Instigate the nation until we remedy the injustices of society.
Motivate our people to set a meaningful path for the coming generations.
Educate our people to free our minds and develop an Afrikan consciousness.
VOL. 2 NO.12 $2.00 Monthly Newsletter of KiMiT May 1995
Published by Chedmond Browne, P.O. Box 197, Plymouth, Montserrat Phone: 809-491-6962 FAX: 809-491-6335
A colony is made up of people who are controlled by a foreign power and are maintained in a position of economic, political and cultural subjugation.
The relationship between the colonized (Montserrat) and the colonizer (england), is the same as that between slave and master.
The colonizer (hmg) manipulates the colonized (NPP and previous puppets) to serve its own interests (british).
The colonized (Montserratians), oppressed, stripped of their human dignity and kept in a mental state of ignorance, submit to slavery and search for escape in dreams, religion and intoxicants.
Persistent physical and mental revolution, has forced the colonizer to return to the majority of our sisters and brothers worldwide, control of their land and the right to determine their own destiny.
The continuing struggle to raise the level of awareness, will one day bring Montserratians to the realization that we too have a right to self determination.
On that day, the colonized (Montserratians), will take the required steps to rid our country of the colonizer (england).
No people in the history of the world have remained willing slaves of another. No country in the history of the world have remained a willing colony of another.
This is the ongoing saga of the colony of Montserrat caught in the death grip of the ever-shrinking british empire.
The NPP government has come full circle. There is no longer any pretense of creating an infrastructure that serves the needs of the majority.
It should be obvious to all who are paying attention that the chief minister is a little pawn, a petty puppet of the governor and ultimately, an implementer of british foreign policy.
To implement the orders of its master, the NPP has to ally itself with the sector of the society that most closely relates to, and identifies itself with, the colonial masters.
Using the country policy plan, a guise of british design and calling it an economic plan for the island, the NPP has taken steps to secure allies.
NPP retracted the CET in places where it damaged merchants. This did not stop the NPP from imposing huge increases in customs duties during the christmas period.
One can still hear the people moan under the strain imposed on them to clear their christmas barrels from relatives abroad.
After a united campaign between the M'rat Chamber of Commerce (MCCI) and the government to convince the populace that the Waterfront Union was the reason for the high cost of bringing goods into the country, the NPP illegally and with total disregard of principle, dismissed 100 working men from the Port with 45 minutes notice.
Having undermined the Union, the NPP then reduced port charges that it had originally increased to help pay for the newly reconstructed jetty.
The chief minister and the MCCI president then went on the airwaves separately. The MCCI president informed the public that the destruction of organised labour at the port would only save the consumer 2 to 5 cents on goods bought from the stores.
The chief minister told the public that he hoped the merchants would be considerate enough to pass on the savings to the public.
These acts were enough to convince the MCCI (especially the expatriate block) that their needs were being attended.
The leading merchant on the island is also a member of the legislative council. When the NPP came to power, the leader of the NDP took every opportunity to attack and castigate the NPP for its inept handling of the island's affairs.
Over the last year, however, the situation has changed. (Maybe too slow for most to see.)
All the british-aid projects used cement that was purchased exclusively from this merchant legislator.
Last year, cement came into the island at the rate of one boat a month. The year before that, cement came into the island at the rate of one boat every 3 months. Even at the rate of one boat a month, the island suffered periodic shortages of cement.
As the supply of cement to the british contractors became more lucrative, the opposition voice in the legislative council became more silent.
At this year's budget speech there was hardly a murmur heard from the leader of the NDP.
Note also that the only significant decrease in landing charges for general cargo at the port is reflected in the importation of cement which decreased by 80 cents a bag.
In this year's budget speech, the chief minister proposed to stop the capital gains tax on buildings constructed and sold in the future.
It is apparent that only very few local people are going to be able to build or buy a mansion or any other structure of the required size to allow them to get the tax breaks.
Only the expatriate community with its ill-gotten gains are going to be able to come here and buy for the exorbitant prices that no local could afford, the most scenic sections of the island for their private estates, enjoying the fruits of our past labours while we continue to labour for them.
