Clive Youlande Thomas (born 6 February 1938) is a Guyanese economics professor and political activist. He publishes on issues relating to development and poverty eradication in Guyana and the greater Caribbean region.
Thomas is currently Presidential Advisor on Sustainable Development and State Assets Recovery at the Ministry of the Presidency; and Chairman of the Guyana Sugar Corporation. [1] He retired after fifty years as Professor of Economics and Director of the Institute of Development Studies, University of Guyana. [2]
Thomas was born on 6 February 1938, as the first of seven children of Clementine Semple and Basil Thomas. He was raised in Georgetown until his academic achievements at Queen's College earned him a scholarship to study at University of Guyana. He obtained his Doctorate in 1964 at the University of London. [3] He joined the University of the West Indies as a university lecturer, until 1969 when he was banned from Jamaica for protesting Walter Rodney's ban from teaching. During his time at UWI, he became involved with other academics in the field of agricultural economics and was a part of the editorial advisory board [4] of New World Journal, a quarterly publication for political economic analysis of colonial countries from the view point from within. [5] Thomas returned to the University of Guyana as a professor and served as director of the Institute for Development Studies, created in 1973 as a department within the Faculty of Social Sciences. [6]
Thomas was elected chair of the University of Guyana Staff Association, and acted in an advisory role for other non-government organizations that campaigned for democracy and social justice. He was also a founding member of Ratoon, a group of university lecturers that strove to enact on research through education. [5] In 1974, Thomas helped Walter Rodney in building the Working People's Alliance (WPA) [7] as a reaction to the political landscape that had been divided by ethnicity. Strife between Afro-Guyanese and Indo-Guyanese was historically encouraged as a form of labour control for the benefit of plantation owners, and at the time also a strategy for the Forbes Burnham administration to maintain political power. Thomas authored many papers for the WPA, including "Bread and Justice. The Struggle for Socialism in Guyana", a booklet that connected economic, social, and political justice in context of small countries. [8] Because the WPA and affiliated groups were seen as a threat to the Burnham government, it was a tumultuous period for Guyanese activism: Walter Rodney was assassinated, Joshua Ramsammy (a colleague of Thomas) was shot, and attempts to kidnap Thomas. [9] [10]
Power struggles still continued after Burnham's death in 1985. In the 1992 Guyanese general election, "the country's first free and fair election since independence" [11] Thomas won a parliamentary seat for the WPA. He was soon awarded Guyana's Cacique Crown of Honour for his contributions to democracy and education in the country.
As Guyana's markets were opened under the advice of WTO, Thomas continued publishing economic literature geared at preparing Guyana in context of the regulation of the WTO. He was actively involved in Transition, Guyana's only academic publication, as well as writing articles for Stabroek News in 2002. [5]
In 2015, Thomas was appointed Presidential Advisor on Sustainable Development. [12]
He has held Visiting Professorships in Africa (University of Dar-es-Salaam), Canada (Visiting Distinguished Professor at the Norman Patterson School of International Relations), United States (Leonard O’Connor Professor, Colgate University), and the West Indies (George Beckford Professor in Political Economy). [13]
Thomas was co-ordinator of the Regional Programme of Monetary Studies, a member of the Commonwealth Group of Experts on the Changing World Economy and North-South Relations (1990-1991) and the UNDP Group of Experts on Designing the Future: South-South Cooperation in Science and Technology, 2000 and served as a member of the WHO/PAHO Advisory Committee on Health Research, 1996–1999, and was appointed in 2002 to the United Nations Secretary-General's Millennium Project Task Force to monitor the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals. In 2003 he was member of the Caribbean Commission on Health and Development and of UNCTAD's High Level Expert Group on Commodity-Dependent Countries. [14]
He is director of the State Assets Recovery Agency (SARA), which was assembled to "investigate, trace, identify and recover unlawfully obtained state properties from a public official or other persons, wherever in the world it is located, through civil proceedings". [15]
Acknowledgement of Thomas's work from Guyana and the Caribbean: [13]
Thomas is the author and co-author of 30 books, and more than 154 academic articles, contributions, and research papers: [3]
In 2002, Thomas became a regular contributor to Stabroek News , writing economics articles for the section "Guyana and the Wider World". [16] [5]
Georgetown is the capital and largest city of Guyana. It is situated in Demerara-Mahaica, region 4, on the Atlantic Ocean coast, at the mouth of the Demerara River. It is nicknamed the "Garden City of the Caribbean." It is the retail, administrative, and financial services centre of the country, and the city accounts for a large portion of Guyana's GDP. The city recorded a population of 118,363 in the 2012 census.
