Dear Editor,
Please record these modest reflections on glimpses into the lives of three Guyanese freedom fighters 1982-1992. Joseph Eleazar’s father represented Berbice in the colonial legislature. He and his family had a very special place for Berbice in their hearts.
I met Joseph Eleazar in the early 1960s at Whim Village on the Corentyne. He was a frequent visitor to our home as a friend of my father. Later, he became an executive member of the Democratic Labor Movement (DLM), then Vice President and DLM’s Prime Ministerial Candidate in the 1992 elections. He contributed financially to the DLM, and on one occasion, made a substantial loan to the DLM. He spoke on the DLM platform throughout the country. He was part of the DLM delegation in a very important meeting with Rudy Collins, Chairman of the Elections Commission, at the DLM office. Claudius London, Joseph Eleazer and I, publicly burnt the fraudulent voters’ list in front of the elections commission office. He and I, represented the DLM at a conference of Caribbean opposition party leaders, convoked by Basdeo Panday and the UNC, in Trinidad and Tobago. He spoke about Guyanese people’s struggle for free and fair elections and appealed for solidarity. He led the DLM candidates in the walk from our then offices in Robb Street to deliver our list at the town hall for the 1992 elections. He was a consistent fighter for free and fair elections even before his association with the DLM. He was a man of courage and made an important contribution for free and fair elections. We spent many hours at his home and mine discussing Guyanese politics and the urgent need to replace the constitution with a democratic one.
I met Kampta Karran in the early 1980s. He was in search of his identity and eager to contribute to Guyana. He was recruited into the DLM by a UG faculty member. He was elected to the executive committee of the DLM at a national conference in Georgetown. He represented the DLM several times at PCD meetings. He was always an independent thinking person and always asking questions. He read and wrote extensively. He did contribute intellectually on the issues related to ethnicity and other matters. He was well educated and was trained within Guyana and abroad as a DLM cadre, before he went abroad to do post-graduate work. He participated fully in DLM’s national and international campaign for free and fair elections. He wrote a poem that was memorized and recited by Lachman Tularam and others at every DLM public meeting. It was entitled ‘Wuk Man Wuk He Wuk Till He Han And Fut Bruk.’ This poem reflected accurately and deeply how grounded and committed the DLM was to grassroots politics and Guyanese from below. Kampta found it difficult to work with a team and sometimes wondered aloud why he should be working within a work-plan coordinated by others. So, he approached Fizool Baksh and told him that he wants to work as an organizer but by himself. Fizool asked him what he needed. He replied, “the basics: a bag of rice and a bag of flour.” He took the bag of rice and a bag of flour and went to live in the grassroots. For quite a number of months he invited me to very, many bottom house meetings. He was a grassroots freedom fighter with academic and an excellent DLM/NWU/ CLAT-CWC cadre training.
I met Claudius London in 1982 at the bottom house of Roni Jageashwar in Lancaster, Berbice. She was well known in the DLM as Auntie Roni. She was one of our most powerful cadres: committed, loyal, fearless and deeply patriotic. She cooked kaharis of vegetarian cook-ups for the numerous Free and Fair Elections’ campaigns on the Corentyne. Claude hailed from Manchester. He attended three days of discussions on the role of young people in the Bolivarian revolution, Mexican Revolu-tion, Cuban Revolution, 1968-69 student movements in France and Latin America. He and I engaged in intense one-to-one discussions about how he can contribute to free and fair elections in our homeland. At the end of the week, he was packed and we left with a few others for a safe house in Georgetown. He became an inseparable team with Lachman Tularam. Both were trained by Raj Prasad, one of the best organizers I have met in my lifetime. Raj had organized a union successfully in Canada and was also trained by the CLAT. Claude was elected President of the National Workers Union and as an executive member of DLM. Claude and Lachman Tularam were involved in virtually all public activities of the DLM/NWU and PCD. They were among the major organizers of PCD Buxton to Kitty marches. He participated in numerous PCD meetings and was at two crucial meetings we held with the PPP, one with Cheddi Jagan and the other, the last meeting, we had with three PPP leaders that brought an end to what had remained of the PCD. Claude was also trained and represented Guyana’s DLM and NWU in Argentina, Venezuela and various countries in the Caribbean. Claude was the MC at a Caribbean conference held at Pegasus on Labour and Caribbean Integration.
The event was formally declared open by Maria Liberia Peters, former Prime Minister of the Dutch Antilles. He also participated in a private meeting in Venezuela with Lech Walesa, former leader of Solidarity and President of Poland. Claude was an authentic revolutionary and patriot. He was undoubtedly one of Guyana’s foremost freedom fighters during 1982-1992.
I have several photos that can visibly confirm the various activities of these freedom fighters.
Yours faithfully,
Paul Nehru Tennassee
