Jagan sells out to British Imperialism

Y calling British troops back to British Guiana, while his police shot down demonstrating strikers, Cheddi Jagan has shown once again that there can be no half-way house between imperialism and the working class.

In 1953, British Marxists were in the forefront of the campaign against the despatch of troops when Jagan was deposed and arrested. Now it is our duty to denounce the opportunist policies he follows and his anti- working class actions.

In 1953, the Tories, utilizing a clause in the constitution carefully put there by its Fabian authors, took action against the overwhelmingly elected government of the People's Progressive Party.

Nine years later, they come to the aid of the PPP against the Guianese workers.

The argument put up by many apologists for Jagan is: ' What else could he do?' The real meaning of this question is: • What else could he do without coming into conflict with imperialism? • For the Guianese workers, too, threatened with increased income tax, forced savings and a 10-20 per cent tax on foodstuffs and other necessities, there was no alternative but to resist.

Their general strike, which SIR, let us not mince words here... we must condemn the resumption of nuclear tests ... no matter who resumed them. The British public must know, and the world public must know, that in these respects British democratic socialists do not change their course according to whom they have to speak out against?

So said Mr. George Brown at the Blackpool Conference of the Labour Party last October. This seemed, to many rank-andfla mamhers of the Labour Party, a guarantee that the leadership would condemn the resumption of nuclear tests by any country, and not just the Soviet Union.

But right-wing guarantees frequently prove to be as fraudi lent as those given by some seci indhand car dealers.

Last year Brown, Gaitskell and received widespread support, forced the mitigation of some of these attacks on their living standards. Postal and transport workers refused to go back when instructed to do so by their leaders.

The working class of British Guiana is still exploited by imperialism. Booker Brothers, McConnell and Co. control many of the industries. The bauxite and other mineral wealth go to swell the dividends of British and Canadian firms.

Jagan thus acts as an agency of imperialism in South America. Some business interests, frightened of Jagan's reputation as a 'Marxist', withdrew their capital. Instead of following the Cuban example, and nationalizing foreign concerns, Jagan tries to 'develop the economy within the imperialist framework.

GOODWILL

Nationalization would scare away foreign capital and stop the prospect of a US loan. ' Independence' for the colony, by agreement with Her Majesty's Government, depends on the goodwill of the City of London.

And so Jagan's budget had to be directed against the workers. In drawing up his financial policy, he called in Nicholas Kaldor.

This Cambridge e conomist had already been respo isible for the economic measures operated company worked themselves into a highly emotional state over the resumption of nuclear tests by the USSR.

Last week Brown, Gaitskell and company heavily defeated a p. " posal by a few left wingers that a Commons debate should be held on a motion opposing nuclear tests by America and Britain.

With this 95-26 victory in his pocket, Mr. Gaitskell trots off to tell President Kennedy that the Labour Party will not oppose a resumption of atmospheric tests if they were necessary to preserve the West's deterrent.

SORDID HISTORY

All this adds nothing new to the sordid history of the great advocates of 'democratic' socialism.

What is of particular interest is the vote taken by the Parliamentary Party: 95-26. 121 Labour MPs voted, that is approximately half the strength of the Opposition.

This means that a large number of so-called lefts and unilateralists were absent from this most important discussion and vote. The cold-war warriors and NATOlovers had a field day.

Labour Party members should ask a couple of simple questions of their MPs at General Management Committees:

"If you voted, how did vote, and if not, why not?' in Ceylon before Bandaranaike's assassination, and the budget of Nkrumah which led to the strikes in Ghana last year. Clearly, Kaldor knows his job.

But no economist's gimmicks can overcome the contradictions inherent in imperialism. No one, however smart he may appear, can eliminate the conflict between international capital and international labour.

DIRTY WORK

The world Stalinist press has excelled itself in covering up Jagan's dirty work. The 'Daily Worker' has not told its readers about the workers killed by Jagan's police, nor have they referred directly to the fact that the troops were called in by Jagan.

Instead, they have presented the strike as a right-wing plot. The budget was, they tell us, aimed against the middle class and the capitalists. The demonstrations were apparently worked up by imperialist agents on racialist grounds.

Without doubt Burnham and D'Aguiar, leaders of the opposition parties, are also opportunists. But the responsibility for the racial divisions among the Guianese people rests with Jagan and the PPP. Instead of leading a united struggle against imperialism, they have tried to work within the rules laid down by capitalism.

Every politician who attempts to do this will end by betraying the working class. This inexorable law of modern politics has been again confirmed in British Guiana. Workers in the West Indies and throughout the world should learn the lesson.

MAYAKOVSKY was • futurist poet who wanted permits