The underlying difference
between the two factors of the early Labour Party and
trades union was the difference in their approach to
and understanding of Garveyism.
Manchester, Challenger, Ribeiro Harney and the likes
were men of clearly mixed ancestry, who also enjoyed
economic independence. Although they could not easily
deny their black precedents, it was not so easy for
them to embrace Africa.
The claim of Africa on Kittitian society was as resistible
then as it is now especially amongst that segment of
Kittitian society which displays a clear measure of
European characteristics in their faces and hair.
Thus, quite predictably, Africa did not appeal to Manchester
and Challenger with the impact with which it appealed
to Sebastian and Nathan.
Furthermore these men had already lived Marcus Garvey's
dream for black people. They were businessmen they were
rich and they were comfortable. With the help of their
parents' legacies and the colour, of their skin they
had escaped the oppression of which Marcus Garvey spoke.
In the context of St. Kitts, Garveyism had very little
practical value for them.
Sebastian, on the other hand, was the soul brother of
Marcus Garvey. He was unmistakenly black and he had
dedicated his life in St. Kitts to the oppressed, most
of whom were also unmistakenly black.
These black people had no misgivings about their African
origins and it was therefore easy for Sebastian to relate
to them. He established a bond with Marcus Garvey and
spread his message in the Union Messenger. He corresponded
with Garvey and invited him to St. Kitts where he spoke
at the MIS Hall.
Nathan had seen Garveyism in action in New York and
was motivated, by the great message of hope for black
people, to serve his fellow Kittitians. It was the first
great message out of slavery. It raised the Black man's
expectations of himself, enhanced his self-esteem and
straightened his psychological backbone.
The Marcus Garvey message was a powerful force in St.
Kitts in the 1930s. It came at a time when young black
men, of canefield parentage were searching for a better
life than what the cane field had to offer. It was a
clear call to excellence for other young men, not of
cane field parentage, like Edgar Bridgewater, Walter
Edwards, William Herbert and George Warner.
Marcus Garveyism was also a call to duty of a generation
of black teachers: F.W. Christopher, H.A. Hanley, S.G.
Beach, Morton and Crosse in Nevis.
They trained and supervised their staff, and although
they were restricted by a colonial curriculum, what
they taught by precept and example was that Black people
should be proud of their African ancestry and that Africans
in the Caribbean were inferior to no other race.
The Garvey movement touched every facet of the Black
Kittitian society and even those who had no particular
affiliation could not escape its contagion.
It was this force that energized the Black segment of
the Workers Movement and, against the ambivalence of
the brown segment, they eventually won the fight for
ascendancy.
Robert Bradshaw was one of the young black men who was
inspired by the message of Marcus Garvey. Born in the
village of St. Paul's, he attended the elementary school
in the village. He finished his schooling early and
came to Basseterre where he spent the time with his
mother who lived at the guest house at Golden Rock.
As the guest house keeper, his mother Jane Francis worked
directly for the general manger, whose overseas guests
she catered for occasionally.
In this environment Robert came into frequent contact
with white people and, as his later years seem to show,
was intimately affected by their language and manners.
When he was 16, he got an apprenticeship in the machine
shop at the sugar factory and would have become a mechanical
engineer had he not sustained an injury to his right
hand during a lark with a fellow worker. The hand healed
but it left him with a deformity, which remained with
him to rest of his life.
In the aftermath of the riots in 1935, he showed his
interest in the workers' movement by rising and making
a speech at one of their meetings. He caught the attention
of the union leaders in 1940 after the wildcat strike
in which he participated.
What made the strike illegal was that it was not negotiated.
It was said to be a strike for recognition and the initiative
was taken by the workers Both Robert Bradshaw and Nathaniel
Bass participated in the strike.
The management of the sugar factory, enraged by the
audacity of the workers to strike gave them an ultimatum
and advertised their jobs. The union was now forced
to negotiate the return of the workers to their jobs
and the manager now had the option to re-employ those
whom he chose.
It was Challenger's intention to employ two of the strikers,
Bradshaw and Bass, to work with the union leadership.
Bass was to stay at the union headquarters where he
would be a senior clerk.
Bradshaw was assigned to work at the factory as shop
steward, to negotiate between the management and the
worker on the floor, in the first instance to resolve
disputes before they could lead to work stoppage.
However, the general manager was adamant that he did
not want Robert Bradshaw anywhere on the factory premises
and the union compromised by changing these two young
men around.
As it turned out Basil Davis, the general manager, had
inadvertently handed the Labour Movement a great gift
in Robert Bradshaw, because the young man worked with
Matthew Sebastian, helped with the newspaper, learned
from Sebastian the art of speech and became not only
a formidable rival of the sugar industry but a very
persuasive and charismatic orator.
When he took over after Sebastian's death in 1942 Bradshaw
was very humble in his approach to the public. He traveled
to the neighbourhods at night, meeting the neighbours
on their stone bleaches, ringing his bell to call the
people to hear him.
On Sundays he and his executives visited the villages,
holding meetings in some supporter's yard, encouraging
the workers to support the union. He sang hymns.
With his rich baritone he raised the songs and recited
the words for the gathering to sing:
He liked:
Lord thy word abideth,
And thy footsteps guideth,
Who in truth believeth,
Life and joy receiveth.
The one he seemed
to like best was:
Hark the sound of holy voices,
Chanting at the crystal sea,
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah
Lord to Thee.
Multitudes which none can number,
Like the stars in glory stand,
Clothed in white apparel, holding
Palms of victory in their hand.
They have come from tribulation,
And have washed their robes in blood,
Washed them in the blood of Jesus,
Tried they were and firm they stood,
Mocked, imprisoned, stoned,
tormented,
Sawn asunder, slain with swords,
They have conquered death
and Satan,
By the might of Christ the Lord.
Bradshaw was by no means a devoutly religious man
why he opened and closed his meetings with a hymn.
His choice of hymns was that of the people. They were
the songs, which the people sang at their regular
service of songs, which they used to hold in different
villages and town corners at different times during
the year.
He kept close the people. When he held public meetings
at Warner Park, the people flocked to hear him. They
stood and sat on the grass to hear him. They took
their children with them to hear him.
|
