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Monday, September 2, the West Indian/Caribbean Labour Day Parade in New York will take on a different characteristic, in response to the People’s Progressive Party’s (PPP) planned participation in a band. For more than half a century this parade, on the Eastern Parkway, was devoid of partisan politics.
Elevated to its present level by Trinidadian American Carlos Lezama, it is usually a day of great revelry, looked forward to by West Indians and non-West Indians, who travelled from different parts of the world to celebrate in the greatest street parade in United States (U.S).
The PPP’s decision to have a presence, using the ‘one Guyana’ misnomer to participate in a band called “NOMADS CARNIVAL,” will introduce partisan politics into a revelry previous West Indian governments valued the importance of disparate people coming together unburdened by party politics. The effort by the PPP to tarnish this reverence is not sitting well with some who have decided to make their disapproval known.
The New York based Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy (CGID) and other organisations in the diaspora will team up with the Black Lives Matter movement to protest the PPP’s presence and band.
In a statement, the grouping said they “take strong objection to Ministers of the racist PPP government of Guyana coming to New York to participate in a so called ‘One Guyana’ carnival music truck, as part of the West Indian carnival or Labour Day parade, on Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, on Labor Day, Monday, September 2, 2024.”
The groups adamantly said they “will not allow the PPP government to subjugate the African Guyanese population, then come to the diaspora to party with us as a distraction.”
The protest will begin at Utica Avenue and Eastern Parkway at 10 A.M., on Labour Day.
The groups shared that “The PPP government is a brutally racist and violently oppressive, anti-black government. It is the most racist regime in the Western Hemisphere. It is an authoritarian ethnocracy that uses 95% of Guyana’s oil and gas revenues to benefit the East Indian population of Guyana.
“African Guyanese for the most part are treated like second-class citizens whose rights and freedoms are being infringed and severely curtailed by racists in the PPP cabal.”
“HOWEVER, BLACK LIVES MATTER!”
The groups have been very explicit in their concerns, including the extrajudicial killings of hundreds of African Guyanese during the Bharrat Jagdeo presidency. They said: “The PPP government formed death squads that killed over 1500 young black men with impunity. There has been no justice for this genocide.
“The United Nations earlier this year called for an investigation of these murders. However, the racist PPP government continues to ignore these demands for justice. They believe that black lives are expendable and have no value. However, Black Lives Matter!”
Stories of racism and economic genocide have haunted the Irfaan Ali presidency and efforts to shake these through participation in celebratory events, traditionally dominated by Black people or in honour of Black history come across as disrespectful and only exacerbate the problems.
A similar situation occurred during the August Emancipation events. The PPP Government disbursed grants to African villages or African cultural groups on condition that they visited the villages and participate in these events. Veteran trade unionist Lincoln Lewis, responding to the gift bearing ploy, called it disrespectful to the struggles, history and pride of the African Guyanese.
CGID and the other organisations, continuing to express their chagrin said, “the racists in the PPP government are now attacking African Guyanese in the New York diaspora who speak out against their rampant injustice, corruption and anti-black racism. They claim that African Guyanese in New York have no rights to speak out against racists in the Guyana Government.”
Reciting some acts of provocation levelled against the government, the statement addressed officers of the Guyana Police Force turning up at the homes of Guyanese in the U.S, and the alleged false framing and charging of New Yorkers with fabricated crimes in Guyana for condemning the regime.
PPP Government attacking officials of U.S Government
Worst, the grouping said, “the PPP regime has been attacking U.S Members of Congress and other U.S elected officials who speak out against the regime’s racism, injustice, and rampant corruption.” They have spent hundreds of millions of dollars in lobbying fees to attack CGID members and U.S elected officials, the grouping noted.
The PPP has made U.S House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries the target of its political rancidity for calling on Government of Guyana to govern in the interest of all and eschew racist practices. Jeffries’ call is not unlike Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken who have pushed for inclusionary approaches to governance in Guyana and shared prosperity. The Government continues to ignore sound advice to improve governance and relations amongst the Guyanese people, across ethnicities
Mark Benschop, host of the “Straight Up” programme has also called for protest action. He is urging persons to protest the PPP bind by repeating then Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo call “to chase dem out” as he advised PPP supporters in how to treat with officials of the David Granger/Moses Nagamootoo, A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) government. Benschop also said when persons see the PPP band they must “wine, turn round and boo” the government ministers.
Bigotry, racist thuggery and violence against Blacks should not be tolerated
The groups fired a warning that “the PPP bigotry, racist thuggery and violence against Blacks in the US should not be tolerated.” They are appealing to Guyanese New Yorkers “to rise up in opposition to, and reject, the political violence being perpetrated against African Guyanese leaders in New York by East Indian racists in the PPP government of Guyana.
They want all Guyanese, Caribbean Americans and others, “to come out and vociferously reject these agents of oppressive racists and enemies of the Guyanese people who will be pretending that all is well in Guyana.”
Protest assembly point is at 10 A.M at Eastern Parkway and Utica Avenue, Brooklyn, Monday, September 2, 2024.
