Launch of the "Justice for Walter Rodney" Committee

Launch of the "Justice for Walter Rodney" Committee

Many persons from around the world welcomed the establishment of the Commission of Inquiry to investigate the circumstances surrounding the assassination of Walter Rodney on June 13, 1980. A number of concerned citizens from all parts of the world have come together to form the Justice for Walter Rodney Committee. Among the tasks of this newly established Committee is to work with others in all parts of the world to ensure that the processes of this inquiry are fair, transparent and does not dishonor the memory of Walter Rodney.

Since the formation of the Justice for Walter Rodney Committee, we have formally communicated with the Secretariat of the Commission with specific recommendations to enhance the process of a fair and transparent inquiry.

As a consequence of our involvement and our knowledge of the work of Walter Rodney we informed the Secretariat of the Commission that we are willing and ready to assist the work of the commission in arriving at the truth. Many of the media are certainly aware that most if not all of us called, and have continued to clamor over the last 34 years for an impartial international commission of inquiry to investigate the circumstances, events, institutions, organizations, and individuals that played a role in the killing of Walter Rodney.

Among the list of growing supporters of the work of the committee are the Chief Justice and President of the Supreme Court of Kenya, Dr. Willy Mutunga, who stated that it is great news that this commission has started. The present Chief Justice of Kenya was a student of Walter Rodney at the University of Dar es Salaam. Other support for the work of the Justice for Walter Rodney Committee has come from all five continents. Among the distinguished international supporters of the Justice for Walter Rodney Committee are Professor Micere Mugo, Patrick Bond of South Africa, Professor Issa Shivji as well as Larry Birns, Director of the Council of Hemispheric Affairs in Washington D.C.

Also appended to this release is the list of current signatories and supporters of Justice for Walter Rodney Committee. This list will continue to expand as more people from around the world request participation and support of the goals and objectives of the committee.

In its initial letter the committee made the following observations and recommendations.

Wazir Mohamed
Associate Professor
Indiana University East
For Justice for Walter Rodney Committee

The committee’s initial letter to the commission, with its observations and recommendations, follows.

Letter Sent to Walter Rodney Commission
April 14, 2014

As individuals with some institutional knowledge of the events of the period under the purview of the terms of reference of the commission of inquiry we have an immense body of experience and knowledge which may prove useful to any investigation and investigative body. While we do not have to remind you of the length of time that has elapsed, since June 13, 1980, it is incumbent upon us that we engage your work constructively. In that regard, most of us were taken by surprise by the slim deadline for submission of statements which was originally advertised in the newspapers in Guyana.

Having noted the recent statement by the chair of the commission that there is no intention to stick in a hard and fast way to that deadline, we urge you to establish this change in new published advertisements. Further, we submit that given the fact that more Guyanese are now living outside of the country than at home, the commission will need to take that into account as it prepares to seek information, and to have open hearings. Moreover, the fact that most of the people with knowledge of the period and of some of the events, are either dead or now reside outside of Guyana, must give the commission pause, as it deliberates the logistics of conducting its business.

Finally, as the commission deliberates, we feel it is incumbent on you to consider the political environment of the 1970s which produced the activism of the people of Guyana against the state. The nature and quality of the political state and state institutions governed by the ideology of party paramountcy, it should be recalled, produced attacks on democracy and violence against opponents and the wider populace.

Taking all of these matters into consideration we urge the commission to temper its approach to submission of statements. Care must be taken to ensure that everyone who should know about the commission is able to access the information. To this end, we urge the secretariat of the commission to advertise the TOR and call for submissions and statements in some if not all of the prominent Guyanese newspapers and other media in the diaspora.

We also urge the commission to establish a firm, but reasonable hearing timeline that gives those intending to appear adequate time to plan. In this regard hearings should be held in each county of Guyana, including in the mining town of Linden, and in the interior districts of the country. The commission must consider the difficulty of movement within Guyana, especially for people in the outlying districts. It should also consider the cost of internal transport, especially for low income Guyanese. Hearings should also be planned for the Caribbean, North America, the United Kingdom, Suriname, and Venezuela. Certainly the commission is aware that there are Guyanese enclaves (colonies) that have developed in all of these areas. The migration of Guyanese into these safe havens in the 1970s and 1980s has a direct connection to the reasons for Walter Rodney’s activism in the period under your purview.

