The Politics of British Guiana
ALEXANDER, ROBERT J.
The Politics of British Guiana By Robert J. Alexander British Guiana, scheduled to become independent some time before the end of this year, is fast becoming a land of paradoxes: A general...
...Half of their tanker fleet is now tied up transporting oil to Havana...
...it has even given him a small loan...
...To do so, he must get economic help from abroad, and it is possible he now believes that the best source for such aid is the United States...
...In 1953, when the first election was held under a new constitution providing wide self-government for the colony, the party emerged with a clear majority...
...The country has always been a sugar colony...
...The new party was anticolonial and claimed to speak in the name of the lower classes of Guianese society...
...and all its works...
...Since 1957 Jagan has enjoyed substantial governmental responsibilities, and has generally assumed a more moderate stance...
...Thunder has also tended to be less blatantly proCommunist, particularly as the 1961 election approached...
...The Soviets are somewhat disenchanted by their Cuban adventure, at least from an economic point of view...
...After his party's victory, Jagan made four important moves: (1) He pressed the British to grant independence this year, and stated his intention of joining the Organization of American States once sovereignty was attained...
...But Jagan has been in close contact with the Castro regime...
...Jagan seems to have become convinced that his country faces enormous problems of economic development...
...The next move is obviously up to Washington...
...He soon broke with the traditional racial alignment in politics, and in 1950 he took the lead in establishing the Peoples Progressive party (PPP...
...The change was due, in large part, to the appearance on the scene of Dr...
...Burnham's PNC ran on a Democratic Socialist program...
...Robert J. Alexander teaches at Rutgers University...
...Although he demanded immediate independence for the colony, the PPP leader promised he would encourage private foreign investment to develop some of Guiana's mineral and forestry resources...
...Subsequently, under pressure from the local planters who dominated the Colonial Government, indentured servants were brought in from India...
...Whatever the reasons for the change, Jagan is seeking some $200 million from the U.S...
...The majority of representatives were appointed rather than elected...
...Despite its pro-Communist orientation, the PPP quickly succeeded in winning over most of the Guianese electorate...
...in return they have received so much sugar that they hardly know what to do with it...
...The division into various racial groupings is an important factor in the country's politics...
...will be taking a calculated risk...
...And no matter what it decides, the U.S...
...Although suffrage was rather limited under the old Dutch constitution, after World War I elements of the lower-middle and urban working classes began to participate in politics...
...In the campaign for the August, 1961 elections, Jagan spelled out his relatively moderate position...
...But the PPP won 20 of the 35 seats in the Colonial Legislature, and was thus able to form the first responsible Cabinet, with Jagan as Premier...
...There are several possible explanations for the shift: • It is of primary importance for Jagan to push the development of agriculture, mining and industry...
...Several of its more outspokenly Communist leaders charged Jagan with "reformism" and quit the party...
...As a result, today the great majority of the sugar workers are of East Indian origin, while the urban population is predominantly Negro...
...This promise was kept for over 100 years...
...In October of the same year, the British suspended the new constitution, dissolved the Legislature and ousted the PPP from the Government, charging that the party was seeking to subvert the police and seize complete power for itself...
...For the next three years the PPP found itself in a political wilderness...
...In addition to Negroes and East Indians (subdivided into Hindus and Moslems), there are also smaller groups of Amerindians, British, Portuguese, Chinese and so-called "Bush Negroes," descendants of those who escaped from slavery and fled into the interior before 1837...
...A number of them, including Jagan and his wife, purposely violated their restrictions and were jailed for short periods of time...
...the essential controls over finance, the police and the military remained in the hands of the governor, appointed by the Colonial Office in London...
...Why these contradictions...
...He also insisted he was only a Marxist and "Democratic Socialist," not a Communist...
...All this adds up to a very different position for Jagan, who in the past frequently had stressed the advantages of obtaining economic help from the Soviet bloc...
...Cheddi B. Jagan and his U.S.-born wife Janet, who was reportedly a leader of the Young Communist League in the Chicago area...
...It is not impossible that Jagan's present course was suggested by Russia...
