Explanatory Notes:
Articles by Janet Jagan
A Piece Of Guyana's History - 1953-1955
The Audit Commission -- Burying The False Accusations
Land Reform - A Major Achievement of the PPP
The Dialogue Should Continue
by Janet Jagan (May 2002)
The crime situation in Guyana has been commented upon by representatives of two embassies in Guyana, the United States Ambassador Mr Ronald Godard and the Canadian High Commissioner Mr Serge Marcoux. Both have decried the crime wave and the fact that it has not been condemned by all sectors of our society. Mr Godard remarked that this has been treated almost like a "legitimate subject for debate."
Both envoys pointed to the obvious fact that Guyana is a democratic society that depends on the rule of law for its existence. And both promised assistance if requested.
All of what they had to say is true and a lot depends on restoring balance and good sense to the awful happenings at the crime level. Can there be any justification for the horrendous escape by the five prisoners and the subsequent deaths that have taken place? The politicisation of all these happenings since the Mashramani breakout from the Georgetown Prison has poisoned the atmosphere and prevented some thinking and reasonable attitudes. Surely the whole of Guyanese society should be backing the Police in their efforts to apprehend the criminals. These are no "Robin Hood" bandits, but those hardened in the criminal world of guns, drugs and robbery.
Maybe the US Ambassador and the Canadian High Commissioner should urge their governments to stop sending highly-trained and hardened criminals back to Guyana because they were born here. Maybe there should be a limit to the time they have lived in North America and learned their trade so well. Most went abroad as children or adolescents, innocent when they left, but something else when deported to Guyana. That might ease our problems.
But I agree with the US Ambassador that the dialogue should continue. When we examine the reasons used by Mr Hoyte and his party for refusing to continue the dialogue, it is really difficult to find a rational excuse. Everyone knows that this "pause in the dialogue" and the boycott of Parliament, as well as all the other distasteful things going on are part of a political game that hasn't changed very much in the last 40 years.
It happens whenever the PPP is in office. There was a dialogue initiated by Dr Jagan when he was Premier in the 1961-64 period, but it was not continued. Instead, violence was used as the best means of ousting the PPP and hoisting the PNC into office. That game of violence resurged after the PPP won office legitimately in 1992, 1997 and 2001. For those who like to say "plague on both houses," historical records tell the truth.
© Nadira Jagan-Brancier 2009
The Audit Commission -- Burying The False Accusations
by Janet Jagan
Now that the results of the Audit Team that was commissioned to assess the results of the March 2001 elections is out, the PPP/Civic is again vindicated.All the rubbish accusing the PPP/Civic of not being legally and fairly elected is again laid to rest.
This is the second time that accusations leading to extensive violence by the People's National Congress (PNC) have been proved to be false and malicious. The poor-loser party used the excuse of rigged elections in 1997 and 2001 to violate the people of Guyana. The trauma suffered by thousands of Guyanese on both occasions, the attacks on local businesses and the massive ruin of property match the same violence committed by the PNC in the 1960's.
In the '60s, Mr Burnham and his crew were not satisfied they got their wish of changing the whole electoral system from first-past-the-post to proportional representation. And having succeeded under the indomitable Cheddi Jagan of having free and fair election in 1992, the PPP/Civic won overwhelmingly under proportional representation.
The PPP/Civic did even better in the 1997 election - winning the highest percentage of votes in any election, including that of 1953. And for that convincing win the PNC, supported strongly by the WPA, sought to nullify those elections on the grounds of fraud. Of course, the Audit conducted by prominent Caribbean persons proved conclusively that the elections of 1997 were above board and free and fair.
The PNC which had rigged all elections during its 28 years ruthless rule, then proceeded to try to undo the proportional representation system of voting which that party had forcibly advocated in the 1960s. The PPP/Civic had won convincingly under that system in 1992 and 1997, so as far as the PNC was concerned, it needed change.
In the Constitution Commission set up following the Herdmanston Accord, strong efforts were made to bring back elements of first-past-the-post to undermine the proportional representation system that no longer could be used under conditions of fraud to ensure that the PNC was back in government. What a ludicrous scenario!
