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African-Guyanese protests, for over a century and a quarter after Emancipation, erupted mainly in response to economic hardship caused by oppressive taxation and ethnic marginalisation. From the start of the post-Emancipation village movement in 1839, the colonial élite set out to subordinate the villages in order to prevent free men and women from creating a rival peasantry thereby posing a threat to the European plantation system. A policy of deliberate domination was employed to prevent the emergence of an economically prosperous and politically powerful African-Guyanese population.
Former President David Granger, speaking on his weekly programme – the Public Interest – cited evidence that the colonial administration imposed burdensome taxes on villagers to pay for local public works − particularly dams, bridges, roads, drainage, irrigation, and sea defences. Peasant farming became impossible during floods in the low, flat East Demerara and West Berbice coastland without drainage control. Further, as indentured immigrants quit the plantations after their contracts ended, they entered retail business where they competed against African-Guyanese hucksters, traders and vendors.
Economic hardship was the main cause of most of the protests from the post-Emancipation to the immediate pre-Independence period (about 125 years). The ‘Angel Gabriel’ protest (1856), for example, was caused by high food prices and burdensome taxation. Anger exploded in attacks on Portuguese-owned shops which were blamed for everyday food costs. The Berbice-Demerara ‘Rates War’ (1863-64), similarly, erupted as a protest against high taxation which villagers – starting in Buxton-Friendship but spreading to Agricola and Ithaca villages – refused to pay.
The Former President argued that deep-seated, long-standing grievances against high taxation, low wages and economic hardship were the root causes of the Georgetown protests (1905). The Ruimveldt protest (1924), erupted after the British Guiana East Indian Association and the British Guiana Labour Union mobilised thousands of plantation and waterfront workers to protest against low wages, poor working conditions and economic hardship in the post-World War economic depression. The Bourda protests (1930s) were a public campaign waged by Rev. C N Smith − also known as the ‘Bourda Green Bishop’ – who led the so-called ‘Church Army’ against unemployment and economic hardship on behalf of the city’s poor.
Mr. Granger stated that the British Guiana Trades Union Council (BGTUC) called a general strike in 1962 to protest low salaries and measures for increased taxation and compulsory savings proposed in the PPP administration’s ‘Kaldor’ budget. The BGTUC called another general strike (1963) against measures in the PPP administration’s ‘Labour Relation Bill’ which could alter the method of trade union recognition in the sugar industry.
African-Guyanese protests, the former President said, were aimed mainly at alleviating economic hardship. He posited that economic justice could be assured by enhancing education about the history and experiences of all ethnic groups; empowering institutions and enforcing laws to allow local democratic organs to function without domination and improving employment opportunities for young people affected by economic hardship. These modern measures could avoid protests by creating the conditions for present-day Guyanese to enjoy a good life.
