Dear Editor,
February 16 is a very important date in the history of this country. The events of that date sixty years ago have had a great impact on the lives of the people of Guyana. Many of the problems that we still have to grapple with in our times have their roots in this date in the year 1962.
This was the first time that racial attacks took place in Guyana where one race was set upon another. It was a Friday and that date became to be called “Black Friday.” The excuse for the attacks was the Kaldor Budget that was presented by the PPP government to the Legislative Assembly, as the National Assembly was then called, on January 31 1962. The real reason was to stop Independence for our country.
The Budget came at a time when it was expected that Independence would have been granted to British Guiana in that same year. The measures in the budget were designed to prepare the country for that eventuality.
The main objective of that budget was to raise funds for the industrialization of the country which would have benefitted the working people the most in the form of jobs and wealth creation.
Some of the measures proposed were as follows:
1. A wealth tax of 0.5% of net wealth above $50000;
2. A gift tax to prevent evasion of death duties;
3. Introduction of a scheme on compulsory saving on earnings in excess of $100 per month, or 10% of income and profits made by self-employed persons and companies respectively. The money was to be invested in Government Bonds bearing a 3.75% interest annually and was to be tax free and redeemable after 7 years;
4. A direct tax on luxuries which were mainly imported and
5. Increased tax on tobacco, alcoholic drinks and beverages.
6. A proposed law which assumed a minimum profit of 2% of total turnover. This was aimed to catch the tax evaders who made false accounts and perpetually showed losses.
Independent observers, including the New York Times and even Booker Chairman Jock Campbell were high in praise of the Budget describing it as what a country going to Independence needed. As mentioned above the main beneficiaries would have been the working people.
However, it was not enough to cover all the expenses that were needed for a developing country on the verge of Indepen-dence. On the other hand the British and the local anti-Independence forces the, UF and the PNC, were creating problems to force additional expenses on the government. In hindsight they were designed to create conditions for the violence that took place on that day. What were some of these problems?
The senior Civil Servants in the country were very conservative and more loyal to the colonial authorities than the local PPP government. They were instigated to demand higher salaries by the colonial authorities and when the PPP resisted the Governor set-up the Guillebaud Commission to investigate their demands. That Commission recommended a substantial salary increase amounting to $2.5 million, which was a princely sum in that period. The PPP agreed to pay, no doubt to remove this as an issue on which the joint opposition could agitate.
It should be noted that the senior civil servants were already receiving a significantly higher pay than their counterparts in the Caribbean. That is why it is reasonable to conclude that this was a deliberate ploy to saddle the PPP government with very high expenses to force the government to disregard the Commission’s recommendation and use that as the excuse to attack.
At the same time the lower paid Civil Servants, represented by the Federated Unions of Government Employees (FUGE), made demands for higher pay. The PPP government agreed to meet their demands. Having agreed to that the Union then demanded back pay that was unreasonable and the negotiations on this issue were in progress on February 16, 1962 when centrally directed riots broke out.
In passing, it is apposite to note that the TUC had become a tool in the hands of the British authorities since the suspension of the Constitution in 1953 when the old TUC, which supported the Independence movement, was disbanded and a new TUC established which was made to support the Colonial authorities. That new TUC even sent messages to the UK supporting the suspension of the Constitution in 1953.
Now it was an instrument of the coalition of opposition forces which comprised of the Colonial authorities, the PNC and the UF. That umbrella body of Unions had already started to purge Indian-Guyanese from the leadership of the unions affiliated to the TUC, with the exception of the Manpower Citizens Association (MPCA) which was the recognized union in the sugar industry but was very unpopular in that industry. That union was a main lever for the anti-progress forces.
The PPP administration had to contend with another issue created by the Opposition. The PNC and UF began openly urging businesses and the people as a whole to withdraw their savings from the local banks and send them abroad because the “Communist PPP” would seize all their property and savings. Many believed and began to create a run on the banks.
By this time too, the racist propaganda that the mass media kept pushing since 1950 was having a big negative impact. This was the toxic atmosphere that developed at the beginning of 1962.
Even though the budget was pro working people the PNC and UF immediately dubbed it “anti-working class” and its supporters took to the streets and began to loot and burn businesses.
Today we are still suffering from the events of that day. In the first place, having seen firsthand how destructive racism could be the CIA/PNC/UF intensified its propagation and the violence became worse in 1963 and 1964. That prompted a prominent doctor, Dr. Taitt, to write an open letter to Forbes Burnham asking him to cease his racist attacks which was destroying relations between Afro and Indo Guyanese people who were well integrated by then.
Racism remains the most potent tool of the PNC to this day. Just recall how easily they were able to instigate racist attacks in 2020 on the West Coast of Berbice in the post-election period. It was the same racism they used in almost every post-election bout of violence. This is a legacy we have to overcome.
The TUC which was used as an anti-independence instrument since 1953 which had African Guyanese workers going against their own interests is now rotting and incapable of representing the genuine interests of Guyana’s working class. That has left the working people still fractured and has diminished the influence of Labour on national policies.
All of these consequences and more have some roots in February 16, 1962. It’s time for an honest and open discussion on all these issues so we can heal this society and build a strong and united National Democratic State! Let us recall our history to bury the past and move beyond the narrowness of race. It has, for too long, been our Achilles’ heel.
Yours faithfully,
Donald Ramotar
