By 1988/89, President Desmond Hoyte was already committed to his Economic Recovery Programme (ERP) and was not to be given an easy ride. If only in brief, the ensuing struggle is a story that must be retold before we consider President Cheddi Jagan’s response.
In the short and medium term, ERP-type restructuring is usually very costly for the working people and workers’ representatives in Guyana did not need to await Hoyte’s signature to the ERP to grasp its implications. In 1986, in Trinidad and Tobago, for the first time since independence, the People’s National Movement (PNM) was removed from government by the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR). The economy was in bad shape and the new government had to seek a structural adjustment programme from the international financial institutions (IFIs).
The programme called for privatisation of state enterprises; civil service reform – 10% reduction in public service salaries, implementation of a voluntary termination of employment programme, suspension of merit increases for public servants and suspension of cost of living allowances under the old-age pensioners programme; imposition of
