A History of the Guyanese Working People, 1881-1905

Johns Hopkins Studies in Atlantic History and Culture

by Walter Rodney, George Lamming (Foreword)

Completed shortly before Walter Rodney's assassination in June 1980, A History of the Guyanese Working People, 1881-1905 provides an original, well-informed, and perceptive contribution to the historiography of nineteenth-century Guyanese society. This comprehensive examination encompasses the history of African and Asian immigration into Guyana, the interaction of ethnic groups, the impact of British colonialism, economic and political constraints on the working class, and the social life of the masses. Rodney argues that the social evolution of the Guyanese working people has been guided by specific material constraints and extremely powerful external focuses from Europe, Africa, Asia, and North America. He emphasizes the destructive fragmentation of the working class along ethnic, political, and social lines, encouraged by the legacy of slavery, postslavery immigration, legal distinctions between various classes of labor, and the economic bases of the society. in contrast to the well-defined middle and upper classes, the working people appeared divided, disorganized, and leaderless. Rodney's account ends in 1905, when the hardships and frustrations of the masses exploded into violence. A History of the Guyanese Working People, 1881-1905 will stand alone as a landmark study of the profound social upheaval that characterized Guyanese society in the years following emancipation. Anyone interested in the problems of underdeveloped nations, labor control, and the after-effects of colonialism and imperialism will appreciate the significance of this work.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Africa, Theory

312 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1981

About the author

In his short life, the Guyanese intellectual Walter Rodney emerged as one of the leading thinkers and activists of the anticolonial revolution, leading movements in North America, the African continent, and the Caribbean. In each locale, Rodney found himself a lightning rod for working class Black Power. His deportation catalyzed twentieth-century Jamaica’s most significant rebellion, the 1968 Rodney riots, and his scholarship trained a generation how to think politics at an international scale. In 1980, shortly after founding of the Working People’s Alliance in Guyana, the 38-year-old Rodney was assassinated.

Reviews

[Justin M · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't fully complete this book, but I will check it out again from the library to round out the last 60 pages or so. Even so, I think I got a good gist of the book.

This book is what Rodney talks about in some of his essays on Marxism in the Third World. It requires intellectuals and historians to go in and do an economic history that understands the local context in which the class struggle takes place. His thesis which I think is largely correct, is that Marxist theory was developed in the context of European 19th century industrialization. Therefore, simply trying to fit other contexts into the theory will not work. While the basis of class struggle remains the same. It takes detailed effort to tease out the classes. And in the Guyanese context a classic proletariat didn't exist for a long time because of the underdevelopment in the cane and extractive industries. However, there was a complex class system partially divided between formally free slaves, indentured servants, the "drivers" that arose from those groups, educated creoles who formed an intelligentsia civil servant class, Portuguese and Chinese that went into business, and finally the planter class.

These classes still had struggles. Particularly between the plantation workers who were attempting to make as much profit as possible and the indentured servants and free workers trying to maximize their wages.

Also a notable tie in to his other work is that the sugar industry and thus the development of Guyana was affected by the international trade system of sugar. A glut of beat sugar and subsidization destroyed the wages of plantation workers. And forced sugar estates to amalgamate.

[Sam Bacchus · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a comprehensive book of the Guyanese people and from whence they come. Really, to truly know the culture one must read this book. Why we are and who we came from.