When young social and political activist and dentist Dr. Cheddi Jagan, who had joined the labour movement to fight for workers’ rights resigned from the MPCA in 1945, he was determined to fill the need for a political organisation to represent the interests of the workers.

As a consequence of this resolve, he and his wife, American-born Mrs. Janet Jagan, along with Ashton Chase and Jocelyn Hubbard, established the Political Affairs Committee on the 6 November 1946.

The formation of the Political Affairs Committee (PAC) created a platform for the struggle against colonialism in British Guiana and the fight for social, economic and political justice for the peoples residing in this then British colony.

Odeen Ishmael wrote: “The leaders of the PAC had already acquired some experience in the areas of trade union and political activities. Dr. Jagan had gained trade union experience and his writings in local journals on political and Caribbean issues were already well known in Guyana and the English-speaking Caribbean. Ashton Chase was Secretary of the British Guiana Labour Union (BGLU), Hubbard was General Secretary of the Trades Union Council (TUC), and Janet Jagan, while involved in co-ordinating political research with Dr. Jagan, had already established herself as a leader of the Women’s Political and Economic Organisation (WPEO).”

Until the creation of the PAC, British Guiana’s colonized people had no political leaders to champion their cause. Also, suffrage was limited to those who owned property or income above a certain amount, so the great majority of the people could not participate in choosing a Government to represent their interest.

Organ of the PAC, the “PAC Bulletin” was a mimeographed publication, but it did a substantial job in educating the masses of their rights, and the efforts of the organization to champion those rights. It was through this medium that the people were informed that the Committee aimed “to assist the growth and development of labour and progressive movements of British Guiana to the end of establishing a strong, disciplined and enlightened Party, equipped with the theory of scientific socialism”.

It also announced that it intended “to provide information and to present scientific political analyses on current affairs both local and international” and to “foster and assist discussion groups through the circulation of bulletins, booklets, and other printed matter”.

Through various methodologies, the PAC immediately commenced its task of educating the Guyanese people about the existing political, economic and social issues in the country. One of the ways they utilized was by organising discussion groups of young members of the intelligentsia in Georgetown, and soon some of the country’s most brilliant intellectuals became members of this small but increasingly popular organization, according to Ishmael.

Leading personalities who became members included Ramkarran, Sydney King, Brindley Benn, Rory Westmaas and Martin Carter.

The PAC used the Moyne Commission Report of 1939, which described the “atrocious economic and social conditions in Guyana, to propagate its demands for change.”

The Commission proposed that conditions could only improve with the “establishment of a well-planned collective industrial economy” to replace the colonialist-imposed capitalist economy which was providing “a very low standard of living for the majority of the inhabitants of British Guiana”.

The PAC also began the demand for the participation of all the people in the choice of the Government and urged the speedy implementation of universal adult suffrage without literacy qualifications, and for the establishment of self-government for Guyana.

What is important to note is that the PAC was supported from the very beginning by workers of all ethnic groups; as well as the young intelligentsia of the times.

The deplorable conditions in the country at the time ensured that the PAC’s fight was sustained, under Dr. Jagan’s dynamic and fearless leadership.

After a turbulent period in the emerging and changing political landscape in British Guiana, Dr. Jagan broke from the alliance with the Labour Party members after they refused to give support to demands for adult suffrage.

In June 1948, he moved a motion for the introduction of adult suffrage in local government elections. A member of the Labour Party seconded this motion, but when the vote was taken, only Dr. Jagan supported it.

However, Dr. Jagan was unrelenting in his demand for universal adult suffrage, especially in the aftermath of the Enmore shootings.

The struggle was long, with much victimization and hardships suffered by Dr. Jagan and his supporters.

By mid-1949, the members of PAC agreed that Dr. Jagan would be the leader of the Party to be named the People’s Progressive Party (PPP).

The final edition of the PAC Bulletin came out on 26 December 1949 and, on the 1st January 1950. The initial issue of the Party’s organ, the Thunder, was published to coincide with the Party’s launching.

The aims of the Party were clear. It stood for self-government, economic development, and the creation of a socialist society. The party also pledged itself to the task of winning total independence for Guyana.

The PPP won its fight for suffrage and, in 1953, elections were held in British Guiana under universal adult suffrage. The stunning victory that the PPP won that year was repeated election after election, but the American and British governments conspired with LFS Burnham to rob the PPP of its rightful place at the helm of the nation for 28 years, until general elections of 1992, when the Americans, realizing their folly, sought to make amends with the in
tervention of former President Jimmy Carter, who ensured that a relatively free and fair general election was held in Guyana for the first time in decades.

The results were as expected and the PPP eventually took its place as the administrative body of the country.

Successive general elections have only served to strengthen the support of the masses for the nation’s only working-class party, and although Ashton Chase is the only surviving founding-member of the first authentic political movement in Guyana, the mark that has been left by those heroes and martyrs of Guyana’s freedom march would be ineradicable as long as the PPP holds steadfast to the vision of Dr. Cheddi Jagan, his wife, and the band of heroes who stood by their side.