The Progressive Youth Organisation of Guyana is a youth organisation in Guyana, the youth wing of the People's Progressive Party.Kruijf, Johannes Gerrit de. Guyana Junction Globalisation, Localisation, and the Production of East Indianness. [Amsterdam]: [Dutch university press], 2006. p. 96 The membership of Progressive Youth Organisation (PYO) is predominantly Indo-Guyanese, like its mother party.Torres, Arlene. Eastern South America and the Caribbean. Bloomington [u.a.]: Indiana Univ. Press, 1998. p. 171

History The organisation was established in 1952, through a decision at the second party congress of PPP.World Marxist Review. Toronto: Progress Books, 1986. p. 114 The name of the organisation at the time of its founding was the Pioneer Youth League of British Guiana.International Communist Affairs. Yearbook on international communist affairs: 1983. Stanford, Calif: Hoover Inst. Pr, 1983. p. 103 (Yearbook on International Communist Affairs) Brindley Benn was the secretary of the organisation.Jagan, Cheddi. The West on Trial: The Fight for Guyana's Freedom. Berlin: Seven Seas, 1980. p. 151 In February 1953, the Pioneer Youth League became an affiliate of the World Federation of Democratic Youth.Palmer, Colin A. Cheddi Jagan and the Politics of Power: British Guiana's Struggle for Independence. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2010. pp. 27–28 The Pioneer Youth League was banned by the British colonial authorities on December 15, 1953.Jagan, Cheddi. The West on Trial: The Fight for Guyana's Freedom. Berlin: Seven Seas, 1980. p. 153Chase, Ashton. A History of Trade Unionism in Guyana, 1900 to 1961, with an Epilogue to 1964. Ruimveldt, Demerara: New Guyana Co, 1966. p. 211

In the early 1960s a split emerged in the PPP as Benn and others from the PYO led a black leftist revolt against the party leadership.Mars, Perry, and Alma H. Young. Caribbean Labor and Politics: Legacies of Cheddi Jagan and Michael Manley. Detroit, Mich: Wayne State University Press, 2004. p. 152Mars, Perry. Ideology and Change: The Transformation of the Caribbean Left. Kingston, Jam: The Press Univ. of the West Indies, 1998. p. 109 The young ideologues of PYO resisted the increasing Indo-Guyanese dominance of the party.Horowitz, Donald L. Ethnic Groups in Conflict. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985. p. 335 During the 1960s PYO developed a self-defence structure, as Guyanese politics became more violent. At the same time the Indo-Guyanese sector of PYO became more dominant within the organisation.Mars, Perry, and Alma H. Young. Caribbean Labor and Politics: Legacies of Cheddi Jagan and Michael Manley. Detroit, Mich: Wayne State University Press, 2004. p. 156 In 1964, during the four-month-long strike by the Guyana Agricultural Workers Union (the PPP-aligned sugarcane workers' union) the PYO repeatedly clashed with the rival Young Socialist Movement.Premdas, Ralph R. Party Politics and Racial Division in Guyana. Denver: University of Denver, 1973. p. 23 Neville Annibourne was the PYO secretary at the time.Canadian Institute of International Affairs, and Canadian International Council. International Journal. [Toronto]: Canadian Institute of International Affairs, 1964. p. 537 By 1962, 87.1% of PYO members were Indo-Guyanese. As of 1963, PYO had 92 branches with 813 members. Moreover the organisation had around 3,000 sympathizers.Palmer, Colin A. Cheddi Jagan and the Politics of Power: British Guiana's Struggle for Independence. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2010. p. 237

PYO organised different sporting and cultural activities, and built up libraries in many communities.

The Student Council of the Progressive Youth Organisation was previously a member organisation of the International Union of Students.International Union of Students. The IUS Member Unions Through the PYO, scholarships for Guyanese students for studies in the Socialist Bloc were distributed.

References