Twelve areas of political activism involving Kwayana, Jagan and others — Clement J. Rohee — Opinion

Twelve areas of political activism involving Kwayana, Jagan and others

October 24, 2026·3 min read

Dear Editor,

Please see below twelve specific areas of political activism during the 1970-1992 period in which Eusi Kwayana, Cheddi Jagan and others were involved:

Representation of the PPP at meetings and events organized by The Movement Against Oppression (MAO) established in the ‘Tiger Bay’ area (1970’s). The emerging leaders of the WPA including Eusi Kwayana, Andaiye, Bonita Bone-Harris, Dr. Joshua Ramsammy, Errol Fraser, Dr. Maurice Odle, Marc Mathews, Dr. Omawale, Prof. Clive Thomas, Alfred Jadunath, and Brian Rodway also participated;
The PPP provided loud speaking equipment to the WPA for public meetings in support of Walter Rodney’s return to Guyana and employment at the University of Guyana (mid-1970’s).^[1] Eusi Kwayana and Cheddi Jagan were the principal initiators behind the campaign where many joint PPP/WPA meetings were held in the city of Georgetown. PNC thugs invaded and broke up a public meeting held at the basketball court, Parade Ground where Jagan and Kwayana were to be the principal speakers. This was a major breakthrough for multiracial politics in Guyana. Rodney returned in 1974;
Talks between WPA and PPP were held in the mid-1976 period, mid-1978 and the mid-1980’s. Differences between the PPP and the WPA at that time, sprang from the fact that the WPA grew out of a coalition of at first 4, later 3, groups with different ideological orientations. There was not the same kind of ideological unity which is manifested in the PPP. Consequently, this led to divergences in political line within the WPA. Rapprochement began once again in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s;
The PPP provided loud speaking equipment for WPA’s public meetings held at Bourda mall where leaders of the WPA including. Walter Rodney, Rupert Roopnaraine and Eusi Kwayana spoke. Masses of people from all ethnicities were present at the meetings. It was under these circumstances, that multiracial politics continued to mature;
In collaboration with Eusi Kwayana the PPP and WPA jointly sponsored public symposia held at the St. George’s Primary School and at NAACIE headquarters in Georgetown sponsored by the Committee for Solidarity With the Peoples of Southern Africa. Walter Rodney was the guest speaker at both events (1980’s);
Eusi Kwayana and I collaborated with the Guyana Peace Council (GPC) on ideas and suggestions for inclusion in the GPC’s programme of activities for GPC (late 1980’s-early 1990’s);
Eusi on behalf of the WPA, Janet Jagan and I on behalf of the PPP helped mobilize international support for The Arnold Rampersaud Defence Committee (1974-1979). Legal representation came from Guyana, the UK, Grenada, the USA and Trinidad and Tobago; the PPP and WPA played a major role in mobilizing supportive public opinion at home and abroad;
Together, Eusi Kwayana, Fr. Malcom Rodrigues, Komal Chand and Janet Jagan helped mobilize and provide strike relief for striking sugar and bauxite workers (1984).^[2]This was a massive country-wide operation. Food hampers were transported and distributed to sugar workers and bauxite workers. This was another manifestation of multiracial politics at work;
Together, the PPP under Jagan and WPA under Kwayana organized public meetings and marches organized by The Committee For the Defence of Democracy (CDD) against the rigged referendum (1978)^[3] The CDD played a major role in mobilizing Guyanese to oppose dictatorship; Political unity was important in helping the electorate to successfully boycott the referendum;
Together, the PPP under Jagan and the WPA under Kwayana joined forces in protest demonstrations together against rigged elections. The demonstrations were organized by the Patriotic Coalition for Democracy (PCD) (1990-1992); Unity of the political leadership helped reinforce the public’s call for political unity;
WPA and the PPP collaborated in 1987 on the formulation of a Joint PCD Programme. No agreement was reached as regards publication of the programme in advance of the elections scheduled for 1990; The WPA and DLM had opposed publication of the agreed programme;
The PPP under Jagan and WPA under Kwayana marched and demonstrated together in support of the fight for Free and Fair Elections (1990’s). Unity and struggle at the political level eventually created favourable conditions for the election of a democratically elected PPP/C government in 1992.^[4]

