“...this Caribbean Anti-Imperialist Conference..resolves..to work steadfastly for a democratic, anti-imperialist Caribbean union.”
From August 30 to September 1st, 1972, the Caribbean Anti-Imperialist Conference was held at Freedom House in Georgetown, Guyana. The Conference was sponsored by Indo-Guyanese leftist Cheddi Jagan’s People's Progressive Party (PPP). At the time, the PPP was the radical, multiracial opposition to the opportunistic, reactionary, US puppet regime of Forbes Burnham’s ruling People's National Congress Reform party.
Cheddi Jagan served as Premier of Guyana from 1962 until he was ousted from the position in 1964 through the covert manipulation of elections by the CIA and British intelligence. He fought for Guyana’s independence and called for a bold anti-imperialist regional integration that resisted US incursion, corporate, military, or otherwise.
These sentiments are voiced in Jagan’s opening address to the Anti-Imperialist conference (titled “The Caribbean Revolution: Tasks and Perspectives”), and in the conference Resolutions themselves.
In the Resolutions, conference participants endorsed the formation of a democratic anti-imperialist Caribbean union, demanded an end to racism and racial discrimination throughout the region, and called for the protection of civil liberties and for free and fair elections. The Resolutions also supported Black Power, the end of the US blockade of Cuba, Puerto Rican independence, and the struggles of the Vietnamese people against the United States.
The Caribbean Anti-Imperialist Conference was in many ways a minor affair. Only Surinam, Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Cuba, Guadeloupe, Puerto Rico, and French Guiana participated. (In fact, Jagan’s conference was overshadowed by the Conference of Foreign Ministers of Non-Aligned Countries, hosted by his rival, Burnham, who was Guyana’s president at the time). Yet the Resolutions from the Caribbean Anti-Imperialist conference are remarkable for their project of radical sovereignty for Caribbean peoples.
Today, the PPP is in power in Guyana and is led by the opportunistic, reactionary, US corporate puppet Irfaan Ali. Ali has mortgaged Guyana’s sovereignty to foreign oil interests and has opened the door to US imperialism in the Caribbean region. Ali is an insult to the memory of Jagan. But the Resolutions from the Anti-Imperialist Conference demonstrate that there can be a different path for Guyana and the Caribbean region. We reprint it below.
Resolutions Passed by the Caribbean Anti-Imperialist Conference Held in Georgetown, Guyana, August 30—31 and September 1, 1972
1. FOR A DEMOCRATIC, ANTI-IMPERIALIST CARIBBEAN UNION
WHEREAS the imperialist strategists in keeping with their new idea of “ideological frontiers” in place of “geographical frontiers” which was based on the principles of sovereignty — self-determination, non-interference and territorial integrity — advocated regional integration for the benefit of their multinational corporations:
AND WHEREAS in the Commonwealth Caribbean, the puppets of the imperialists established the Caribbean Free Trade Area (CARIFTA), the counterpart of the Central American Common Market (CACM) and the Latin American Free Trade Association (LAFTA);
AND WHEREAS CARIFTA has failed to “deepen” into a Common Market because of differences arising mainly from narrow-nationalist, chauvinistic considerations and this failure, in addition to the acceleration of the revolutionary momentum in the region, has led to the move for a Caribbean Union, which is seen as a better vehicle for foreign control and domination of the area politically, militarily and economically;
NOW, THEREFORE, this Caribbean Anti-Imperialist Conference warns against this new imperialist manoeuvre, and resolves at the same time, to work steadfastly for a democratic, anti-imperialist Caribbean union.
