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| Herbert's Mission Un Accomplished |
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When the Peoples Action Movement (PAM)
emerged in the mid-1960s the people of St Kitts shrugged
it off as just another mushroom opposition party, rise
today, fall tomorrow. That seemed to have been the pattern
in those days about 50 years ago. A group of citizens
would take offence at some statement or act of Robert
Bradshaw, and rallying some fellow citizens around them,
would prepare feverishly for the forthcoming general
elections. They would campaign, lose and disappear into
the darkness.
That was how it seemed but that was not really how it
was.
The truth was that all these apparently sporadic mushrooms
of political parties were orchestrated by one man, William
Valentine Herbert Sr who was driven by a passion for
democracy as well as by the conviction that it would
never be realized in our situation where the political
arena was the sole domain of a single popular and charismatic
leader, Robert Llewellyn Bradshaw.
Herbert and Bradshaw knew each other well. They were
both villagers. Herbert was a Sandy Pointer while Bradshaw
was a St Paulian. They had come to town early in their
lives and had become involved with a group of young
black men who had caught the vision black empowerment
through education and social refinement.
They were a new breed of Kittitian black men.
At the beginning of the 19 hundreds Kittitian black
men were mainly preoccupied with working on the sugar
estates or at the docks. That situation changed radically
after 1912 when the central sugar factory was installed
in Basseterre. Many of the young men who had migrated
to Basseterre found jobs at the sugar factory either
as clerical workers or technicians in one of the many
departments of the factory complex.
Many of these uprising black men formed mutual bonds
through church membership, cricket clubs, and lodges
and membership of one of many fraternities which had
sprung up in Basseterre in after the end of World War
1. Herbert joined the Roman Catholic Church and formed
the Eagles Club of young graduates from the St Kitts
Nevis Grammar School. Bradshaw joined the Workers League
and became e young trade unionist. Both men worked at
the sugar factory, Herbert in an office, Bradshaw in
the machine shop.
These two men might well have been rival siblings, both
imbued by the same spirit of ambition but both in its
pursuit by different and opposing paths While Herbert
honed his social skills in the environment of the sugar
factory office, Bradshaw paraded his gifts among the
rough laboring class.
In 1948 Robert Bradshaw led his trade union into a protracted
13-week strike in the sugar industry.The repercussions
for the economy was enormous. The workers suffered immensely
while their leader gained enormous fame. William Herbert,
who had sided with the sugar industry and had emerged
from the dispute as a hero of the planters, was appointed
to the post of Labour Relations Officer.
William Herbert was skillful in the discharge of his
mandate as Labour Relations Officer He did his utmost
to enhance the social outlook of the sugar workers throughout
the island. He got the industry to invest in cricket
gear and promoted cricket matches among the estates
and the sugar factory. He also tried to improve their
night life by acquiring a cinema projector and entertaining
the villagers in the age before televisions and computers.
His objective was of course to offer the villagers an
alternative to Robert Bradshaw's union. When he felt
that he had in some measure succeeded he began in earnest
the pursuit of his dream of democracy. He decided to
form a political party.
He invited one of his friends, Captain Jack Wigley,
to lead it. Jack Wigley was a son of the white aristocracy
of St Kitts. His family were land owners and his grand
father was a Chief Justice of the Leeward Islands Supreme
Court. What made him an acceptable prospect to his friend
Herbert was that as a boy he and his two brothers Frank
and Christopher (Kit)had grown up on the fringe of New
Town where they developed lifelong friendships with
many of the Black families of neighborhood of fishermen,
farmers, rumshop keepers, stevedore workers and sugar
workers.
In addition, he was a popular cricketer, a captain who
bowled well, thrilled the spectators with powerful sixes
and led St Kitts to victory over Antigua.
Herbert's other choices for the election were James
Claxton, Basil Samuels, Allan Sommersal the respectable
joiner of Sandy Point and Icen Wharton, manager of the
Spooner's Sweet Oil Factory
James Claxton was one of the black uprisers. He had
worked as a Lawyers clerk and then branched into his
own auctioneering and real estate business He married
Jack Wigley's sister and raised his large respectable
family at the top of College Street. He was a successful
and considered by many as a good role model of black
success He crowned his many achievements by his total
involvement in social and recreational activities such
as boxing and cricket .
It was an exciting campaign which the challengers of
Robert Bradshaw predictably lost they did not return
to the fight. Jack Wigley went on with his business
at Delisle Walwyn, Claxton continued his auctioneering
and all the rest of them quietly resumed what they were
doing before they join in the challenge of Robert Bradshaw.
Only Herbert remained standing Undaunted, he persisted
with the newspaper,"The Democrat" and every
week he inspired the people with the hope of democracy.
He kept a steady eye open for the next chance to challenge
Bradshaw at the polls. The chance came in 1960 when
from behind the scenes he encouraged his friend Maurice
Davis, a brilliant lawyer who had defected from Bradshaw
to form a party of his own. Davis who had won election
with Robert Bradshaw entered the fray with more confidence
and greater optimism than the aristocratic Jack Wigley.
His team was only slightly less high browed. It included
John Vanier, Joseph Astaphan, Clear Tweed and Cardinal
Christmas and ex-teacher Liburd. They also loss because
the voters perceive them to be agents of big business
and the sugar industry and even Mr. Davis who had once
run under the Labour banner did not win a seat. William
Herbert was learning his lessons, he was learning that
to beat Robert Bradshaw and the Labour Party, any opposition
must develop a rapport with grassroots people.
It took a long time but he persisted until he could
persuade his own son to continue his strategy of rapping
at the grass roots level. When the People's Action Movement
started they tried that strategy in St. Kitts, Nevis
and Anguilla. It took them a while but the movement
snowballed until in 1980 the Peoples Actions Movement
in coalition with the victorious party in Nevis won
an election in St. Kitts.
They won three (3) other elections and became complacent,
failed to continue in the strategy of their original
motivator, relaxed their guard and lost the election
of 1995 .
The phenomenon of a party which once held power reduced
to a 40% trailer in the polls is due to the fact that
all through its existence its leaders refuse to campaigned
in the are Newton Ground to Saddlers.
This is what is known as a Labour stronghold and it
is baffling that over these many years the People's
Action Movement has not found a way to cultivate this
large area and groom it's generations of young people
in the philosophy of an alternative party.
The repeated outcomes of this serious neglect is that
the present holder of that seat, freed from any challenge
to his survival, is able to distribute his surplus votes
to other constituencies where the PAM might have had
a marginal edge.
This is the real crux of the continuous defeat of the
People Action Movement which has consistently failed
to rise to the promise of an alternative government.
The gallant and painstaking ground work selflessly laid
by William Valentine Herbert, Senior, has been left
unfinished. |
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