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| St. Kitts and Nevis' Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas (standing) delivers the 2007 Budget Address (Photo by Erasmus Williams) | BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, DECEMBER 13TH 2006 (CUOPM) - St. Kitts and Nevis' Prime Minister Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas, whose twin-island Federation ceased the production of sugar in July 2005, after some 350 years, has declared that his people "would only be truly free when all of us can look beyond the confines of the cane fields and choose wealth creation opportunities from a range of options - within or outside the cane fields."
Delivering the 2007 Budget Address in the St. Kitts and Nevis National Assembly on Tuesday, Prime Minister Douglas in his 3 hours and 20 minutes presentation said the Labour Party Government, which he heads will build on the party's tradition of empowering nationals through social and economic transformation.
"During this year, we will continue along this path by pursuing a range of social programmes aimed at combating poverty generally and assisting the former sugar workers in finding and pursuing new livelihoods that would secure for them an improved quality of life. We will also continue to place great emphasis on the safety and security of our people and of our many visitors by giving law and order an even more prominent position among the policy imperatives of my Government," said Prime Minister Douglas.
"It is only then, we would have removed the shackles of slavery that tied us to the cane fields and created such disillusionment and such great sense of hopelessness among our forefathers. It is only then we would have given economic substance to the political independence that we achieved in 1983.
It is only then we would have fully reaped the benefits of the abolition of the Slave Trade in 1807 and of slavery in 1838," said Prime Minister Douglas.
Dr. Douglas noted that history has a way of bunching the celebration of great events together and it should not be surprising, therefore, that in 2007, the same year in which the World will be commemorating the end of the Slave Trade, "we will also be celebrating the 75th Anniversary of our great Party - The St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party."
He was of the view that this is an event that should draw the support and participation of every proud Kittitian and Nevisian - whatever their party affiliation may be.
Prime Minister Douglas noted that when the Labour Party (or the Workers League as it was then called) was formed in 1932, it was the only ray of light in the darkness of working class suppression and discrimination.
~~Adz:Left~~ "The newly formed political party immediately set about agitating for the improvement in the conditions of the working class and for the right of the working class to be represented by unions. This, along with the agitation of likeminded organisations throughout the region, resulted in a recommendation in the Moyne Commission Report for the recognition of the right of association through Trade Unions and the subsequent formation of the St. Kitts-Nevis Trades and Labour Union in 1940," said Prime Minister Douglas, who has been the political leader of the governing St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party - the union's sister organisation, since May 1989.
The Labour Party also successfully fought for universal adult suffrage, which was introduced in 1952 and which for the first time allowed all adults to vote and to participate in the electoral process.
"Moreover, upon assuming the reins of power in St. Kitts and Nevis, the Labour Party, under the leadership of our National Hero, the Right Excellent Sir Robert Llewellyn Bradshaw, introduced a range of economic policies that dramatically advanced the standard of living of the working class and ensured that our people, through its Government, took ownership of our critical economic resources including the sugar lands and the sugar factory," said Douglas, a cousin of Bradshaw who died in 1978 at the age of 61. |
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