After the violent protests over the 2001 elections, which began with claims that the PNC lost due to electoral practices that hurt that party, it soon changed its tune since no one was buying that charge and then continued the violence on charges that Afro-Guyanese were "marginalized."
The PNC failed to remember what took place during its 28 years in office.
The slogan to "feed, clothe and house the nation" was a force with agricultural production declining - forget about "clothing the nation" and whatever housing the PNC engaged in, coming to a full stop! It was the PPP/Civic which revived agriculture and started a new and vibrant housing programme that is finally coming close to solving the horrific needs of people for housing.
And, by the way, what did the PNC government ever do to make Buxton better off? The PPP/Civic did far more, restoring its roads, water, schools. The Buxton violence is incomprehensible!
Again, Guyanese have had to face the unreasonable and uncalled-for wrath of the PNC - for what? - for nothing! The Audit Report just out shows as most everyone knew, that the March 2001 elections were free and fair, as were those of 1992 and 1997. The historic riggers lost at their own game!
August 12, 2001
© Nadira Jagan-Brancier 2009
A Piece Of Guyana's History - 1953-1955
by Janet Jagan
In 1983, I wrote the following article published in Thunder marking the 30th Anniversary of the suspension of the constitution in 1953 and the arrival of British troops which invaded and took control of British Guiana after removing the democratically elected government of the PPP led by Cheddi Jagan.
The year 1953 was one of great historical importance to all Guyanese. It was the year of the first Guyanese people's victory of this century, when, organised and led by the newly-formed People's Progressive Party, a resounding success was obtained at the first elections ever held under universal adult suffrage. Led by the PPP, the people's demands for self government had been partly won with Guyana (then British Guiana) having one of the most advanced constitutions in the British Empire.
For 4 1/2 months, exactly 133 days, the PPP in office fought for and won some significant changes for the people. The subversive literature law (introduced in the previous parliament by Lionel Luckhoo) was repealed; the first steps for the removal of church control of the schools were made; and a battle was waged over the right of workers to be represented by the union of their choice by way of a poll. (Those were the days when MPCA was foisted on the sugar workers who were denied the right to join a trade union of their choice). It was on this issue, as well as others considered by the British to be controversial, that the British government made the decision to remove the PPP from office and suspend the Constitution.
The reasons given for this drastic decision were so ridiculous that the Churchill government had a hard time making convincing charges. The government White Paper on the suspension of the British Guiana Constitution alleged that there was a fire plot hatched by the PPP to burn down the City of Georgetown! But those were the cold war days and even the slightest tint of 'red' sent the Anglo-American imperialists into a frenzy. In the same year, 1953, in June, the Mossadegh government which had nationalised the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, was overthrown by the CIA in Iran and one year later, the progressive government of President Jacobo Arbenz of Guatemala was to suffer the same fate.
British warships landed in Georgetown harbour, despatching marines and other troops on that troubled day in October 1953. This was the beginning of a period of martial law, of curfews, restrictions on the movements of certain leading members of the PPP, the curtailment of most civil liberties, detention, searches and imprisonment.
The PPP decided to vigorously resist the measures and after opposition from the opportunistic faction in the Executive Committee was out-voted, it was agreed that PPP leader Cheddi Jagan would break the restriction orders on him (restricting him to the boundaries of the City of Georgetown). This he did and was arrested, brought back to Georgetown, held at Brickdam Police Station, put on trial and sent to prison. At Brickdam Police Station, a large protest demonstration took place in which a number of leading members of the party was arrested.
From then on there were many acts of defiance of the unjust restrictions placed on the people by the British authorities. The intension of the Colonial Power was to, once and for all, destroy the PPP and terrify and intimidate the awakened people. It must not be forgotten that the Party was formed on the principles of fighting for the full independence of British Guiana and then the building of a socialist society. This would mean, of course, the end of British plunder of the wealth of the territory.
