The first half of the Cheddi Jagan October story

In October 1953, the democratically elected Government of Guyana (then known as British Guiana) was removed from power by the British Government which was at that time the colonial ruler. What was essentially a coup d'etat against the People's Progressive Party (PPP), which had won a landslide victory in the April 1953 election, was engineered through the suspension of the British Guiana constitution by the British Government and the simultaneous landing and deployment of British troops in the country. The Ministers of the Government, as well as the House of Assembly, were dismissed by the British Governor, who proceeded to appoint an interim Government made up of persons who were political opponents of the PPP. Most of these persons had been defeated as candidates in the April general election. In the aftermath, many leading members of the PPP were detained without trial while, under a state of emergency declared by the Governor, civil rights were suspended. The British Government took this drastic action after it was convinced by some of the anti-PPP politicians, who had lost their privileges after the April election, that the PPP was a "communist organisation" bent on "subverting the Government" and making it an ally of the Soviet Union. The British Government believed the untruths being peddled that the country was in a state of tension and that violence could break out at any moment. When the British troops arrived on 9 October they were very surprised to see people peacefully going about their normal activities. On the same day an international cricket match between Trinidad and Guyana began in Georgetown, and there was no sign of tension or violence anywhere. ... The House observes with favour the initiative recently shown by Her Majesty's Prime Minister, the Right Honourable Sir Winston Churchill in attempting to ease the present tense world situation and hope that the same initiative will be shown in bringing about an end of racial discrimination and ruthless oppression of, and aggression against, colonial and native peoples, particularly in South Africa, Malaya and Kenya. In such efforts he can be assured of the full and enthusiastic support of the peoples whom this House represents. ... I send you this letter with some hesitation, partly because it deals so largely with matters outside my official competence, partly because a [*] visit is not long [**] estimate of so complex a situation, and particularly because the position may have been so radically altered in ... week since I left, that parts at least of it may now be out of date. But there has been so much gossip and speculation about the situation in British Guiana that I thought it might be helpful to you to have as careful a summary as I could make of the impressions I gained during my visit. It is easy enough now to see that it would have been wiser not to have given British Guiana adult suffrage and full ministerial government at a single step. In my view, however, the real significance of recent events in British Guiana lies in the evidence they provide of the dangers inherent in a political vacuum. The P.P.P. succeeded not only by [skilled] organisation, by promising redress of every grievances, and by the wildest promises; they succeeded because the moderate parties failed in every quality necessary for success under a democratic constitution. What has happened in British Guiana can presumably happen elsewhere. I have, for instance, found a number of people in Trinidad who are seriously concerned at the failure of the present political leaders and representatives to organize anything approaching an effective party organization committed to a defined political programme. Conditions in Trinidad re, of course, very different from those in British Guiana, but the fact remains that the opportunity does exist there for a determined party, like the P.P.P., to fill the vacuum left by the present absence of any party system.

Last April, British Guiana, the Kansas-sized land of jungle, mountains and coastal sugar lands that is Britain's only colony on the South American continent, held its first popular elections under a newly granted constitution—and returned the first openly pro-Communist government ever to hold office in the British Empire. Last week, after six months of mounting frustration over the colony's Red-created unrest and subversive intrigues, Britain suspended the constitution and sent in troops to guarantee public safety. Said Colonial Secretary Oliver Lyttelton: "Her Majesty's government is not willing to allow a Communist state to be organized within the British Commonwealth." Chicago Schooling. Habitually less concerned than Americans about the menace of international Communism, the British had hoped by the example of good manners and management to cool off the hothead East Indian and Negro leaders elected in backward Guiana. But the crown-appointed governor, Sir Alfred Savage, soon found that the Reds of the victorious People's Progressive Party, holding 18 of 24 seats in the legislature, were too hot to handle. Their Premier was a 33-year-old East Indian dentist named Cheddi Jagan (rhymes with pagan), a rapid-fire orator in both English and Creolise (an abused English spoken in the colony). But the real brains of the Communist movement was his blonde, Chicago-born wife, Janet Rosenberg Jagan, 32. ... the Reds. As soon as he let them repeal a ban on importing subversive literature, they brought in stocks of Communist propaganda. ... another big sugar strike ... colony's ... industry. When that petered out ... air rallies. ... that London abolish the ... London Lesson. Taking no chances after all the oratorical threats, London ordered 1.600 troops and four warships rushed to the colony. Though news leaked from Bermuda that the cruiser Superb had sailed with sealed orders, there was no violence. As the Royal Welsh Fusiliers and Marines fanned out to occupy key points around Georgetown, and the radio announced suspension of the constitution and dismissal of the legislature, Premier Jagan made the understatement of the week: "We are most unhappy about the situation." He and the other Red tinged ministers were not detained or molested in any way, but the legislature's dismissal had neatly squeezed them out of their jobs. ... to suspend the ... With 1,600 Marines and Royal Welch Fusiliers aboard, four British warships sped to British Guiana a year ago to enforce London's decision to suspend the South American colony's seven-month-old constitution and thereby stifle its Red-infiltrated government. Since then, restive British Guiana has remained under a state-of-emergency rule by Crown-appointed Governor Sir Alfred Savage. ... The Churchill government agreed with the commission's report, announced in Commons that the state-of-emergency rule will continue in Guiana for at least three more years. ... History was coming full circle in the poverty-ridden crown colony of British Guiana last week. Four years ago, in the country's first general election, Communism-spouting Cheddi B. Jagan, a suave, ... .S.-educated East Indian dentist (Northwestern University, '43), startled the complacent British by sweeping into office. The followers of his People's Progressive Party shouted, "We guv'ment!", and Jagan boasted that they would shoot their "oppressors." Six months later, 700 British troops and three warships deposed Chief Minister Jagan, suspended the colony's constitution. Next week, under a ... revised constitution, the colony' ... 200,000 voters will again go to the polls. The overwhelming favorite to win from six to ... of the 14 Legislative

The purpose of the essay is to examine Guyana's new Constitution with the object of assessing whether the claims of the PNC government can be justified that it is a socialist constitution necessary for the government's much vaunted socialist revolution and that it offers real power to the broad masses for participating effectively in the important decision-making processes in Guyana's political and economic life. A detailed analysis of the provisions of the Constitution shows, however, that while the basic principles and the fundamental political, social and economic rights may be praiseworthy, the powers, immunities and protection of the executive President are so all-embracing that they cannot accord with any reasonable assumptions one may make about socialist democracy and »people's power«. In addition, the »organs of local democratic power«, should they fall into the wrong hands, offer an effective mechanism for the execution of efficient and total control of the whole population. In the context of the concrete political situation in Guyana, however, the Constitution takes on a more sinister look. Evidence is given of the PNC's denial of civil rights and of its repressive methods of rule. The elections based on the Constitution which the PNC won with a massive majority was only the latest in a series of rigged elections going back to 1968. The inescapable impression is that the Constitution has little to do with socialism and socialist democracy and a great deal to do with providing constitutional legality for what had already de facto existed, viz. a harsh, undemocratic regime intent on maintaining power.