The Caribbean, on the eve of the decade of the seventies was astir with radical thought among certain strata-especially students and the urban young. That arc of English speaking Caribbean islands, from Jamaica in the north, Dominica at its center, to Trinidad in the south would experience a wave of discontent which would culminate in riots, reformist measures and outright revolutionary attempts at restructuring the social order bequeathed the islands by British colonialism. On October 16, 1968 thousands of Jamaicans had taken to the streets to voice their grievances at what they considered an inequitable social order inherited from colonialism and maintained by the new ruling elite. The demonstrators, spurred on in some measure by intellectuals such as Guyanese born University of the West Indies (U.W.I) lecturer Walter Rodney were enraged at the sense of powerlessness which was the lot of the mass of black Jamaicans (and Caribbean people in general) in a post-independence era. In Trinidad angry voices were being heard through organizations like the National Joint Action Committee (NJAC), which held that independence had only ushered in a new period of misrule. By April of 1970, protests calling for "black power" would turn violent and a portion of the army (sent in to crush the protest!) would mutiny. That the misrule vociferated against was in "blackface" was no more tolerable than the previous British variety, of bemedalled geriatric governors decked out in plumed funny hats and peacock feathers. Most important, however, was the feeling that the independence garnered by the countries like Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados and Guyana in the early sixties, was still held hostage to the diktat of foreign capital, be it British, Canadian or American . Rightly or wrongly, the perception of a good many of those who had attained high school or university education was that their local political leaders were nothing more than pliant tools in the hands of old colonial interests. Stung by the challenge and feeling threatened, the local ruling political classes would respond with disdain at the (mostly young) radical "upstarts", speak nervously about "communist instigation", engage in punitive measures, and sometimes make reformist gestures. The criticism being leveled at the status quo in these British colonies had been given resonance by others. Fellow islander, Martiniquan psychiatrist, revolutionary and scholar, Frantz Fanon had bluntly criticized the new ruling elites of the former colonial territories:

The national bourgeoisie will be quite content with the role of the Western bourgeoisie's business agent...it is already senile before it has come to know the petulance, the fearlessness, or the will to succeed of youth.

Through newspapers, travel, returning U.W.I graduates and other mediums, such sentiments as Fanon's were disseminated. That impatience born of the perceived inadequacies of the status quo would find a vehicle in an increasingly vigorous search by Caribbean people for a non-subservient cultural identity and new forms of political expression. That search would touch Dominica's shores.

Though still a British colony on the eve of that decade, Dominica was, nonetheless, firmly bound by geography, migratory patterns and history to the other English speaking islands. Indeed, it was once part of the ill-fated West Indies Federation . As well, Dominica was well within the cultural and political sphere of the United States (and Canada, to a lesser extent) which sought to assume the mantle of an increasingly remote British hegemony in the region. Like all the English speaking Caribbean territories, Dominica was then, and is (as of this writing), a majority black country. Thus, the ideas spawned by the civil rights struggles of black Americans which convulsed U.S. society in the 1960's were also to filter into the Dominican consciousness. In 1968 U.S. civil rights leader, Martin Luther King had been assassinated. His life and death had been followed closely in Dominica and his death was widely mourned . One year later, Dominican born Rosie Douglas, then a university student in Canada, would be part of a major protest by Caribbean students at Sir George Williams University . He was to later author Change or Chains, a stinging rebuke of colonial rule in Dominica. In time, Douglas would be a major player in the upsurge of Dominican radical politics. With such seeds of change being flung far and wide by an increasingly critical Caribbean intelligentsia, whether such seeds took root (and, indeed, to what depth such roots could grow!) would be function of the objective conditions in each country. In that regard, Dominica proved fertile ground.

Dominica: 1970 In 1970 Dominica was entering into its third year as an associated state with Great Britain. Dominica had formally became a State in Association with Britain on March 1, 1967 . Associated statehood meant that the local Dominican legislature would be responsible for self-government, with Britain retaining responsibility for defence and foreign affairs. Politically, the electorate was divided into two main groups; Laborites (adherents of the Dominica Labor Party); and Freedomites (adherents of the Dominica Freedom Party). The Labor party was born out the efforts of Phyliss Shand Allfrey and E.C. Loblack. Allfrey, female and white, was Dominican by birth and had studied in England. There she adopted socialist ideas and later joined the British Labor Party. Loblack, a public works mason, had been inspired by the trade union activism which swept the English speaking Caribbean following the labor riots of the 1930's. After vigorous organizing amongst the workers, he co-founded Dominica's first trade union, the Dominica Trade Union on January 11, 1945 along with R.E.A. Nicholls, Austin Winston and others . In the mold of the British labor Party the team of Allfrey and Loblack created a Labor party based on the social reformist ideals of Fabian socialism. The party appealed to the port workers, ordinary laborers, and rural peasantry; otherwise, that sector of Dominica's population which is made up of what is commonly termed the "petite bouge" ( or little man) in local french patois.

