Biography of Cheddi Jagan
Cheddi Jagan's first task was to establish a practice in Georgetown, the Capital. His fees were low as he did not want to exploit his patients but this led him into a public battle with the Dental Association for a principle he believed in. He brought four of his brothers and one sister to live with them, so that they could further their education.
Cheddi Jagan at work in his dental surgery.
Although he liked his profession, at the same time he longed to identify himself with something more meaningful. In those days, there were no political parties. The planter class dominated the Legislative Council and though some union leaders such as Hubert Nathaniel Critchlow, who formed the BGLU in 1922, spoke in the legislative Council on behalf of workers, they had no mass political organisation. In existence then were the League of Coloured People and the British Guiana East Indian Association.
The LCP did not interest him much since they opposed adult suffrage. The BGIEA supported constitutional changes and universal adult suffrage but was unsympathetic to the plight of the working man.
The dental surgery became a hive of activities and through it he made many important contact, many patients being ordinary rural and urban workers.
Cheddi’s name began to spread in the sugar belt –coming from a sugar estate and as well a doctor who listened to ordinary people. On many occasions he would be invited by workers to speak and advise them on industrial matters in various parts of the sugar belt. Due to his increased contacts with workers, he became involved in the two trade unions in the sugar industry, one of them being the ManPower Citizen’s Association.
In 1945 he became treasurer of that union, but was removed after a year when he objected to the glaring reluctance of the union to defend the interests of the sugar workers. It was, he discovered, a company union.
Those were the days when many things were happening. The Royal Commission on The West Indies headed by Lord Moyne had published its report, which horrified many as it related in concrete terms the miserable conditions of the workers and farmers. The war had created its own difficulties in Guyana and the region. These difficulties had stirred widespread debate in which Cheddi and his wife Janet, took an active part.
They used to take part in discussions over a wide range of subjects at the Carneige (now National) Library. An important event in that year was the convening in Georgetown of West Indian Conference attended by such leaders as Grantley Adams of Barbados, Norman Manley and Richard Hart of Jamaica, Albert Gomes of Trinidad and H.N. Critchlow of Guyana. The Labour Party had just won the elections in England and many were openly talking of socialism.
In 1946, H.J.M Hubbard, an avowed Marxist who was at that time the General Secretary of the British Guiana Trades Union Council, Ashton Chase assistant secretary in the British Guiana Labour Union, Janet Jagan who was at that time in the Clerical Workes Union, along with Cheddi Jagan formed the Political Affairs Committee and established a PAC Bulletin, with Janet as the editor. The PAC was labour oriented. All four were working in trade unions. In the same year, the Women's Political and Economic Organisation headed by Janet Jagan, Winifred Gaskin and Frances Van Stafford, was formed.
In 1947 the first elections since World War II were held. There were 14 elected seats to be contested. Apart from the middle class organisations, the LCP and the BGEIA, a Labour Party was formed but this organisation was a group of individuals put together quickly and without any mass base.
Janet and Cheddi Jagan ran as independent labour candidates -Janet contested in Georgetown and Cheddi on the East Coast of Demerara. Janet lost to John Fernandes, a businessman and catholic, who invoked the bogey of anti-communism, which was then becoming a popular weapon of the plantocracy.
Cheddi fought against some well-established people such as Frank Jacobs, a lawyer, and John D'Aguiar. The latter was clearly the most powerful as he had represented the constituency for some time, was wealthy and had enormous influence. Cheddi had worked among the sugar workers for some time and was assisted by Eusi Kwayana (Sidney King) and Ram Karran who lived in the constituency. His patience and dedicated work among the workers paid off. At the end of the count, Cheddi was declared the winner.
Cheddi Jagan regarded his victory as the people's victory and said in a post-ballot speech: "We the people have won. Now the struggle will begin." From then on the legislature became a battleground. Cheddi himself reflected later that getting into the legislature was an end of sorts but "only the beginning of the long and hard struggle ahead."
Cheddi Jagan addressing workers in 1948
Cheddi soon mastered the art of debate in Parliament and prepared himself well before each sitting.He would constantly expose the exploitative nature of the colonial rulers and dominance of the Bookers group - Guiana was then known as Bookers Guiana. He exposed the alarmingly poor conditions of the people and the fact that the legislature was simply a tool of the planters. What was also significant was that during this period, it became clear that he, unlike other legislators who claimed to speak for the masses, was not for sale. His name as an honest politician, a man of integrity grew from this time on.
A different kind of politics was taking shape. Cheddi would take the interest of the ordinary man into the legislature and he would later take to the street corners to expose the rulers and their ploys to continue to exploit the people. In the legislature, for a while, he teamed up with the labour Party which had won 6 of the fourteen seats but soon broke ranks when he found they were not willing to speak out against the planters and would not oppose the various manipulations used by the colonialists to remove the wealth created by the people out of the country.
As conditions worsened in the colony, the industrial struggles began to intensify. Cheddi Jagan agitated among workers and became President of the Sawmill Workers Union. The colonial government became more oppressive and the need for a national political organisation became more pressing. Matters came to a head when in 1948, during a strike at Enmore estate, sugar workers were gunned down by the colonial police. This tragedy sent shock waves throughout the colony. Cheddi described the incident thus: "The Enmore tragedy affected me greatly. I was personally acquainted with all the young men killed and injured. The funeral procession headed by my wife, other leaders and myself to the city 16 miles away became a mass protest demonstration. At the graveside the emotional outburst of the widows and relatives of the deceased had been intensely distressing and I could hardly restrain my tears. There was to be no turning back. There and then I took a silent pledge – I would dedicate my entire life to the cause of the struggle of the Guyanese people against bondage and exploitation."
The stage was set to carry out the objective set by the PAC – the formation of a political party. And so in 1950 was founded the People's Progressive Party (PPP) with Forbes Burnham as Chairman, Janet as General Secretary and Cheddi as Leader, and the Thunder, as the official PPP organ.
Cheddi Jagan from these early years felt the need for international solidarity, and as often as he could made trips abroad - to many of the Caribbean islands, United Kingdom, Berlin (German Democratic Republic) and the United States.
