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‘I Am Now An Old Man, But I Am Still A Rebel’

On Sunday, the Saint Lucia Labour Party (SLP) held its 74th annual conference of delegates. The conference was held at the Belle Vue Combined School in Vieux Fort and featured guest speaker Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

During his presentation, Gonsalves explained that his Unity Labour Party (ULP) and its predecessor the Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Labour Party had strong fraternal links with the SLP.

“As a young man, I was a rebel because there was, from the time I was a youth, a lot to be rebellious about. I am now an old man but I am still a rebel and I cannot stop being a rebel because there are many things still to rebel about,” Gonsalves told his audience.

“Although we have made immense progress in our Caribbean civilisation, there are things which we still need to address,” he explained.

According to the Vincentian leader, as Small Island developing states there are inherent vulnerabilities. “And in an age of rampaging man-made climate change, those vulnerabilities are more problematic and despite our strengths and possibilities, we have weaknesses and limitations and the contemporary political economy is very unfair to small island developing states,” he said.

Gonsalves pointed to the ongoing wars and conflicts and their impact on the prices of commodities and the disruption of supply chains as well as past “native genocide and the enslavement of African peoples and indentured labour from India and Madeira.”

“For the native genocide and the enslavement of African bodies committed by European nations, we demand reparations,” he said.

The charismatic speaker said that there now existed a neo liberalism, a newer form of imperialism, where the central contradiction is between those who support democracy and those who support autocracy.

“Well, we are democratic societies and we always chose democracy, but the way we see it the central contradiction is not between democracy and autocracy. It has been, it is and we have to fight against it, the central contradiction is about who gets what, when, where and how,” he stated.

“And those in the imperial centers of the world, never mind their sweet talk, never mind their double talk, never mind their attempt to send the fool a little further, make no mistake, we have a struggle on our hands and we can only fight this battle if internally the progressive forces are united and if also we link ourselves with progressive forces in the region and globally,” he stated.

Describing himself as now an older and wiser rebel, Gonsalves recalled the Grenada revolution in March 1979 where he and others were banned from entering certain countries including Saint Lucia.

“Things are more complicated now. The alliances, you need to be more careful how you construct them. We have to have different paths. We have to enjoin creative resistance and the building of a different and better society,” Gonsalves said.

He went on to espouse the vision and beliefs of the “Labour family”, the first of which he said was the supremacy of God and the freedom and dignity of man and woman.

The philosophy, he declared, is a universal philosophy of social democracy.

“We hold dear that there is something called a Caribbean civilisation which has come through the fever of history and through the process of creolisation in our own seascape and landscape we have fashioned a functioning civilization, our own of which there is a magnificent Saint Lucian component and our duty is to further enhance the ennoblement of that civilization,” he said.

 

 

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4 COMMENTS

  1. Well there is rebel and rebel….the Grenada revolution of 1979 was a rebellion but in the negative sense. The rebellion took out through violent means a democratically elected government. In that sense it was not good to be a rebel. Given the challenges that the Caribbean faces, we a a region must come together to solve our issues and face challenges together. Focusing on our individual strengths can be of benefit. If each island can maximise their strength then we can deal with the challenges. Mr Gonsalves’ depth of intellect is very impressive, his use of metaphor and linguistic ability makes him interesting to listen to. He is a broad thinker and an intellectual. Two leaders that I rate extremely highly for their ability to get there message across with acuity are Prime Minister Mia Mortly of Barbados and Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves of Saint Vincent. Indeed our Caribbean civilization rose from the fever of a turbulent history and it’s a beautiful, vibrant civilization and long may it continue.

