Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964.
At the same time the party took within itself the chief problems of Guinea: scarcity of trained leadership, absence of national social structures, ethnic fragmentation, and a very limited modern economy. In the countryside and city there was a turnover of leadership from BAG to RDA and a rejection of the existing authorities. The party was the only national institution people considered their own, and its popularity exceeded its ability to channel support; leaders found it easy to increase opposition but hard to discipline their followers. They preached responsibility of leaders to followers, partly by way of contrast with BAG methods, whose élus the PDG claimed 'had no direct ties with the masses, did not represent them, and as a result did not influence them' 1. They emphasized the party was for all, not for the leaders. Therefore no man could nominate himself for office; he had to be nominated.
'A canoe is in the ocean. Ten men are in it. It springs a leak. All are in danger. Two men start bailing out the water. The other eight help. Does it mean the two are the first or most important, and that the eight work for the two? No, each man of the team, works for the whole team' 2.
In 1954 the party structure was rudimentary: the bureau exécutif of Conakry led the party of all of Guinea.
directed the planting of PDG committees in each village and locality.
After the electoral success of 1957, the leaders set about consolidating their power. They strengthened the party structure, asserted its control over administration, integrated all opposition parties into the PDG. A bureau politique national became elected at regular party congresses; it sent a stream of directives to the village and local committees. There were party conferences of cadres, whenever urgent matters needed discussion. A permanent staff worked at party headquarters, not only in Conakry, but increasingly also at the regional headquarters. The party youth wing, the JRDA, became strengthened and gained control over all Guinean youth organizations; the trade unions, also, unified into a single movement, as the party asserted control.
1. Touré, L'Action politique du PDG . . ., tome i, op. cit., p. 15.
2. Information based on interviews, 1956.