The history of Guyana begins about 35,000 years ago with the arrival of humans coming from Eurasia. These migrants became the Carib and Arawak tribes, who met Alonso de Ojeda's first expedition from Spain in 1499 at the Essequibo River. In the ensuing colonial era, Guyana's government was defined by the successive policies of Spanish, French, Dutch, and British settlers.
Walter Anthony Rodney was a Guyanese historian, political activist and academic. His notable works include How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, first published in 1972. Rodney was assassinated in Georgetown, Guyana, in 1980.
Cheddi Berret Jagan was a Guyanese politician and dentist who was first elected Chief Minister in 1953 and later Premier of British Guiana from 1961 to 1964. He later served as President of Guyana from 1992 to his death in 1997. In 1953, he became the first person of Indian descent to be a head of government outside of the Indian subcontinent.
Hugh Desmond Hoyte was a Guyanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Guyana from 1984 to 1985 and President of Guyana from 1985 until 1992.
Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham was a Guyanese politician and the leader of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana from 1964 until his death in 1985. He served as Premier of British Guiana from 1964 to 1966, Prime Minister of Guyana from 1964 to 1980 and then as the first Executive President of Guyana from 1980 to 1985. He is often regarded as a strongman who embraced his own version of socialism.
Guyanese literature covers works including novels, poetry, plays and others written by people born or strongly-affiliated with Guyana. Formerly British Guiana, British language and style has an enduring impact on the writings from Guyana, which are done in English language and utilizing Guyanese Creole. Emigration has contributed to a large body of work relating the Guyanese diaspora experience.
Eusi Kwayana, formerly Sydney King, is a Guyanese politician. A cabinet minister in the People's Progressive Party (PPP) government of 1953, he was detained by the British Army in 1954. Later he left the PPP to form ASCRIA, a Pan-Africanist grassroots political group that, after a brief flirtation with the People's National Congress (PNC) of Forbes Burnham, fused into the Working People's Alliance (WPA). Kwayana is also a playwright.
The University of Guyana, in Georgetown, Guyana, is Guyana's national higher education institution. It was established in April 1963 with the following Mission: "To discover, generate, disseminate, and apply knowledge of the highest standard for the service of the community, the nation, and of all mankind within an atmosphere of academic freedom that allows for free and critical enquiry."
David Arthur Granger is a retired military officer who served as the 9th President of Guyana from May 2015 to August 2020. He served for a time as Commander of the Guyana Defence Force and subsequently as National Security Adviser from 1990 to 1992. He was Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly of Guyana from 2012 to 2015.
Clem Seecharan is a Guyanese writer and historian of the Indo-Caribbean experience, and of West Indies cricket. He was born in Guyana and has been based in England since 1986.
Michael Arthur Gilkes was a Caribbean literary critic, dramatist, poet, filmmaker and university lecturer. He was involved in theatre for more than 40 years, as a director, actor and playwright, winning the Guyana Prize for Drama in 1992 and 2006, as well as the Guyana Prize for Best Book of Poetry in 2002. He was also respected for his insight into and writings on the work of Wilson Harris.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Guyana face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Guyana is the only country in South America, and the only country in the Americas outside the Caribbean, where homosexual acts including anal sex and oral sex are still illegal. Recently, there have been efforts to decriminalize homosexual behaviours.
Bilateral relations have been established between the Co-operative Republic of Guyana and the United States of America.
Barbados–Guyana relations refers to the current and historical relationship between Barbados and Guyana. The former maintains non-resident diplomatic representation from Bridgetown, while Guyana which prior had a High Commissioner to Barbados appointed its first resident Consul-General, Michael Brotherson to Bridgetown in January 2012.
Ptolemy Alexander Reid was a Guyanese veterinarian and politician who served as Prime Minister of Guyana from 1980 to 1984.
Karen de Souza is a Guyanese women and child's rights activist who has worked to advocate for victims, educate and provide support for victims of violence. Founder of the NGO Red Thread anti-violence campaigns, she has been involved in training programmes of judicial officers and contributed to the drafting law to protect trafficking and anti-violence. Her advocacy has been recognized by both regional and international organizations.
Viola Victorine Burnham was a Guyanese politician from People's National Congress, and wife and widow of Forbes Burnham.
Andaiye, born Sandra Williams, was a Guyanese social, political, and gender rights activist, who has been described as "a transformative figure in the region's political struggle, particularly in the late 1970s, '80s and '90s".
Mohamed Irfaan Ali is a Guyanese politician who has served as the tenth and current president of Guyana since 2020. He is the first Muslim to hold the office, along with being the second Muslim head of state in the Americas after Noor Hassanali of Trinidad and Tobago.
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