Yours faithfully,
Clement J. Rohee

References

A difficult return - race, class, and politics in Rodney’s Guyana | ROAPE — roape.net ↩
Komal’s contribution to workers and betterment of country stands out as a monument - Stabroek News — www.stabroeknews.com ↩
10.The rigged referendum of 1978 — www.guyananews.org ↩
22. The October 1992 elections: The restoration of democracy in Guyana — www.guyananews.org ↩

A difficult return - race, class, and politics in Rodney’s Guyana | ROAPE

roape.net · 2022-05-05

In 1974 Walter Rodney and his family returned to Guyana. Rodney immediately faced a country divided between the Indian and African working class, and the brutal and divisive regime of Forbes Burnham. Rodney produced an impressive body of historical work which provided a Marxist explanation for the divide of the country’s working people. Chinedu Chukwudinma continues the story of Rodney’s revolutionary life. ... In Guyana, a multiracial gathering was a rare sight. Yet, in August 1974, between two and three thousand African and Indian Guyanese rallied in front of the University of Georgetown to support Walter Rodney. They had heard that Prime Minister Forbes Burnham’s regime had pressured the University to overturn his appointment as head of the History Department. Angered by that decision, the university staff union and students boycotted classes for two weeks, while the Guyanese Bar Association went on strike. Many intellectuals launched a global campaign to reinstate Rodney, who had gained an international reputation for his scholarship on African history. [1] Rodney had not even left Tanzania, yet he was already the focus of protests and a major political issue for the Guyanese government. Burnham and his cronies feared him because of his past activism in Jamaica and his popularity among the Guyanese masses. Rodney was an advocate of racial solidarity and a Marxist critic of the government, which divided the Guyanese along racial lines and kept them in poverty. He knew he would return to a country that was different from the one of his childhood. ... Rodney had left Guyana at 18 years of age and did not live through its decline into racial violence. The racial solidarity of the anti-colonial movement crumbled after the British overthrew the People’s Progressive Party’s (PPP) government in a coup in 1953. The coup produced a split between the PPP’s two leaders, the African lawyer Forbes Burnham and the Indian dentist Cheddi Jagan. Burnham now accused Jagan of being “a communist stooge” [2] and left to create the People’s National Congress (PNC) in 1957. The ideological split turned into a racial one as both parties mobilised for elections on the basis of racial loyalty. Indians remained in the PPP while Africans joined the PNC. The PPP won the 1957 and 1961 legislative and local elections because it relied on the votes from the Indo-Guyanese majority. The Cold War, however, interfered again into Guyanese politics to ensure the PPP’s defeat in 1964. The CIA financed a coalition between Burnham’s PNC and the smaller United Force, which represented the local Portuguese and Chinese capitalists. The Americans wanted to prevent Jagan from turning Guyana into a second Cuba, once it became independent from Britain. Thus, Burnham’s coalition led Guyana to independence in 1966 because of his close relations with the United States. [3] ... The electoral campaigns revived old tensions between Africans and Indians, which culminated in violent clashes between 1961 and 1964. The deadliest confrontations unfolded in the spring of 1964 when the colonial government sent African scabs to break the strike of Indian sugar workers. Ten years later, the bitterness and animosity between African and Indian communities had not disappeared. The semblance of racial harmony that the PNC’s propaganda tried to convey was obscured by the glaring fact that Burnham and the Afro-Guyanese bureaucracy dominated the state and continued to discriminate against Indians. This was the country that Rodney returned to in September 1974. [4] Patricia and the children, who had relocated before Rodney, welcomed Rodney upon his arrival in Georgetown. The family struggled to adjust to life in Guyana. Patricia missed her African friends and the hospitality she encountered in Tanzania. She disliked that people did not greet each other in Guyana and that her children were bullied in school because of their African names and accents. Patricia was also refused employment in healthcare when hiring managers found out that she was married to Walter Rodney. Yet, she secured a job and a house despite the government’s hostility towards her husband. Rodney, however, was jobless as the protests of August 1974 had failed to achieve his reinstatement at the University. He earned a little from lectures he gave overseas and teaching at Cornell University from January to May 1975. But he decided to stay in Guyana and fight Burnham’s despotism. ... ed in 1976 ... Rodney accused ... government of using control over ... to intimidate ... control ... we ... a ... ’s ... ] ... workers ... the ... . ... ’ ... , ... included ... . ... ’ ... Rodney called ... - ... Burnham ... ’ ... assistance ... his ... . [ ... ] ... PPP ... writing articles ... speeches ... conducted ... for ... famous ... , A ... for

