Labor, Politics and Majority Rule

The Bahama Journal Editorial


Another Majority Rule anniversary has come and has gone.

And so, today we reference matters germane to labor, politics and Majority Rule in the Bahamas.

And for sure – even as this one recedes into the mists that come with memories effaced; another will arrive and some other Bahamians will venture that, the General Strike of 1958 did play a massively important role in the social transformation of the Bahamas.

And so we would argue that those who now go in search of the mainspring governing action in those days might first wish to look at the leadership cadre behind the General Strike; there they would find Randol F. Fawkes [labor’s main man and champion of the so-called grass roots]; Clifford Darling, a taxi-driver [and therefore an owner in his own right of his means of production] and Lynden O. Pindling [as Parliamentary Leader of the then-nascent Progressive Liberal Party].

Fast forward to the social history available to most Bahamians and you would find that, it was the Progressive Liberal Party – with the help of a distinguished cadre of intellectuals and other political savvy men and women [with some of them like Clement Maynard, labor leaders in their own right]; that was able to command the support of the so-called “Majority”.

We would also venture that the role played by Clifford Darling and his men was the maneuver that did more than any other tactic to show the resolve of the Bahamian people not only in the specifics that had triggered the strike, but also in the broader struggle for full adult suffrage in the Bahamas.

And yet again, any fair reading of the social history of the past fifty-plus years would show that it was Pindling’s fate and that of his party to take the mantle and become the pioneers of development in a Bahamas that had entered history’s stream in a truly big way when the case of the Bahamas [that is its case for freedom] was argued before the United Nations.

This was like Black Tuesday of April 27th. 1965 uniquely Pindling’s.

As the record attests, Pindling and his Progressive Liberal Party went on to a series of victories that took them and the people they led to both so-called Majority Rule and Independence.

Evidently, they also faced some major challenges.

Highest on that list would be the damage done by the illicit trade in drugs throughout the Bahamian archipelago; the corrosive effects this trade had - and which it continues to have on social life in our country.

Notwithstanding this challenge and a host of others, there is no doubting the conclusion that the Bahamas built by Pindling endures. In this regard, it is nothing short of exemplary that the man who is today Chief and the man who would be Chief are both distinguished political alumni of the late and truly great Sir Lynden O. Pindling.

And so we would argue that if there is a legacy of 1958 that resounds even now; the resonance is to be found in the ascendancy of the Progressive Liberal Party in the years subsequent.

But even as we make these brief points concerning the General Strike of 1958, the eclipse of Fawkes and his supporters, the subsequent ascendancy of Pindling and the PLP, we also note that, despite their advances and that of the nation itself – there has always been an underclass of workers who have not benefited as much as they might have at one time or the other dreamed.

In addition, there are clearly any number of so-called ‘small’ businesses that have not been able to consolidate themselves in the all the years since the achievement of so-called Majority Rule.

This is not as surprising as it might – on first blush- appear; this because regardless of intention, no government no matter how well-intentioned, can make someone [or better still anyone] succeed in business.

And as an old saying puts it, money goes where money lies – and so it has and so will it continue.

But for sure – even as the evidence mounts that this is so, there remains a persistent cry to the effect that this or that group is being oppressed by another.

This is evidence of the highest order that the real struggle in our country and others has to do with the struggle between classes and the masses; and not that between the so-called ‘races’.

Indeed, such is the current state of political play in the Bahamas that both of this nation’s political parties now vie for the support of practically the same people; and thus the current slide towards a politics of tribalism and personal destruction.

January 11, 2011

The Bahama Journal Editorial

Bahamas Blog International

The trade union leadership in The Bahamas is in shambles

By Dennis Dames


It was sometime in December 2010 that I saw the big-time union-woman Ms. Jennifer Isaacs-Dotson on television hinting with a vengeance about the possibly of a general strike or massive demonstrations as a result of the government’s decision to sell the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) to one Cable and Wireless. She ended with the words: We coming.

Then, some days later– I saw her again on the screen; but this time, she was like a ship without wind for its sails. It looked like she and her band of irresolute union leaders were not sure after all about the next course of action that they would take.

