Every Citizen a Soldier

The Guyana People's Militia, 1976–1985

Bibliographic Data

ID6156802
AuthorsMoe Taylor (corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume36
Issue2
Pages279-311
Publication date2019-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of global south studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2476-1397 • E-ISSN: 2476-1419
PublisherProject MUSE (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1353/gss.2019.0044
OpenAlexW2994953893
LanguageEN
References cited11

In December 1976, Prime Minister Forbes Burnham of Guyana and the ruling People's National Congress launched the Guyana People's Militia. The militia combined the pragmatic goals of national defense, internal security, and economic development with a political goal of uprooting the psychological effects of colonialism and building a new socialist society. Modeled on a similar institution in Yugoslavia, the Guyana People's Militia reflected the era's Third Worldist spirit of transnational cooperation and experimentation among the more radical member states of the Non-Aligned Movement. This article examines the historical genesis of a people's militia as a politico-military concept and outlines how the goals of the Guyana People's Militia were frustrated by the country's divisions along ethnic, regional and political lines. In doing so, it addresses broader questions about the proliferation of people's militias among the socialist and socialist-oriented governments of the Global South in the Cold War era

Cold war · Colonialism · Economic history · Ethnic group · Institution · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Caribbean history, culture, and politics · Economic Zones and Regional Development · History · Island Studies and Pacific Affairs · Law · Public Administration