Barbados is being held back and taken down a path of decline!
And the fundamental cause of this state of affairs is that the narrow elites and small incestuous political in-groups that control mechanisms of governance have outlived their usefulness, are producing very little of substance, and are holding back and frustrating the masses of Barbadian people!
The Peoples Empowerment Party (PEP) firmly believes that the tens of thousands of ordinary Barbadian citizens are equipped and ready to assume much greater control of the Barbadian polity and economy, but are being kept away from real power by the parasitical little groups of politicians, business magnates, trade union bureaucrats, bankers, and agents of foreign powers, who currently maintain something of a stranglehold on the fundamental decision-making power in Barbados.
Evidence of the capacity, insight and sophistication of the so-called ordinary working class people of Barbados abounds!
Take, for example, the recent Alexandra issue.
Long before Prime Minister Freundel Stuart devised a solution to this issue, the ordinary people of Barbados, in their wisdom, had come to the conclusion that it was wrong for any of the contending adult parties to cause injury to children who had been placed in their care and for whom they possessed a parent-like responsibility.
And so, the multitude of ordinary workers were demanding that the teachers resume teaching the even as they continued to contend with Mr Jeff Broomes and the Ministry of Education.
The great Caribbean philosopher, C.L.R. James, expressed the following estimation of the contemporary working class: “These are not slaves of Imperial Rome or peasants in ancient Assyria. A modern working man, whether he is in the plant or mine with his co-workers, lives by the ideas of universal secondary education, religious toleration, care of children and of the aged, freedom of speech and assembly, mastery of technical processes and self-government in industry, world peace – elevated conceptions which would stun into awed silence the most gifted minds of Western Civilization from Plato and Aristotle to Kant and Hegel.”
The PEP makes bold to say that Barbados is not making the most productive use of the resources of the country – the natural, intellectual, creative, institutional and capital resources. How can we, when intellectually bankrupt elites and political in-groups are so intent on preserving their positions of privilege and dominance?
In order to live their privileged existence, many of our national resources have to be directed toward relatively un-productive ends and wasteful consumer spending.
Furthermore, the elites are forced to hold back the masses of working people, thereby restricting the development of a fully energised, production-focused society.
Barbados can and will do better – much better – if and when the tens of thousands of literate, educated, socially conscious, cooperative and responsible working people take greater control over national decision-making and administration, and use their newly acquired power to shape a society and economy that are much more focused on delivering enhanced life opportunities for all Barbadians, and on unleashing the creative and productive energies of the Barbadian people.
