One may say that with the passing of Basdeo Panday, former prime minister, feisty Opposition leader before that, and trade union agitator even before, that we have come to the end of an era in T&T.
But have we entered the beginning of another one? I do not know. It is hard to say.
In European history, we have eras like classical and medieval, defining a century or more, at a time. In our time, we are familiar with the post-World War II era. In T&T, we talk of the Williams era, or the post-Independence era, or the post-COVID lockdown era.
In T&T’s history, 1937 was a watershed year in terms of labour agitation and anti-colonial rebellion.
But when the nationalist movement came in 1955 with Dr Eric Williams in the lead and won the most seats as the PNM party in the Legislative Council in 1956, Tubal Uriah Butler, who had led riots, and became a fugitive in 1937, was not part of the new power structure. And while the anti-colonial resistance continued, the workers’ struggle got lost, and the era of Williams eclipsed and left behind, the era of Butler. Workers’ causes were never central to the policies of the PNM and the DLP, the official opposition at the time.
The Butler era reared its head again though, in 1970 through Makandal Dagga, who had grown up in the household of his father, who was an avid and sincere Butlerite. And in 1969, the labour movement, resisting the Industrial Stablisation Act, brought workers out in the street in a confrontational mood.
The search for a new political order was on, within the first decade of national Independence, and a range of currents was unleashed. The New World Movement had begun the intellectual discourse; worker aspirations through organised labour, which had been left behind, were searching for political space; the Butlerite anti- colonialism which was disrupted by nationalist fervour was groping for an anchor. But in this period too, emerged identity politics, afro-centric in nature, and, in hindsight, one might say now, the beginnings of the reparations movement which is currently gaining momentum; as well as the recognition of the failure of the 1956 nationalist movement to include Indians and poor Africans sincerely and genuinely. This is what gave resonance to the march to Caroni led by Daaga and others, to reach out to Central Trinidad, under the banner of Africans and Indians unite. Daaga had, some weeks before, made a dramatic visit to Beetham, where he had railed at the conditions of living in what was then known as Shanty Town.
Clearly, one of Daaga’s objectives was to heal the wounds of identity, and demolish divisive politics that pitted Africans and Indians against each other in election battles. From his view, these battles, which resulted in predictable hollow victories of the PNM and bitter and futile losses of the DLP, made little sense.
1970 and immediately after, saw an explosion of political fervour for something different. Restlessness with PNM and DLP politics was beginning to show, through the formation of new parties with dissidents from the main parties, creating the Liberal Party and the Workers and Farmers Party. While significant political figures at the time like Peter Farquar, Balgobin Ramdeen and Tajmool Hosein formed the Liberals, CLR James, Basdeo Panday and Stephen Maharaj formed the Workers and Farmers Party. Stephen Maharaj was also a Butlerite, CLR James was a Marxist and Basdeo Panday a socialist, not unlike Williams or Rudranath Capildeo.
The impact of NJAC in 1970, did not translate into electoral support at any time. And 1971 saw a no-vote campaign by the opposition forces, with PNM victory in all 36 seats. And while the Republican Constitution of 1976 was being put in place by officialdom, voices of opposition and discord were growing. Lloyd Best founded Tapia, ANR Robinson formed the DAC, weekly newspapers started to proliferate, and the agitation on behalf of sugar workers began under Panday, after, the death of Bhadase Sagan Maraj and the deposition of Rampartap Singh.
It was in this heady time, when the labour movement was becoming agitated, when new political parties and political perspectives were forming, when suspicion was growing about the meaning of national Independence, that Panday entered the political fray with the Workers and Farmers Party, became leader of the All Trinidad Sugar Estates and Factory Workers’ Trade Union, became a senator, collaborated with other trade unions and union leaders and founded with them the United Labour Front (ULF), which made him the Opposition leader after the 1976 election. It was a time of many storms, much turbulence and many controversies and Panday was at the centre for four decades.
Who knows what might emerge in the post-Panday era in T&T?