Having given a unilateral commitment to the St. Vincent-based Eastern Caribbean Group a ridiculously low labour cost for bringing a rice factory to Montserrat and initiating the destruction of the Waterfront Union, the chief minister was able to kill two birds with one stone.
The Waterfront Union informed the chief minister that the cost to which he had committed himself was not based on realistic analysis and could be of no benefit to the island or the workers.
The chief minister then went on the campaign trail to convince the public that the Union was blocking development and progress in the island.
When the Union was fired, some members of the public thought that a stumbling block to progress had been removed.
This act certainly allowed outside investors to feel secure. With the open show of government's willingness to destroy organised labour, the investors are now freer to come in and exploit a weak and disorganized labour force.
Cable & Wireless, the multi-national giant which led the way in destroying its local union, is already taking full advantage of the situation.
With a huge, multi-million dollar project on stream, Cable & Wireless has already begun to hire casual labour.
These men are working long hours and holidays for a flat rate. According to figures established by british directive, the day's pay for a labourer is $30.00.
It should be apparent by now that the needs of the masses are not on the priority list of the NPP.
The economic plan that they have been directed to implement has tied NPP's future, and perhaps the future of the island to colonial status and a narrow minority power block.
This block comprises: the controllers of the MCCI and its merchant profiteers, the class-conscious remnants of the plantocracy and the new entrants to that sector of the society.
The european expatriate community with its built-in psychological baggage and its easy access to the institutions that elevate it to the top of the class structure, and the external investor for profit.
For those who have studied the history of british colonialism, this alliance should seem all too familiar.
The players change, the location shifts, and the shrinking "empire" now reduced to some small, forgotten and unknown islands, lives out its fantasy.
Gone are the days when petty little men controlled the destiny of millions.
Present are the days when petty little men control the destiny of thousands.
The masses of the people, largely ignored, used and abused, are consciously awakening.
The minority power block is living on borrowed time.
The next major foreign investment project scheduled to come on stream is a water bottling project.
Contracts have already being signed, labour costs have been established, and the plant site has been chosen.
According to the plan, some foreign investors from germany are going to set up an operation that will export 40 twenty- foot containers of bottled water from Montserrat every month.
From the inception of this project, the same questions have been asked and the chief minister has given his usual glib answers.
Where is this company going to get their water from? Are they going to develop an untapped spring? Are they going to improve our water infra-structure?
Why are you allowing them to tap into the water system that services the island? How many gallons of water does a 20-foot container hold?
Where is this huge volume of water to come from? How will the local populace eat, drink, wash and bathe when you have sold away the rights to our water?
Can our water supply and our water table take such a tremendous drain without salt water seeping into the water table?
When there is a water shortage who gets priority? Have the periodic earthquakes and tremors had any effect on our springs?
How many of our springs have disappeared as a result of seismic activity? How much water will the rice factory consume?
To all these questions, the chief minister replied that his technical advisors have assured him that there would be no problem and that the water authority was capable of assessing the situation.
He also assured us that the new tank in Salem has the capacity to fulfill the needs of everyone.
It now appears, that the technical advisors, the water authority and the new tank have all come up short.
Certain sectors of the island have had their water supply shut off regularly, and the chief minister recently notified his constituents they would have to impose stringent rules in their homes in order to conserve water.
According to the rainfall statistics, more rain has fallen month for month this year than last.
Was water rationed last year?
Where did all the water go? Was the public duped once again on the water consumption of the rice factory?
When the german company comes, will there be any left for the people?
The governor claims that because Montserrat is a british colony, by all international conventions no britisher is a foreigner in Montserrat. M/rat News 3/24/95
The year may be 1995, but the colonial system of control is still vintage 1750. The empire may be gone but the glories of empire still exist in the minds of petty little men.
The governor's statement is loaded with implications of the current british mentality now filling up Montserrat.
The expats are coming here in droves because the word is out in british diplomatic circles that Montserrat is the place for the elite of the foreign service to reside.
