that Jagan was not sufficiently pushing the Communist line in the colony, and was being too compromising with the British and with other political elements in the country...

...However, it is not impossible that they may join with Peter Daguiar's United Force to form a group which would have the balance of power in the country's politics...

...In this case, a coalition government would be necessary...

...Although it is about the size of Great Britain, its population numbers only about halt a million, and most of its people live within a few miles of the ocean, on land which has been rescued from the sea and is guarded by dikes which were originally built by the Dutch, who held the colony for two centuries before the British seized it during the Napoleonic Wars...

...It was led by Ayude Edun, a colorful East Indian, and as long as he was alive the MPCA was a militant union and succeeded in making significant gains for the sugar workers...

...The PPP has been in charge of the government since its victory in 1957...

...Here, as elsewhere in America, the great question is whether economic development and rising living standards can be achieved while democratic liberties are preserved, or whether the people will turn in desperation to totalitarianism...

...The British subsequently claimed that the PPP ministers were also trying to subvert the police and the armed forces, which as yet remained under the control of the British-appointed governor...

...With his new victory, Jagan was officially recognized as Premier of the government of British Guiana, the British explaining that "premier" would be converted into "prime minister" when the colony received its independence constitution...

...The Peoples Progressive Party immediately gained wide support...

...From the beginning, however, the pro-Communist orientation of the PPP was obvious...

...Previous to that time, the colonies of the West Indies had lived in a kind of backwash of history...

...As a result of this, the party's assumption of power was postponed for almost two months after it had won the election...

...In spite of the presence of a considerable number of Negroes in the leadership of the PPP, the party's strength was confined almost completely to the East Indian rural areas...

...Whatever government guides British Guiana during the next few years is going to face grave difficulties...

...It was popular among the Indian sugar workers, probably because of Jagan's own Indian and plantation background...

...Throughout his period in power, Jagan has continued to press the British on the question of independence for British Guiana...

...At the same time Jagan announced that it was his objective to preserve political democracy in the country, and that upon achieving independence British Guiana would remain part of the Commonwealth, and would join the Organization of American States...

...In any case, the future of British Guiana is of great importance to all of its American neighbors...

...Some farmers also grow garden crops...

...The legislature contained only a minority of elected members, and the franchise for choosing these was very restricted...

...At the same time, the French territories of the area have been given the status of departments of Metropolitan France, and the Dutch regions have been organized into two semi-independent partners in the Dutch monarchy, Surinam and the Netherlands Antilles...

...Events within the country and continued British procrastination explain the slow pace of developments...

...This situation has been made worse by the need to rationalize the country's sugar production, in order to keep British Guiana cane competitive in world markets, a process which has seriously reduced the number of workers employed in sugar...

...However, it also had the backing of most of the largely Negro workingclass of Georgetown and other urban centers...

...The riots seriously imperilled the Jagan government...

...Soon after the legislature met, the govern ment introduced a motion urging "immediate independence," a move supported by the Peoples National Congress members...

...Lachmansingh, but also had important younger leaders of the African community, such as lawyer L.F.S...

...Their victory was by a narrower margin, and they lost in Georgetown and other urban centers, but their support was solid among the East Indian sugar workers, as well as among many East Indian middle class elements in the towns...

...He returned home with a glowing report on possibilities of foreign help, possibilities which have so far not become certainties...

...One strange aspect of the riots which confuses the picture is the fact that only about a week before, most of the Indian merchants in the center of town took out riot insurance...

...Cheddi Jagan, bringing along with him his American wife, Janet, who had reportedly been a Young Communist League leader in Chicago in the late 1930's...

...The premier was forced to call in British troops to save his regime...

...Unemployment is rising, and relatively little progress has been made in developing the country's economic resources...

...A number of the then leaders of the party were frank to tell the writer in 1953 that in the world division between the Communists and the West, the PPP was with the former...

...At the same time, they proclaimed themselves to be democratic Socialists, and formed more or less close links with other democratic Socialist groups in the Caribbean, such as the Peoples National Party of Jamaica...

...At about the same time, the PPP suffered another split, this time to the left...

...Under the circumstances, the PPP would have no assurance of victory at the polls...

...The Indian middle and upper class people will certainly not join the Peoples National Congress, dominated as it is by the Negroes...

...Burnham aspiring to unseat Cheddi Jagan as the principal figure in the PPP government...

...A British Guiana with a democratic government which was part of the OAS might be able to get some help from the Alliance for Progress, as well as from the British...

...In spite of these setbacks, the PPP triumphed again when elections were called once more in 1957...

...If a stable coalition regime could be established, the British would probably find their way clear to grant the independence they have promised for so long...

...Meanwhile, the political life of the colony remained almost unchanged for a long time...

...All this has already created a precarious situation for the Jagan government in the legislature...

...However, in spite of pro-independence declarations of Burnham, there is something less than enthusiasm for complete sovereignty for the colony among the Negroes (and perhaps among the more well-to-do Indians) so long as Jagan remains in control...

...For a time at least, it put an end to the classic division of the country's political opinion along racial lines...

...The August 1961 election was looked upon generally as a prelude to independence...

...The possibility of this would depend on the ability of Burnham to curb the Negro racist elements who support him, and to reach an agreement with the United Force and the more conservative Indian elements...

...Until recent years most of the sugar workers lived in barracks-like houses originally built for indentured servants...

...East Indian solidarity has become less important in their eyes than the pro-Communist position of the PPP and its leader...

...At the same time, the Peoples National Congress received almost complete support of the Negro workingclass in the cities and towns, while the United Force won principally in urban middle class constituencies...

...The government claimed that it was elements of the opposition, the latter accused members of the PPP...

...For the next four years the colony was run by an appointed "interim" government, and during most of this period the PPP leaders suffered serious legal restrictions on their freedom of action...

...Some were jailed for short periods, and virtually all were put under a kind of "town arrest," being forbidden to leave their home areas...

...However, it has had certain peculiar characteristics which have made the process more complicated and will perhaps postpone its culmination for some time...

...The upshot of his activities was the establishment in 1950 of the Peoples Progressive Party...

...Such men as Uriah Butler of Trinidad and William Alexander Bustamante were colorful demagogues who were very good orators but lacked ideas or a program...