Race and class suicide in Guyana in 2023

In my series on the relentless, unmitigated hounding down of the PPP government by the Mulatto/Creole Class (MCC) since March 2020, I stopped last Sunday at the point where there was a discussion on the nature of the MCC.
I am yet to reach the stage of March 2020 and subsequent events from there on. I will ask readers to be tolerant and patient because what I am doing here is an attempt to bring all the dimensions together about the MCC through a historical perspective.

Today, I will explain the rupture between the MCC and Forbes Burnham with some sympathy by me for Burnham. In subsequent columns, I will discuss the MCC’s invention of the WPS and AFC and conclude the series with the almost daily attacks on the PPP government through the use of different forums by the MCC, especially a letter every fortnight by the usual suspects in the Stabroek News, a media house owned by members of the MCC.

As stated in one of the previous columns in the series, the MCC feels a natural affinity towards African people since many MCC personalities have African genes. But at the psychic level, the MCC is culturally and mentally uncomfortable with an enduring closeness with the darker complexion of the African Guyanese proletariat and the African peasantry.
Darker African Guyanese are tolerated and on many levels welcomed into the world of the MCC if they come from a wealthy background or have immense middle class status. In last Sunday analysis, I cited the names of two very dark middle class persons.
One is Andaiye of the WPA whose father was a top name in medicine and Huge Cholmondeley, at the time the leading radio personality in the country. A strange exception was the lawyer, Llewellyn John in the 1950s. The League of Coloured People accepted him even though he was very dark. Perhaps the factor that explains this was the wealth of the John family.

I also mentioned in one of the articles in the series that the MCC will inevitably bond with African-led parties and trade unions because those entities have the numbers to fight off the Indian pursuit of political power. The MCC then from the 1930s right up to 2023 is a powerful combination of racial superiority and class hegemony.

A caveat is in order before we continue. Sir Karl Popper achieved worldwide fame for his two-volume book, “The Open Society and Its Enemies,” the reason being his attack on Karl Marx. I do not subscribe to Popper’s treatment of Marx but I think Popper was on to something when he cited the dialectical role of intra-class antagonism that Marx ignored.
Popper was keen to dismiss the perfect movement of the dialectic because he used historical examples to show that class struggle does not always produce perfect class warfare. He argued that dominant classes that opposed the peasantry and proletariat also ended up confronting each other thus weakening each other. There is a fantastic book in which a political scientist used Chile in South America in the 19th century to highlight Popper’s theory of intra-class rivalry.

A strange almost inexplicable trait has emerged within the MCC since March 2020. The MCC at present looks like it has abandoned its strategic habit from the 1950s and has shown no interest in class and race alliance since the March 2020 election fiasco. In 2023, it appears that the MCC is committing class and race suicide. But more of that in another column.
Back to the MCC’s marriage to Burnham in the 1950s. The National Democratic Party of the MCC merged with Burnham to confront the Jagan administration. With support from the Portuguese party, United Force led by the Portuguese petty bourgeoisie, the Jagan government was defeated in 1964 and the African dominated PNC and the MCC came in power.

But it was a troubled partnership for two reasons. One was the Freudian mind of both parties. Deep down, they distrusted each other because of race and class feelings. Secondly, the PNC felt that the MCC was arrogant to assume power beyond its physical numbers.

The theory of why the MCC split with Burnham has withstood questioning onto this day. It goes like this. Burnham hid his power obsession and obfuscated it with his initial pro-West stance. But as he settled down to permanent power, he showed his true colour by becoming a dictator and ousting his partner, the MCC.
I accept that theory but what is not put into that kind of theorising is the situation where MCC personalities based on their house-slave superior mentality sought to dictate the shape of Burnham’s government so a natural clash was bound to happen. To be continued.

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