HOW THE CIA GOT RID OF JAGAN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP73-00475R000401410003-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 20, 2013
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: April 16, 1967
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

?.
?
1 rb4?7
sTA'i
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/12/20: CIA-RDP73-00475R000401410003-5
kV ' Lena, did seem a trifle Left-wing,.
but the Colonial Oflico reasoned
? ?correctly--that he had won not
because of his politics but be-
cause of his race.
Race has always split the coun-
try: 300,000 Indians scattered
mainly through the rural areas,
200,000 ;AL r lc a--Tis chisterin::
mainly in . the- townships. and
interlarding *them about 100,00o
? ...? .
polyglot. ?
The Indians voted fairly solidly
for the ascetic Left-wing Jagan.
The Africans voted equally
?
*solidly for Forbes Burnham, an
extrovert African lawyer well to
the Right.
.? To Britain's intense surprise,
Jagan. meant his Left-wing words.
_ moved - against the foreign
sug,ar companies?he lasted three
? months. Then the British Govern-
ment moved in to quell the up-.
roar, flung out Jagan and Stayed
? until 1957. Jagan, saying exactly
the same things,' won the 1957
:elections too. ?
It began to dawn on everybody
?most forcibly upon the Ameri-
? cans looking somewhat apprehen-
.sively southward?that nothing
short of an upheaval would ever
unseat Jagan. The Indian birth-
?
" rate.was just higher.
; The gulf, between the British
, and American attitudes to politics
. becomes Starkly apparent at this
,point. In Whitehall they ?were
. ?
vaguely, thinking in terms of oppo-
. ? sition'coalitions. In Washington.
, they were?thinking ?in terms of
upheavals...- 'And there ?was 'an
ideal? tool to. hand?the .Guyanese.
LArade union. movement.
' With 40,000 members cutting
across all races and parties,. the
local' TUC, was an admirable-
?? ready-made . opposition. Fortu-
nately,,' the " two dominating:
.1?.unions' were ? already somewhat
anti-Jagan.; The Sugar 'workers'
: .union had beert'dealing.with: the
plantation' owners quite success-
fully. without interference from
Jagan?and, anyway, though raci-
::ally mixed, the tinion 'supported
. Forbes Burnham's African party.
1. The other. power base, the civil'
servants'; 'Union, *.was anti-Jagan
priinarily. . because few of ? its
menThers Were. Indians. All that
?
was:needed was ?organisation,
;'. The Publie ;'Services Inter-
;.'.national had been in contact with
I. the Guyana Civil. Service union
1.? since. the?early fifties. The PS I's
? -BritiSh ., affiliate- Unions 'include
'the 'Electrical Trades Union, 'the
Transportand General-Union;and
and General. -It
?was,.' despite. that, one 'of, the
?. weaker and less .prestigious" Of
the '-varioiiS ,'international',' net:,
, works Which :exist- to' export' the'
union.. :knew-how Of advanced
? industrial. ??? countries' to, ?;leSs
developed Societies. ' :?:' ? ' ?
7-7 ? ;?
ow.
Q.)
17,0 ri"?.:
?
$7,11
e"",t
U.
?
?
' ?
IN THE House of Commons on
Tuesday, the Prime Minister faces
a more than usually leading ques:
tion. Stan Newens, Labour M P
' tor Epping, will ask: ??
" 1Vill the Prime Minister make
? . a statement on his policy towards
?-? efforts which are being made by.
? the .United States Central
gence Agency and othdr United
.? Szates intelligence. organisations
,o infiltrate' and influence organ;
isations which function in British
(I.:ministered territories for pur,
poses of subversion of law and.
order? "
.? As a booby trap,the question',
? lacks finesse, and "No . . sir "i
, . is the most likely, albeit amlyi-.
