Establishment of the PNC/UF Pre-Independence Alliance

By Dr. Mellissa Ifill

This article is the first of two that examines the circumstances surrounding and the implications of the formation of the PNC-UF coalition that formed the government in the immediate pre-and post independence period. This first instalment briefly highlights the demise of the nationalist movement that emerged during the late 1940s and the consequential introduction of mass ethnicised politics. While the latter alliance was not the first in the post Waddington constitutional era, it was the most crucial and had far reaching implications and consequences on ethnic relations and democratic governance after independence. Undoubt-edly, the PNC/UF alliance was not based on a genuine commonality of ideology and philosophy, but seemed to be an expedient alliance to prevent Jagan from becoming the leader of independent Guyana. Moreover, the withdrawing colonial power and the regional superpower, Britain and the United States respectively together played a crucial role in facilitating this alliance in their bid to ensure that another Cuba did not emerge in the hemisphere, courtesy of Cheddi Jagan.