State terror in Guyana

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Indian bosses mourn Sanjay The killing of historian Dr. Walter Rodney of the Guyana Working People's Alliance on June 13 has, as expected, increased the growing opposition to the Forbes Burnham PNC regime.

Rodney was killed instantly when a bomb disguised as a radio transmitter exploded in his brother's car when they were both travelling across Georgetown.

His brother escaped with severe injuries-only to be charged with unlawful possession of an explosive device!

After being forcibly removed from hospital Donald Rodney is now on bail awaiting trial.

Rodney is only the latest of number of leading WPA members to be murdered, following the violent deaths of Okene Koama and Edward Dublin apart from daily unpublicised attacks on scores of workers attempting to fight for their rights through the government controlled trade unions.

Burnham accepted an IMF austerity programme last week which will raise the price of rice, electricity and transport and bring further hardship to the poorest sectors of the population.

Government sponsored thuggery in Guyana is unprecedented, even by Latin American standards, carried out not only by the regular army and police but also by the armed youth wing of the PNC (the "Young special police units and by the specaponce feared and hated House of This is a religious sect led by American born David Hill, known as Rabbi Washington who is wanted by the US police and is therefore dependent on the government for protection.

The political work of the House of Israel includes acting as a strike breaking force, breakIn his masterly study of the rise of Louis Bonaparte, Marx anticipated the rise of Sanjay Gandhi when he set himself the task of demonstrating • "how the class struggle in France created circumstances and relationships that made it possible for a grotesque mediocrity to play a hero's part".

Marx's materialist method of analysis and the insights that followed are as relevant today as in his own time.

The kernel of his message, however, contained one more universal law: how imperialist interests throw up leaders to ensure the preservation of class rule.

And it is this lesson that can be drawn out when looking at the political significance of Sanjay Gandhi's death.

Having re-emerged as the leading bourgeois party in India, Indira Gandhi's Congress (I) Party today confronts the task of dealing with the increasing combativity and strength of the undefeated working class.

Instability

Despite the mandate that instituted Gandhi in power, the Congress (I) is wracked by political instability.

The growing mass unrest in the North West continues to point to the problem of enforcing political control if the ruling class is to avoid national disintegration.

And it was in the repulsive figure of Sanjay Gandhi that the ing up public meetings, staging demonstrations in favour of the government and beating and killing opponents of the PNC.

Members of this sect and other paramilitary agents have been planted in shops and other public places to suppress any discussion of Rodney's death and arrest those who disobey.

But despite a news blackout protest has been vocal and widespread.

A call by the Guyana Human Rights Association for a return to democracy and the rule of law immediately and for an inquiry into the murder has been signed by 20 trade unions and professional and church groups.

Mourners

However the appeal also criticises 'ordinary people' for their failure to "take their civic responsibilities seriously" and points to a last opportunity to reconstruct a peaceful society'!

In defiance of government orders forbidding attendance at the funeral, 30,000 mourners carrying banners and shouting slogans accusing the government of murder marched 12 miles from Buxton to the Georgetown cemetary.

Students and staff at the state-run University of Guyana have been on strike since the death, continuing a long battle which started months ago when Burnham opposed Rodney's appointment to the faculty.

What is needed is a political leadership capable of organising and leading the struggle, one which not only cuts across racial lines as the WPA does, but which also stands on a programme committed to the defence of the independent interests of the working class and poor peasantry, breaking once and for all with the class collaborationism which has traditionally riddled Guyanese This is a task the yet to undertake. ruling class had sought to cultivate a bonapartist leader, well aware of the incapacity of imperialism to guarantee bourgeois democracy.

Sanjay represented the wing of the ruling class most discontented with the trappings of 'democracy'-as was made manifest in his forced sterilisation campaign and bulldozing of squatter camps during the Emergency.

His key role in the recent rubber stamp assembly elections in securing the political authority of Congress (I) points further to the reliance invested in him by sections of the ruling class.

No doubt the bourgeoisie will recover from the loss of its potential 'hero' and after having espoused lyrical obituaries will adapt its interrupted strategy accordingly.

Tactical question

Whether this will include Maneka Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi or some unknown chief minister remains a purely tactical question for the ruling class.

In their day-to-day struggles the Indian working class and peasantry are held back principally by the Stalinist leadership which seeks to contain the class struggle behind cross-class, popular frontist policies.

It is only a principled Trotskyist programme based on the leading role and independence of the working class that can present a way out of the anarchic capitalist order and break the working class from its present counter-revolutionary misleaders in the fight for socialism.