Cheddi Japan: Independence leader and former president, Guyana
Murillo, Mario & Rosen, Fred
Dr Jagan, you've been referred to in the U.S. press as an unabashed Stalinist and a Moscow-inspired purist, and on the other hand you've been referred to as a former Marxist who has seen the...
...We are examining everything very carefully and not accepting the IMF prescription as the one and only model...
...For me, Marxism neither was nor is dogma, but a scientific guide to action...
...We signed it, and now anyone is entitled to go to the UN with any discrimination case he 33VOICES ON THE LEFT or she may have...
...Developing countries will continue to be marginalized if we do not collectively seek a new global order...
...Many have stated that the new method of U.S...
...The Cold War was a historical process that was going on at that time, and we became the victims...
...Not only will the people be forced to grow marijuana, but they will become refugees to the North...
...Indians are just over 50% occa of the population, and not all of them vote for us...
...We have taken this position all along riminations in the Caribbean Community (Caricom), and throughout the hemi- e United sphere, that we have to act together...
...A statement by the former Prime Minister of Dominica makes it clear that if the banana goes-and their income depends nearly 70% upon bananas-then the people will be forced to grow marijuana...
...In this regard, I think we made mistakes...
...In this careful walk between this "Washington Consensus" and a genuine Latin American agenda, with which you identify how do you accomodate privatization and low wages to attract foreign investors...
...We have only allowed them airline passage over our territory, but we must be kept constantly informed the past...
...government's way of dealing with it, we they took the line that we must not only deal with the symptoms-narcotics zed my production and trafficking -but also it on two with development, In two important regions in Guyana, ons...
...press as an unabashed Stalinist and a Moscow-inspired purist, and on the other hand you've been referred to as a former Marxist who has seen the light and is now a converted practitioner of free-market economics...
...the northwest near Venezuela and the south near Brazil, people once produced quality peanuts...
...In order to overcome poverty, we have to get to the root problem of development...
...However, there are experiments going on in different parts of the world-in Cuba and China, for example-and now in Russia a struggle is being waged between those who still want some form of socialism and those who want to pursue a capitalist course...
...As a matter of fact, it was the gunning down of sugar workers in 1948 which propelled me into the anti-fascist struggle for national and social liberation, and in particular the anti-colonial struggle for an end to foreign domination...
...You have referred to Cold War hysteria in the United States and the developments that led to your ouster How do you view the relationship between the United States and Guyana today...
...There is a great distinction between theory and principles on one hand, and practice on the other...
...When I was in the government in the 1950s, there was no marijuana grown here...
...A lot of those deals have proven to be a failure...
...And if we cannot sell our peanuts from these two regions then what are the people to do...
...Mandela came up with the formula of bringing the opposition in-we had made several attempts to bring about unity in our country...
...We have inherited IMF and World Bank programs that were implemented by the previous government...
...At our Congress two years ago, we said that we had to walk carefully, skillfully and scientifically between VOL XXXI, No 1 JULY/AUG 1997 hionable k about Ilapse of nd socialism, ot Marxism ollapsed but e of its ers...
...If they cannot get visas to go, they will go illegally...
...What impact has the clash between the neoliberal model and socialism had on Guyana...
...How do you feel about these things in Guyana...
...The most important struggle is to seek a new international balance of interests in this period of globalization and liberalization...
...We hope that cases against ti can then be brought to the Sta Commission, not to the UN or some other international body like the and Brit OAS...
...Before we entered politics in the 1940s-long before Mr...
...Different people see and call working-class ideology by different names...
...Well, I have always associated myself with the ideology of the working class, and I have led a very strong working-class party for the past 47 years...
...I grew up on a sugar plantation...
...This issue has a long history in Guyana...
...when these operations are happening...
...We have signed the optional protocol to the UN on several nonpolitical rights, which the previous government refused to sign...
...Let me just say that socialism is not on the agenda in Guyana...
...That was the goal for a developed economy...
...We struggled in British Guiana for the right to vote, and later to raise living standards and to try to transform the colonial economy, in which we were just producers of raw materials, sending things abroad and getting very little in return...
...I have praised the United States...
...We also have a task force for racial equality, headed by a very distinguished bishop of the Anglican church...
...So that struggle is going to continue...
...conformity and transformation...
...a great Well, I would say that socialism has between suffered a setback with the collapse of pra the world's socialist systems...
...Sugar was king...
...We were not creative It's fasl enough in adopting programs which were in keeping with our own con- to tall crete condition...
...When that White Paper is The past i! debated in the Parliament, we hope to pass a law on racial equality...
...In the 1992 elections, there were many irregularities...
...I have no recriminations against the U.S...
...Our concept of the co Guyana Socialism was premised on plural, peaceful, multi-party states Marxism ai with mixed forms of ownership...
...And we have said that we don't want a model where foreign companies will hold a majority of the shares, and therefore control of the management and the board...
