Prof Hamid Ghany
The increased debate over the post-Emancipation Day fallout on the issue of race in the society has confirmed the strength of our democracy during a State of Emergency (SoE).
All of the talk about people being locked up under Preventive Detention Orders (PDOs) for expressing their views is bogus. There is a red-hot, robust debate about class and race being conducted at all levels, notwithstanding the SoE. We are in fact a very healthy democracy that has had non-violent political change seven times since independence, and we are by no means unstable.
Some people would rather not have a discussion about class privilege and race, while others now have an opportunity to air views about the subject matter.
It was the late Guyanese historian, Walter Rodney, who defined “black” in the West Indian context to mean “people who are recognisably African or Indian” whom he also identified as “economically dispossessed and socially and politically deprived.”
That is a useful definition for this debate because Rodney was expelled from Jamaica in October 1968 by the Jamaican government over his views on Black Power and his job at the UWI, Mona Campus was terminated. That led to riots and social disturbances.
Prior to that, in March 1965, the T&T government of Prime Minister Dr Eric Williams placed the renowned Trinidadian public intellectual CLR James under house arrest during a state of emergency. In August 1967, the Williams government also issued a ban on the Trinidad-born Black Power activist, Stokely Carmichael (who later changed his name to Kwame Ture) to prevent him from returning to the land of his birth. Williams reinforced that ban during the 1970 Black Power uprising to keep Carmichael out of T&T.
He was able to come back to T&T for a funeral in 1988 under the Robinson Government and he returned again in 1996 under the Panday Government, which also made financial provision for his illness with a grant.
Ironically, the Port-of-Spain City Corporation has now revived that history by naming Oxford Street in honour of Kwame Ture after considerable delay, since the request was first made by then Deputy Mayor Hillan Morean in 2019.
The reality is that both James and Carmichael were deemed by Dr Eric Williams to be security threats and were regarded as persona non grata by him. Carmichael was instead invited to Guyana in May 1970 when Williams blocked his visit here.
These issues are very relevant to the current discussions today. What has changed is that Rodney’s definition hits the nail on the head. The working class in this country have been conveniently divided by the corporate elites to ensure their continued dominance and control over the politics and voting behaviour of the country despite their small percentage number.
The PNM, led by Opposition Leader Pennelope Beckles, is defending the traditional narratives of avoidance of the subject of race and class domination and divisions by calling for the Prime Minister to stop her identity self-referencing. On the other hand, the PM wants to have this discussion, and she is going about it in a manner that has never been used before.
She has the controversy of the “stinking c….e” comments that were made about her and for which there has been no condemnation. She senses that that is where the real issues of race and class prejudice lie in the society.
The corporate elites really would prefer that the Afro-Indian working class not become conscious about their place in society and how they have been divided to look at each other as the enemy when their strings are being pulled for them by powerful third parties to fear each other.
Both major parties have prominent members of the two major racial groupings in their ranks, so this is not about race. The debate is really about class and who dominates the social agenda and narratives.
Social media has been most unhelpful because trolls are not about public education, but rather public mischief.
At the leadership level, it is about traditional political warfare between opposing political parties. What is happening on the ground is the opening of a door to class consciousness that was last seen in 1970 that Dr Eric Williams was able to break with an SoE on April 21, 1970 together with a very expansive use of PDOs to incarcerate several of those protesters. He also used another SoE in October 1971 to tackle the trade union movement over industrial unrest.
The Afro-Indian working class do not hate each other. They have been made to fear each other by political elites who thrive on sowing those seeds of fear and division. They are yet to develop their class consciousness.
Professor Hamid Ghany is Professor of Constitutional Affairs and Parliamentary Studies at The University of the West Indies (UWI). He was also appointed an Honorary Professor of The UWI upon his retirement in October 2021. He continues his research and publications and also does some teaching at The UWI. He was selected by the THA to guide the discussions on Tobago autonomy.
