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Cheddi Jagan and the Cold War, 1946–1992

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Seecharan locates the intellectual origins of Jagan’s ‘secular religion’ – Marxism – as a ‘pure science’ applicable to human societies, equally valid as the natural sciences and validated by the supposedly irreproachable Soviet example.

By: Clem Seecharan



Cheddi Jagan (1918–1997) was the first major politician in the Anglophone Caribbean enraptured by Marxism-
Leninism as espoused by the Soviet Union − the beacon for the radical transformation of colonies like his country,
British Guiana (Guyana). Moreover, he sought to persuade US President Kennedy, that although this was the
essence of his post-colonial vision, it would not vitiate the fundamentals of liberal democracy.

Jagan’s political mission of fifty years was deeply rooted in his repulsion by ‘bitter sugar’ – an anti-sugar
plantation, anti-Booker obsession refracted through Marxism/Leninism. Engrossed by class analysis at the core of
his epistemology, he routinely minimised, if not circumvented, the racial anxieties and religious and cultural
complexities of colonial Guyana. Yet his aspiration to create a communist society never did resonate with African
Guyanese, nor was it apprehended by his unfailingly loyal Indian supporters, most of whom disclaimed that he was
a communist. But this work establishes that Jagan’s fidelity to Marxism was incontrovertible from the inception;
and this was at variance with America’s Cold War susceptibilities, in their ‘backyard.’

Seecharan locates the intellectual origins of Jagan’s ‘secular religion’ – Marxism – as a ‘pure science’ applicable to
human societies, equally valid as the natural sciences and validated by the supposedly irreproachable Soviet
example. This was what led to his sleepwalking into the Cold War on the side of the Soviets and the Cubans. As
early as 1960, enchanted and emboldened by the Cuban Revolution, Cheddi deemed Fidel Castro the greatest
liberator of the twentieth century.

Jagan lost power in 1964 through subterfuge hatched by the Kennedy administration, with the belated connivance
of the British, who had magnanimously counselled him (in 1961 in Washington) not to divulge his Marxist
predilection to President Kennedy. Cheddi ignored them. This precipitately facilitated the resurgence of the clever,
slick, and ideologically amorphous L.F.S. Burnham, culminating in his leading Guyana to Independence. In
Seecharan’s words, ‘Cheddi had all the trumps in his hand and still lost the game.’ By his ideological intransigence,
he opened the door for Burnham’s ‘Cooperative Socialist Republic,’ thereby entrenching electoral rigging, the
undermining of liberal democracy, economic stagnation, and the flight of the country’s best and brightest of all
races to the heartlands of capitalism.

This study does not duplicate the well-documented subversion of Jagan by the US and Britain. Its principal aim is to
explore the prompting and character of Jagan’s Marxism, particularly his conviction that the Soviet Union was
paving the road to the communist utopia. In so doing, Seecharan does what no other researcher has done – dig

deep into the vast writings of Jagan himself, publications of his People’s Progressive Party and its precursor, dating
back to the late 1940s; in addition to the hitherto unexamined copious correspondence between Cheddi, his wife
Janet and Billy Strachan (their foremost ideological mentor), a leading communist in the Communist Party of Great
Britain. The work is enhanced by a series of interviews with several notable personalities who worked with or
against them.

Cheddi Jagan and the Cold War, 1946–1992 - Ian Randle Publishers

Tags: Cheddi, Cheddi Jagan and the Cold War, Clem Seecharran, Jagan

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When we brought to Cheddi's attention how  Burnham was systematically moving Indians in the Civil Service far away from UG and GT to remote locations, he did nothing. The exodus started in the late 60's and early 70's.

Mitwah
@Mitwah posted:

When we brought to Cheddi's attention how  Burnham was systematically moving Indians in the Civil Service far away from UG and GT to remote locations, he did nothing. The exodus started in the late 60's and early 70's.

CBJ made catastrophic blunders which catapulted Fatboy to the Presidency. Nevertheless, everyone is enjoying life on foreign shores, but deep inside the older folks have pined for their sweet homeland.

Dear land of Guyana, of rivers and plains
Made rich by the sunshine, and lush by the rains,
Set gem-like and fair, between mountains and seas,
Your children salute you, dear land of the free.

Green land of Guyana, our heroes of yore,
Both bondsmen and free, laid their bones on your shore.
This soil so they hallowed, and from them are we,
All sons of one Mother, Guyana the free.

Great land of Guyana, diverse though our strains,
We're born of their sacrifice, heirs of their pains,
And ours is the glory their eyes did not see,
One land of six peoples, united and free.

Dear land of Guyana, to you will we give,
Our homage, our service, each day that we live;
God guard you, great Mother, and make us to be
More worthy our heritage, land of the free.

FM

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