The contributions made by the Progressive Youth Organisation (PYO) were lauded by President Donald Ramotar during a function to mark the group’s 61st anniversary at Red House, Kingston on Friday.
The head-of-state recounted the history of how the ruling party’s youth arm was founded and the various struggles it faced during the decade, from being banned at one time to the lives such as those of Michael Forde and others lost in the fight for democracy over the past decades.
The PYO’s membership was called on by the president to, “learn lessons from our history, learn your politics, know and understand the machinations of those who oppose development of our country”.
The participants were also urged to volunteer their services in various sectors and to encourage others to do so as it builds character.
The president recalled that on a trip a few weeks ago to Rewa in the Rupununi Savannahs, he encountered several foreigners who were volunteering in some of the communities. He noted that they all came from various nations to serve in Guyana and questioned why more educated Guyanese did not follow these examples.
President Ramotar urged the group’s members to remember, however, that much work needs to be done and said that they must remain vigilant every day as the fight to protect the nation’s democracy was an ongoing one.
The organisation was established in 1952, through a decision at the second party congress of the Peoples Progressive Party (PPP).
This was done according to the president, “So that by time they came in to the party, they would have had political experience and they would have been able to understand political activities and politics itself to do some studying in that regard”.
The name of the organisation at the time of its founding was the Pioneer Youth League of British Guiana, with Brindley Benn as the secretary. In February 1953, the Pioneer Youth League became an affiliate of the World Federation of Democratic Youth before changing its name to the Progressive Youth Organisation.
Banned
It was recalled by the president, that soon after its founding, the organisation was banned along with several other organisations, but it still sprang up from time to time under names such as the Demerara Youth League and other different names to try and carry out its activities. This was a time, the president said, that members of the party were able to move about freely, hence the youth arm had a vital role to play in spreading its messages to supporters.
The period of the 1960s was viewed as another “glorious period for the PYO”, said the president, as it was a fight for political independence.
“We were coming under tremendous attack from the colonial powers that be and the powers of the world at that time. Because of the cold war and the hysteria created about communism, they did not want to give independence under the PPP,” Ramotar said.
