Submitted by William Skinner
In our midst, there are some very skilful manipulators of public opinion, who would like to give the impression that the trade union movement has only been in bed with the Democratic Labour Party. This is a great lie. The truth is that both the Barbados Labour Party and the Democratic Labour Party have enjoyed incestuous relationships with the trade unions. I say unions because a very close and objective observation would reveal that none of the major unions has avoided being hijacked, at some point or the other, by members of the two ruling parties.
Ever since the fall of Grantley Adams, the Barbados Labour Party has been in the main supported by the traditional corporate sector and really had no need for the financing of its politics either in money or kind from the BWU. This left the field wide open for Errol Barrow to inflame the traditional white corporate sector and skilfully create a black rising business/professional class that has supported the Democratic Labour Party. Barrow established a very clever bond of capital and Labour and with great cunning, convinced the masses that the Dems were for them and the Bees for the whites. The Bees equally cunning deliberately started to paint the Dems as anti-employer and the ploy of these two behemoths parties has continued. And it has worked amazingly well.
I first encountered the ruthlessness of the BLP/DLP and their unionists henchmen back in the mid 70’s, when under the distinguished leadership of Comrade John Cumberbatch, the Barbados Union of Teachers locked horns with the Dems over the legislating of salaries. Tom Adams as Leader of the Opposition BLP made a great speech from Parliament and said that he would NEVER legislate salaries. He became Prime Minister and proceeded to do exactly that! Then, Obrien Trotman, who was the General Secretary of the NUPW and in the forefront of the struggle against Barrow legislating salaries, became a member of Tom Adams’ cabinet. So, Sir Roy Trotman being a member of the Dems and general secretary of the BWU is nothing new.
What we see today are the fruits of destruction and anti-labour sentiment that both parties have skilfully planted via opportunistic trade unionists and some of the most ruthless operatives of both the Barbados Labour Party and the Democratic Labour Party. Within the Barbados Union of Teachers, there were some very politically driven party loyalists, who only supported the union when their party was in opposition. It is more than just a twist of fate, that there are at least three sitting Members of Parliament, who were active in the BUT back in the day. It is no twist of fate either that some of the high profile appointments in the Ministry of Education, have always landed in the laps of former active union members, who are either supporters of the BLP or DLP. The Ministry of Education is the bedlam of high end political patronage.
The Barbados that is now tottering on the brink of economic collapse was hatched in the 70’s when the evolving upper middle class began to believe that they were at Massa’s table. They went after the teachers; the police; the nurses and the civil servants with a determined vengeance. They were supported by the political management class (BLP/DLP). Those who warned of this dangerous trend were branded as failures and misfits.
In other words within the current scenario there is a vicious battle of the classes. It is the middle class being pounded by the very powerful and now entrenched upper class. Watching and pulling the strings are the wealthy, both black and white, who think that victory is certain. They are collectively enjoying the assault on the working class and the weakening of the trade union movement. But they are making one simple and perhaps silly mistake. This is not the Barbados of 1937 and nobody will be pushing over bread carts (Peter Wickham). This class warfare now grounded in economic uncertainty could lead us to a place from whence we may never return. The divide and rule approach may very well backfire on those who maybe counting their chickens before they hatch. The manipulation of our people and island state must cease or we all will feel it! Should blood flow, it will be on the hands of those manipulators, who frequent Roebuck and George Streets.
There are many now crying crocodile tears for Barbados. The same ones who sought to destroy it.
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