Guyana referendum a fraud

‘The shame is greater

Eh

ag

than the victory’

GEORGETOWN =
Guyanese-columnist Rickey

‘Singh; now exiled by dictat of the
Peoples National Congress
(PNC), used those words in the
headline to describe the declared
result of the 1973 ‘‘elections’’.
For the 1978 referendum, the
words are’ echoing and re-
echoing: the shame that the PNC
has brought upon the nation, by
standing reality upon its head and
declaring the highly successful
boycott to be a victory for the rul-
ing ‘clique,. will linger long after
the perpetrators have found dis-
honorable graves. No Guyanese

who values his personal integrity’

and the honor of his country can
be happy that that honor has been
sullied by the disgraceful episode,
the so-called ‘‘national referen-
dum’’ July 10th.

show a 70.75% turnout. No doubt
this figure was chosen to show
that the PNC did not lose support
since the 1973 elections, when it
gave itself 70.15% of the votes.

But the reality is different. The
turn out was in fact a panic-
creating meagre 10%.

In 6 out of 12 rural areas where
People’s Progressive Party (PPP)
polling agents were allowed to
function, the average turn out was
5.41%

In Georgetown, a former PNC
stronghold, the riggers claimed an
average turn out of 83%. This is
an impossibility for several
reasons.

In the 1973 general election the
turn out was about 62%. Since
then, particularly during the last
two years, the ruling party has

¢

the 1977 May Day celebrations;
the party’s Georgetown member-
ship declined, as shown by a PNC
confidential report, for 1977 by
46% (adult), 63% (children), 52%
(youths), and 57.4% (women);
important sectors — trade un- |
ions, the. Guyana Council of .
Churches, professional groups —
opposed the referendum.

And because of the success of

who were monitoring the polling
stations and the multiple-voting
operations.

At Linden, the other former
PNC stronghold, the ruling party
has also experienced setbacks.
The Organization of Working
People and other elements have

Top: These three vehicles were used to ‘recycle’ persons from polling
the boycott, PNC thugs and the _ station to polling station in an effort to build up voting which was hit by#
security forces, particularly in boycott, supported by some 90% of the voters. Bottom: Army uf
Georgetown, terrorized those patrolling the streets of Georgetown on Referendum Day, July 10,1

suffered serious setbacks — the brought the mining town to a

The referendum was rigged to leader of the PNC was booed at standstill on several occasions

Canada set an all-time Commonwealth record as the Games ended in

since 1971, and also during the
referendum period.

Over the past 15 years, the
Guyanese people have gone
_ through a series of experiences of
national and international politi-
cal chicanery, betrayal and fraud.
In 1964, the people witnessed
Anglo-American imperialism,
with. the willing help of local
power-hungry politicians and
others, rig.the Constitution to
oust the legally-elected PPP from
office, and to install the PNC
through what Harold Wilson cal-
led ‘‘a fiddled constitutional ar-
rangement’.

In the 1968 and 1973 general
elections and the 1978 referendum,
the PNC rigged the electoral pro-
cess to stay in power. It now prop-
oses, through a controlled and
packed Constitutent Assembly to
rig the Constitution to perpetuate
itself in government indefinitely
with unlimited power.

Conscious that it intended. to
commit fraud in the referendum
— padding of the voters roll to the

Edmonton last week, with the country’s athletes taking 40 gold medals inflated figure of 609,225; refusal
— two more than the record set by Australia in 1962. It is the first time to give the voters lists to opposi-

Canada has won the Games.

‘Eurocommunism’— a class division MED

The British communist daily Morn-
ing Star for July 13 and 14 carries items
reporting the official protests of the
communist parties of France, Great
Britain and Italy against the trials and
sentences given to Soviet ‘‘dissenters”’
Shcharansky, Filatov, Pyatkus and
Ginzberg. The four were proven guilty
of acts ranging from espionage, assis-
tance to a foreign state in acts hostile to
the USSR, and of conducting anti-
Soviet activity and propaganda. All of
the activities cited are serious crimes
under the criminal code of the USSR.

a oe

For instance, Newsweek Magazine
reported that Washington sources had
disclosed that Shcharansky had
supplied one Robert Toth, a former Los
Angeles Times Moscow correspondent,
with the names of secret Soviet defence
plants and research institutions, who in
turn had passed these names along to
Y.S. state officials. Commenting on
this, the Washington sources said: *‘In
Soviet eyes, Scharansky is guilty as
hell.’’ One of the others is a confessed
agent, the other two are admitted or-
ganizers of anti-Soviet activities in the
name of ‘“‘human rights’’.

