BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party has to date conducted four of its “Full Confidence” public meetings, with the last of them being held on Thursday (Apr. 18) in St. Peter’s.
SKNVibes was present at that meeting and, according to some attendees, although it did attract a relatively large turnout, the previous meetings, especially the one held in St. Paul’s, had seen much larger crowds.
The attendees in discussion noted that apart from Prime Minister the Rt. Hon. Dr. Denzil Douglas’ fiery speech, Dr. Norgen Wilson took the ‘cake’ with his historical perspective of the Labour Movement, the SKNLP and some of the men who had created changes in the social, economic and political landscape of St. Kitts and Nevis.
In his opening remarks, Dr. Wilson noted that he had said at previous meetings when an individual gets into a fight, he/she must know what they are fighting for, who they are fighting and why are they fighting.
That statement seemed to have drawn the undivided attention of all the Labour Party’s supporters and also those who had turned out to hear what the presenters had to offer.
“Tonight I want to tell you, you must understand who is Labour, what is Labour and why Labour. And you must also understand who can be and why not them. And you should never associate yourself with them,” Dr. Wilson passionately stated.
He continued: “Many years ago, more than 100 years after slavery in this country, the ordinary man, the working class of this country remained at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder. People in this country, in your ‘borning’ land, didn’t had stake in the lands of this country. Some 28 000 acres of land owned by a few colonists in this country! More than 40 000 people who born in St. Kitts ain’t had a piece of land. Not one square foot, just a few families controlled over 28 000 acres! And when you finish working for these planters, you still had to go home and sleep on the same land that they own. And not in a proper house! Thatch house! Dirt floor! The squalor…deplorable standard and conditions! That is where our people came from. Don’t you dare forget it!”
He emphasised that during that period in the Federation’s history, the working class had to sleep among the rats and cockroaches. “Ask you grandparents and you great grandparents about that. Read you history…Labour could write any history book. PAM can’t write none, because they gon be embarrassed. What they gon it write to tell you? That they went against everything that Labour fought for you for?”
Dr. Wilson told his very attentive audience, which was dominated by youths, that they must understand from whence they came, as he made mention of some of the Labour Party’s stalwarts.
“We had a few great men…brave men who decided our people should not live under those conditions, and they came forward. They brought the message of the people; they were able to articulate the needs, the concerns and the issues of the people. Wilkinson, Challenger, Alexander Nathan, France, Matthew Sebastian, Robert Bradshaw, St. John Payne, Charles E. Mills, Manchester…these are who came to fight for our cause. Don’t you dare forget it! We ain’t got no time to play with PAM, because PAM went against everything that these men fought for when they fought for us. They fought for you.
“One hundred years after slavery you still had a governor from out of England named Governor Fiennes coming here saying the labouring class, the poor man, the working class should not be educated beyond the three Rs because it will inflate their minds. It gon give them too much a ideas, better they remain at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder. One hundred years after slavery. And our leaders, our great leaders decided that should not be so. We must make a stand, we must fight for the people; the people who born in this land. So, today when you hear them talking about land-for-debt-swap, how the government want the land for people overseas, it was because of Labour why people in this country get land in the first place. It was because of Labour; don’t study them.”
He also reminded the older members of the audience and enlightened the younger generation of the days when only the rich were afforded education and certain amenities.
“When you talk about healthcare, remember the days when everybody in this country had pit latrines…some people had waste bucket and Labour decided it can’t be so anymore. These great men decided our people must advance; we must have better for the working class, the ordinary man in this country. These people decided that education must be for one and all, not just for the few rich families…And PAM say education must be for their children only. The ordinary man must not be educated beyond the three Rs; the ordinary man should not have the opportunity to become a doctor, lawyer or an engineer; the ordinary man should remain in the canefield.
“That is what the Plantocracy and PAM seh. Don’t you dare forget it! Grab a history book because the history of Labour is the history of St. Kitts. That is what we are here fighting for. That is what we are fighting to keep. We ain’t here for no joke. A party such as PAM comes up against everything that Labour has fought for can’t mean nothing well for you. They can’t mean good for you, they ain’t concern about you. They concern about themselves…their job is to keep you from stepping up the ladder by them. And that is why they are so upset.”
Dr. Wilson spoke about the atrocious conditions under which the ordinary people worked and made reference to the Buckley’s Riot, noting that “Labour has fought for better salaries from day one” and had ensured that the minimum wage had seen an upward movement several times for the betterment of the people in the Federation.
He also took a potshot at members of the proposed Unity Government and had some very harsh words for Shawn Richards, stating, among other things, that he has not done anything of significance for his constituents in St. Christopher Five.
Dr. Wilson stated that everything good in the Federation for the working class was done by the Labour Party and the people in St. Peter’s must ensure that the party’s representative for that constituency, Cedric Liburd, regain his seat in Parliament.
