Guyana’s history has been characterised by the formation of scores of political parties which never really stood the test of time or never made a significant impact on the political landscape and consequently they all disappeared into oblivion. But during almost every election period more such parties keep mushrooming with the same end result.

During the 1950s and 1960s, at the height of the Cold War, parties were formed with funding through western intelligence agencies with the intention of subverting the support of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) but they all failed miserably in this bid to undermine and destroy the party and those parties like most of their predecessors ended up in the dustbin of history.

This was so simply because these parties were not rooted in the masses and they were not genuine and sincere and did not possess the kind of steeled and dedicated leadership and organisational skills and commitment that are so essential to sustain the existence of a political party. In addition, their objectives and goals were never clear and mostly represented a penchant for the destruction of the PPP which would never be enough to mould a political movement into a durable and sustained one.

On the other hand the PPP since its infancy made it categorically clear that its long term goal is independence for Guyana and the liberation of the oppressed from bondage and exploitation and this automatically transformed it into a working class party, but at the same time it was prepared to work with the progressive intellectuals, professional and the patriotic businesses interested in the economic development of Guyana.

It was on this pedestal that the PPP kicked off its long, hard and epic struggle for the improvement of the socio-economic conditions of the Guyanese people. And it did so by organising on all fronts-political, industrial, economic, social, women’s issues, youths, agriculture, etc. This gave birth to several other militant organisations such as the women’s and youth arms of the party the Women’s Progressive Organisation (WPO) and the Progressive Youth Organisation (PYO) respectively; the Guyana Industrial Workers Union (GIWU) the forerunner of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), the Guyana Rice Producers Association (RPA), the National Cane Farmers Association, the Guyana Saw millers and Forestry Workers Union, etc.

But all of this would not have been possible without the vision, sincerity, courage, dedication, commitment, determination and honesty of the founder of the PPP and the Father of the Nation, Dr. Cheddi Jagan.

As a tremendous analytical political thinker he realised from the early days of the struggle that all the ills of our society were dialectically interconnected to the politics of the struggle and therefore to correct the situation a strong and united political movement was essential. Consequently, the forerunner of the PPP, the Political Affairs Committee (PAC) was transformed into the PPP in January 1950 and so today we have a glorious party which is 60 years old which is a marathon time for the existence of an individual or an organisation. With respect to the PPP it is even more remarkable because of the odds it had to defy and the local and international forces that worked towards its demise in which they all failed miserably.

But all this did not happen by the wave of some magical wand, rather it came about because Dr. Jagan and other dedicated leaders such as Janet Jagan, Jocelyn Hubbard, Ashton Chase, Jessie Burnham, E. M.G Wilson, C. V. Nunes, etc, who were all inspired by the sincerity and honesty of purpose and as such became solid foundations of support and in turn inspired thousands of foot soldiers across the length and breadth of this beautiful land.

Of course mistakes were made along the way but they were made in the process of trying to improve people’s lives and not because of selfish and personal benefits or lust for power.

Despite all the trials and tribulations including jailing of leaders, harassment of party members and supporters, attempts to muzzle the Mirror, framing of party members for murder and treason and violence and terrorism aimed at the party especially in the turbulent 1960s, etc. the party has remained as a colossus in defence of the oppressed and the socio-economic advancement of this country.

President Bharrat Jagdeo perhaps sums it all up perfectly when he declared at Babu John on Sunday:

“We remain strong because we have defied every odd; we remain strong because the various attempts to side track us, to get rid of us, have all failed; we remain strong because in spite of the rigging of elections, in spite of street protest, in spite of support for criminals for political purposes – the PPP is in power and will remain in power for a very long time in the future.”