"Originally published in 1972, Eusi Kwayana's The Bauxite Strike and the
Old Politics, offered profound lessons for class struggle in a
multiracial society. Many decades later, Kwayana's work remains
urgently relevant.
A product of Guyana, and a classic of Caribbean radical history, The
Bauxite Strike and the Old Politics examines the struggle of
Afro-Guyanese mine workers in what was the soon-to-be nationalized
bauxite industry, as they faced off against the racism and sexism of
the Canadian-owned aluminum firm, ALCAN, the class collaboration of the
Guyana Mine Workers Union (GMWU), and the hostility of Forbes Burnham's
government toward their self-organization and self-emancipation.
Through these events, Burnham's regime - which initially claimed to be
a patron of global African solidarity, cultural renewal, and a
cooperative society - began to reveal itself as a collaborator with
the empire of capital, an oppressor of Black workers, and a promoter of
racial insecurity in Guyana.
Kwayana's work leads us to reconsider the nature of representative
government and electoral politics. Black power, for Kwayana, began to
transcend the notion of a Black ruling elite s equal opportunity to
enter the rules of hierarchy. Through engagement with Guyana s bauxite
workers, Black Power became synonymous with Black workers control. This
new edition includes an introduction by Matthew Quest, and an appendix
of rare ASCRIA (African Society for Cultural Relations with Independent
Africa) documents and writings by Kwayana, spanning this period of
Guyanese history from 1972 to 1974. This new material documents
Kwayana's fight against government corruption, his participation in
Guyana s cooperative movement, and his facilitation, in 1973, of a
multiracial rebellion of landless sugar workers."
Kwayana's work leads us to reconsider the nature of representative
government and electoral politics. Black power, for Kwayana, began to
transcend the notion of a Black ruling elite s equal opportunity to
enter the rules of hierarchy. Through engagement with Guyana s bauxite
workers, Black Power became synonymous with Black workers control. This
new edition includes an introduction by Matthew Quest, and an appendix
of rare ASCRIA (African Society for Cultural Relations with Independent
Africa) documents and writings by Kwayana, spanning this period of
Guyanese history from 1972 to 1974. This new material documents
Kwayana's fight against government corruption, his participation in
Guyana s cooperative movement, and his facilitation, in 1973, of a
multiracial rebellion of landless sugar workers."