The old boy's club of legal graft and corruption has to shift their power base.
This can only be done in an atmosphere where there exists constitutionally an absolute dictator.
The expat population of the Cayman Islands has surpassed that of the local islanders.
The expat population of the Turks & Caicos is almost level with the local populace.
In both colonies the expat community controls the economy and the governor controls the politicians.
By all international conventions, Montserratians should be able to go to britain.
This, however, is not the case. Montserratians are subjected to the same indignities as all Afrikan peoples attempting to enter britain.
Strip searches, immigration harassment, overnight detention, instant return on the next available flight and visiting-time limited to hours or a few days if you are lucky, are standard responses for a holiday visit.
It has been virtually impossible since the mid-seventies for a Montserratian to obtain a permanent visa to reside in england.
By all international conventions britain agreed to the U.N. mandate that there should be no colonies on the planet by the year 2000.
In the british-imposed Montserrat "constitution," is the clause--: "Whereas the realization of the right of self- determination must be promoted and respected in conformity with the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations."
Where does the governor's language or the air of superiority and condescending attitude of the expat community reflect the promotion of, or the respect due, to our right of self-determination in conformity with the U.N. charter?
The western hemisphere has once again regained control of the United Nations. All agreements outlining the directives to free those still tied to their colonial masters that were signed during the years when developing countries and former colonies entered the U.N. are now been circumvented.
Individual countries in the european union now find that their remaining colonies allow them to create loopholes in the agreement that will bind europe together.
The committee of 24, created by the U.N. to insure that self-determination was promoted and respected by the "mother countries", no longer functions.
(The Pan- Afrikan Liberator has written 3 times without response.) The Chief Minister of Anguilla, the Honourable Hubert Hughes, requested an audience with the committee of 24.
The committee's response to him was that its members would not meet with any single head of a colony.
They would, however, meet with the heads of all colonies "belonging" to a particular "mother country."
Needless to say, the remaining puppet heads of the other british colonies did not attend the meeting that was subsequently organised by Hughes.
They were told specifically, in writing, that hmg would "view their attendance with great displeasure."
The british do have a plan. They began by renaming the colonies "dependent territories." Then they wrote their immigration act, denying all but british citizens access to england.
With their immigration act came their inhumane and despicable treatment of all Afrikan peoples attempting to enter england.
This includes Montserratians.
Now, we are beginning to see the reason for the treatment. If, by the year 2000, Montserrat is still a colony, then its status must be changed.
In order to accommodate this change the british are now letting it be known that after 1997 Montserrat will be given a choice.
We can accept a change in our passport status which gives us direct access to england or we can take our independence.
No colonial master has ever promoted Independence as an ideal for its colonial subjects.
At one time the british policy was to dump all the colonies, Montserrat included.
Because our puppet head at the time could not understand the dynamics of the moment, he choose to cling to his colonial masters and the window of opportunity closed.
From that time to the present neither the british nor the government of the day has put in place a continuing program of education on the need to be self determined.
Now the british project that an unaware and ignorant populace will make the wrong choice.
This will allow them to change our status on paper, while still maintaining their colonial system of "legal" and "constitutional" control over the country and its people.
The british plan to incorporate Montserrat and the remaining dependent territories into the replacement power base that will allow them to continue to move huge amounts of liquid cash and the illegal profits of money laundering out of Chinese territory into the western hemisphere.
According to british administrators, and the jealous outbursts of the expat community, the local populace of these colonies have not yet been christianized or civilized enough to enjoy the standard of living or the life style that these monies would generate.
Only british lawyers, accountants, managers and their clerical staff of displaced foreign service civil servants have the expertise and the right as british citizens to exploit and enjoy this lucrative and monarchical lifestyle.
The Montserrat Seamen & Waterfront Workers Union (MSWWU) continues to fight a lonely battle.
Pursuant to the decision taken by the Union's members to sue the Port Authority, actions have been taken.
Individual members of the Union employed David Brandt to take the Port to court in connection with the improper redundancy payments.
