THE launch of the Political Affairs Committee (PAC) in 1946 by Dr Cheddi Jagan, his wife Janet, Ashton Chase and others, led to the beginnings of the political alliance in working-class interests that resulted in the launch of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) on January 1, 1950.

Like the PPP, many other ‘Labour’ parties also formed by the trade unions following 1938, to contest the first rounds of ‘Adult Suffrage’ (right to vote) in the British Crown Colonies in 1951. Most of the Labour Parties won the first elections across the West Indies and eventually established the West Indies Labour Party, that sought to coordinate the political and electoral activities in office, to ensure they delivered what the trade unions were demanding before and after 1938.

The PPP, which united the progressive trade unions, African and Indian workers and all Guyanese citizens in pursuit of ending colonial domination, won all the general elections after Adult Suffrage (the right to vote), including in 1964 when an externally-engineered split robbed the PPP of its earned victory.

That split divided the people, workers and trade unions along race and party lines, weakening trade unions’ effectiveness and cheating the PPP out of office for 28 years, during which deteriorated working conditions, low wages and higher salaries led to trade union militancy strong enough to unite unions against political suppression of the Guyanese working class in the name of building ‘Co-operative Socialism.’

Since the return of democracy in 1992, trade unions have regained their full legitimacy and the revival of the nation’s economic fortunes has also brought an increase in production and earnings possibilities that will make it easier for public and private sector enterprises – and the government — to pay workers even better.

Fate has treated the Guyanese working class very well, with the pro-worker PPP-Civic administration in charge of the national purse strings at the right time and able to influence the legislative and other changes that will make it easier for trade unions to gain more and better benefits for workers generally.

There’s no getting away from the fact that especially since August 2020, employers and workers’ organisations are all praising the current administration led by President, Dr Irfaan Ali, and the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) led by General Secretary Dr Bharrat Jagdeo.

Despite the political theatrics of their representative union’s leadership, government employees also have high hopes for escalated wage increases and more improvement of working conditions.
But the rebuilding of Guyana and the continuing investments in energy and continuous discovery of oil and gas, as well as the provisions of the Local Content Act, together ensure more employment for new workers and more choices for those with traditional and modern skills.

The general economic situation continues to improve year by year, month by month and day by day, as the PPP/C administration continues to properly husband the nation’s resources and earnings in ways that improve the lot of all workers and families through national and community projects that touch everyone, everywhere.

Fortunately, younger elements with broader minds in the trade unions and opposition political parties, just like in the private sector leadership, are increasingly joining and embracing the government’s invitations to local and foreign companies to invest more, with more incentives, which will also ensure they can easier pay better wages.

May 1, 2023 is seeing unprecedented levels of industrial action across the UK, as doctors and nurses, emergency health staff, train and transport, immigration and other government employees in essential service sectors stage unprecedented strikes in areas like nursing.

In Guyana, however, the superior management of the economy and the nation’s finances by the current administration has shown that, 85 years after the 1938 Caribbean working class revolutions, 77 years after the PAC was established, 73 years after the PPP was launched and 72 years after Guyanese first got the right to vote and chose the PPP first and with the June 2023 Local Government Elections (LGE) approaching, it’s even clearer than ever before, that Guyanese workers and their families, on both sides of the political spectrum and all sides of the ethnic and racial divides, the public and private sectors, trade unions and other entities representing ordinary working people, are again rallying behind the first and original party formed with the interests of the nation’s working class at heart.

And that’s only natural because it’s an established fact – supported by history and by the figures and testimonies being seen and heard increasingly today — that the Guyanese working class, like all citizens, do feel and live better under PPP/C administrations.