THE political awareness, especially among women, that began in the decade of the 40s was essentially catalysed by the Jagan-led agitation against exploitation of the labour force. But today, the focus is on a special mother who led this nation during times of travail.Mrs. Janet Jagan co-founded the Political Affairs Committee in 1946. This was the predecessor of the Peoples’ Progressive Party. During that year also, she and Mrs. Winifred Gaskin formed the Women’s Political and Economic Organisation (WPEO).
In 1947, she joined the British Guiana Clerks’ Association and became its Assistant Secretary, and her mobilisation of women against oppression gathered impetus from thereon.
Born Janet Rosenberg on October 20, 1920, in Chicago, Illinois, USA, Janet Jagan breathed her last in her adoptive homeland on March 28, 2009.
She married Cheddi Jagan on August 5, 1943 against much family turmoil on both sides, and their union produced two children: Joey and Nadira.
Like the biblical Ruth, Janet Jagan came to British Guiana in December 1943, making her husband’s homeland her own, and worked for 10 years as a Dental Nurse in Dr Jagan’s clinic. She almost immediately became involved in the labour struggle, and was a member of the colony’s first-ever union, the British Guiana Labour Union. She worked with labour hero, Hubert Nathaniel Critchlow, to organise domestics.
Her love affair with journalism began with the PAC Bulletin, of which she was editor. In 1947, she contested the general elections under limited franchise in Central Georgetown, but lost.
One of the founders of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Janet was elected the party’s General Secretary, and held that post between 1950-1970. Since then, she was a Member of the Central Committee and Executive Committee of the People’s Progressive Party. She has served as International Secretary and Executive Secretary.
She was appointed first editor of Thunder, the PPP’s official organ, and the first elected woman to the Georgetown City Council. In 1953, she co-founded the Women’s Progressive Organisation (WPO), and continued to hold the post of President of this premier women’s association until her death.
That year also, she was one of the three women to enter the House of Assembly as a representative of the Essequibo constituency. In 1953, she was the first woman to become Deputy Speaker of the Legislature, but in 1954, following the suspension of the Constitution and the ouster of the PPP Government by the British colonialists, she was jailed for six months, and restricted, after release, to the city of Georgetown. She had to report to the police weekly.
During the period 1957-1961, Janet Jagan was returned by the constituency of Essequibo to the Legislature, and was appointed as Minister of Labour, Health and Housing, in which capacity she made dynamic and transformational changes to those sectors. On the death of the Minister of Home Affairs, Claude Christian, she became Minister of Home Affairs and a member of the Senate in 1963, but resigned as Minister in protest over the murderous incidents in Wismar.
She was Editor of the Mirror Newspaper from 1973 – 1997. After the PPP ended a boycott of Parliament in protest of the rigging of the elections in 1973, she returned to the House as an opposition MP. She served in the House continuously, and was returned in 1980, 1985 and 1992. In April 1997, she was acclaimed the longest serving member of Parliament.
After Guyana’s first free and fair elections in post -independent Guyana in October 1992, she was designated First Lady of the Republic. She continued her work as Editor of Mirror.
Mrs. Jagan served a three-month stint as Ambassador to the United Nations when Guyana’s Permanent Representative, Dr Rudy Insanally, was elected President of the General Assembly. She was subsequently appointed Chairperson of Castellani House Committee of Management, home of the National Art Gallery Collection; and Chairperson of National Commission on the Rights of the Child from 1992-1997.
On a historic day, March 17, 1997, Janet Jagan was sworn in as Guyana’s first woman Prime Minister and First Vice-President. She again created history on December 19, 1997 when she was sworn in as the first woman President of the Republic of Guyana and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. She resigned on August 8, 1999 due to ill health.
In March 2009, Mrs. Jagan indefatigably poured her energy into the establishment of the Cheddi Jagan Research Centre. Simultaneous to the multiplicity of activities she also authored several publications, including works on the history of the PPP and Rigged Elections in Guyana; and five children’s story books, among them ‘When Grandpa Cheddi was a Boy’, ‘Children’s Stories of Guyana’s Freedom Struggles’, and ‘Alligator Ferry Service’.
Mrs. Jagan became the recipient of the nation’s (Guyana’s) highest honour – Order of Excellence (O.E.) and a Woman of Achievement award from the University of Guyana. In 1997, she was awarded the Gandhi Gold Medal for Peace, Democracy and Women’s Rights by UNECSO.
Mrs. Janet Jagan is one of the greatest daughters the United States of America ever produced; but that she became such an indomitable freedom fighter and national leader is a matter of pride for Guyana, and today, she is rightfully called the Matriarch of Guyana.