Telesur on Britain’s Legacy of Exploitation in Guyana

This is a very short video-just over a minute or so long-by Telesur very briefly describing Britain’s history of colonialism and exploitation in Guyana. It discusses how Britain important African slaves to work on the sugar plantation, and how it gained its independence after the War in the 20th century. The left-wing People’s Progressive Party took power determined to combat the massive poverty and inequality. However, in 1953 Churchill’s government suspended the constitution, and the party was ousted. The result is that the country’s valuable resources are dominated by foreign companies, while ordinary Guyanese live in severe poverty, so that the country is one of the poorest in South America.

A little while ago looking through the politics section of the Oxfam bookshop on Bristol’s Park Street I found a book by a Black Guyanese author, who argued that the cause of so much poverty in Britain’s former colonial possessions was because Britain underinvested in them. This is extremely plausible. Their development is also restricted by the high trade tariffs imposed by all the European states in order to protect their manufacturing industries. Britain granted its former colonies independence on condition that they would provide the raw materials, which British industry would use to produce finished goods in a system Gunnar Myrdal termed neocolonialism. Guyana and the rest of the nations in the Developing World are put at a disadvantage, because so many of them produce the same raw materials that it’s very difficult for them to bargain for higher prices. If they simply stop or restriction production, the way OPEC did with the oil in the early ’70s, the west can always switch to another desperately poor nation willing to supply them with what they want.

As for the removal of the Guyanese government in 1953, I think this is one of the coups orchestrated by America that William Blum lists in one of his books. Again, it was sold to the American people as a defence against the global Communist threat, while the real reason was that it threatened American – and British – corporate interests. Just as our countries worked together to overthrow Iran’s prime minister, Mohammed Mossadeq, in 1958 because he dared nationalize the Iranian oil industry.

Tags: Colonialism, Corporate Power, Coups, Developing World, Gunnar Myrdal, Imperialism, Manufacturing Industries, Mohammed Mossadeq, Neocolonialism, Oil Embarga, OPEC, Oxfam, People's Progressive Party, Raw Materials, Sugar, Telesur, Trade Tariffs, William Blum