On receiving Mr Brandt's letter, the attorney general's office contacted Mr Brandt and asked him not to pursue the matter legally.
The AG's office notified Mr Brandt that the port would look into the matter and rectify the situation.
On the day that Mr Brandt was scheduled to take the matter to court, the paid mouthpiece for the port authority was heard on Radio Montserrat telling all who would listen that the port authority had made a tremendous humanitarian concession and would pay all Union members redundancy monies from the registering of the Union (1966) up to the present.
No notice was sent to the Union so that it could address its members in a dignified manner.
Union members were therefore forced to go hat in hand to the port manager to find out if their name was on the pay-out list.
Needless to say, many men returned shamefaced and empty handed because the port manager and his advisers determined who they were going to pay.
All Stevedores, who were incorrectly paid from the beginning should have received money.
All Longshoremen who joined the Union before 1978 should have received money.
Based on the reports coming from the members, there was once again no accounting for the monies and no advice given as to the criteria used to determine the amounts paid.
Members of the group whom the port had enticed to cross Union lines came in for a big surprise when they went to look for their additional monies.
The manager informed them that they had been overpaid and that they would have to sign an agreement to pay back to the port thousands of dollars.
Union officials were quick to point out that the port authority could not function without these men and used the big-money offers to induce them to break ranks.
Once the port had to make a more uniform distribution of funds based on specific rather than arbitrary criteria, the port manager discovered that he had made a mistake and overpaid some recipients.
The port's mouthpiece claimed that the port has expended in excess of 2 million dollars to make the Union redundant.
To date Union officials, who have computed all the monies received, have arrived at a figure closer to 1/2 (one-half) million dollars.
If the port has expended 2 million dollars, the Union officials say they will certainly find out who got the other 1 and 1/2 million.
By paying out monies that it had originally cheated the men out of, the port and its advisors believed that they have gotten around the legal issue.
Union officials, however, have employed the services of Mr Harold Lovell, a Labour Lawyer from Antigua to pursue a civil suit against the port authority.
Union officials, standing on their principles, say they cannot be bought.
Mr Brandt's case may not have reached the courthouse, but this one certainly will.
All the dirty, insidious and intriguing details of the supposedly upstanding men who make decisions at the administrative level will be aired.
The Union is looking forward to its day in court and feels that it will be fully justified when the Judge's decision is handed down.
The twenty-eight traitors who broke Union ranks and went back to work for the port are now a living example of how free men sell themselves into slavery.
Daily you can see and hear them on the waterfront complaining bitterly about their working conditions, their treatment by management, the tremendous workload and the lack of proper financial compensation for their increased labour.
They walk with heads bowed, and they complain bitterly, but they still run when the master calls.
The new rice factory, the main cause of the Union's destruction, (servicing of the rice industry) came on stream late April 1995.
The labourers were not given any voice in the labour cost. The port manager informed them that they would be working for a price to be determined to land 900 ton-batches of rice.
There was no discussion, only a take it or leave it ultimatum with the reminder that if they did not do the job he could easily find men who would.
Once again there were bitter complaints about treatment and labour cost but the waterfront workers still landed the rice.
The second shipment of rice came, before the men could get paid for the first shipment.
And so they went to work landing the second shipment still not know ing how much they were working for.
The first shipment of rice came in one-ton packages.
This made the monopoly of the industry easy for one William Wall.
In cahoots with the players from the beginning, Wall cornered the shipping agency, the factory building, administration and transportation all for himself.
One need not query which sector of the society Wall identifies with.
The transportation which Wall reluctantly shared with two other carriers because he did not have enough trailers, (he informed them that this was a temporary arrangement until the other trailers that he ordered arrived) could not move the rice fast enough.
In an attempt to speed up the movement, the second shipment of rice came in both one-ton packages and 100- pound bags.
However, one of the small truckers had to block the port gate in order so that small truckers could get a share in the transportation of the 100-pound bags.
The labourers on the docks took the biggest beating.
