User:Cullen328/Sandbox/WPVP

"The small opposition parties included the Working People’s Vanguard Party (WPVP) which was formed by Brindley Benn and a few individuals who resigned from the PPP in 1968. This party developed close links with the Indian Political Revolutionary Associates (IPRA), a group formed in 1972 by ex-PPP member Moses Bhagwan and some others who had also switched their support from the PPP. The WPVP, with a Maoist orientation, later linked with the Ratoon Group, (a leftist radical organization with many of its members at the University of Guyana, with a similar ideological outlook), IPRA and Eusi Kwayana’s African Society for Cultural Relations with Independent Africa (ASCRIA) to form the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) in 1974.

But in 1976, the WPVP turned full ideological circle, seceded from the WPA, and joined up with the rightist Liberator Party (LP), (led by Ganraj Kumar), and the People’s Democratic Movement (PDM), (led by ex-PNC minister Llewellyn John), to form the Vanguard for Liberation and Democracy (VLD), which expressed strong support for a right-wing capitalist ideology.

Clearly, the differences in ideology led to differences in tactics and strategy and, as a result, the opposition parties could not develop a common platform for unity to combat the PNC."

turned "full ideological circle"

"rightist" Liberator Party (LP), (led by Ganraj Kumar)

"expressed strong support for a right-wing capitalist ideology"

In 1973, the WPVP supported the Council of Landless People who had attempted to retake ancestral lands that were being encroached upon by the state and the sugar industry. Two thousand people had occupied 200 acres of land. The police evicted them and burned their shacks, triggering a large protest movement. This campaign, backed by a coalition that included the People's Progressive Party, later won a partial victory when the Sugar Producer's Association returned some of the land to the original residents.

"This small left-wing party, sometimes described as Maoist, was established in 1969 as a result of a split in the People's Progressive Party and was led by Brindley Benn, a former deputy premier in the Jagan administration. In 1980 it joined with the Liberator Party and the People's Democratic Movement to form the Vanguard for Liberation and Democracy."

On December 25, 1977, a WPVP newspaper called The Beacon and edited by Brindley Benn published an expose of the People's Temple cult which had established a a compound called Jonestown in Guyana.