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The terrorist attack on the Son Chapman passenger launch on 6th July 1964 divided the people deeply for succeeding decades. The ‘Hurudaia Massacre’ – as the attack has been called – was calculated, callous and cold-blooded evil that introduced political violence on an unprecedented scale. The Son Chapman launch was bombed on its trip from Georgetown to Mackenzie on the Demerara River. Four children and a pregnant woman, who delivered involuntarily, were among 53 common people who were victims.
Former President David Granger, speaking on his weekly programme – the Public Interest, expressed his opinion that the ‘Hurudaia Massacre’ was the country’s most gruesome slaughter since the abolition of slavery and is unmatched for its carnage and contempt for human life. He felt that the Massacre was a new form of terrorism in Guyana’s history, not merely an episode in communal conflict, and should be analysed at several levels.
First, the People’s Progressive Party, at the ‘national’ level, employed terrorist tactics to prevent the replacement of the First-past-the-post system with the Proportional Representation system of general elections. The British Government, at the request of the leaders of the PPP, PNC and UF parties to resolve the controversy over the electoral system, introduced the ‘proportional representation’ process requiring representation in the Legislative Assembly to be in proportion to the votes cast for each contesting party.
Second, the PPP, at the local level, launched a campaign of terrorism — called the ‘Hurricane of Protest’ — under the pretext of the Guiana Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU) strike, to oppose the introduction of the PR system. GAWU, a PPP affiliate, struck on 6th February to demand recognition by the Sugar Producers’ Association in the sugar industry but, as most sugar workers belonged to a rival union — the Man Power Citizens Association — many continued to work and were the first victims of terrorism. Arson, assault and sabotage erupted first at Leonora and escalated until the strike ended on 27th July after 165 days and over 176 recorded murders of mostly common people.
The PPP, third, posed as a ‘Leninist’ party at the international level. Vladimir Lenin, the intellectual author of ‘Leninism’, notoriously proclaimed: “Surely you do not imagine that we shall be victorious without applying the most cruel revolutionary terror? The PPP aligned itself with other international ‘Leninist’ parties and portrayed its ‘Hurricane of Protest’ as an anti-colonial struggle, similar to contemporary revolutionary movements in Cuba, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Colombia. The PPP’s so-called British Guiana revolution was part of this pattern of insurrections which the USA perceived as USSR-sponsored threats to Western Hemispheric strategic stability and security.
Fourth, the PPP’s campaign degenerated into “applying the most cruel revolutionary terror” at the communal level. Violence was spearheaded by trained terrorists from its youth arm – the Progressive Youth Organisation – who were armed with an arsenal of ammunition, explosives and weapons. Hundreds of youths were trained in Communist countries, some confessing that their training including bomb-making and sabotage with the aim of fomenting “revolutionary terror” in Guyana and “imposing communism”.
The PPP’s Minister of Home Affairs ominously resigned on 1st June in the wake of the grave atrocity at Wismar on 25th May when two persons were killed, thereby relinquishing responsibility for public security. This preceded the Abraham Family massacre the next week on 12th June, and the ‘Hurudaia Massacre’ the next month, on 6th July. The British Governor ordered the detention without trial of 32 members of the PPP, including ministers, and 3 members of the PNC, under emergency regulations.
The PPP then, in an effort to make the entire country ungovernable and to prevent the elections from being held, extended its “most cruel revolutionary terror” into communities which previously coexisted hospitably. The Hurricane, launched in January, ended in December 1964 when general elections were held, and the PPP was removed from office. Independence came peacefully in 1966.
The former President advised that the PPP administration, today, should pursue a peaceful path by encouraging real social cohesion among communities and by fostering greater respect for each other so that everyone, everywhere could be safe and enjoy a good life. 󠄀