In order to move 900 tons of rice in one-ton packages, the labourer handles 900 packages.
In order to move 900 tons of rice in hundred pound bags, the labourer has to handle 19,800 packages.
Needless to say, before the second shipment of rice was completely landed, the port had a notice out to hire 10 additional labourers to land rice.
To date, no known member of the Union has chosen to join the slave gang now employed at the port.
At the rice factory, workers fired the work. The workers discovered that their day's pay could not compensate for their intensive labour.
Trucks of rice were reaching the factory in far greater numbers than the workers could handle.
Many of the workers walked off the job before the job was completed.
These are the same jobs which the chief minister told the public that the union was blocking by not accepting his insultingly low labour cost.
Three of the senior staff-members of the port who willingly and gleefully aided and abetted the port manager in the corruption of Union members were among four persons who were fired by the manager on April 26, 1995.
When they reported for work they were handed their notices.
Later in the evening the general secretary of MAWU was heard on the news responding to the firing of the four workers. The civil service and MAWU planned a mass rally on the day after Labour Day to register their protest.
To insure that their cushy positions were not jeopardized, the leaders organised the rally to take place during the lunch hour.
When asked for an opinion, Waterfront Union officials stated that they were at a complete loss to understand the logic of the leadership of MAWU and the CSA.
When the island's oldest functioning Union (comprising 100 labouring men) was dismissed in its entirety, Waterfront Union officials based part of their strategy on the expected and anticipated mass support of its affiliates, MAWU and the CSA, two organizations to which MSWWU had always given commitment and support.
None came.
Three months later, four clerical workers were dismissed from the same work-place and MAWU and CSA officials decided to mobilize a mass rally to get the four workers back their jobs.
Meanwhile, 72 Waterfront workers are still unemployed.
In 1993, the british presented to the Montserrat government something they called a country policy plan.
In reality, it was the british version of structural adjustment.
Inclusive in the so-called plan was the reduction of the civil service by 40%.
To insure that their program was implemented, the british tied their Hugo rebuilding aid funds to the plan's timetable.
When the new government HQ project began, the british diplomatically leaked the information that the chief minister had signed an agreement to reduce the civil service in order to secure the funds for the building.
When questioned about it the chief minister denied the allegation and insisted that the civil service would remain intact.
For the next two years, on every occasion that he was asked, the chief minister denied that the civil service would be reduced.
With the project almost completed, the government, silently and without fanfare began to move in.
Many wondered how the government had not taken advantage of the opportunity to impress the public with one of its "crowning" achievements.
The truth has a way of shining through darkness.
The british once again let it be known, diplomatically, that the building would not be turned over to the government of Montserrat until the chief minister carried through the agreement that he signed and reduce the civil service.
Furthermore, no more aid funds for any project would be forthcoming until the service is reduced.
To reinforce their demands, the british sent down an expediter to find out why the service had not yet been reduced and to determine how the job could be done quickly and efficiently.
Two psychologists from Jamaica, experts in handling stress and pressure in connection with job loss have been holding meetings with the civil servants either to empower them or to view themselves as victims.
The firing of the four clerical workers at the port authority is only the tip of the iceberg.
Government will be seeking any excuse that it can seize upon to reduce the ranks of the civil service.
The civil service is the only organization large enough to make government stand up and listen. How the leadership handles their upcoming situation may be the watershed for organised labour in this little island.
Despite all their troubles and their obvious unpopularity, the NPP anticipates that it can win another election.
Actions and propaganda that only happen when an election is close are the items of the day.
The government propaganda sheet and the government radio station both run by political aspirants continue to paint a rosy picture of stability and progress.
The public relations officer and the chief information officer, both hoping to use their positions as stepping stones into the political arena, control, edit and disseminate information with total disregard for balanced reporting.
The March issue of the government's propaganda sheet quoted the chief minister in a full front-page headline saying, "We are better off today."
When questioned in the legislative council about the headline, the chief minister responded that he was not responsible for what his public relations officer wrote.