Having established that, we urge the secretariat of the commission to research the period carefully - the bulk of work of any commission of inquiry is carried out by capable staff with research capabilities. We hope that this commission is staffed with these capabilities. From this standpoint although it would be reasonable to assume that the commission may already know of these resources, we nevertheless venture to supply this information:

1. The commission should access and research the court documents, court transcripts of proceedings of the arson and treason trials (the treason accused were tried several times, and were re-arrested after they were freed at the Leonora Magistrates Court by Magistrate Anthony Singh) of the period. The commission also needs to apprise itself of the proceedings in the trial of Donald Rodney.

2. The commission needs to study the imposition of the National Security Act - which gave sweeping powers to the state and its policing agencies. The actions and activities of the police under this Act need to be researched by the commission. It must be remembered that apart from the murder by the police of Ohene Koama, another WPA activist Edward Dublin was also killed, and countless people including WPA activists were tortured by the police in that period. Further, the commission needs to be aware of reports at the time that the police would swoop into communities and shoot suspected criminals, who bled to death before being taken to the hospital.

3. The commission needs to obtain information from the police on the records and activities of the special branch and its nerve center which functioned from its headquarters at Ogle East Coast Demerara. It is recalled that the “recognition handbook” which identified major WPA activists was produced by this unit of the police, and circulated to every police station in the country for study by each member of the force.

4. The commission needs to access information on the secret underground cells at designated police locations designed specifically for political activists.

5. To ferret out some of this information in the absence of a free press during the period the files of the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) are important, especially the reports, statements, and other documents that detailed incidents of police brutality, breaking up of public demonstrations, and brutalization of individuals and their families.

6. For the same reason the commission should should access the reports of the Caribbean Contact - the newspaper published by the Caribbean Conference of Churches; the Catholic Standard - newspaper published by the Catholic Church in Guyana; The New Nation – newspaper published by the Peoples National Congress; the Mirror - newspaper published by the Peoples Progressive Party; the Dayclean – the Broadsheet published by the Working Peoples Alliance; and the news reports of Radio Antilles, CANA, and other Caribbean based news outlets.

7. The commission needs to examine records of Trade Unions - GAWU, GMWU, CCWU, UGSA, NAACIE - whose leaders and members were brutalized on orders from the state. Of particular note was the report that CCWU president Gordon Todd, who was arrested at a trade union protest outside Guyana Stores in 1979, was taken over the Demerara River in an army helicopter and held upside down over the river. There is no reason why the commission should not investigate the log of the GDF helicopters in that period.

8. The commission should take note of the nature and state of the public record - to this end it should meet with and summon the June 1980 staff of the Guyana Embassy in Washington which seemed to be a “hot bed” at the time in the chain of command.

These are among some of the actions the secretariat needs to take in its preparation for the inquiry. As we pointed out at the outset we are interested in the truth. To that end we ask you to invite impartial observers to observe and report on the process. Such observers may be found among the following institutions which been involved as observers before - and/or have made pronouncements on the situation in Guyana during that period under review:-

1. Lord Eric Avebury - British Parliamentary Human Rights Groups.
2. Amnesty International.
3. Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA).
4. The BBC.
5. The Associated Press.
6. The Caribbean Broadcasting Union.
7. Americas Watch.
8. Human Rights Watch.
9. Guyana Bar Association.
10. Caribbean Bar Association.

We end by reiterating our readiness to assist the work of the commission and inquiry.

List of Members: Justice for Walter Rodney Committee

Ebrima Sall
Executive Secretary
Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA)
Dakar, Senegal

Richard Small
Attorney at Law
Kingston, Jamaica

Micere Githae Mugo, PhD
Meredith Professor for Teaching Excellence; Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Lecturer; 
Distinguished Africanist Scholar
Department of African Studies
Syracuse University

Vanda Radzik
Social & Sustainable Development Advisory Services & Women Rights & Gender Equality Advocate
Georgetown, Guyana.

Raffique Shah
Journalist
Port of Spain
Trinidad and Tobago

Wazir Baksh
Head of Training
Guyana Islamic Trust
Georgetown, Guyana

Cecil Paul
Deputy President
National Workers Union
Trinidad & Tobago

Rev. Patricia Sheerattan-Bisnauth
Executive Director, Guyana Responsible Parenthood Association
And Minister, Guyana Presbyterian Church

Tracy Denean Sharpley-Whiting
Distinguished Professor of African American and Diaspora Studies and French
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, Tenessee

Kidackie Amsterdam
Educator and Community Activist
Buxton, Guyana

Dr Jairo Arrow
Deputy Director-General (retired)
Statistics South Africa
Pretoria

Balwant Bhagwandin
Diagnostic Medical Sonographer, Jamaica Hospital
Jamaica, New York

