As families and friends come together to celebrate this joyful season, the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) bids farewell to one of its strongest supporters, Mr. Richard Hart, who passed away at the age of 96 in the United Kingdom just four days before Christmas Day.The party through a public missive yesterday extended its deepest condolences to the relatives and friends of a man who played a key role in the rise of trade union militancy not only in his country, Jamaica, but in the Caribbean as aRichard Hartwhole.In addition to his role as a trade unionist and politician,Cheap NHL Jerseys, Hart was also a creative writer and the author of several books.He was a close friend and supporter of Dr. Cheddi Jagan and the PPP.? He was referred to by the political party as “one of the guiding lights in the struggle for national liberation and from the clutches of imperialist domination in the region.”He was one of those Caribbean luminaries in the working class struggle who inspired Dr. Jagan in the struggle for national liberation and for a better quality of life for the Guyanese people and for that matter for the Caribbean working class as a whole.Hart’s relationship with Dr. Jagan started even before the formation of the PPP. “During a meeting of the West Indian Conference at the Georgetown Town Hall in 1945, Dr. Jagan met for the first time persons who he described as “stalwarts whom he admired” among which were Richard Hart and Hubert Nathaniel Critchlow.Out of that meeting was born the Caribbean Labour Congress in 1946 of which he served as its General Secretary. In the same year the Political Affairs Committee (PAC) was formed with founding leaders Cheddi Jagan, Janet Jagan,NFL Jerseys For Sale, HJM Hubbard and Ashton Chase aimed at raising the political and ideological consciousness of the Guyanese working class.”In those days, the Cold War was intense and several progressives, including Dr. Jagan and Hart became targets of the anti-communist witch-hunt. Yielding to pressure from the United States, several Caribbean leaders planned to have Hart removed as General Secretary of the Caribbean Labour Congress in 1950 because of his militancy and pro-labour stance.As luck would have it,Wholesale Authentic China Jerseys, it was under the Norman Manley leadership of the 1951-52 period that the Jamaica leftist-led TUC was forced to withdraw from the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) and the expulsion of left-wingers, the so-called 4-H’s (Richard Hart, Ken Hill, Frank Hill and Arthur Henry).In addition, under the leadership of both Norman Manley and Grantley Adams the militant leftist Caribbean Labour Congress (CLC) of which leftists Hart was General Secretary and Billy Strachan was Secretary (London Branch) was disbanded.Moreover,Cheap Nike NFL Jerseys, after the PPP was re-elected in the 1962 elections,Wholesale Authentic NHL Jerseys, Hart was invited by Dr. Jagan to edit the Party’s newspaper, the Mirror which he did until 1965.While Hart has undoubtedly made his mark on the political and trade union landscape in the Caribbean, The PPP notes that the work of this remarkable humanist will always be remembered.