Applying strange definitions to two ‘isms’
January 1st 2024, marking the 74th anniversary of the founding of the PPP quietly went by. However, during 2023, the avid reader would not have missed the steady stream of letters to editors of local newspapers, authored by political mavericks residing in North America who, based on ideological mimicry, branded certain Guyanese as sympathetic to communISM and MarxISM, two concepts that span a variety of competing interpretations. The cast of known characters in the US have a very strange definition for what is capitalISM and what is socialISM. It if is successful, like China, then it must be capitalISM If it fails, like Venezuela, then it must be socialISM. In other words, complex questions are made simple and simple ones made complex.
Those who grew up in a Christian environment and attended Catholic schools would know about two ISMs; catechISM and BaptISM, and that it was obligatory to attend monthly ‘catechism lessons’ and to be ‘baptized.’ In the past, a baptismal certificate was key to social mobility. During the political upheavals of the 1950’s many could not understand why the push back against the ‘ISM’ under the PPP that had done so much for Guyanese in just 133 days. Why was it necessary to restrict the movement of party leaders, undermine the party electorally and above all, engineer a split in the national movement resulting in irreparable damage that lives with us to this day?
On the eve of the disturbances of the 1960’s, the ‘ISM’ associated communISM gained renewed prominence. Guyanese were told, that communISM was ‘being spread’ by the then 1957-1964 PPP government and party led by Cheddi Jagan. The propaganda fed to the populace at that time was that the ‘ISM’ associated with PPP will be taught in public schools; that places of worship will be closed and children sent to concentration camps; that private property will be confiscated and local business places taken over. The ‘ISM’ in communism was made synonymous with the liberal commitment to ‘The building of a just socialist society’ that appeared in the Aims & Programme of People’s Progressive Party, published on January 1st 1950.
Ironically, nothing reflecting the ‘spectre’ of that ‘ISM’ happened, instead, low cost apartment and extra-nuclear housing schemes sprung up in the La Penitence and Ruimveldt areas; agriculture schemes at Black Bush Polder, Canal Polder and Brandwagt Sari were launched and an industrial estate at Ruimveldt was established to facilitate a new industrial and entrepreneurial capitalist class. Cheap and affordable consumer items such as bicycles, motor cycles and fabrics sold at 3 for D or three yards for one dollar were imported from China and Eastern European countries. To satisfy the needs of an emerging middle class, affordable motor vehicles such as SIMCA, LADA, Contessa and Niva motor vehicles were imported from Western Europe to compete with vehicles imported exclusively from the UK; new hire purchase laws were passed enabling consumers to own imported furniture, refrigerators, radios and radiograms; river transport improved greatly with the launch of the Torani, Malali and Makouria ferry vessels that plied the Berbice, Essequibo and Demerara Rivers respectively.
An aggressive public health campaign was initiated with the introduction of Health Visitors to far flung and riverain communities and the building of a number of Cottage Hospitals and health centres across the country. Public education was further enhanced with the establishment of the CV Nunes Secondary School, scholarships were granted to Amerindian students, and the establishment of the University of Guyana, derogatorily branded ‘Jagan’s Nite School’ by those opposing the ‘ISM.’ Not satisfied that these were the greatest ‘sins’ committed by Jagan and the PPP under the threat of the much despised ‘ISM,’ the opponents went a step further. They leveraged that particular ‘ISM’ as the casus belli to join in a conspiracy with external forces to ‘liberate’ Guyana from the ‘ISM’ and to remove the PPP from office.
To make that happen, a change of the electoral system became necessary. To many Guyanese at that time it was difficult to comprehend why, if the ‘ISM’ associated with Jagan and his party was so wicked and out to do such evil things, how come the party continued to attract mass following and won one election after the other, up to the time of their removal from office in 1964? It must have been more than ethnicity and charisma. Was an ideological framework for political mobilization a key factor? With the passage of time, the ‘ISM’ bogey wore thin, not only by the realization of those who once fought against it, but because their political ambitions and changed ideological texture had become unbearable to their erstwhile sponsors.
The anti ‘ISM’ posture, clothed in demagoguery was discarded and replaced by two other ’ISMs;’ namely; opportunISM and anti-imperialISM. They were now gifted with a revelation of the truth. Throughout the politically evolutionary
process of change and adaptation from one ‘ISM’ to another, the entry of globalISM and capitalISM were advanced as panacea for prosperity and the fulfillment of the prophecy of heaven on earth. Nowadays, the ISMs come in various manifestations written or orally; capitalISM, criticISM, optimISM, despotISM, egoISM, plagiarISM, populISM, landlordISM, feminISM, dogmatISM, sectarianISM, imperialISM, MarxISM, cynicISM, socialISM, humanISM and opportunISM.
These ‘ISMs’ can be found in letters to editors of mainstream media, heard at conferences and at discussion fora. They are free to be used depending on the audience who, assumedly, would be made up of many who would be either for or against any one of the ‘ISM’s’ mentioned. The time may seem ripe for a new appraisal of the ‘ISMs’ but in the final analysis, whatever the ‘ISM’ 74 years after, the ‘ISMs’ will continue to be part of our established general knowledge on which society relies for guidance.