PYO calls on PNC to come forward and account for Rodney’s death
TODAY marks 32 years since the assassination of Dr. Walter Rodney, an internationally recognized Guyanese historian and scholar who devoted his life to the cause of the oppressed. “Dr. Rodney’s brilliance transcended all barriers”, the Progressive Youth Organization (PYO), the youth arm of the governing People’s Progressive Party (PPP), said in a statement on the 32nd death anniversary of Dr. Walter Rodney.
From a working class family in Georgetown, Rodney  rose to earn a PhD from the prestigious School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) of the University of London at age twenty four (24) years. Six years later, his much celebrated ‘How Europe Underdeveloped Africa’ was published.
“Dr. Rodney and our parent organization, the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), were fighting a common cause – working class liberation and racial unity,” the PYO stated.
Recognising that Dr. Rodney was a threat to their racist regime, the People’s National Congress (PNC) sought to victimise him and keep him out of Guyana. Firstly, his appointment as a Professor of History at the University of Guyana was revoked before commencement.
The PYO fought hard, including organising and leading protests to have this injustice corrected. The PYO also recalled that Rodney was then falsely arrested for arson. “This trumped-up charge led to restrictions on his liberty to travel,” the PYO stated.
The PNC’s disinformation machinery, including its organ, the ‘New Nation’, did not spare Dr. Rodney  excessive abuse.
“Dr. Rodney was never discouraged; he persisted in his efforts to bring changes to the society in which we live, to destroy the tyranny under which the people suffered. Like the PPP, his energies were unfailing in his resolve to restore democracy and to defend the interests of the exploited people of this country,” the PYO stated.
After Dr. Rodney was charged with arson in 1979, many academic organizations and individuals petitioned the government to drop the charges and also expressed concerns for his personal safety. The Forbes Burnham government on every occasion dismissed the pleas as baseless and claimed that being an intellectual did not mean that Dr. Rodney was above the law.
According to the PYO, it was, and is still widely believed, that the assassination was a set-up by the then PNC. No effort was made to bring the perpetrators to justice. It was only after the PPP won government that a charge of murder was laid against Gregory Smith. Smith was a former Guyana Defence Force Sergeant  who offered to make communication equipment for Dr. Rodney and who planted the bomb in a walkie-talkie that was given to Dr. Rodney on that fateful night of June 13, 1980.
However, the government never succeeded in extraditing Smith from French Guiana, where he escaped to and is believed to have died in 2002, to stand trial in his homeland, since there is no extradition treaty between Guyana and French Guiana.
Dr. Rodney’s was not the only political assassination of that dark period in our history. Father Bernard Darke, then Minister of Education, Vincent Teekah and Working People’s Alliance (WPA) members Ohene Koama and Edward Dublin were also murdered by the “assassins of conversation” as Martin Carter called them.
The PNC has never apologized for the killing of Dr Rodney or sought to investigate the murder. We were shocked when the WPA decided to enter into a coalition with the same PNC to form  A Partnership for National Unity.
Thirty two years ago, the WPA, in a press release, had this to say, “Our talented, inspiring, committed and much loved brother Walter Rodney died last night at the hands of the P.N.C. rulers”. These rulers are still integral members of the PNC.
Like so many years ago, the PYO will continue to fight for justice for Dr. Rodney. “We believe that if this ‘partnership’ truly believes in national unity then they should urge their PNC partner to use this 32nd anniversary to come forward and accept and account for Dr. Rodney’s death,” the PYO stated.
The PYO said anything short of that would continue to be an insult to Dr. Rodney’s family and true supporters.