ABSTRACT
It is contended in this chapter that rooted within the peripheral capitalist production relations were class, race and ideological factors that continued to this day to shape the essential characteristics of the Guyanese political economy. These relations have laid the foundations for the emergence of the post-colonial authoritarian state and ‘post-colonial new extractivism,’ thereby demonstrating that there is nothing ‘new’ about the neoextractivism phenomenon in Latin American. The anti-colonialism movement in Guyana is identified as the antecedent of ‘post-colonial new extractivism.’ A central pillar of the anti-colonial movement was national ownership and or control of natural resources and to use the economic surplus generated from their exploitation to improve the social and economic conditions of the underprivileged masses. The nationalist movement split on race lines and the class manipulation of race and foreign intervention became the foundation of Guyanese politics as race-based political parties emerged, the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) and the People’s National Congress (PNC).