  2. Now on the supremacy of god.

    It is no error to assume or presume that Prime Minister Gonsalves believes that god is the foremost reason for what this Caribbean civilization has become. But if one is honest, one will quickly realise this is far from the truth. For if PM Gonsalves believe that god has his hand in the success of this Caribbean civilization then equally he is also saying god also had his hand in the enslavement of the ancestors of the people of the Caribbean. For it is by this great human tragedy that the Caribbean civilization is what it is today. For You can not give the praise to god for today’s Caribbean civilization without taking into consideration how the Caribbean civilization started in the first place…it was started by the mass enslavement of people of African origin. Did god then allow this mass incarceration of melanated people, the brutality of it, the rape, the murder, the broken bones, the separation of families by selling them off to other enslavers, the long hours of working in the heat, the absolute depravity of the system for 400 years? So god allowed this horror just to produce this Caribbean civilization that we have today and which by all extent is not all paradise as we know. We still faced the forces of nature that continually seeks to destroy that very Caribbean civilization every year. So did god allow all this so that this fragile imperfect Caribbean civilization can be what it is today? So god sat on his throne for 400 years, watching the enslavement of melanated people and did nothing about it for 400 years? But he allowed it so he can create the Caribbean civilization we have today? I propose this is far from the it. The Caribbean civilization is what it is due to an injustice of history which arguably god himself is guilty of allowing and enabling and complicit and doing nothing for 400 years. This Caribbean civilization came about by the blood, sweat, tears and a lot of broken, battered bodies of melanated peoples. The English language doesn’t have words or the words have not been invented yet to describe the horrors our ancestors suffered for 400 years and still today their descendants face continued racism, discrimination, oppression in various forms and a whole bunch of other isms….We the descendants of the enslaved have worked hard to elevate ourselves from where our ancestors left off. So was god on the side of the enslaver? so that now many people who are descendants of the forcefully enslaved worshipping that same god who sat for 400 years on his golden throne (supposedly) and did nothing about this injustice to their ancestors?…F.O.R 400 Y.E.A.R.S ?…I find this one of the most contorted mental gymnastics one has to execute to believe this sky god pie in the sky nonsense. god ain’t helping or doing rien, nada, zilch, zok because he is either incompetent, impotent, useless or he does not exit. And I propose he does not exist. It is man who have created god in his (man’s) image and not god creating man in his image. god is a figment of man’s overactive imagination and delusion. Why is it then there are so many religions? Why is it that different civilizations have a different concept of what a god is? India has a long list of gods, china has Buddha, the ancient Egyptians had Ra, the ancient Greeks, and the Romans had another list of gods and the list goes on and it long …..so who has the monopoly of who god is? Who is correct and who is in erro? I can safely say, if our ancestors had depended on god for redemption, their ancestors would have still been enslaved to this day. But they rebelled, they fought, the run away from bondage, they fought back any way they can… perhaps it’s time we open our eyes to this pointless offering of praise to some unknown entity who clearly don’t give two rats tail about the Human condition and continue to build our Caribbean civilization utilising the tools that work. Education, education, education education, education, education and rid ourselves and minds of this superstition. There is more but I relent and will end with a full stop.

  3. Ralf welcome Breadrin; I knew you were in town I read the text from the comrades; our visionary fraternal Labor philosophy and stringent ideologies which links us are always at the forefront of the movements and development of Jah People. We always put the people first, and not just for “some” like we painstakingly found out here in St Lucia with the Fascist Yellow Government of yesteryear. Labor has always been the real revolutionaries; I miss the elders, the Maurice Bishops, Micheal Manleys, Fidel with their own version of The Monroe Doctrine, thank God they have left us the blue prints to carry on thru our beloved new generation of leaders like The Most Honorable PJP and Andrew Holness. These missionaries camouflage as a “workers party “ are descends of the very masters who continue to mentally enslaved us with their fascist tendencies of selling out the very fabric of our nation to enriched their Cliques with the misleading propaganda “it will have a trickle down effect and over time it will also enrich you”, always a dismal failure. Ralf Keep on been that Rebel with a cause we need your inspirational support, the people of St Vincent has gained a lot thru your stalwart ship which encompasses the notion of people first, country second, and nation building third.

  4. When did the Caribbean islands become ours?
    I can’t recall the Arawaks or the Caribs ever handing over these islands to us; instead, it was the Europeans who wrestled these islands away from their rightful and legitimate owners, but fastforward and here we are: Europeans, former African slaves, and former indentured servants from India, fighting over territory that none of us own.

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