The signs are there, nevertheless, and depending on how well they survive the next few months, one can anticipate an attempt to hold on to the reins of power through a snap election sometime before their term expires.
For all their strong-armed tactics, the british need the spineless and easily controlled NPP government to maintain office into the year 2000.
With 1997 being the key year, the british have to know who the players will be.
They cannot wait until the end of 1996 and then depend on a group of unknowns to carry through and solidify their strangle-hold on Montserrat.
The politicians, anticipating the easy defeat of NPP, are all jockeying for their imagined control of the island.
Consensus among them is that under no circumstances can NPP regain control. Unfortunately, their anticipation of easily becoming the next puppets have blinded them to some basic realities.
In 1987 the government of PLM under John Osborne self-destructed.
The ministers were publicly castigating each other. There was open mutiny in the administration and ministers intrigued and plotted openly against their leader.
The PDP of Austin Bramble and the newly formed NDP of Bertrand Osborne formed the opposition.
Not only was the PLM party unpopular and unproductive, but unity at the leadership level had become non-existent.
When the PDP and the NDP announced that they had formed a coalition to contest the '87 elections, PLM was dead.
Instead of securing their victory and then negotiating leadership roles, NDP published headlines in its newspaper and carried statements by its party leader that Austin Bramble could not lead him anywhere.
The rest is history. Disillusioned and confused, opposition voters split their votes and a minority block of staunch PLM supporters put their lame duck party back in power.
If there is internal dissension in the NPP, it is not being aired publicly. If the minister of Communications & Works, who crossed the floor and is not a true member of the group, is ready to walk, all indicators point to the merchant legislator crossing the floor to maintain the NPP.
Currently, there are three would-be leaders seeking to put together political parties. As the saying goes, politics make strange bedfellows and any number of combinations of names can be heard as one moves around.
At the end of the day, there may be as many as 5 parties and numerous independent candidates contesting the next election.
The voting pattern of the populace is one tied to parties and the dynamism that the party and its leader brings.
The voting pattern is one tied to rum shops and the graft connected to vote buying.
The voting pattern is one tied to the emotion of the moment and the group that can evoke enough of that emotion to gather a following.
There has been no indication, to date, of a politically aware and educated populace.
There has been no indication, to date, of a voting public seeking deep political analysis from its candidates and making proper political decisions based on the ability of the candidates to deliver.
There has been no show of willingness, to date, by the self-serving and complacent intellectual community to use its intellectual capacity and energy to insure that Montserrat gets the best person for the job.
Since 1987, minority governments have won elections as the populace splits its votes.
Regardless of how many of us feel about the NPP, it has shown its ability to deliver.
Regardless of the negative effects that many of their programs have had on the social fabric of the society, they have demonstrated their ability to ruthlessly exploit the weakness of the people, in order to execute a plan.
Despite their lack of creativity to plan a future for Montserrat in the best interest of Montserrat, they have demonstrated that they can administer a colonial bureaucracy.
Regardless of how and why the british have released Hugo aid funds to them, they have solid physical structures to show for their time in office.
No matter how unpopular they may be, they still have a block of staunch diehard supporters and hangers on.
Granted, the overwhelming majority of voters will vote against them.
However, the more choices and confusion that the opposition forces upon the people, the greater the possibility that an NPP minority government returns to power.
Recognising the counter-productive nature of this article, it was written with great reluctance.
Knowing that the counter-revolutionary forces (british gov't, their NPP puppets and supporters) will benefit from the information, I can only hope that opposition forces take a harder and more realistic view of their respective positions.
To eat the pie you must have it in your hand.
The british have no written constitution.
However, as former colonies forced england to release them from bondage, the british insisted on taking part and in most instances, creating completely the constitution that governed their former colonies.
Guyana was the only former colony that sent the british and its constitution packing.
Today, every former british colony that accepted the british constitutional formula suffers from a constitutional crisis.
The recent history of politics in the caribbean has been one of constitution.
In Barbados, the government was toppled because the Prime Minister determined that the constitution gave him powers to hire and fire.