Other references

20. The intensified struggle for electoral reforms in Guyana (1990-1992)

www.guyananews.org

20. The intensified struggle for electoral reforms in Guyana (1990-1992) The intensified struggle for electoral reforms in Guyana (1990-1992) The PCD alliance Ever since the PPP launched its proposals in 1977 for a National Patriotic Front, many attempts were made to unite all the anti-PNC forces committed to the on-going struggle for democracy in Guyana. A temporary alliance was formed during the period of the referendum in 1978, but it was not until after the fraudulent December 1985 elections that a longer-lasting alliance in the form of the Patriotic Coalition for Democracy (PCD) was organised by the PPP and five of the six small opposition parties which contested the elections - the Working People's Alliance (WPA), the Democratic Labour Movement (DLM), and the National Democratic Front (NDF), and the People's Democratic Movement (PDM). The PCD at first limited its activities to the struggle for free and fair elections and human rights. It not only brought unity of action to the opposition parties but stimulated other sections of the population to openly join their voices to the campaign for democracy. Later, the alliance decided to transform itself into an electoral front with a consensus presidential candidate and a joint slate of candidates to contest elections due by March 1991. However, the parties could not agree on a consensus presidential candidate and also disagreed on the proportion each of the parties would have on the joint slate for election to the National Assembly.

Source

Twelve areas of political activism involving Kwayana, Jagan and others in Kiskadee Watch, October 24, 2026

Komal’s contribution to workers and betterment of country stands out as a monument - Stabroek News

www.stabroeknews.com · 2020-04-12

Dear Editor, The last time I spoke to Comrade Komal Chand was a day or two before he departed for Cuba. He had told me his health was not improving and he was going to get some help from Cuba. I told him I agreed fully and wished him the best. I followed his case from here and my heart sank when I heard that he was declining. Then on the morning of April 8, I heard that he had passed. I was really shaken, even though the news was not unexpected. Komal and I go back a long time. I first met him in 1967. He had already been a member of the PPP for a few years and a leader of the Progressive Youth Organisation (PYO). He was already quite experienced, having worked with his brother Dalchand and Fenton Ramsahoye in the 1961 and 1964 General Elections. We became close personal friends in the 1972/73 period when we spent six month together in Moscow and later when he worked at Freedom House, filling in for Cde. Clement Rohee who had gone abroad to study. Komal and I went on a few delegations together. In 1996 he and I, with Cde. Janet Jagan, visited the People’s Republic of China. It was for Janet a return visit after an earlier one in 1960 and it was our first visit there. In 1975, Old Year’s Day, I spent the day with him as the recognition poll, which GAWU fought so long and hard for, had finally come through. The GAWU won more than 90% of the votes. From that day until the end of his life he dedicated himself to the working people of this country. His working class convictions were unshakeable and he rose to become the head of the union. In that position he served the workers and trade unions of this country with dedication. I have had the good fortune of serving with him during many historic meetings. One of the big fights was the strike in 1989 when sugar and bauxite workers led the resistance against the budget which saw workers being pauperised overnight. I was with him during many negotiations in the formation of FITUG. Komal showed a lot of courage. He went to Linden in 1989 when workers were hostile to their unions because of the calling off of the 1989 strike. It was he, more than any other, who was able to explain to the workers the need to end that strike at that time and to convince the workers there that it was not a “sellout”. Apart from his Trade Union activities, I know he had a deep interest and likeness for international affairs. We together with many of our generation nicknamed him “Henry”. That was after the famous US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. It was a passion that he never lost. That love for international affairs, I believe, came from his close association with Cheddi Jagan; the numerous analyses we heard from Cheddi who always linked the national and international in his political analysis. It was the previous generation of PPP leaders that ingrained the importance of solidarity in our ranks. On a personal level he got on and was liked even by his opponents. Harrinarine Nawbatt, who was a member of the PSU, recalled to me the engagements Komal had with Forbes Burnham at receptions. Burnham used to call him the “suave one”. Unknowingly, Burnham was recognising his Kissinger-like diplomatic credentials. Another story that stuck with me was one of his encounters with Desmond Hoyte. Shortly after Hoyte became President, he had invited Komal to a dinner he had with GuySuCo’s directors and senior managers. In his remarks at the dinner, I’m told, Hoyte stated that when he asked Harold Davis Snr what was the problem in the sugar industry, Davis told him the weather and a short man named Komal Chand. That was a recognition of Komal’s determined fight for the welfare of workers everywhere, the sugar workers in particular. At a personal level he had many other qualities and talents that were admirable. He was a very good mechanic. Not only practically but he did a correspondence course so he was both in theory and practice an excellent mechanic. He loved cows, I believed that trait came from his father. He always had a few head of cattle that he got milk, etc from. He had also used his animals to provide him with bio-gas to satisfy his domestic needs. He was a man of many talents. However, his dedication to the welfare of the working class was predominant in his character. His work in the Trade Union movement was tremendous. He was more than a bit of a workaholic. However, he was great fun to be with as well. Komal has left a legion of friends and Comrades whom he loved and who loved him dearly. Among them was Comrade Feroze Mohamed who is also facing his own health challenges and his loyal friend Pooran who he could have called on at anytime for assistance. His work and contribution to democracy and to the betterment of this country stands out as monuments and an example for our youth and future generations. Komal’s death struck me as a falling of a giant tree in the forest of humanity. Farewell Comrade! Rest in Peace! Yours faithfully, Donald Ramotar

