In honour of the men and women of 1970

AIYEGORO OME

THE 50TH anniversary of the state of emergency which was declared on April 21, 1970, should be a date for sober reflection on where we have come from. I say sober because I will not concede to be part of romantic nostalgia. It was a time when state-sanctioned terror was unleashed on TT following the 56 days of the TT revolution of 1970 (the Black Power Revolution).

People were jailed, beaten and died (Kirkland Paul and other members of NUFF are dead), because they fought against a colonial order which the then administration refused to transform despite the declaration of our independence in 1962. Now after covid19 we have to prepare ourselves to rebuild a society that has been shattered by this vicious invisible entity.

Whatever setbacks have taken place between then and now, there is no doubt that NJAC and the 1970 movement laid a foundation on which TT could build a more humane society.

In 1972 the late Chief Servant Makandal Daaga said: “We want a society built on the psychological basis of man so that the old person who has given his life to the society can be cared for; the child who is coming up will be seen as the fruit of the nation to be nurtured; the man and woman would be provided with food, shelter, education, clothing and employment. And in return we demand of that man that he give of his best.”

I ask that we pay homage to the activists of the 1970s. The roll call is important for those who have passed on. They are ancestors who can live only if we recall their names. Pre-eminent is the late Daaga, who founded NJAC on February 26, 1969. The deceased co-founders were: George Weekes, John Commissiong, Lionel Beckles (OWTU), Selwyn John (NUGFW), Shirley Jones and Alfred Frazer (UWI), Francis Beddoe and Joe Young (TIWU).

The existing NJAC founders are: Khafra Kambon (Emancipation Support Committee), Augustus Ramrekhersingh (then UWI, later former minister of education), Errol Balfour (WEA), Clive Nunez and Langston Roach (then UWI, now Lanher Industries). I am proud to have been among that group. But we must never forget the late Michael Als (Young Power) and Winston Suite (UMROBI) who started separate movements in south Trinidad, almost around the same time.

Several deceased NJAC activist come to mind: Anum Bankole, Lidj Yasu Omowale, Lasana Kwasi, Alvin Adams, Vibert Harriet, Hugh Peschier, Urban Mason, and John Macam (north); Winston Lennard, Damani Menkaura, Ato Moyo, Imani Candia, Keith Simmons, and Kenneth “Gamba” O’Brien (south); Dedan Kimathi, Mansa Musa, and Jomo Akinyele (west), and Oba Jomo (East).

The late women of 1970 were: Janice Leonard, Mona Blake, Mother Inez (Antigua-born), Abenkina Ome, Onika Grainger, and Tobagonian Zinga (Rosalyn Henry). Still fulfilling their commitments are Liseli Daaga, wife of the Chief Servant, Apoesho Mutope, Olabise Kuboni, Opoku Ware, Kasala Kamara, Ako Mutota, Makemba Kunle, Equino Moyo and June Romeo-Mc Millan.

And let’s honour that cohort of younger people, pioneers of NJAC’s youth arm, many of whom are functioning in different roles here and overseas: Chi Kamose, Kamau Chow Tai, Babu Ketema, Babu Syaam, Thuku Moheni, Reginald “Sekou” Critchlow (TT Postal Workers Union), Josanne Lennard, Martin Alexander, Embau Moheni, and Ako Sakura.

One of the most notable is Roger Toussaint of the Transport Workers Union in New York. He called the 2005 New York City transit strike.

Just as after his union had shut down the transport system in New York, Toussaint mentioned that he was expelled from CIC for student activity in the early 1970s. He said that most of his political and social consciousness as well as his organisational skills were as a result of his student experience.

All the 1970 activists have invaluable lessons for this time.