THE People’s Progressive Party (PPP) extends its deepest condolences to the relatives and friends of the late Richart Hart who passed away in the United Kingdom at the advanced age of ninety-six on December 21, 2013. 

Hart was a close friend of Dr. Jagan and the PPP and played a key role in the rise of trade union militancy not only in his country Jamaica but in the Caribbean as a whole.
Indeed, Hart was one of the guiding lights in the struggle for national liberation and from the clutches of imperialist domination in the region, the PPP noted in a statement yesterday. He became a natural ally of Dr. Jagan and the PPP and one of those Caribbean luminaries in the working class struggle who inspired Dr. Jagan in the struggle for national liberation and for a better quality of life for the Guyanese people and for that matter for the Caribbean working class as a whole.
Hart’s relationship with Dr. Jagan started even before the formation of the PPP. During a meeting of the West Indian Conference at the Georgetown Town Hall in 1945, Dr. Jagan met for the first time persons whom he described as “stalwarts whom he admired” among whom was Richard Hart and Hubert Nathaniel Critchlow. Out that meeting was born the Caribbean Labour Congress in 1946 of which he served as its General Secretary. In the same year the Political Affairs Committee (PAC) was formed with founding leaders Cheddi Jagan, Janet Jagan, HJM Hubbard and Ashton Chase. The PAC was aimed at raising the political and ideological consciousness of the Guyanese working class.
Those were the days when the Cold War was raging intensely and several progressives and leftists, inculding Dr. Jagan and Richard Hart became targets of the anti-communist witchhunt. Buckling under pressure from the United States, several Caribbean leaders conspired to have Hart removed as General Secretary of the Caribbean Labour Congress in 1950 because of his militancy and pro-labour stance.

Ironically, it was under the Norman Manley leadership of the 1951-52 period that saw the Jamaica leftist-led TUC being forced to withdraw from the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) and the expulsion of left-wingers, the so-called 4-H’s (Richard Hart, Ken Hill, Frank Hill and Arthur Henry).
In addition, under the leadership of both Norman Manley and Grantley Adams the militant leftist Caribbean Labour Congress (CLC) of which leftists Richard Hart was General Secretary and Billy Strachan was Secretary (London Branch) was disbanded.
As noted by Dr. Cheddi Jagan in his book ‘The Caribbean: Whose Backyard?’ the betrayal of the Caribbean national liberation movement was fully demonstrated during the 1953 crisis in British Guiana when the social democratic leadership applauded the bipartisan imperialist policies and actions of both the Labour and Conservative parties in Britain.
Incidentally, it was during the same period the PPP was formed with Cheddi Jagan as Party Leader and Janet Jagan as General Secretary. After the PPP was re-elected in the elections of 1962, Hart was invited by Dr. Jagan to edit the Party’s newspaper, the Mirror which he did until 1965. The PPP, as is well known, was engineered out of office by Anglo-American vested interests in the 1964 elections because of its pro-working class leaning.
The PPP said Hart has undoubtedly made his mark on the political and trade union landscape in the Caribbean for which he will be long remembered.
In addition to his role as a trade unionist/politician, Hart was also a prolific writer and the author of several books.
May his soul rest in peace!