Patrick Bond
Professor
University of KwaZulu-Natal
Director Center for Civil Society
South Africa

Clem Seecharan
Emeritus Professor of History
London Metropolitan University
166-220 Holloway Road
London

Matthew Quest
Former Professor, American, world and Caribbean History, Georgia State University
Editorial Board, CLR James Journal
Atlanta, Georgia

Suzanne Sanders
Professional Nurse
Richmond, California

Dr James Garrett
Attorney at Law
Oakland, California

Lyndon Wilburg
Radio Broadcaster
WRFG, Atlanta
Georgia

Jerome Branche
Associate Professor
Department of Hispanic Languages and Literatures
University of Pittsburgh

Colin Cholmondeley
Friend of Walter Rodney
Subryanville
Georgetown

Miranda La Rose
Guyanese/Caribbean Journalist
Reporter Trinidad Newsday
Trinidad and Tobago

Julialynne Walker
Africa and Diaspora Development Linkages
Columbus, Ohio

Andrea Williams
Activist for Social Justice, Advocacy Journalism
Director of Programmes, Grove Broadcasting Co. (IRIE FM) Jamaica

Kojo Nnamdi
Veteran Journalist and Talk Show Host
Washington Dc

Walter Bgoya
Managing Director at Mkuki na Nyota Publishers
Tanzania

Issa Shivji
First (rtd) Mwalimu Nyerere University of Dar es Salaam
Professor of Pan-African Studies
Tanzania

Keith Branch
Former Youth Coordinator
Guyana Council of Churches
Senior Human Resources Manager
New York

Dale Tomich
Professor of Sociology
Binghamton University, New York

Michael West
Professor of Sociology and Africana Studies
Binghamton University
New York

David Johnson
Associate Professor of History
City College
Brooklyn
New York

Andaiye
Activist/Organizer and Writer
109 Bonasika Street
Section K Campbellville
Georgetown

Karen De Souza
Coordinator Red Thread and Activist for Social Justice and Gender Equality
Crossroads Women’s Center
Charlestown
Georgetown, Guyana

Wazir Mohamed
Social Justice Activist and Former Chair Richmond Human Rights Commission
Associate Professor, Sociology
Indiana University East
Richmond, Indiana USA, 47374

David Hinds
Associate Professor African American Studies
School of social Transformation
Arizona State University
Tempe, Arizona, USA 85287

Alissa Trotz
Associate Professor, Women & Gender Studies, and Director of
Caribbean Studies
University Of Toronto, Canada
Sara Abraham
Criminal Defense Attorney at Law
Toronto, Canada

Nigel Westmaas
Associate Professor, Africana Studies
Hamilton College
New York

Rohit Kanhai
Managing Director and Editor
Caribbean Daylight Newspaper
Valley Stream, New York

Omawale
Former Ambassador for UNICEF
Florida

Moses Bhagwan
Attorney at Law
Long Beach, New York

Eusi Kwayana
San Diego, California

Anne Braithwaite
Social Justice Activist
London, Great Britain

Horace Campbell
Professor African American Studies and Political Science
Syracuse University, New York

Patricia Daley
Professor, Geography and the Environment
University of Oxford, Great Britain

Robert Lalljie
Caribbean Chronicle
London

Mushtaq Khan
New York

Rishi Parsram
Teacher
Brentwood, Long Island, New York

Abbysinnian Colin Carto
Artist
Brooklyn, New York

Daryl Thomas
Associate Professor African American Studies
PennState University
University Park, Pennsylvania, USA 16802

Luke Daniels
Chairman Caribbean Labor Solidarity
London, England

Jai Parsram
IT Technician Bell Canada
Toronto, Canada

Lincoln Van Sluytman
Director, Brecht Forum
Brooklyn, New York

Lewanne Jones
Autonomedia- Not for Profit Educational Publishing Media
Published “In the Sky’s Wild Noise” – A short film on the situation in Guyana in the 1970s
Brooklyn, New York

Errol Arthur
Management Specialist
Washington D.C.

Glen Ramjag
Vice President, Education and Research
National Foodcrop Farmers Association
Trinidad and Tobago

Rodney Worrell
Lecturer in History
University of the West Indies
Cave Hill, Barbados

David Abdullah
General Secretary
Oilfield Workers’ Trade Union
And Political Leader, Movement for Social Justice
Trinidad and Tobago

Henning Melber
Director emeritus of the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation, Uppsala, Sweden
Extraordinary Professor, Dept. of Political Sciences, University of Pretoria, South Africa
Professor Extraordinary, Centre for Africa Studies, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa