Alyssa Phillip says June 19 should be re­gard­ed as a “call to ac­tion”

June 19 was nev­er in­tend­ed to be just an­oth­er an­nu­al march, ac­cord­ing to Alyssa Phillip, who said it “should and must al­ways be re­gard­ed as a call to ac­tion.”

In a state­ment post­ed to her Face­book page, Phillip said the day should serve as a call for the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go to “find their voice, speak their truth, and stand firm in their con­vic­tions with­out fear.”

She said young peo­ple should un­der­stand that their voic­es mat­ter and that “re­al change on­ly hap­pens when or­di­nary cit­i­zens refuse to stay silent.”

Phillip said she has nev­er been com­fort­able with the ti­tle “ac­tivist,” adding that she sees her­self as “sim­ply some­one who is will­ing to speak up about the is­sues that af­fect us all.

“The same courage that I have shown is a courage that ex­ists with­in every cit­i­zen of this na­tion,” she said.

Re­flect­ing on Labour Day, Phillip said it serves as a re­minder of the sac­ri­fices made by those who came be­fore, while adding that “his­to­ry of­ten re­peats it­self when peo­ple stand up against in­jus­tice.”

She said no move­ment can be car­ried by one per­son alone and re­quires “every creed and race, every com­mu­ni­ty, every con­cerned cit­i­zen com­ing to­geth­er for a com­mon pur­pose.”

Phillip said Fri­day’s Labour Day events marked the 19th and fi­nal protest in the “19 Bul­lets, 19 Protests Cam­paign,” and thanked those who sup­port­ed the cam­paign.

She ex­pressed grat­i­tude to those who at­tend­ed the protests, sup­port­ed through prayer, shared the mes­sage on­line, of­fered en­cour­age­ment, and helped keep the con­ver­sa­tion go­ing.

“Your sup­port has shown that this move­ment is big­ger than any one in­di­vid­ual,” Phillip said.

“The fight for ac­count­abil­i­ty, jus­tice, and a bet­ter Trinidad and To­ba­go con­tin­ues. To­geth­er, our voic­es are stronger.”

Phillip and her moth­er Camille Cares­quero have been charged fol­low­ing their ar­rests dur­ing Labour Day cel­e­bra­tions in Fyz­abad on Fri­day. 

Phillip has been charged with be­ing the leader of a march and fail­ing to call on such a march to dis­perse, dis­or­der­ly be­hav­iour, and re­sist­ing ar­rest. Cas­es­quero was charged for be­ing present at a march and fail­ing to dis­perse, ob­struct­ing a po­lice of­fi­cer, and re­sist­ing ar­rest.