When Cheddi Jagan went to prison in 1954, it heightened the anti-colonial struggle, sparked off the people's resistance and focused world attention on the violations by Britain against our country. It was the first time in Guyana that the jail held a political prisoner since the days of Rev. John Smith, over a century before.
Cheddi Jagan's days in prison were very full ones and reflect on his complete commitment to the cause he represented and his thirst for more and more knowledge and understanding, as well as his unrelenting drive to develop the people's consciousness and lead them into struggle.
In his book The West On Trial, he said: "Prison life was for me a new experience, a novel and welcome one in some respects. It gave me opportunity for real leisure and rest. Apart from scrubbing floors, I developed a hobby in carpentry... What I enjoyed most was the luxury of almost limitless time for reading and writing. Novels, which I had never had much time to read, constituted the bulk of my reading. Serious books were rare. And in the political field there was very little, other than Tory propaganda material; the prison authorities had instituted a thorough screening process. My articles for my party paper had to be written on toilet paper and smuggled out because of the system of prison censorship."
The Archives of the PPP contain 233 pages of letters and articles which Cheddi Jagan wrote from prison, all without the knowledge of the prison authorities. There were more, but these were lost.
While in prison, his fight for better conditions for prisoners continued throughout his term, causing him to be taken before the Superintendent of Prisons on more than one occasion, and being charged for organising hunger strikes of protest. He wrote articles on prison conditions, exposed the poor state of meals, led prison protests and prepared questions to be sent to the British Labour Parliamentarian Jennie Lee, who, in fact, tabled such questions in the House of Commons.
He wrote articles on - "British Lion Skinned", "End Wage Slavery", "Surplus Value - Profit, Interest, Rents", "Guatemalan Invasion", "Amerindian Sweat", and a series of definitions on freedom, self determination, the almighty dollar, class struggle - to name a few.
In prison he organised a reading circle for prisoners and arranged for literature (mostly political) to come into the prison clandestinely, so that prisoners could read and learn.
He described an amusing, yet telling, episode in prison. There was in the Georgetown prison at this time every Sunday, an "Uplift Hour." He got the prisoners to request the Superintendent's permission to speak. The latter's answer was: "since when is Jagan a parson?" Jagan told the prisoners to go back and tell the Superintendent that he would speak on crime: "Thou shall not steal." Permission was granted.
On Sunday, June 6, 1954 Prisoner Cheddi Jagan was the Speaker. He first dealt with petty thievery, the laws and punishment from the early days when persons were drawn and quartered for stealing things like sheep and goats. He then pointed out the nature of capitalist robbery of the working class and told the prison audience that the biggest thieves, who generally made the laws and were quick to apply the 'cals' were outside the jails.
Two days later Cheddi Jagan was ushered before the prison authorities and told that in future he could not take part in the "Uplift Hour." In protest of this, the prisoners on the next Sunday, June 13, 1954, quietly lined up and marched back to their cells.
From the books available to him, in the prison library and smuggled into prison, he made many extracts for quotations to be printed in Thunder. Thunder was at that time a weekly paper, edited by various members in and out of jail including Rory Westmaas, Janet Jagan and Eric Huntley. Dr Jagan, in one of his prison letters, highly praised the printer of Thunder for his courage in the face of many threats. Eventually, a permanent police guard was stationed at the printery. At that time, the vicious editor of the Daily Argosy, Seal Coon, was calling for the banning of Thunder and the deportation of the Jagans.
One of the beautiful quotations he picked out was from the writing of the late American Communist Joseph North (who visited Guyana in the '60s, and addressed a Party Congress): "The people are indestructible. You can beat them down, chain them, gag them, toll the bell for them, but they rise again, not mysteriously - inevitably! And stronger each time! And those who speak their aspirations will never be silenced."
Another quotation he made from Faiz Ahmad Faiz, then in a Pakistan jail, a poem entitled A few days more -
"Few are the moments left to oppression's sharp tooth
Patience, injustice has only a brief moment to reign!
In this parched desert of earth, this lingering sand.
We must endure for today - not for ever more." stay!