On May 24, 1955 the Labor party sprang into life from the steps of the Dominica Trade Union Hall in Lagon, Roseau. The Freedom Party came into birth later, in October 1968. It grew out the remnants of the Dominica United Peoples Party which had been swept aside by Labor in the general election of 1961. Labor's ascendancy had its roots in a 1951 revolution in the polling system which had granted every Dominican over the age of 21 the right to vote, without regard to qualifications which previously had sidelined the mass of the population. The Freedom Party, on the other hand, drew its support from (and was perceived by a majority of the population as representing the interests of) the Roseau merchantile and administrative class, while Labor appealed to the masses of rural and urban poor. As well, the ascendancy of Labor was viewed as a conquest of the black majority over a urban mulatto elite which had once held the local legislature in its unchallenged sway. By 1961 a former school teacher from the remote village of Veille Case, Edward O. Leblance headed the Labor government and strengthened the social reformist tendency of his party.

Labor's social reformist policies had increased funding for health and education. In 1947 there were only 38 primary schools on the island providing education to children 5-12 years old. Out of a 12,000 school age population only 5,000 actually attended school for any length of time . The remainder labored in the fields alongside their parents. And even of those who attended, a significant percentage did so spasmodically. A couple hundred of the privileged few attended secondary school in Roseau at the Dominica Grammar School (which was the first secondary school, opened in 1893), St. Mary's Academy, Wesley High School or Convent High school. University education overseas catered to, perhaps, one or two students annually. More than a third of the population was illiterate. However, by 1970 there were 80 schools in operation and plans were also afoot to establish a Dominica center for U.W.I. The Dominica Teachers College project was also on the drawing board and a technical wing (to impart metallurgical, woodwork and electronic skills) had been built to complement the new Dominica Grammar School building. Plans were also in place for a new secondary school, at the second town Portsmouth. Much of the credit for that revolution in education go to two former teachers, W.S. STevens and H.L. Christian, both of whom were (at one time or the other) to later head the Ministry of Education under Labor. Their experience in the field, and dedication, earned them respect and support from their former teacher-colleagues within the system.

The population had also grown healthier. With, the end of the Second World War diseases such malaria and yaws were eradicated by government efforts in conjunction with the World Health Organization. In 1956 the Princess Margaret Hospital opened to provide an additional 240 hospital beds. Smaller hospitals and clinics were set up in the rural areas . As well, several Dominican medical school graduates of U.W.I were beginning to return home to staff the health care system. Even nutrition got a boost from the food aid component to President John F. Kennedy's Alliance for Progress which had been set-up to check any appeal the Cuban revolution might have upon the impoverished Latin American masses. Change had come, but more was desired.

Dominica 1970: The Tinder
By 1970 the children of the rural poor had been granted educational opportunity never, hitherto, realized. With Labor in power, the urban working class perceived that it had powerful friends in the halls of the local legislature. However, such reformist success stirred greater expectations by a significant sector of the population that the economic system could not provide. Though the growth of the banana trade with Britain had proved a boon for the small farmer who had access to land, much of the arable land was held by a few families. In a 1961 census it was found that 1.4 percent of the farmers occupied 56.4 percent of the land . The big northern estates were held by the Armours, Lavilles, and Douglases; the Shillingfords and Rolles Dominated the west coast estates, while the Bellots controlled the major part of the estate holdings in the islands south tier . The landholding pattern had undergone little change since the darkest days of slavery. Thus, the rural peasantry had to squat on mostly inaccessible crown land, generally on sloping ground prone to erosion and landslides. But even those who were able eke an existence out of the land, faced the exploitation and gross inequality of a banana and citrus trade totally monopolized in marketing and shipping by the British based transnational corporation, Geest Industries . The small light industry sector grouped around handicraft, fruit canning and soap-making was unable to absorb sufficient amounts of the high school graduates, far less the elementary school leavers. To most of those graduates agricultural labor was unappealing, steeped as they were in an education patterned on the British public school system. Emigration, was no longer an outlet. Whereas, Dominica was part of the massive movement of Caribbean labor to Britain in the mid-fifties and early sixties, severe restrictions had been imposed by the British in 1961.