If we are to judge by the hard evi-
dence at hand, which means rejecting
PACIFIC TRIBUNE—AUGUST 18, 1978—Page 6.

é‘

tion parties, failure to publish the
polling places until 1-2 days be-
fore voting day; failure to pub-
lish the postal and proxy voters’
lists; ejection of PPP polling
agents; stuffing of ballot boxes —
the PNC regime set aside the
Elections Commission and re-
moved the jurisdiction of the
Courts from questioning the con-
duct of the referendum.

The PPP will explore whether
the Constitution was violated in
removing the jurisdiction of the
courts. It will also move for the
setting up of a high level Commis-
sion of Enquiry to examine the
conduct of the referendum.

The creature of the referendum
will now be the Constituent As-

sembly and the parliament (N®
tional Assembly) the life of which
will be extended by 15 months. TH)
Constituent Assembly will pre
the Constitution and the Nation#)
Assembly will pass it.
The PPP declares that the Ré
ferendum may clothe the
tional Assembly with the lee
right to approve the new Com
stitution. But because of 4 dol
fraud, it has no moral right to"
so. The Constitution framed |
the Constituent Assembly shoU |
therefore not be approved by ie
National Assembly, but by 4 7
ferendum or made an issue al th
next general election, and 4
proved by the succeeding parla
ment.

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Marxism-Leninism in Today’s World

the class-oriented positions of the
bourgeois enemies of socialism, then
we are compelled to conclude that in
this particular instance, the protesting
communist parties are on the wrong
side. They have slipped into a narrow,
short-sighted national position as com-
pared to an internationalist position.
* * *

The global struggle of the working
class for a just and humane social and
economic system is waged on three
main fronts — ideological, economic
and political. It is conducted against an
experienced, skillful, crafty, unprinci-
pled, and brutal and militantly class-
conscious enemy, namely the big
monopoly capitalists who control the
system of world imperialism. Against
such an enemy, the working class and
its leaders cannot for one moment let
down their guard. For to do so, is to
court serious defeats in the struggle to
advance the common cause of all work-
ing people.

Just consider this: None other than
the president of the most powerful im-
perialist state is the chief spokesmen
for the currently stepped-up ideologi-
cal assault against the Soviet Union

and other socialist states. Leaders of

all imperialist powers, in varying de-
grees, have joined with the USA in its
gross interference (blackmail) into the
internal affairs of the USSR. In joining
this unseemly charade leaders of some
communist parties brush aside the
ideological standpoint of the working
class.
* * *

Working-class ideology is proleta-
rian (working class) solidarity.
Working-class internationalism is the

. scientifically confirmed community

of interests of the working class of all
countries and nations. It is expressed
in deep-rooted consciousness and
striving for solidarity of the working
class of all countries, be they socialist
or capitalist. The highest expression of
this consciousness is to be found in the
ranks of the communist movement.
Such solidarity is based on a
commonly-held fundamental interest
— the abolition of capitalist exploita-
tion and the building of socialism.
Working-class internationalism is a
definite form of relationship between
the national sections of the interna-
tional working class based on unity and

concerted action, mutual aid and sup,
port. And, it is precisely in the area ;
solidarity between those countié
where the working class has achieve
political and state power and tho
countries where this has yet tO” .
achieved, where working-class inte!
nationalism reaches its highest expr
sion.
* x *

The special characteristic of such i

-

lations is that they are built ona volt
tary basis, and on the realization "
this relationship corresponds tO 1s
fundamental interests of the worke"
of all countries and nations. _ -
To attempt on any pretext whals
ever to separate the national interes
and responsibilities of thé wor
class and its international interests ae
responsibilities, runs contrary tO ! i
fundamental interests of all wor is
people. Fo emphasize one side only —
to step into the swamp of nationalis ‘é
To emphasize only the other side! ip
step into the swamp of national nib t
ism. To take either side singly, nO Te
ter what expedient entices, is to hi”!
the inevitable forward movement
the working class of all countries ° a
nations toward the goal of socials
and its highest stage — communis™