Stoning the Prime Minister

A crowd of 5,000 gathered at the cemetery just outside British Guiana's Georgetown capital for the funeral of a Cabinet minister. But only a few were there to mourn. Most of them were waiting for Cheddi and Janet Jagan, the Marxist husband and wife team who misrule the small, self-governing colony perched on South America's northeast coast. When the Jagans arrived, the crowd surged forward hurling coconut shells, bottles, bricks and stones at their Prime Minister. Pulling a coat over his head, Jagan fled with his wife to a car and sped away as the rioting spread. By the time police dispersed the demonstrators seven hours later, some 100 were injured, 150 arrested.

The riot was the latest flare-up in a seven-week general strike against Ja-gan's high-handed Communist-oriented regime. In April, Jagan introduced a bill in the legislature that would have empowered the government to "supervise" all union elections. Considering the bill a naked attempt to grab control of the country's labor movement, the powerful Trades Union Council called its 50,000 members out on strike. The bauxite mines and sugar mills closed down; so did the docks, railroads and airports. Hardly a store remained open. In the emergency, British technicians arrived to run essential power plants and water works if necessary. The frigate Whirlwind, later replaced by the Londonderry, steamed into Georgetown harbor to reinforce the 500 Coldstream Guards on duty in the country.

Jagan still clamors for independence from Britain. But London, which had originally hoped to cut British Guiana loose last year, suspended all talks after a series of riots in February 1962. The continuing unrest seems likely to postpone independence indefinitely -at least under Jagan. By last week, he was making desperate attempts to come to terms with the strikers. But the workers still stayed off the job, and the mounting opposition was determined to use the marathon walkout to topple his government.

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