2. STRUGGLE AGAINST COLONIALISM AND NEO-COLONIALISM
WHEREAS we recognise that imperialism has as, its objective the continued merciless exploitation and oppression of the peoples of the Caribbean in particular and the world in general;
AND WHEREAS imperialism manifests itself in the form of colonialism in the area; the so-called Dutch Antilles, Surinam, Cayenne, Guadeloupe, Martinique, and all those territories that have associated status with Britain are still colonies and are engaged in the struggle for national liberation; the manipulations and manoeuvres of imperialism seek to further enhance the grip on the Caribbean territories and at frustrating the efforts of the progressive forces to free the masses from their manacles, of allowing the free development of the productive forces and the growth of true people’s democracy; we are aware of the iniquitous and subversive role of the Brazilian government as the agent of U. S. imperialism in Latin America;
BE IT RESOLVED that this Caribbean Anti-Imperialist Conference strenuously condemns this mean and outrageous aggression against the peoples of the Caribbean, Latin America and all peace-loving peoples of the world;
FIRMLY supports the just struggles of the peoples in these colonies for self-determination and national liberation;
STRONGLY urges the international agencies and the metropolitan countries to provide the aid necessary which would sustain these colonies and semi-colonies and associated states as independent;
AND VIGOROUSLY condemns the role taken by the government of Brazil as the spearhead and instrument of the Nixon doctrine in Latin America.
3. ON CIVIL LIBERTIES
RESOLVED that this Anti-Imperialist Conference condemns the restrictions on civil liberties and denial of human rights which many governments in the region have imposed on citizens, that is to say, the restriction on freedom of movement by banning the entry of persons, by denial of work permits on political or ideological grounds; the increasing trend towards control of the freedom of expression and ideas; the enactment of legislation severely restricting the freedom of the press; the freedom of workers to join the trade union of their choice and to demonstrate; and the denial of the right of the people to elect the government of their choice by free and fair elections.
AND CALLS upon the people of the territories in which these restrictions on civil liberties and denial of human rights occur to protest to their respective governments individually and collectively against existing violations as and when they occur.
4. RACISM AND RACIAL DISCRIMINATION
CONSIDERING that racism and racial discrimination is a social evil, a product of colonialism, neo-colonialism and imperialism which hinders the development of the Caribbean and retards the development of the human personality;
REALISING that some Caribbean governments promote racism and racial divisions in order to perpetuate reactionary rule:
BE IT RESOLVED that this Caribbean Anti-Imperialist Conference condemns racism and racial discrimination in all its forms everywhere and more particularly apartheid in South Africa and Rhodesia, and jim-crowism in the U.S. A.;
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this Caribbean Anti-Imperialist Conference demands the enactment of laws and the establishment of institutions which would prohibit the practice of racism and racial discrimination.
5. SOLIDARITY WITH CHILE
THE CONFERENCE, CONSIDERING
that the imperialist and oligarchical forces are carrying out a vast conspiracy against the government of the Unidad Popular in Chile;
that the international monopolies are intensifying their manoeuvres more rigidly in the economic blockade against Chile as they had tried unsuccessfully against Cuba;
that the information and press agencies controlled by imperialism are propagating news that the Chilean situation is nearly chaotic with the hope of reducing the support for the government:
RESOLVES that this Caribbean Anti-Imperialist Conference expresses firm solidarity with the Allende government and the parties that form the Unidad Popular;
AND STRONGLY recommends to the parties and revolutionary organizations represented at this Conference the promotion of an extensive campaign in support of the government and people of Chile.
6. SUPPORT FOR ANTI-IMPERIALIST STRUGGLES OF THE PEOPLES OF THE WORLD
This Caribbean Anti-Imperialist Conference
ACCEPTING that every nation or people has the right to self-determination;
RECOGNISING that no nation is free if one nation is oppressed,
REALISING that imperialism, headed by U.S. imperialism, savagely oppresses many nations of the world;
ACKNOWLEDGING the need for the strongest unity and solidarity of all peoples everywhere;
CONCERNED that some pro-imperialist governments, posturing as progressives and revolutionaries, give financial assistance to the African liberation movement opportunistically to enhance their own image and to capitalize on the sympathies of the Caribbean peoples;
DEMANDS that all governments in the Caribbean give the broadest possible support to all liberation movements, including “he African, and especially the Indo-Chinese who have been in the forefront of the struggle against imperialism, and also to the struggle of the black people and other oppressed minorities of the United States.
7. END BLOCKADE OF CUBA
This Caribbean Anti-Imperialist Conference,
CONSIDERED that Cuba is a sovereign member of the international community of nations and that the Cuban government and people are a guiding light to the Caribbean and rest of Latin America in their struggle against racial oppression, economic exploitation and imperialist domination;
DEMANDS that Caribbean and Latin American governments call on the U.S. government to end its anti-democratic and criminal blockade of Cuba, and further that they themselves extend full diplomatic trade, scientific, and cultural relations with the Cuban government and people.
8. BLACK POWER
This Caribbean “Anti-Imperialist Conference recognises Black Power in its revolutionary, anti-imperialist form. Such an expression of revolutionary Black Power becomes a new force in the fight against racism, cultural domination and economic oppression practised on the Caribbean and the capitalist world. We accept the revolutionary interpretation of Black Power as part of the world struggle against imperialism but firmly reject the narrow nationalist view, as manifested in some countries, that promotes black capitalism and retaliatory black racism.
9. ON VIETNAM
CONSIDERED that the recently-concluded Conference of Foreign Ministers of the Non-Aligned countries, held in Guyana, in response to the heightened genocidal aggression by the United States of America against the Vietnamese people, called for the withdrawal of all foreign troops from South Vietnam, accepted the 7-point programme of the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam (PRG) as a just basis for a political solution to the Vietnamese problem, and seated the PRG and the Royal Government of the National Union of Cambodia;
BE IT RESOLVED that this Caribbean Anti-Imperialist Conference condemns U.S. aggression in Indochina, more particularly the intensive bombing and mining of ports and waterways in North Vietnam; and calls for an immediate end to the bombing and the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all U. S. puppet troops;
AND BE IT RESOLVED that this Conference urges all governments and peoples of the Caribbean to support fully the decision on Indo-China of the Non-Aligned Conference of Foreign Ministers.
10. ON THE PUERTO RICAN INDEPENDENCE
CONSIDERING that Puerto Rico is a Latin American nation with its own personality achieved during more than 400 years of struggle:
AWARE of the military intervention and occupation in Puerto Rico by the mercenary and invading army of the Yankee imperialism in 1898 which has continued to the present time:
CONSCIOUS of the nature of the political domination that the Puerto Rican people have been subjected to as a consequence of the imperialist military occupation, which has caused the disappearance of tens of thousands of medium and small businessmen, the imprisonment and arrest throughout the country of thousands of workers, peasants and students who try to recover their land, and maintains another similar number in the metropolitan prisons;
This Caribbean Anti-Imperialist Conference
DEMANDS the total and immediate independence of Puerto Rico from the U.S. A.;
URGES the Nations to implement as early as possible Resolution 1514 (XV) in the case of P. R.;
CALLS for the immediate release of all political prisoners.
11. ON FREE AND FAIR ELECTIONS
WHEREAS electoral fraud poses a grave threat to representative government and is a danger to peace and security of the Caribbean;
AND WHEREAS electoral fraud has resulted in a grave political crisis and unrest, and to an effective no-vote boycott campaign during the 1971 general election in Trinidad and Tobago;
AND WHEREAS the extensive electoral fraud resorted to by the PNC government during the 1968 general election, the 1970 local government election, and the 1971 Amerindian “captain” election has resulted in grave dissatisfaction and discontent:
BE IT RESOLVED that this Caribbean Anti-Imperialist Conference strongly condemns the practice of electoral fraud and urges concerted regional action for the setting up of adequate machinery to ensure elections are free and fair.
Resolutions Passed by the Caribbean Anti-Imperialist Conference Held in Georgetown, Guyana, August 30—31 and September 1, 1972
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