elf in this essentially
revolutionary situation: the world-wide revolution in science and
technology had opened the way for the human race to turn its back on the
limitations and inadequacies of civilization and advance to a new level
of culture and human opportunity.

The impact of this revolutionary situation expressed itself at several
levels:

1. Much of west and central Europe, important parts of North
America, much of Australasia, important parts of East Asia
and fringes of Africa had at least two generations of experience
with some degree of affluence.

2. Scientifically and technologically maturing societies that
had opted for socialism constitutionally and legally were
engaged officially in socialist construction. These countries
and peoples were located chiefly in Eurasia.

3. Former colonial and client dependencies of the nineteenth
century empires struggling for self-determination and statehood
were entering a stage of affluence. These countries
and peoples were mainly Afro-Asian. Some of them were
located in Latin America.

4. Countries and peoples still under the political, economic
and cultural umbrella of the formerly dominant empires
were at different stages in the completion of the bourgeois
revolution. Their ruling oligarchies--fascist or neo-fascist--were
stubborn defenders of remnants and fragments of the
nineteenth century bourgeois culture. Their stronghold was
the Atlantic Community.

During the cold war years following 1945 each of these groups was
undergoing the drastic social changes incident to the worldwide
revolution of the period. Meanwhile mini-wars, civil and international,
were fought in the Americas, Africa and Asia. By common consent
conventional weapons were used and atomic weapons were kept in
mothballs.

These experiences were highlighted in British Guyana and Cuba. British
Guyana was a Crown Colony, with a London-appointed Governor and a small
occupying force of British troops with an elected legislative assembly
and a considerable measure of home rule.

Democratic socialists Cheddi and Janet Jagan helped to organize the
Peoples Progressive Party of British Guyana. Twice Jagan won a popular
electoral majority and was established as Prime Minister of the British
Colony. His two periods of administrative responsibility were badgered
and hectored by every reactionary force that could be mobilized inside
and outs