THE PPP was dedicated to securing independence for Guyana and to free the country from the shackles of imperialist and capitalist oppression. It recognized that if it were to pursue the class struggle, it had to work in close collaboration with the trade-unions. The result was that the PPP and the trade unions worked, planned and struggled together to change the political and economic system.
As a legislator, during 1947-1953 Dr Jagan became convinced that a new party should be formed. Thus, in January 1950 the PPP was founded to promote the interest of the working class. On its banner, the principles of scientific socialism were set out and its main gold were independence for British Guiana and transformation of the economy to benefit the working people of Guyana. Despite the manipulations by the British colonialists, Dr Jagan and the PPP went on to win the elections held in 1957 and 1961.Under his Premiership, Britain denied the granting of independence to Guyana. Instead, intent on removing him from office, they shamelessly resorted to changing the electoral system to one of Proportional Representation which resulted in the PPP losing office in 1964 to a hastily contrived coalition. But, whether in government or in opposition, Dr Jagan remained committed to the struggles of the Guyanese people. I think reason for this was that Dr Jagan came to realize that much of the struggle in Guyana was the struggle for personal liberty, the struggle for the emancipation of slaves, the struggle to end the indentured system.
All of these were part of the struggle for the liberation of people; not in the abstract sense but in a very concrete sense of the individual communities and their families and the households in which they lived. The new infusion of ideology in the latter half of the forties when a young East Indian politician, Cheddi Jagan, and in 1950 Jagan was joined by a black socialist, Forbes Burnham, in control of a large black urban-based union and together they formed the PPP. However, the possibility of independence was been raised. In fact, constitutional changes in 1953 gave to the party winning a simple majority under universal adult suffrage. In 1960, therefore, for the first time in the history of the country there was mass mobilisation of highly politicized ethnic groups. As in 1962 the stalemate came over irreconcilable differences between Dr Jagan, on the one hand, and Burnham and D’Aguiar on the other, concerning the conditions under which independence was to be granted. Britain rejected all of Dr. Jagan’s proposals in favour of his opponents’.
MOHAMED KHAN