The politics of protest

Oct 20, 2012 Letters

---

DEAR EDITOR,
It was the late Dr. Cheddi Jagan who way back in the 1940s initiated what he referred to as the “politics of protest” against the colonial powers who literally juiced the colony of its natural and mineral resources, primarily sugar and bauxite, with very little returns to the Guyanese people. Dr. Jagan stood up defiantly in the Legislature on behalf of the working class who were savagely exploited by the expatriate commercial class. Such was the degree of exploitation that at one time the colony was remitting money to the “mother country” Britain in the face of dire economic and social conditions experienced by the subject population.
Those were the days when the Legislative Assembly was little more than a debating club dominated by representatives of the plantocracy and the colonial office. There was hardly any working class voice in the Legislature. It was not until the elections of 1947, under restricted franchise, that Dr. Jagan won a seat in the Legislature and immediately started the process of championing the cause of the poor and the oppressed.
It did not take long for Dr. Jagan to realize that simply exposing the anti-working class nature of the colonial administration was not enough to effect changes on behalf of the oppressed workers. The shooting to death of five sugar workers who were protesting for better wages and working conditions at Plantation Enmore exposed the callous and inhumane nature of the ruling class. The struggle had to be advanced to a higher political level which culminated in the formation of the People’s Progressive Party on January 1, 1950.
The formation of the PPP under the leadership of Dr. Jagan proved a turning point in the politics of this nation. The political and economic hegemony enjoyed by the plantocracy in active collaboration with the colonial office was challenged in a way never hitherto experienced. One of the first demands of the PPP was for a wholly elected Legislative Assembly and the right to vote of all Guyanese, regardless of their social or economic standing. These demands were largely met following a dispatch to the colony of the Waddington Commission which recommended to the British Government the granting of universal adult suffrage and the introduction of a ministerial system of governance.
This was indeed a huge victory for the Guyanese people, for which full credit must be given to Dr. Jagan and the PPP. It was a major victory for the working people of Guyana who rewarded the PPP by electing it to office in the elections of 1953 by way of a landslide victory. The PPP won 18 of the 24 seats, a crushing defeat for the colonial office and the planter class.
The victory of the PPP at the elections of 1953 placed the once insignificant colonial territory of British Guiana in the political limelight. For the first time, a left-wing government in the region gained political power through constitutional means. The 1953 victory, it should be noted, preceded the Cuban Revolution of 1959, which brought the Fidel Castro regime in power. In that regard, the victory of the PPP was quite significant from a geo-political standpoint and certainly raised alarm bells both in London and Washington. Something had to be done to prevent the “communist” virus from spreading in the hemisphere.
It is against this background of the Cold War and the hysteria generated by the PPP victory in 1953 that the suspension of the 1953 Constitution and the removal of the PPP from office after a mere 133 days in office must be seen.
The PPP became one of the first casualties in the hemisphere where the British government, under pressure from the United States government, refused to abide by the democratic norms and ejected the PPP from office, despite the fact of the PPP winning a landslide victory in a free and democratic poll. Britain was prepared to sacrifice the democratic aspirations of the Guyanese people on the altar of ‘ideological’ expediency.
Following the removal of the PPP from the seat of government, an interim administration was installed which included some of the very people who contested and lost the 1953 elections. The country marked time for about four years until new elections were held in 1957, which the PPP again won by a landslide, winning 9 of the 14 seats.
The PPP has over the years been the victim of all kinds of intrigue and manipulations to deny it from exercising political power. Struggles and protests for the rights and dignity of the Guyanese people are not new to the Party. There were protests against food shortages, protests against rigged elections, protests against high-handed actions by the former PNC administration towards workers and farmers, all of which were peaceful and legitimate.
I do not recall any protest action taken by the PPP that resulted in the blocking of roads or in public inconvenience, as is currently playing out on our streets today. The right to protest is enshrined in our laws, but these must be done in a peaceful manner and in conformity with the rule of law. Failing to do so could be counterproductive and not in the best interest of society as a whole.
Hydar Ally

---

---