In St. Kitts, a minority government holds on to power because the constitution gives the governor-general the right to decide.
In Anguilla (a colony), the problem between Mr Hughes and the governor lies with the powers granted to the governor by the constitution.
These are some of the most recent cases.
The problem rears its head constantly at different times and places. This is so because in every instance, all the british did was to take their colonial governmental system and hand it over intact to their former colonies.
Even though supposedly independent, all were tied systematically to colonialism, monarchically to the crown and judicially to the privy council.
We were novices, new entrants into the arena of administration and control of the reins of power and so we were taken.
Everything that we have inherited from our former masters is designed to insure that whether obvious or implied the images of superiority and inferiority, of master and slave, of technologically-developed and unscientific and undeveloped, and the bringing civilization to the uncivilized is embedded.
It has only been 38 years (Ghana in 1957) at the far end and 12 years (St. Kitts, 1983) at the short end, but the problem is being addressed.
Ghana, coming out of its military rule, has rewritten its constitution.
Jamaica is holding a referendum on the need to move away from the monarchic system towards becoming a republic.
Trinidad & Tobago has made the issue of privy council appeal a political one.
The British Virgin Islands (colony) have demanded and gotten from england a review of their constitution.
Nigeria, the most populous Afrikan nation, and potentially the nation from which Pan- Africanism will generate, is suffering from the problem of constitution.
There are some African-American apologists (Jesse Jackson, Randolph Robinson, et al) seeking to bring American interference into the internal affairs of Nigeria.
In their limited understanding they believe that only they and the white American power structure can solve the problems of Afrikans wherever they may be.
The people of Nigeria are dealing with their military generals. They have let it be known that they will not sit forever under military control.
The military for its part say they want to give to the people a constitution that serves the needs of Nigeria.
The military will be moved.
The constitution will come. If it does not serve the needs of the people it will be addressed.
Afrikans, whether in Afrika or the diaspora, have a traditional and cultural application of government to the people which is different from that of the european's.
By going back to our traditional, cultural and historical roots, we will design for ourselves a system that will allow us to function as people in this present world that confronts us.
From the initial genocidal contact with the european on the west coast of Afrika in the 16th century to the present, our warrior women and men have dedicated their life's force to insure Afrikans would not become a footnote in the pages of the history of humanity under the classification of extinct.
There has been a continuous link stretching from Afrika across the Atlantic from generation to generation that kept that revolutionary flame alive.
The epitome of our collective response down through the centuries manifested itself in the personality of the Honourable Marcus Garvey in the early 20th century.
When we choose our present heroes, we must assess their contributions, achievements, and growth in relation to their longevity while fighting for our cause.
The yardstick for making that judgement will be based on how well they have applied the principles synthesized by the Master Marcus Moshia Garvey.
In 1936 Marcus Garvey spoke to the people of Montserrat and urged them to pursue diligently the development of their intelligence.
In March 1995, Kwame Ture visited Montserrat, and once again appealed to the intelligence of the masses to throw off their colonial yoke and seek their Independence.
When we look into Kwame Ture, we see a revolutionary warrior who has dug trenches, held the line, and advanced the front.
Kwame Ture first enters our consciousness in the 1960s. As a member of the Student Non-Violent Co-ordinating Committee, (SNCC) he devoted much of his energy towards the organisation of resistance and the upliftment of the Afrikan in america that included voter registration, and mass demonstrations in the deep south.
This was a time when entering the south in that capacity was the same as entering apartheid south africa in the 1980s.
In 1966, he became the Chairman of the SNCC.
In Black Power, a book that he co-authored in 1967, we see Kwame Ture articulating as the central theme, the politics of the Afrikan minority in a controlled and oppressed racist society.
He states, "This book presents a political framework and ideology which represents the last reasonable opportunity for this society to work out its racial problems short of prolonged destructive guerilla warfare."
While the central theme was the struggle for the mental, political and economic control of the Afrikan in america, it is clear that the relationship of the struggle on the global scope was already being formed.
