Cold War in British Guiana 1953 – 66: The Trade Union Dimension

Abstract

The involvement of Anglo-American trade unions in British Guiana was deep and decisive. The British Trades Union Congress (BTUC) was determined that there should be no Marxist government in British Guiana. The American Federation of Labor–Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL/CIO) intervened by putting agents on the ground, put the head of the British Guiana TUC in its pay, and cooperated closely with the US government and its intelligence agencies to bring down the government of the late Dr Cheddi Jagan between 1961 and 1964. The evidence of this involvement is to be found in the archives of the BTUC and in the George Meaney memorial archives in Washington. In this essay we shall open up some of this evidence, which has hardly been touched upon in the literature to date. Before doing so we shall briefly look at British Guiana as a cold war theatre during the period under discussion.