Returningtoclassandcolouroneyearafter

aspects of important personalities that when the revisionist and iconoclastic pen probes, history is made richer Two gaps arouse my interest – Martin Carter and WalterRodney

Myiconoclasticnoteson MartinCarterrevealsidesto his politics that continue to be deeply buried. It is an incredible mystery that a man in the anti-colonial struggle in the 1950s could declare himself a Stalinist, picketed the Queen’s relativeonanofficialvisitto British Guiana and was expelled from the anticolonial movement for being a communist extremist could find a highlevel job in the British colonial office and in the Bookers plantocracy No! Something is not right here.

Carter’s political life needs extensive researching I believe Carter was a Jekyll and Hyde in Guyanese politicsandremainstheonly such person in Guyana contemporarypolitics.

In relation to Walter Rodney,Iamnotconvinced t h a t h e w a s t h a t quintessentialworkingclass revolutionary class champion that his biographersmakehimoutto be. Two recent books on Rodneydescribeanincident attheUniversityofTanzania in 1971 that revealed a Freudian, Afro-centric instinct in Rodney that bordered on racist feelings. For more on this see pages 170-171ofLeoZeilig,“The Water Rodney Story: A LegacyofOurTime,”

In Guyana, Rodney’s praxis was centered in an ambience that was filled with middle class elitism devoid of in-depth and consistent groundings with themassesandanavoidance of political socialization with the Indian rural peasantry.

Theexpected1979mass uprising against Burnham that failed was determined by that kind of class limitations.

Ireturntoraceandclass one year after I visited that theme because race and class will be the key issues as oil revenues lead to consolidation of the PPP’s electoral prospects in the comingyears.

Last year at this exact time,theseweremyarticles;

1-January 26- “The Walter Rodney family and Kit Nascimento: Notes on ClassandColour.”

2 - J a n u a r y 2 7 , “Burnham and Kwayana: Iconoclastic notes on racism.”

3 - J a n u a r y 2 8 , “Kisssoon, Gaskin and Roopnaraine: More Notes onRaceandClass.”

4-January 30, “My music choice disqualifies me from being an unbiased human.” The March 2020 e l e c t i o n f i a s c o demonstrated in volcanic ways that Sigmund Freud exists in all of us. Humans carry Freudian repressions and Freudian sublimations in them throughout their lives Then a situation unfolds and Freudian rivuletsrunintotheriver As

2023began,Isaw F r e u d i a n underpinnings and I knew I was right about the power of race and class in the history this country I have a d m i r e d t h e s o c i o l o g i c a l scholarship of Percy Hintz whom I first met as a UG freshman. I thought his exposure of the entitlement d e m a n d s o f t h e Mulatto/Creole class was incisivescholarship.

Recently in 2023, the professorwrotethesewords:

“When people ask me what I am, I reply that I am a Guyanese creole. This is howmyidentitywasforged, and where my interactions have been, and continue to be,mostintense.”

What happens to class belongings when people ask you about your past? I am East Indian. I was born into a w o r k i n g - c l a s s environment in the south Georgetown ward of Wortmanville. All I knew from age 5 until I was liberated in my early 20s was poverty I am compelledbytheforceofmy psyche to answer the question as to who I am the way Hintzen answered it. The difference between Hintzen’s response and mine is form and not content. Here are the words copied from Hintzen with one word missing that I have substituted. Do you think you can spot that word: “When people ask me what I am, I reply that I am a Guyanese proletarian. This is how my identity was forged, and where my interactions have been, and continue to be, most intense.”

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this n e w s p a p e r a n d i t s affiliates.)