...It had the open or tacit support of similar groups in the British West Indies...
...over a period of five years...
...Its pro-Communist orientation has been clear from the outset...
...Voting for those seats in the Legislature which were at the disposal of the electorate was generally waged on the basis of racial rivalries between the Negro and East Indian communities...
...Early in 1955 the party split...
...During the next 23 years, the Legislature possessed only limited powers...
...In 1928, partially because of this development, the British replaced the old constitution with a considerably more restrictive one...
...For many years, Jagan was listed in official publications of the Communist-directed World Federation of Trade Unions as its representative in British Guiana...
...In the '40s, however, the political situation began to change fundamentally...
...Burnham's group accused Jagan and some of his associates of being Communists, and gave this as their principal reason for the break...
...But it held power for only a little more than 100 days...
...When slavery was abolished in 1837, many Negroes abandoned the plantations and either settled down as squatters on government-owned land or drifted to the towns...
...The answer to this question is deeply rooted in British Guiana's recent history, as well as in the conditions that now prevail throughout the Caribbean area...
...The same year, the PPP also suffered a schism on the Left...
...3) In October, he left or an extended trip to the United States and Puerto Rico, seeking funds to finance the country's development program...
...The Politics of British Guiana By Robert J. Alexander British Guiana, scheduled to become independent some time before the end of this year, is fast becoming a land of paradoxes: A general strike and violence against an austerity program proposed by Prime Minister Cheddi Jagan has resulted in British troops preventing the overthrow of the very man London would like to see out of office...
...A third party, the so-called United Front, was the sole advocate of "free private enterprise" during the campaign...
...it failed, however, to achieve an absolute majority of the popular vote...
...The PNC received 41 per cent, and the United Front came in third with 16.5 per cent...
...And although it is probably the only country in the world with a Communist regime that was popularly elected under unquestionably fair conditions, British Guiana has recently gone out of its way to ingratiate itself with the United States and secure economic help from this country...
...Most of its leaders were "restricted," ordered by the Government to stay in a single town...
...2) He reiterated his invitation to foreign capital, and announced a tripling of proposed expenditures for the country's economic development plan...
...The party won a plurality over a divided opposition and a large majority of the elected members of the legislature...
...The example of Cuba, which has broken off all economic ties with the U.S...
...His most recent book is Prophets of Revolution...
...4) Finally, in January of this year, he submitted his austerity program, calling for compulsory savings, a capital gains tax and a property tax...
...And until recently the PPP's periodical, Thunder, consistently lauded the "progress" of the Soviet Union and other Communist countries, while denouncing the U.S...
...Although the PPP underwent mild persecution and severe internal troubles from 1953-56, it was again victorious in the 1957 elections...
...The British Guiana Labor Union was organized as both a trade union and a political party, and its founder, Hubert Critchlow, was elected to the Colonial Legislature...
...These were held under a constitution somewhat less liberal than that of 1953, but one which gave the colony a large degree of autonomy...
...The PPP has always been a wellknit and relatively well-disciplined group...
...In the treaty of transfer, the English agreed to maintain the relatively liberal colonial constitution which the Dutch had instituted...
...The USSR is not likely to relish the prospect of having to purchase all of Guiana's sugar in addition...
...Linden Forbes Bumham, a young Negro who had been Education Minister in the 1953 Government, led the dissident wing in the formation of the People's National Congress (PNC...
...Britain seized Guiana from the Netherlands during the Napoleonic Wars...
...Jagan is of East Indian origin, his parents having been brought to British Guiana as indentured servants at the turn of the century...
...Perhaps most important, the PPP cut across race lines...
...The PPP squeaked through the 1961 elections, receiving only about 42.5 per cent of the popular vote...
...His father had done well enough to help Cheddi get to the U.S., where he attended college and took a postgraduate course in dentistry...
...and depends completely on Soviet assistance, may have convinced Jagan of how dangerous such a policy can be...
...Not long after the Jagans returned to British Guiana in the late '40s, Cheddi was elected to the Legislature as an independent...
Vol. 45 • March 1962 • No. 5