We coming had turned to: We don’t know if we are coming or going.

Big booboo Ms. Isaacs-Dotson!

You played with fire and you got burned. I think that you have presented your cards recklessly on this issue; and it is my perception that the union leadership in The Bahamas is in shambles as a consequence.

Then, I saw the BTC union leader on the news like he was crying. He threatened to sue someone who would insist on essentially telling lies on them. It was like he was timid rather than confident. It really did not reflect favorably on their cause; whatever it is that they are trying to articulate.

Then, there is Mr. Carroll – the Managers’ union man of BTC. He simply looks lost in all of this union lunacy that we must endure – hopefully for not too much longer. Every-time I see Mr. Carroll in the newspapers – he looks out-of-place or in space.

What are these people really dealing with? Fighting boredom perhaps or are they simply being misguided by political con-men who are out to springboard solidly to the 2012 general election?

Bahamas Blog International

Bahamian Leaders Have Always Misread Bahamian Consumers During Boom Times, thus Creating a False Sense of Security and Achievement

An itemized list of the most recent payments shows that virtually no aspect of a consumer’s life is untaxed in The Bahamas

The price of food escalates with each trip to the grocery store in The Bahamas

Consumer’s Corner

CONSUMERS AND ‘KING SOL KERZNER OF ATLANTIS’

By Charles Fawkes

Nassau, The Bahamas

06/04

HOUSE OF LABOUR: With all of the good news coming from ‘King Sol Kerzner of Atlantis’ and his court comprising of no less than the cabinet of Prime Minister Perry Christie, Bahamians can only see the continuation of the Bahamian dream.  Despite this glowing dream presented by Perry Christie and King Kerzner there is always the chance that a nightmare could just be around the corner.  Our leaders have always misread Bahamian consumers during boom times thus creating a false sense of security and achievement.

The recent upsurge in violent crime not withstanding, Bahamians are naturally easygoing peace loving people who would prefer negotiation to confrontation, forgiveness over revenge, and would rather cultivate a friend than create an enemy.  So much so that the common saying is that rather than taking his revenge a Bahamian would elect to “leave you to God”.

If however, you interpret these traits as a sign of weakness you do so at your own peril.  Because, there is a limit to his tolerance – a point beyond which he will not go and his resolve and determination at that point will match anyone’s.

It seems that it is this component of the Bahamian consumer’s personality that is the most difficult for the foreign managers and investors of all resorts properties to comprehend.  They consistently misread the consumers, take liberties and make demands that are totally unacceptable.  They eventually force the consumers and their unions to draw a line in the sand, which the foreign managers/investors still continue to challenge.

Examples in our history of management’s misreading the Bahamian personality are innumerable.  The two classic examples in Bahamian labor history are The Burma Road Riots of 1942 and the General Strike, triggered by the taxi drivers in 1958.  Although in these crises the foreign entities were aided and abetted by the Bahamian White establishment at the time, the underlying principles that were at stake then are the same today.

There is no other area where the consumer’s rights are more under siege than in our largest industry – the Hotel Industry.  And with a political climate more conductive to their design we do not expect much change from the foreign managers/investors for the foreseeable future.  It behooves therefore, Bahamian consumers and their unions to be vigilant and resist all efforts to divide their ranks from within and from without.

Quite often it is not money issues that trigger the consumers to draw the metaphorical line in the sand.  Many times it is the consumer’s dignity; honor and respect that they feel are challenged and trodden upon.

For years as an opposition leader, Perry Christie led a party with no programs, no clear-cut ideology.  All these years, he offered the Bahamian people a hollowed shell, nothing concrete- offering just a dream for sale.  The dream was well designed, carefully packaged and put on the political market.  Most of the Bahamian consumers bought it.

It is just a dream of good houses, fancy cars, quality education, quality living and control of their country.  Like any product, the dream has its price.  The Price is high.  The consumers will have to reject their identity as a class and merge their destinies with that of a new set of oppressors like the Kerzner’s, a set of oppressors who want economic power for themselves and not in the interest of the consuming class.