Nameless affliction, the weight of the foreigners' hand
We must endure for today - not for ever more."In an article on Freedom of Movement, he chastised Barbados Premier Grantley Adams, who, while restricting freedom of movement of PPP members, was criticising Trinidad for not agreeing to this principle in framing the Federation's Constitution. Jagan and Burnham had been denied entry to Barbados when returning from London in early 1954 and Ashton Chase was refused entry on his way to Caracas to attend a Conference.
And included in the prison letters was a poem Cheddi wrote, perhaps the only one he ever had time to write:
DEATH OF IMPERIALISM
Today we strive to end our humanity's pains
To extract your oppression's painful tooth,
To cut your vicious circle of our lives -
- No work, no land, crime punishment, crime
But you tread with savage fascist steps
With quislings, and hired mercenaries
Willing and unwilling slaves and shares of your loot.
You keep your bayonets at our throats and shout
Law and Order must prevail!
Don't read that!
Don't say that!
Don't do that!
Don't go there!
Our beautiful country a vast prison you have made
And fences built to wrench us from our beloved -
our homes
our children
our brothers
our comrades
You beat us on our heads in the name of peace
While in cleric robes you call for peace
For you, peace is our grave and life hereafter
For us, peace is joy and life and laughter
For this we march tomorrow!(Note: reference to "Savage" had a double meaning as the British Governor's name was Alfred Savage).
The experiences of the early 1950s were of tremendous value in the future development of the PPP. The Party gained experience of a popular mass party winning limited power through elections and then to have the gains suddenly ripped away. The people experienced gun-boat rule, the compliance of quislings who formed a puppet Interim government, the manipulations and promises leading up to the split in the Party in 1955 and the continued efforts to break the spirit of the left-wing of the PPP (for from the time of the split until after the 1957 elections there were 2 parties calling themselves PPP, one led by Cheddi Jagan and the other by LFS Burnham) and to smash the Party.
That the British failed was made clear in 1957 when the people responded to all the threats, calumny and slander by again giving the PPP a resounding victory at the polls. It proved the validity of Joseph North's words that the people always rise again, despite all that is done to keep them down. And that, we can say, applies to our situation in the '80s!
British Lion Skinned - deals with Britain's decline "it's roar a faint whisper," rising influences and power of USA, displacing Britain as a world power... contradictions in the struggle for loot and markets.
Surplus Value - Profits, interest, rents: the ruling class makes the laws, extracts the profits; explaining in simple language, using examples, the ways in which capitalism makes profits.
End Wage Slavery: A continuation of above article, showing how workers are exploited, switching from time to piece work, speeding up production - all to make profits from workers' labour.
Guatemalan Invasion: The 1954 rape of Guatemala, the anti-communist campaign the US "upholding the rights of Guatemalan citizens" as its excuse.
Amerindian Sweat: Exploitation of Amerindians by the
Rupununi Development Corporation, Analysis of its annual report, the Peberdy Report on
Amerindian Welfare and the fact that they were a landless and exploited people.
© Nadira Jagan-Brancier 2009
Land Reform - A Major Achievement of the People’s Progressive Party
by Janet Jagan
Land in every country is a vital issue. Despite all the successes in the industrialization that began about two centuries ago, and brought about an almost entire change in the lives of most of the world’s population, agriculture including fisheries and animal husbandry, remains the basis of life-giving food. So, despite all the major advances made by science and technology, land remains one of the basic units of living worldwide. And farming, of course, has gained from all the technological and scientific advances.
In Guyana, we have been unusually lucky in our historical development. Because we were, in the final stages, colonized by the British, it proved advantageous in one respect. The British, unlike the Spanish and Portuguese colonizers in this hemisphere, never permanently settled here. British colonizers, at least 99%, always went home to Britain at the end of their stay in Guyana. Except for a very limited few, they did not put down their roots here. For this we can be thankful.
But in the rest of the continent the colonizers stayed and, in their powerful positions, provided themselves and their families with large land holdings. That is the basis of the alienation of most land throughout Latin America. Vast areas of land were given to those in power. To this day, this problem dominates the land issue in many countries of the hemisphere.