. ,guous answer. But there is more,
: to it tan that. Although Mr
Newens himself appears to know
nothing of the details; , he is in
fact hinting at a substantial case:
This ? is the downfall of the;
. Left-wing. Jagan Government in,
. the colony of British Guiana (now
? independent Guyana) . in ? 1964;
Inquiries. by Insight last . week
made it clear that,, this was
.' engineered largely by the C
. The only cause for a certain
amount of Parliamentary .unease
would seem to be that this
Government happened to be in
. a British colony. And the cover
which the C IA used was
London-based international trades
? ? ,union secretariat, the., .Public-
? ;,'Ir Services International...
; ? As coups go, it was not expen-
sive: over five years the C A
? paid out something over /250,000.
Vol.. .the colony, British Guiana,,
the result was about 170 dead, un-
told 'hundreds wounded, roughly
'?10'million-worth of damage- to
',.'the economy and a, legacy , of
racial bitterness. ?
*". :I3ritish Guina, 'perched on 'the
north-cast.' corner of South
America, was never one" of.
?? .Britain's. happiest colOnies'. When,
? in 1953 the first government' was _
elected?under an Indian :dentist;' ?
Cheddi ? Jagan?he and his .
?
The financial ? crisis was re- ;
f;alved,' quite suddenly, by the
P S l's main American affiliate
union, the Federation of State,.
County and Municipal Employees,
Its boss,i'Dr Arnold Zander had, he ?
told the P S I executive, "been
shopping,"'and had found a donor.
The spoils were modest at first
,?only a, couple of thousand
pounds in' 1958. It was, the kind.
: donor had :? said, for Latin'
America.. The money _ went
. towards. a PS I "recruiting'
drive" in the northern countries!
of Latin America by ,one
J. Doherty; junr.,. a man with
-some previous acquaintance of
the C I A. ? ,
. The donor Was. presumably;
pleased, because'.next year, 1959,:
Zander was able to tell the P S I:
that his union was opening a full7'i
time Latin-American. section on:.
the P S l's .behalf. The P S I was,:
charmed. ?
The P S I's representative, said'
Zander, would. be Howard.
McCabe, McCabe; a stocky, bullet-.
headed American, appeared to
have no previous union history;
but the PSI liked him. .When h ,
came to its meetings, he distil-'
,buted cigarette lighters and
photographs of himself doling out:
food parcels to peasants: The'
lighters and the parcels were both:
inscribed; " with the compliments'.
of the P S I."
The .full ludicrousness ..of this
situation appears not to have:
dawned , en the P S I. Zander's,
:union had about 210,000 members:
at that. time, and a monthly ink:
come of about 1600?barely,
enough to cover its own expenses...
; Yet everyone in the P S I knew .? '
i that the 'Latin-American ..opera; ? ?
? tion.must be costing every penny'
of /30,000 a year. . ? ? ? :
"We' did not ask 'Where the.
money . came from," said the ?
secretary of the ES I,- Pata? '?
Tolfarhn last week, "because. I. :
think we all knew." ? ?
Jagan finally precipated his own
downfall?seemingly working. on ?
the principle that if he did not
fix the tinions- they would fix him.?
The catalyst was a Labour .
Relations Bill; 'Modelled largely :?
on the American..Wagner Act. It :."
would have forced Guyanese ern' ? ?
ployers t o' 'recognise ? whatever,
union the workers chose in a-. s;
secret ballot. The Catch was that,,
since Jagan could. organist the ?
polling areas,. the balloting was,
wide open to 'government gerry.'it
mandering.? . ? N ."..
The general . strike 'began in
April, 1963. Jagan seems to have "
thought that the unions could:
.hold out a month. It was an
.expensive miscalculation, and by:
the tenth week it was?Jegan, not. .?
the unions, who-was desperate.
?; By 1958 its..finances..were. low,' What Jagan had. forgotten was
the presence of a stocky, ?... :
?,,and-its:stodka Were low-with its' headed man-tirelessly bashing a
.: bullet-
"own ..pareq'?body, ? the "Inter-"
??" -national 'Confederation: of 'Free typewriter An the., downtown
I' Georgetown hotel.. that was.. the
'
Trade ;; it asuccias :
ef ,stimetkirid;j:? f.;'. ? ? ? '
.
. .
? ?
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/12/20: CIA-RbP73-00475R000401410003-5