10.The rigged referendum of 1978

www.guyananews.org

Opposition to the referendum Bill Since the Bill intended to give the PNC full powers to change the constitution without any further involvement of the people - by having a referendum to end all future referendums - the PPP initiated efforts to unite all the opposition political parties and some trade unions and religious organisations to oppose the measure. Very quickly, these groups, with the exception of the United Force, united to form the Committee in Defence of Democracy (CDD) to coordinate national opposition to the Bill and its accompanying referendum question. In addition to the PPP, this broad-based group included the Working Peoples' Alliance, Peoples' Democratic Movement, Liberator Party, Progressive Youth Organisation, Guyana Agricultural Workers' Union, Rice Producers' Association, Women's Progressive Organisation, Civil Liberties Action Council, Guyana Peace Council and the Organisation of Working People, Democratic Teachers' Movement, Guyana Hindu Dharmic Sabha and United Sad'r Islamic Anjuman. Soon after, another anti-Bill group, the Concerned Citizens' Committee (CCC) was formed by a number of non-political professional groups. The members of this Committee were the Lawyers' Committee, Architects' Committee, Committee of Medical Practitioners, Committee of Concerned Educators, University of Guyana Staff Association, Clerical and Commercial Workers Union and the National Association of Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial Employees with the Guyana Council of Churches as an observer. Both the CDD and the CCC coordinated their activities and immediately proceeded to educate the population about the nature of the Constitution (Amendment) Bill and at the same time urged its withdrawal. The Lawyers' Committee (of the CCC) prepared a paper summarising the objections to the proposed legislation. The paper explained that the Bill sought to deprive the Guyanese people of their rights to approve or disapprove any new constitution in the future, noting that the requirement of the direct approval of the people to substantial alteration was most essential for a democratic constitution. It emphasised that the Bill was an attempt to get the electorate to place a blank cheque on the national future in the hands of a spent Parliament. ... Then a peaceful picket exercise outside of the Parliament Buildings was violently attacked by thugs associated with the PNC. The leader of the Liberator Party, Dr. Ganraj Kumar, and national poet Martin Carter were severely beaten in the presence of policemen. That same afternoon, a meeting of the Committee in Defence of Democracy (CDD) at the St. George's Cathedral was violently broken up by stick-wielding thugs transported in government-owned vehicles. Several persons were injured and had to be hospitalised. ... With the symbols decided by the government, the PNC publicised its referendum campaign by urging people to "vote for the house". By and large, the anti-Bill groups could only manage to have their views widely expressed in the Mirror, the PPP newspaper which printed five days a week. But this paper was also stifled and forced to reduce its size and circulation because the government to refused to sell newsprint to its publishers. The PPP also held numerous public meetings throughout the country to inform the people about the expanding trend of the PNC dictatorship associated with the referendum Bill and the referendum itself. In some areas, the public PPP meetings were broken up violently by armed thugs associated with the ruling party. ... According to the CCC, the CDD and the PPP, the heavy boycott resulted in only about 14 percent of the electorate turning out to vote. However, after a period of two days during which the government claimed the votes were counted - in the absence of opposition observers - the official results declared that 71.45 percent of the electorate voted, of which 97.7 supported the referendum proposal.

