The Bauxite Strike and the Old Politics [Revised 2nd Edition]

“Every man is his own leader and we are leaderless” — this was the organizational principle voiced by the Afro-Guyanese bauxite mine workers in their workers’ councils, committees, and mass assemblies that characterized the militant strike of April 1970.

Originally published in 1972, Eusi Kwayana’s The Bauxite Strike and the Old Politics examines the self-organized struggle for workers’ control in what was the soon-to-be-nationalized bauxite industry. For Kwayana, the struggle of the bauxite workers in Guyana serves as a reminder that “nationalization without workers’ control and workers’ self-management is a fraud.”

This revised second edition of The Bauxite Strike and the Old Politics (2014) includes an introduction by Matthew Quest and an appendix of additional writings by Eusi Kwayana and rare documents published by ASCRIA (African Society for Cultural Relations with Independent Africa). This new material documents the struggle for workers’ self-emancipation in Guyana from 1972 to 1974.