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 Guyanaportal |
The Manpower Citizens' Association was a trade union and political party in British Guiana.
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| Constitution |
| Guyanaportal |
The Manpower Citizens' Association was a trade union and political party in British Guiana.
The MPCA was first registered in 1937, and was initially led by Ayube Mohamed Edun. [1] The union represented sugar workers, many of whom were Indo-Guyanese. [2] After the Leonora sugar workers' strike in 1939, membership began to increase significantly, passing the 20,000 mark in 1943, making it the largest union in the country. [1] In March 1939 the Sugar Producers' Association (SPA), the organisation for sugar estate owners, officially recognised the union. [1] In 1945 Cheddi Jagan became its treasurer, but he left a year later after several clashes with the moderate leadership over policy, [2] including the union's pro-employer attitude. [3]
The union contested the 1947 elections, nominating seven candidates for the 14 elected seats in the Legislative Council, campaigning for the nationalisation of industry and the introduction of land settlement schemes. However, it won only one seat. [4]
In April 1948 the Guiana Industrial Workers Union (GIWU) was formed, with the intention of replacing the MPCA as the major union for field and factory workers; sugar workers had become disillusioned with the MPCA, which offered little resistance to the SPA. [5] During a strike in the same month, the MPCA urged strikers to return to work, claiming their demands would be discussed with the SPA. However, strikers ignored the call, despite the SPA saying they would only deal with the MPCA as the only recognised union. [6] By the end of 1948, the GIWU had the support of the majority of sugar workers. [5]
In the 1953 elections the union supported the National Democratic Party. [7] In 1955 Rupert Tello became the union's president, replacing Lionel Luckhoo. [8] From 1960, the union's leaders supported the new United Force party led by Peter d'Aguiar. [9]
During the early 1960s the unrecognised Guiana Agricultural Workers Union demanded that a poll take place amongst sugar workers to decide whether they or the MPCA should represent their interests. The MPCA and the SPA opposed a poll. Following a strike in 1964, Prime Minister Jagan asked Governor Ralph Grey to undertake a poll. Although Grey refused, he later formed a commission of enquiry to determine which union should be the workers' representative. The MPCA immediately filed an injunction at the Supreme Court to block the enquiry. The enquiry was later abandoned with Jagan lost power. [10]
The politics of Guyana takes place in a framework of a representative democratic assembly-independent republic, whereby the President of Guyana is the head of government and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the President, advised by a cabinet. Legislative power is vested in both the President and the National Assembly of Guyana. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.
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. During the colonial period, Guyana's economy was focused on plantation agriculture, which initially depended on slave labor. Guyana saw major slave rebellions in 1763 and 1823. Following the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, 800,000 enslaved Africans in the Caribbean and South Africa were freed, resulting in plantations contracting indentured workers, mainly from India. Eventually, these Indians joined forces with Afro-Guyanese descendants of slaves to demand equal rights in government and society. After the Second World War, the British Empire pursued policy decolonization of its overseas territories, with independence granted to British Guiana on May 26, 1966. Following independence, Forbes Burnham of the rose to power, quickly becoming an authoritarian leader, pledging to bring socialism to Guyana. His power began to weaken following international attention brought to Guyana in wake of the Jonestown mass murder suicide in 1978.
British Guiana was a British colony, part of the mainland British West Indies, which resides on the northern coast of South America. Since 1966 it has been known as the independent nation of Guyana.
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.
Janet Rosenberg Jagan was an American-born Guyanese politician who served as the President of Guyana, serving from December 19, 1997, to August 11, 1999. She was the first female President of Guyana. She previously served as the first female Prime Minister of Guyana from March 17, 1997, to December 19, 1997. The wife of Cheddi Jagan, whom she succeeded as president, she was awarded Guyana's highest national award, the Order of Excellence, in 1993, and the UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Gold Medal for Women's Rights in 1998.
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.
Elections in Guyana take place within the framework of a multi-party representative democracy and a presidential system. The National Assembly is directly elected, with the nominee of the party or alliance that receives the most votes becoming President.
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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.
Martin Wylde Carter was a Guyanese poet and political activist. Widely regarded as the greatest Guyanese poet, and one of the most important poets of the Caribbean region, Carter is best known for his poems of protest, resistance and revolution. He played an active role in Guyanese politics, particularly in the years leading up Independence in 1966 and those immediately following. He was famously imprisoned by the British government in Guyana in October 1953 under allegations of "spreading dissension", and again in June 1954 for taking part in a People's Progressive Party (PPP) procession. Shortly after being released from prison the first time, he published his best-known poetry collection, Poems of Resistance from British Guiana (1954).
Moses Veerasammy Nagamootoo is a Guyanese politician, writer and novelist who served as the Prime Minister of Guyana under former President David A. Granger from May 2015 to August 2020.
Port Mourant is a town on the Atlantic coast in East Berbice-Corentyne, Guyana. It is the birthplace of the late president Cheddi Jagan as well as many of Guyana's most famous cricketers. Port Mourant was originally a sugar estate. Many residents are self-employed, but the sugar industry continues to be a source of employment.
General elections were held in British Guiana on 27 April 1953. They were the first held under universal suffrage and resulted in a victory for the People's Progressive Party (PPP), which won 18 of the 24 seats in the new House of Assembly. Its leader, Cheddi Jagan, became Prime Minister.
The Progressive Youth Organisation of Guyana is a youth organisation in Guyana, the youth wing of the People's Progressive Party. The membership of Progressive Youth Organisation (PYO) is predominantly Indo-Guyanese, like its mother party.
The National Labour Front (NLF) was a political party in Guyana.
General elections were held in British Guiana on 24 November 1947. The British Guiana Labour Party emerged as the largest party, winning five of the 14 seats. Voter turnout was 71%.
The Political Affairs Committee (PAC) was a political party in British Guiana.
Isahak Basir CCH was a Guyanese historian who was a member of the National Assembly of Guyana from 1977 to 1991. Basir was nicknamed "Uncle Tabrak" and was of Indian descent.