"... Black power means that Black people see themselves as a part of a new force, sometimes called the "Third World"; that we see our struggle as closely related to liberation struggles around the world."
Appealing to the growing militancy of young people in the urban ghettos of america, Kwame Ture and other spokesmen of the times were able to offer to the frustrated youths, an alternative to the middle-class oriented and white-controlled civil rights movement.
At the end of his chairmanship of the SNCC, Kwame Ture became the Honourary Chairman of the Black Panther Party.
In 1968, due to "internal contractions," Kwame resigned from the party, left america and moved to Guinea on the west coast of Afrika where he was invited by Kwame Nkrumah to become his political secretary.
In Afrika, Kwame became a student of the two dominant personalities, who lead the way for Afrikan liberation from colonialism and established the guidelines for a united Africa, Pan-Africanism.
These two personalities were Sekou Toure, the President of Guinea, and Kwame Nkrumah, President of Ghana (deposed by coup) and co-president of Guinea.
Kwame Ture states that his name was given to him by these two luminaries of Afrikan Liberation.
Mr Ture also says that from the time of that invitation he became fully committed to the ideals of Pan-Africanism.
In 1968 the All- African Peoples Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) began to take concrete expression and form with the creation of the first A- APRP Work Study Circle in Guinea.
Its membership literature states: "The A-APRP is an Independent, Socialist, Mass, revolutionary political party, working to organise the masses of African People scattered all over the world. Our objective is Pan-Africanism, the total liberation and unification of Africa.
Our ideology is Nkrumaism. Nkrumaism is an ideology which has developed through centuries of struggle by African people to free ourselves from brutal, racist oppression of our nation and class exploitation. It is scientific.
It is revolutionary. The AAPRP is a small but growing party with members and supporters throughout the world -- Africa, Europe, South America, The Caribbean, North America, and all of the places where our people have been scattered.
Its members and supporters are struggling and working hard to educate and organise our people into a unified, strong, and revolutionary political force to liberate our land, Africa and our people, Africans."
For the next twenty five years Kwame Ture worked diligently building the credibility of the party.
In his lecture to the people of Montserrat, Kwame Ture synthesized the history of Afrikan peoples, the struggle over the past 250 to regain our humanity, the philosophy of Nkrumaism, and the position that Montserrat occupies in the struggle.
In explaining the ideology of Nkrumaism, he pointed out that all systems function through their ideology and that there must be a connecting theme in all the institutions that make the system function.
Socialism, he states, is simply the economic system that makes the ideology of Nkrumaism function logically.
To illustrate this point, he showed how the ideology of materialism is driven by the economic system of capitalism.
All institutional ideology in the west is geared toward the reinforcement of the economic system of capitalism.
On the issue of independence, he pointed out to the people that no normal, self-aware people would willingly submit themselves to remain a colony under the control of the people who enslaved their fore- parents.
He urged Montserratians to organise themselves and raise their level of awareness so they would be better prepared to deal with their colonial controllers.
Kwame Ture is currently the Chairman of the A-APRP with chapters and supporters throughout the world.
He has roots on the island of Montserrat and came here through our affiliation with A- APRP chapters in the Virgin Islands.
His mental growth, tenacity and longevity over 35 years from, civil rights activist, to militant revolutionary to global Pan-Africanism shows the path we all need to tread.
His dedicated service in the forefront of our struggle makes him one of Garvey's children, a true Pan-Afrikan Revolutionary Hero.
"No normal, self-aware people would willingly submit themselves to remain a colony under the control of the people who enslaved their fore- parents."
" Organise yourselves and raise your level of awareness so you would be better prepared to deal with your colonial controllers."
KWAME TURE (formerly Stokley Carmichael) Speaking to the People of Montserrat on Independence and Self Awareness, March 1995.
"No people in the history of the world have remained willing slaves of another. No country in the history of the world have remained a willing colony of another."
"The continuing struggle to raise the level of awareness, will one day bring Montserratians to the realization that we too have a right to self determination."
MWONGOZI CHEDDY BROWNE Addressing the People of Montserrat.