Dear Editor,
I am a founding and executive member of the Caribbean Chapter of the Network in Defence of Humanity. This network brings together progressive and revolutionary individuals, parties and organizations from across the region, and affords me the opportunity of understanding firsthand what is happening elsewhere, and I can tell you: a great deal more than is happening right here in Guyana.
Where are the socialists and the anti-imperialists in our midst? In the US, where the neo-liberal agenda has completely failed the people, Bernie Sanders was not afraid to boldly offer a Democratic Socialist alternative. The whole world is rising up against the ravages of neo-liberal capitalism and the Empire of Lies and Deception. However, in Guyana, with the exception of Organization for the Victory of the People (OVP), every political party is unashamedly pro-capitalist and imperialist friendly. Our politicians, all round, do nothing more than squabble about who should manage this dysfunctional and obsolete system for Empire.
When LFS Burnham addressed the 3rd Biennial Congress of the PNC (not PNCR) in August 1979, in a speech titled: ‘Towards the People’s Victory’, he said:
“Many are the cowards and self-seekers who once cluttered our ranks, who were once fulsome in their praise; they now advise a change of course; a surrender to the enemies of the people. Theirs has been the belief that a revolution is a bed of roses, an endless round of chattering cocktail parties.”
Those who advised a change of course back then, have now completely surrendered to the enemies of the people. They are directed by external forces and have no vision or plan to lift Guyana out of its stagnation and ‘persistent poverty’.
George Lamming, the great Caribbean writer and anti-imperialist activist, said in the early ʼ80s, that Guyana was the Land of the Mind. Today I fear it has become the Land of the Mindless. We once produced the likes of George G M James, Ras Makonnen, Ivan Van Sertima, Jan Carew, Forbes Burnham, Walter Rodney and Martin Carter, to name but a few.
We were once among the region’s leaders on almost every issue of social and political significance.
What happened to us?
Yours faithfully,
Gerald A Perreira
Chairperson
Organization for the Victory of the
People (OVP)
