The People's Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) is a democratic socialist political party in Guyana, supported primarily by the country's Indian population.
The party was founded in 1950 as a merger of Forbes Burnham's British Guiana Labour Party and Cheddi Jagan's Political Affairs Committee, and it served as British Guiana's first mass party, supported by workers and intellectuals of all ethnicities. Jagan's radical social reforms led to British authorities sending in troops after the 1953 elections, claiming there was the threat of a Marxist revolution. The PPP government was removed from office and replaced by an unelected legislative council; by the 1957 general elections, the PPP splintered into Jagan and Burnham's factions, with Burnham forming the African-dominated People's National Congress (PNC) party. Serious inter-racial violence broke out after the 1961 elections, and the American CIA backed conservatives and Burnham loyalists against the Marxist PPP. In 1970, Burnham established a socialist, non-aligned republic, co-opting much of the PPP's program. The PPP's decision to extend limited support to the government led to Walter Rodney's formation of the Working People's Alliance in 1979. During the 1970s and 1980s, the PNC rigged a series of elections and increased their seat count. Free elections in 1992 led to Jagan becoming president, and his widow Janet Jagan later succeeded him. The party controversially operated "phantom death squads" that assassinated George Bacchus' brother and then the whistleblower George himself, leading to revelations of the PPC Home Minister Ronald Gajraj's ties to organized crime.
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