In our country, land, except for the large areas given to the sugar planters, absentee landowners and importers of sugar, most of Guyana’s lands remained in the hands of the state. In the PPP’s unique and innovative housing policies, many of these same lands have become house lots for the working people.
When the People’s Progressive Party emerged in 1950, one of its chief planks was land reform. Most of the small farmers at that time were eking out a living on small plots of land, 3, 4, 5 and up to 10 acres. Many of these farmers rented their lands from larger, feudal-like, landowners. This was particularly relevant on the Essequibo Coast which I represented as a Legislator in 1953 and from 1957-61. A few large landowners (one, Deroop Maraj, became a leading member of the PNC later on) squeezed the small farmers and kept them literally in bondage by loans, high rentals and shop credit which they could never pay off. I remember being taken by these tenant farmers to the backlands where they showed me another form of exploitation, the landowner took the best lands for himself and rented them the back lands with poor or no drainage and irrigation.
At that period, these unscrupulous landowners dominated life on the Essequibo Coast. But our party fought relentlessly against this feudal system which made life a misery for the poor. One of the many things we did was pass the Security of Tenure for Rice Farmers Act which protected tenant farmers.
In the first Programme of the PPP published in 1950, under the heading “Free the Tenants from debt, Guarantee the land to the Tillers!”, ways of protecting farmers from “improper” drainage and irrigation, distress and ruin were outlined. These included “to guarantee the farmers and tenants their inalienable right to possession of their lands, homes and their chattels “and included also means of preventing the accumulation of large land holdings in the hands of sugar companies, landlords and absentee owners. It stated that there should be guaranteed prices for farmers’ produce and a demand for world prices for our agricultural exports.
The PPP when it was in office in the 50’s and 60’s began opening more land for small farmers, providing drainage and irrigation which changed the face of agriculture in Guyana, provided farmers with the tools to make a living and help in controlling pests, selling of produce, etc. For example in the Pomeroon we gave farmers tens of thousands of coconut plants.
I remember that the PPP set up the Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC) in the 50’s and 60’s period. At Charity, then part of my constituency, I could observe farmers from the Pomeroon and elsewhere, coming to the GMC in their small boats with their produce, weighing and selling their goods, getting pay on the spot - I remember I had to fight the bureaucrats who said they could not pay on the spot, which would be very, very hard on the producers. But the farmers were poor and that on-the-spot pay was essential to buying up goods at Charity before the long haul in the river back to home.
I remember, too, when the GMC trucks would go through the working class areas of Georgetown selling fresh produce at lower prices, because the middle man was eliminated. Both producers and consumers benefited. But the PNC ended all that when they came into power. They smashed the GMC into nothingness.
The PPP in its 1979 Political Programme called for “1) comprehensive land reform aimed at ending rapacious landlordism 2) allotment of state lands on a fair and rational basis in accordance with the needs of farmers, giving preference to the landless and the land-poor 3) Encourage small and medium land holders to organize themselves into cooperatives.”
Today, the feudal landowning problem no longer exists. Agriculture is doing well. Farmers are going into new crops, more selective and quality oriented and our export trade is accelerating.
In the context of land reform, we can also claim successes in the complicated and difficult task of restoring lands to our Amerindian population.
The PPP’s most recent Manifesto, that of 2001, noted that the PPP/C had strengthened the mechanism for land distribution. It recorded that the conversion of leaseholds to freeholds has commenced with the average number of land leases issued per year giving farmers less than 200 in 1992-1993, to more than 2000 in 1993-2000.
The newly improved, high-tech Guyana Lands and Survey Commission (GLSC) just announced that last year it handed out 6,000 land titles and expects to do the same this year. For the first time in the nation’s history, its vast land resources are at last properly recorded with a modern database and making use of satellite technology.
In a statement, GLSC said that by 2010, when it is fully developed, it will be able to ensure that land is made accessible to everyone, thus contributing to poverty alleviation and national development.
Land reform stands out as one of the great achievements of the People’s Progressive Party which this year celebrates its 55th anniversary.
2005
© Nadira Jagan-Brancier 2009