...But because many colonial peoples, especially in the British Empire, looked at the British experience and had links to the social democraNACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICASVOICES ON THE LEFT tic Labor Party in England, our practice was more or less taken from theirs...
...How would you describe your political and economic evolution over the past 30 years...
...They are getting a special price in Europe that is being contested by certain free-trade interests...
...intervention in Latin America and the Caribbean is the war on drugs, and many countries have approved the hot pursuit of narcotics traffickers on their territory...
...In this regard we are trying to move very carefully because we need balance-of-payment support of $40-45 million a year from the World Bank, IMF and the developed countries...
...We alone will not form the government...
...This is not the most important struggle that we have going on now...
...that has c Given the state of inequality in the som world today, where there is a greater percentage of poor people than ever practition before, do you still see some form of socialism on the agenda in Guyana...
...So, the policy is still to bring about unity along ethnic and religious lines in Guyana...
...I would say that the contradictions are now sharpening between Marxism and the neoliberal model which is currently being dictated by the West...
...As a matter of fact, politicians who follow that model lose...
...Given the peace in the country, I am sure we will break that gap again, as we did in 1993...
...What's your reaction to that and the role that the United States is playing in the so-called "war on drugs...
...In 1977, we came out with a slogan and a policy proposal called "winner will not take all," even if we win the election...
...We are now talking about privatization of the electric company...
...That is not true...
...But under the last government 60% of the land which was under rice cultivation was abandoned, and the people started growing marijuana...
...As we know, many mistakes were made due to the wholesale adoption in developing countries of the programmatic position taken in Britain by the British Labor Party...
...In 1957, we failed to create a political coalition between East Indians and Afro-Guyanese...
...And, might I say, the opposition party has refused to serve on the task force because they hate Bishop George because he has fought for fair and free elections in this country...
...Absolute compliance with the IMF and World Bank will lead to the death of many countries, as we have already seen...
...There is distinction theory and ctice...
...I went to the UN in support of Afro-Asian states to work out the formula, but then the foreign governments were working with [coupleader] Mr...
...People have always said the racial thoug factor is the only political factor here...
...It has also been stated that if Guyana had been in opposition to s CI a h li si SI that, there would be less of a threat to sovereignty...
...Our relations are very good with the United States...
...In fact, when I was sworn in in 1992, I said that we would make a new beginning, start where we had left off and bring about what we call "the spirit of 1953," which is about national unity, working class unity, and racial unity...
...and Britain even though they helped to destabilize my government on two occasions...
...If that were destabil true, we would not have won a governme majority of the votes in Guyana-over 50...
...Under recent governments, we experienced privatization along with the devaluation of our currency...
...In 1964, we won and I tried again...
...That is why the people of Latin America are growing coca leaves and producing coca plants, which the big drug lords transform into cocaine and then send to the North...
...Today I would say that it's fashionable to talk about the collapse of Marxism and socialism, yet it is not Marxism that has collapsed, but some of its practitioners...
...Right now the banana producers in the Caribbean, especially in the Windward and Leeward Islands, cannot compete on the open market...
...We can speak of a period of national democracy...
...But what was important were the concrete historical conditions in Guyana and the creation of a programmatic platform that caters to the needs of the working class...
...Therefore, we have to treat not only the symptom, but the root cause as well...
...Our practice developed differently in a concrete and different historical context than say in Russia, Cuba or China...
...This was misunderstood at the height of the yet it is n Cold War hysteria...
...Burnham to put him in power...
...In a letter to the World Bank president, I reiterated that statement...
...We haven't signed on completely, like some countries that have allowed American agencies to come onto their territory...
...Especially when there is a demand in the North for either marijuana, cocaine or heroin...
...He is a respected individual and his task force has produced a White Paper which will be presented to Parliament very shortly...
...It gave me strong ethical beliefs in social justice, particularly in helping the poor, the underprivileged and the exploited...
...How would you characterize ethnic relations in Guyana and how do they relate to the political parties and the political process in general...
...In many ways we were different from the mold in which many people placed us, especially the far right during the period of intense political and ideological struggles...
...But they could not compete against imported peanuts coming into the country...
...Many developing countries saw their advance to socialism in the rulebook of the British Labor Party, "the public ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange...
...When it comes time for the people to vote, they are thrown out...
...the past is the past...
...es When I came to the emergency meeting held by Caricom about the narin even cotics question, and the U.S...
...In spite of that, we won 54% of the votes...
...As the opposition for 28 years, we again tried to bring about some unity but failed...
...We are working to achieve a partnership with the North and the South of the world, particularly with the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean...
...I have no re Then we will have a commission on racial equality...
...So we see that there are many contradictions in the austerity model that is advocated by the World Bank and the IMF, contradictions that do not solve our problems...
...That's my message...
Vol. 31 • July 1997 • No. 1