22. The October 1992 elections: The restoration of democracy in Guyana

www.guyananews.org

As Guyanese tuned in to GBC to wait for the announcement of the results from various regions, the observer team from the Council of Freely Elected Heads of Government was able to use a "quick count" sample which determined before 1:00 a.m. on 6 October (just 7 hours after polls had closed) that the PPP/Civic had won the national elections by a wide margin. The quick count projected that the PPP/Civic would receive 54.8 percent of the vote and the PNC 40.8 percent. This information was communicated to the Chairman of the Elections Commission but it was not released to the public. ... The official results came in much slower from the Elections Commission. By daybreak of 6 October, only 19,293 votes or roughly 5 percent of the eligible votes from 61 polling places had been declared. Immediately after, the Commission refused to release further preliminary results. It was later learned that the Commission was experiencing problems in receiving the results from many polling officials who apparently did not know that they had to send their results directly to the Commission. Actually, it took several days before the all the polling officers finally reported their results. ... That evening, the Elections Commission recommenced the announcement of results. Everything was going smoothly, but some of the returns, particularly from Region 4, were not coming in. The Returning Officer for that region was holding back this information, and everyone was trying to locate him. These returns were not received from Region 4 until mid-morning on October 7 and once this was known, it became apparent that the PPP/Civic was going to win convincingly. By 1:00 p.m., Collins finally notified Hoyte and Jagan that it appeared the PPP was going to win the election, and made a public statement to that effect at 3:30 p.m. President Carter later that day asked both Jagan and Hoyte to name senior representatives to begin plans for an orderly transition. Soon after, at his final press conference, he announced that his team had found that the elections were conducted freely and fairly, and that President Hoyte and Dr. Jagan had named representatives to plan for the transition. That evening, Chairman Rudy Collins announced that with 95 percent of the ballots counted, the PPP/Civic had won the presidency with about 54 percent of the vote. When all the votes were finally counted, the final results showed the PPP/Civic wining 162,058 or 53.4 percent of the valid votes, while the PNC received a total of 128,286 or 42.3 percent of the votes. The other parties received the following amounts: WPA - 6,068 (2 percent); TUF - 3,183 (1.2 percent); DLM - 1,557; URP - 1,343; PDM - 298; UJI - 134; NRP - 114; UWP - 77; and NDF - 68. Out of a total electorate of 384,195, a total of 308,852 (or 81 percent) were cast of which 303,186 were valid. Based on these results, the 53 elected seats in the Parliament were allocated thus: PPP/Civic - 28; PNC - 23; WPA -1; and TUF - 1. ... Altogether, in the ten regions, the PPP/Civic won a total of 99 seats, the PNC 91, the WPA 8, TUF 6 and the URP 1. ... With the PPP/Civic in control of six Regions, it was able to obtain and extra six "regional" seats in Parliament. The PNC, with control of four Regions acquired an additional four "regional" seats in Parliament. This brought about the following allocations: PPP/Civic - 34, PNC - 27, WPA -1 and TUF - 1. About a month after the elections, all the elected ... of the Regions convened as the National Congress of Local Democratic Organs and the PPP/Civic with its majority of 99 members to the PNC's 91, was able to win election of two of its representatives to fill the remaining two remaining seats in the new 65-member Parliament. This brought the PPP/Civic overall total to 36 seats. ... Jagan sworn in as President On 9 October, the leader of the PPP/Civic, Dr. Cheddi Jagan took the oath as President, thus becoming Guyana's first freely elected Head of State. At a ceremony at State House in Georgetown witnessed by ex-president Desmond Hoyte and large numbers of PPP/Civic supporters, President Jagan said: ... We went to the elections with the slogan: "Time for Change: Time to Rebuild." We have attained ... first objective of a ... in government. ... , all of us together, whatever our party, political affiliation, whatever our race or ethnicity, whatever our creed, must put our shoulders to ... wheel. It is ... to embrace each other and work arm in arm ... rebuild our beloved Guyana. . . . ... forward together and make into reality our ... : "One People One Nation, One Destiny ... For the first time in 28 years Guyana experienced free and fair elections. The long struggle for the right to freely choose a government was finally won. Democracy which had been snatched away from the people, through a series of rigged elections in 1968, 1973, 1980 and 1985, was once again restored. Nurturing and strengthening this newly won democracy would be their challenge in the years ahead.