This is a strange price, because most of the consumers who buy the dream will pay for it with sweat and blood.

The dream however will be kept alive by the Christie’s of this world and thousands of Bahamians will one day wake up to the harsh brutal light of reality.

The bills will come due on the Bahamian dream under Christie’s leadership, just as they came due under Pindling and Ingraham’s dream.

An itemized list of the most recent payments shows that virtually no aspect of a consumer’s life is untaxed.  Some of the costs are direct and immediate.  The price of food escalates with each trip to the grocery store.  A larger percentage each week of a consumer’s wages must go just to maintaining the physical strength to get to the job (if you have a job).  If you don’t have a job, you may be invited to learn to eat air.

And forget about buying a house!  For the very-greedy financers there simply are not enough profits to be made from the long, agonizing repayment of mortgages; thus, the banks have jumped the interest rates so high that home ownership is virtually forbidden.

Effective medical care is equally expensive and even more restricted.  A consumer without an insurance or money may suffer on a hospital’s steps for want of medical attention.

The children of consumers are finishing twelve or more years of school semi-literate, ignorant of their own history and lacking any consciousness.

Denied the necessities of life, unprotected by the government which was supposed to be “of, by and for the people” - but is more clearly than ever the basic weapon for controlling the consuming class, many consumers will turn to the unions as the only organizations which may have the power to save them.

These consumers will find the unions so hobbled by law, so limited by poor leadership that they are mere ghosts of the muscular, vital fighting forces of the fifties.  When they critically examine the right wing parties, they will find nothing worth accepting, they will realize that all of the noise and sweet talk amongst this group of misleaders are just the death rattle of an ebbing era in Bahamian politics.

Continuing this dream under the current setup will mean:

·        Unemployment above 10.8%!

·        Low wages and long hours!

·        Rising Inflation!

·        Poor housing!

·        Dangerously poor sanitation!

·        High rents and greedy landlords!

·        Inadequate water supply!

·        Poor education!

·        Poor medical care!

·        Corrupt and incompetent officials!

·        Political repression and victimization!

·        Foreign control of the best land!

·        Exorbitant prices for imported necessities

·        No development of agriculture!

·        No taxes on the rich or foreign investors!

·        Crime, Drugs, Prostitution and Rape!

However, we don’t have to put up with it forever.  We don’t have to endure the lies and corruption.   We can put an end to foreign domination of our country.  We can set our youth free from crime and unemployment.  We can liberate our women from prostitution.  We can have full employment at decent wages.  Our land and our resources do not have to be controlled by foreign interests.  Our children can have the education they deserve.  Our families can have decent housing and the finest in medical cares.  Other nations have already put an end to exploitation and oppression.  And we can build a just and humane society in the Bahamas also.

Building this kind of society will mean true freedom of speech and religion and true freedom of the press.  Today real freedom belongs only to those few who have the money to control the press and make themselves heard.  But under a new Bahamas, freedom can belong to all and will not be for sale to the few.

It will mean that all people will control the wealth of our country.  The profits that are now going to a few wealthy Bahamians and foreign investors could be available to meet the need of the people.  Instead of mansions and yachts for millionaires, we can have good housing; education and medial care for all.

It will mean an end to unemployment.  Today we have unemployment because those who own everything don’t think they can make enough profit by investing in projects that will provide jobs for all.  But under a new Bahamas, we will need the labor of everyone to meet public needs.

It could mean genuine democracy.  Wealth will not be able to buy political power.  Those with access to wealth will be taxed, and the wealth will be used for the public good.  Those who hold public office will be working and the people, through the right of referendum and recall, will control them.  There could be effective local government in every neighbourhood on every island.  And those who serve in government will be paid a workman’s wage not the exorbitant salaries of today.

Charles Fawkes is President of the National Consumer Association and organizer for the Commonwealth Group of Unions, Inside Labour Columnist for the Bahama Journal, Editor of the Headline News, The ConsumerGuard and The Workers’ Vanguard