Dear Editor,
Some 62 years ago, on February 16, infamously labelled ‘black Friday’, a budget riot was unleashed in British Guiana. This repulsive event was triggered by a national budget crafted on the advice of Nicholas Kaldor, an accomplished and internationally respected economist and who was invited to do so by Dr. Cheddi Bharrat Jagan (CBJ), then Premier and leader of the Peoples Progressive Party (PPP), the governing party. The Finance Minister at the time was Dr. Charles Ramkissoon Jacobs. CBJ felt that multinational corporations and the planter class were co-conspirators in an odious scheme that facilitated capital flight. The government also concluded that the tax structure was skewed in favour of the wealthy. Because of the CBJ’s unwavering support to Communism (Dr. Vishnu Bisram recently spelt this out in a newspaper letter published on February 9), and President Kennedy’s hard line commitment that there must never be another ‘Cuba’ in America’s backyard, loans and other financial support to British Guiana were resolutely blocked.
CBJ therefore turned to Dr. Kaldor who had worked with the United Kingdom Tax Commission and also had advised governments in India and Ghana among others, to recommend measures to fund the country’s capital expenditure. The 1962 budget proposals included a fiscal regimen covering: Income tax assessment for commercial businesses, increase import duty on certain goods, a compulsory savings scheme linked to redeemable government bonds, increase in taxes on certain foods which could be adequately substituted locally. Of note, there was no salary increase announced for civil service workers. Opposition parties, the Peoples National Congress (PNC) and the United Force (UF) were led respectively by Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham (LFSB), and Peter Stanislaus D’Aguiar (PSD), were engaged in an aggressive campaign against the Kaldor/Jacobs budget. LFSB main focus was to ‘Axe the Tax’.
They were openly and directly supported by some sections of organised labour and the private media; and were also backed by anti-communist powerful states and their institutions, led by the United States. The 1962 budget was widely viewed as a measure to entrench communism and also touted as an attack on the downtrodden. It propelled a pledge by the business class and their political leader to oppose, expose and depose. Ironically, that said budget was applauded by the New York Times and the London Times but by the time those publications had hit the stands, it was too late to abandon the chain of events which were designed to destabilise BG. The genie was already out the bottle. It is alleged that in response to an appeal for consideration of a wage increase, CBJ said not a penny more or something to the effect. I have not found anything to substantiate this utterance and am therefore asking if anyone knows this for a fact to inform yours truly accordingly.
Ralph Seeram in his piece “From the diaspora…Kaldor Budget and Black Friday February 16, 1962”, published in one of the dailies quoted from the Wynn Parry Commission report and portrayed LFSB as the leading (perhaps only) protagonist that whipped anti-budget and anti Jagan supporters into a feeding frenzy to satisfy an induced thirst for demonstrations and disorder. The mayhem of black Friday was followed by riots and killings involving mainly Africans and Indians. I was told by an eyewitness that a major public event which help set the stage for the first wave of riots on February 16, 1962 started immediately after a group comprising mainly non-Indians and non-Africans was emotionally addressed from the balcony of the Ice House opposite Stabroek Market by PAD, a non-Indian/non-African political leader. He then came out to Water Street and led a procession with vociferous chants of “Jack go back” (reference to CBJ advisor, Jack Kelshall).
The gathering stopped at several business places including Bettencourt’s and Fogarty’s where managers and employees closed their doors and joined the demonstration which followed a route to Parade Ground. They stopped at the office on Carmichael Street and called out LFSB from his office to join the procession. He came outside, was photographed with PAD and went back inside. He subsequently went to the ground and addressed the meeting. Editor, in the aftermath of the 2024 national budget, there is currently a strike by teachers in all the administrative regions of Guyana for what they describe as a salary to adequately make ends meet in this fastest growing economy. There seems to be a hardening of positions on both sides. Space will not permit me to analyse and compare the contextual underpinning of today’s post budget industrial relations reaction etc. with that of 62 years ago. However, permit me to make one brief observation. A neighbouring nation is making a serious play for a large chunk of Guyana and her natural resources. In the world of geopolitics, there are more questions than answers in real time.
Somehow, I am driven to recall and reflect on the contents of a book to which I was introduced in 1987. The author, Barbara W. Tuchman, outlined in detail four decisive turning points in history which illustrate the very heights of recklessness: The Trojan war, the breakup of the Holy See provoked by the Renaissance Popes, the loss of the American colonies by Britain’s King George 111, and the United States persistent mistakes in Vietnam. The publication is appropriately titled ‘The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam’. It was George Santayana who stated “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it”.
Sincerely,
Derrick Cummings
