JOHN MAIR (aka-Bill Cotton), wrote a critique of the anti-oil lobby in the ongoing series of books he edits titled, “Oil Eldorado?” I began my review of his article in my October 23, 2032 column with part two on November 19, 2023.

Today, I conclude my review of The Moray House Mensheviks (TMHM). I stopped at the part where I did not accept Mair’s analysis of Stabroek News (SN) founder, David DeCaires and his newspaper as manifestation of democratic thinking and belief in freedom of speech.

In parts one and two, I argued that Mair did not use class analysis which, if he did, he would have understood the motive of the crème de la crème of the Mulatto/Creole class (MCC) in Guyana from the 1950s – David De Caires and Miles Fitzpatrick – in wanting to birth a newspaper.

Using class analysis, my conclusion is that DeCaires and Fitzpatrick invented and used SN to resurrect the MCC and they were both successful in that venture.
Just a slight digression – DeCaires and Fitzpatrick founded the law firm named after them. Is there anyone in Guyana who believes when both men left, the law firm would be left to an African or Indian lawyer? It has been inherited by a Guyanese born lawyer who is half-White.

SN literally reinvented the MCC. The DeCaires-Fitzpatrick partnership rallied all the MCC personalities and ensured that they remain a tightly knitted stratum. The intention of founding a newspaper was to ensure that the remnants of the MCC had a voice from which they can organise a social agenda for themselves.

Moray House (MH), the home of David DeCaires (deceased) is the central place in Guyana where the MCC meets. Western diplomats are perennial invitees to the monthly tea parties. Now for the TMHM which Mair describes as anti-government in their oil debates.

I quote him: “I have analysed the last five years of Moray House oil discussions… as far as I could find there were sixteen events…looking as hard as I can, I found only one openly pro PPP speaker, Charles Ramson… the large majority of Moray House speakers are anti-government of one sort or another.”

Mair went on to competently analyse the THMM, which he correctly points as incorporating the usual suspects (TUS), and he composes some devastating criticism of them which is worth reproducing.

He writes: “But as is too often the case, it is never clear how many troops they have and whom they represent… there is always the suspicion they are letter-head bodies…very few of the central cast can be said to have clean hands and open minds when it comes to Guyana’s oil and gas.”

As I reported in part one, this is a fine essay as a critique of the anti-oil lobby but it is incomplete because it lacks class analysis. The main weakness in Mair’s otherwise good endeavour is that he separates the purpose of SN and MH. But there is no separation but a dialectical connection.

There is a book: “The Birth of the Stabroek News” by English woman, Anna Benjamin who once edited the Sunday edition for decades. In tracing the history of SN, there is no mention whatsoever of the people who were approached to finance SN. In fact, MCC business people funded SN apart from a grant by the US government agency, “National Endowment For Democracy.”

Stanley Ming revealed in an interview with David Hinds that he was one of the original financial contributors to the founding of the newspaper. I think the class basis in the birth of the newspaper was omitted by Mrs. Benjamin for fear of criticism that it would be ridiculed as bourgeois entity and that was what Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine once described it as (ironic in that he was a quintessential MCC bourgeois).

Mrs. Benjamin’s publication does not mention the close relationship between David DeCaires and David Granger.
DeCaires had a strong influence on Granger’s aesthetic outlook; introducing Granger to classical music and English poetry. Shortly after he became president, Mr. Granger gave an interview to the Chronicle in which he described his morning as beginning with a taste of Beethoven and Chopin.

When Granger’s monthly magazine, “Georgetown Review” ran into financial trouble, Mr. DeCaires bought it out at an incredible sum and reproduced it quarterly in SN. The investment almost sunk SN and it stayed alive through a loan from Republic Bank.

In today’s Guyana, TUS, TMHM and the MCC meet in a confluence of anti-Indian middle class cultural snobbery. Both SN and MH see themselves as the custodian of Western values and embrace the entitlement ideology which the MCC promulgated through its political party – National Democratic Party, headed by Sir John Carter in the 1950s. To understand TUS, TMHM and MCC, the analyst has to do class analysis.

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.