politikalamity posted:Drugb posted:Who did Walter Rodney unite again? Did he really transcend racial divide?
My brother who was 15 yrs older than I told me he united Indos and Afros, and he was part of that movement. He often spoke of Indos and Afros marching hand in hand in their struggle against the PNC government.
There was no ground swell of racial unity. I was in my early 20s during this era.
The people showing up to WPA meetings and getting beaten up by the House of Israel were mainly African. The people who marched to protest the assassination of Rodney, and risked being shot down by Burnham's goons, were majority African.
In fact it was the people of Buxton, and Linden, who led the way. Yes the SAME people who today are so maligned by so many Indians.
Yes there were Indian intellectuals, like David Roopnarine, who were involved. Yes, the same people who are now damned as neemakarams, and "dirty Indians". These are the people who tried to work for unity, and it is clear that their efforts were rejected by other Indians.
Yes some Indians, seeing how impotent Cheddi was against Burnham, might have passively hoped that the WPA would do what the PPP couldn't, and that was to rid Guyana of the Burnham regime.
But to claim that Guyana in 1980 was this period of halcyon racial cooperation is pure nonsense. The ease that the PPP sidelined so many blacks who fought against the Burnham regime, is evidence of that. So yes the WPA is now with the PNC, and NOT with the PPP.