Word: burnham
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...striking air-traffic controllers had been hoping to bring about. As planes continued to take off and land throughout the week, more or less on schedule, Administration officials grew confident that the actual economic impact of the walkout would not be great, at least for now. Said James Burnham, a White House economist and spokesman for the President's Council of Economic Advisers: "I don't believe that this strike, as it has developed, will have any measurable impact on the gross national product or any other national economic statistic...
Indeed. Since coming to power after Guyana gained its independence from Britain in 1966, Burnham, an Oxford-trained lawyer, has often been accused of rigging his own election-day heroics. Critics claim that in 1973 he padded his first post-independence victory with the votes of 70,000 dead or nonexisting people. Guyana's army seized the ballot boxes after initial returns seemed to be turning against Burnham. When the results were announced a day later, he had won a satisfying two-thirds majority...
Under a new constitution that Guyana's rubber-stamp parliament approved in October, Burnham gained virtually limitless authority as President and Commander in Chief. Nonetheless, he called for another show of support-specifically, 75% of the electorate. Opposition candidates were not allowed to see a list of eligible voters, even after the government blithely removed more than 111,000 names, or about 20% of the electorate. There are accusations that other names have been added, including those of victims of the 1978 Jonestown massacre...
...Burnham has engineered substantial flows of Western aid (including $47 million pledged in the past four years from the U.S.) by warning against the perils of a victory by his Communist rival, Dr. Cheddi Jagan, 62, who was Guyana's Premier between 1957 and 1964. Particularly helpful was a $125 million credit line approved by the International Monetary Fund last July. Burnham has also sought favor with African and Communist bloc countries by nationalizing 80% of the Guyanese economy, including bauxite mines once owned by Alcan and Reynolds Metals. Although Guyana still has close relations with Cuba, Burnham promptly...
...Burnham may be playing his cards recklessly, however. Production of sugar, rice and bauxite has fallen by nearly 30% this year, while corruption and black marketeering are rampant. Despite campaign harassment, a more broadly based movement called the Working People's Alliance has replaced Jagan's People's Progressive Party as Burnham's main opposition. Three W.P.A. activists have been killed in the past year, including one of the group's leaders, Historian Walter Rodney, 38. W.P.A. members blame the deaths on Burnham sympathizers and have urged Guyanese to boycott this week's vote...