”Freddie, dem lawyers don’t do anything fuh poor people!”

Feb 20, 2017 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Sunday mornings I buy fruits at the street market on Robb Street between Alexander Street and Bourda Street. The prices are better than midweek. If you want to see the “people’s parliament” at work then you should go to roadways surrounding Bourda Market. The ordinary man and woman have some bizarre theories of Guyanese politics, but for the most part, they understand the main currents in the political and sociological waves of their country.
I parked in Alexander Street south of Robb Street. As I turned east into Robb Street, some gentlemen by the New GMC Building shouted at me, “Freddie we see you pun TV with de parking meters. Dem lawyers don’t do anything fuh poor people.” They were referring to the parking meters protest each Thursday outside City Hall. They also know that many lawyers are involved in the protest.
It was clear to me they wanted to tell me that I am in a protest with people who do not belong to the working classes and will not help working class struggles.
I agree with that, but the fight for human rights and social and economic justice is more complex than that simplified analysis. If I know those lawyers well, none has engaged in pro bono work for poor people in the past or the present; none will. That is my opinion of them. But it doesn’t mean these people cannot contribute to the greater cause of freedom; they have in the past and they will continue to do so. If we go back in history we will find that there were two threads of anti-colonial impulse.
One came from the working class oriented trade unions, the other from the political parties. The leadership of the political parties in the main was middle class, just as the leadership of the Movement Against Parking Meters (MAPM) is. But when one becomes part of a social movement, the dynamism and dialectics of struggle take on a life of its own that goes way beyond the class limitations of some of the actors.
The League of Coloured People was elitist, but it wanted Independence. The united PPP with Burnham and Jagan had wealthy personnel at the top. People like Cheddi and Janet Jagan had acres and acres of land, which by the time they were ready to sell at the beginning of the 21st century in Bel Air Village, was worth hundreds of millions.
Boysie Ramkarran, Cheddi’s right-hand man in the PPP, had huge plots of land. Ashton Chase lived in the heart of one of the colonial suburbs. Dr. Ptolemy Reid held a top position at Bookers. Jai Narine Singh had a large amount of property and land. Martin Carter and Rory Westmass were middle class professionals. Each of these names was involved in the anti-colonial struggle and their efforts contributed to the weakening of colonialism.
After Independence, it was a middle class grouping that confronted what they believe was post-colonial tyranny – the Forbes Burnham Government. That entity was the Working People’s Alliance (WPA). The rhetoric of the WPA was radical working class liberation, but essentially the WPA’s leadership was unadulterated, elitist, snobbish middle class. But only an unhistorical mind would deny that the WPA did not play a colossal role in weakening post-colonial excesses and Burnham’s undemocratic use of power.
One can argue that the Alliance for Change was the reincarnation of the United Force in the sixties. Few analysts would argue (and I doubt they would) that the AFC is pro-working class. It is not and would openly say it is not. But without the AFC there could not have been the demise of Jagdeoism and the PPP’s dictatorship. What I have done so far is to show that democracy and liberation from the fifties onwards have been spearheaded by groups and individuals who did not belong to the working class, did not socialize with the masses, did not care to be part of the broad stream of proletarian praxis. But their separate praxis with the quintessential role of the labouring classes brought freedoms to Guyana.
It is outside the scope of a newspaper column to describe, using the Marxist concept of dialectics, how the anti-parking meter protest led by high income middle class personnel could bring about deep changes in the politics of Guyana. What is important to note is that once these high-income people release a pro-democracy impulse by being part of a social movement, they lose their capacity to control and shape it.
This is what happened to GUARD in their confrontation with President Hoyte. This is what Lenin contributed to the Marxist theory of revolution.

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”Freddie, dem lawyers don’t do anything fuh poor people!”

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