THE Working People’s Alliance (WPA) has hailed the legacy of the late Dr. Walter Rodney, who was assassinated some 40 years ago, and said the country would do well in committing to his ideals for nation building.
Rodney was killed on June 13, 1980.

BELOW IS FULL STATEMENT BY WPA
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Walter Rodney by agents of the PNC regime led by President Forbes Burnham on June 13, 1980. This year’s anniversary comes at a critical juncture in Guyana’s sojourn as the country confronts its historical contradictions. It also comes at a time when the wider world confronts the still raw scars of chattel slavery on the condition of the sons and daughters of the formerly enslaved.

WPA notes the attempt by some forces to uncritically insert Rodney in the current situation. We wish to steer clear of that temptation and to instead remember our brother for what he contributed at another critical moment. We also use this anniversary to invoke his spirit as we recommit our party to the core ideals which have guided us over the years. Rather than use his memory to validate competing contemporary narratives, we prefer to leave it to the younger generations to critically interrogate that period and tease out Rodney’s contributions to aid them in their struggles.

Having said that, WPA believes that it is fair to conclude that Walter Rodney in his relatively short life distinguished himself as one of the foremost thinkers and activists of the Guyanese post-colonial struggle for bread, justice, and freedom. That his contributions are hailed beyond Guyana points to the breadth and scope of his importance to the universalist Caribbean intellectual and political traditions. We celebrate him on this 40th anniversary as a bright light that showed the way to freedom for all the children of bondage.

Walter Rodney returned to Guyana from Tanzania in 1974 to work and teach at the University of Guyana, but his right to work was denied by the regime which terminated his employment before he took up his position. He had returned to Guyana from Tanzania, as Eusi Kwayana once wrote, after informing himself of the situation on the ground. The political situation on the ground in Guyana was that the party in power had declared itself paramount to the State and in the process had closed all doors to a democratic change of government.

Rodney had long warned of the danger of this tendency among the newly-independent countries in the so-called ‘Third World’. He viewed this post-independence authoritarian order as inimical to the liberation of the working classes and the dispossessed in the societies and as an affront to the logic of independence. It was this reality in Guyana that prompted him to remain in the country despite the denial of his right to work. As he observed at the time, “Partly I wish to remain as a matter of personal preference, to be here with my family and friends, and partly because my situation is not unique. It is part of a very widespread economic victimisation, which has developed in Guyana.”

He soon concluded, in sync with the newly-formed WPA, that the way forward for Guyana in the short term was the struggle for the removal of the authoritarian regime via the building of a multi-ethnic movement of the working peoples of the country. He set to work with his colleagues in the WPA by inserting himself in the work that was already started by the constituent organisations of the party. He brought to the nascent movement his formidable intellect and charisma but above all, the fact that he was not involved in the ethnic politics of the previous decade meant he could appeal to the working people across ethnic lines. Further, his radical perspective was attractive to young people in an age of radicalism. It was not surprising then, that he emerged as the leading figure, not only within the WPA, but in the wider movement. In the decades since his assassination, WPA has noted the tendency to construct the Rodney years as a one-man operation. Rodney would be uncomfortable with that construction. While he recognised the burden that history had placed on his shoulders, he was bitterly opposed to the notion of the maximum leader. He was careful to always stress that he was part of a collective and that ultimately, it was the working people who would have to liberate themselves. Hence the Rodneyite praxis of self-activity and self-emancipation.

There are two major characteristics of Rodney’s praxis that are worth referencing on this anniversary. First, his was a broad praxis that reflected the convergence of race, ethnicity, class, and nation. To isolate his thoughts on and activism in relation to any one of those without reference to the others amounts to a falsification of history and a denial of his full worth. His Marxism must be seen as inseparable from his Black Nationalism, his anti-imperialism, and his Caribbean nationalism. Although an advocate and activist in the global Black Power movement, Rodney did not see the philosophy of the movement as a contradiction of the multi-ethnic struggle in Guyana.

This brings us to the second characteristic—Rodney was a Concretist. He never sought to impose aspects of his praxis where they were not necessary. When in Jamaica, he engaged the Black Power imperative within the context of the growing social class divisions. While in Africa, he employed the class analysis in a society that was relatively homogeneous. And in an ethnically divided Guyana, struggling against an authoritarian order, he privileged a working-class multiracialism. In Rodney’s thinking and that of the WPA, the struggle for social and economic equality, could only be attained through the multiracial power of the working people.

Since Rodney’s demise, there have been serious setbacks in the goal of a multiracial society in which no group feels threatened. WPA regrets this development but recognises that in many ways, the dynamics of Guyana and the world have undergone tremendous changes since 1980. The rise of Globalisation and the neo-liberal order have altered the global dynamics. In Guyana, we are still to resolve the tension between ethnicity and majoritarian democracy. Rodney did not live long enough to engage these new challenges. So, it would be a serious disservice to his legacy to put words in his mouth that has been silenced for 40 years now.

WPA, however, calls for a continued critical interrogation of his ideas and activism to determine their relevance or lack thereof to the contemporary moment. Simply pimping his name to score partisan political points is a cheap way of honoring him. So, on this 40th anniversary of his assassination, WPA recommits itself to the quest for a Guyana that is based on ethno-racial, social and gender equity. We can do justice to Walter Rodney’s life, work, and sacrifice to renew our determination as Guyanese people to marry our diverse and uplifting ethnic identities to the freedom of a non-racial political culture.

WPA further recommits our party to the struggle for freedom of association. There can be no freedom for the working poor in Guyana except in a community where every woman and every man and every youth is free to choose a party without fear of reprisals from any state or from powerful groups in the society. WPA recommits itself to the first step towards ethnic jointness, in the form of a Government of National Unity and Reconstruction that recognises the right of all groups to be represented in the halls of national decision-making.

WPA urges that in the face of imminent oil wealth, it would redouble its efforts to fight for just rewards for the working poor of all ethnicities. In this regard, the struggle for the policy of cash transfers to households remain at the top of our agenda. While WPA recognises the vulnerability of the sovereignty of countries like Guyana, it nevertheless throws its support behind calls for our regional and global partners to resist the temptation to become too entangled in the country’s domestic challenges.