Accordingly, emigration to Britain was no longer an option to the growing mass of literate, unemployed and underemployed youth. Earlier destinations, such as the Dutch islands of Curacao and Aruba had dried-up. The U.S. Virgin Islands were an option, but one traversed with great difficulty. Dominica's civil service had expanded to meet the needs of the new health and education initiatives, as well as jobs derivative of political patronage. By 1970, however, the civil service (Dominica's biggest employer) was at saturation point. The financial burden posed by meeting civil service salaries was becoming an increasingly onerous task. There was no state sector in mining, agriculture or fisheries to generate foreign exchange directly into the public coffers to pay for such government expenditures. The biggest government foreign investment deal, a 1966 government contract with a Canadian firm Dom-Can Timbers Ltd. to harvest Dominica's lush forest failed to meet expectations. With $100,000.00 (U.S.) in projected royalties over the first two years of the contract, the government grossed only $15,000.00, as the company saw it fit to cut timber on more easily accessible private land instead of government lands deep in the interior . The old estate families which formed the core of Dominica's national bourgeoisie were content to allow their lands lie fallow, engage, spasmodically, in real estate speculation or, nominally, in the monocrop economy. No new investments in agriculture or industry were made by the old plantocracy which could absorb the expanding legions of literate school leavers, or assist the economy in any measurable way.

The Freedom party of 1970 was more a vehicle for criticism of the Labor regime (which the town-based Freedomites saw as an assault by the formerly powerless rural poor upon their citadel of privilege) than a catalyst for systemic change. To the restless youth it seemed that "change" for the Freedom party meant "change -of-party" (i.e. Freedom instead of Labor), not alteration of a bleak social or economic status quo. Not even political independence was considered to be on the agenda. In the meantime, a new political class created by Labor was becoming more entrenched and lacking in new blood or vision. The socialist idealism which had motivated Labor in the days of Loblack and Allfrey was gone. Indeed, by the mid-1960's both Allfrey and Loblack had parted ways with Labor.

Returning graduates, some of them children of the rural poor who had found opportunity with the Labor victory, were eyed suspiciously, as if carriers of some fatal virus. Presumably, "radicalitis" . To a great extent, a policy of exclusion, rather than inclusion was the fate of those recent university graduates. The historical record will show that the failure by the state to absorb the majority of those graduates had a dual underpinning. First, the economic infrastructure to support graduates in the traditional areas like engineering, law or medicine (at the level of renumeration/consumption most desired) was lacking or under great strain. Second, there existed a genuine fear among the new bureaucracy and political class that returning graduates would edge them out of their jobs or disseminate ideas which were not "politically correct". Such a fear was real, considering that the returnees (though small in number) represented the greatest number of university-level graduates yet produced by Dominica in its recorded history, some of whom had taken part in political disturbances on neighboring islands. Frustrated, some would leave. Others, more defiant, would seek an agency through which to channel their political aspirations. The increasingly literate army of urban youth presented as such an agency. Spawned by the post-war changes and Labor-led reform, that army was in search of direction, in need of jobs, was beginning to question its identity. Were they black-Englishmen, West Indians, Dominicans, what? In 1968 researcher Carleen O'Loughlin of U.W.I had noted:

[Dominica] has been among those exhibiting little haste in the move towards independence. These attitudes may be ascribed to an emphasis on caution, but it may also be possible that Dominica is lacking a nationalist feeling because it has not developed a national culture...At the moment it would be hard to find a West Indian people less given to nationalist introspection...

Self-government was new to Dominica. Emphasis on celebrating national culture on November 3rd, each year was new . But even with what was new, there were signs of impatience. Coupled with the search for a cultural identity, or national purpose, was yearning by youth for the creation of new economic and political space. Thus, at the beginning of the seventies that was Dominica's context. Such was the societal tinder, to which the Dominican intelligentsia was to put a spark.

Black Power: Origins Black power, as it came to be known in Dominica of the 1970's had a distinct foreign impetus. But it would be to miss the point, entirely, if one failed to recognize Dominica's colonial status, and the unresolved issues of color prejudice, interwoven with the economic imperatives of class. As such the issue of whether blacks, i.e. the majority of Dominicans had any power was relevant. Simply put, the Dominican "aristocracy", as far as it was perceived, was mulatto and immersed in color prejudice. By 1970 the white population in Dominica was insignificant in its holdings within the island. Also, Dominica fell well within the confines of economic control exercised by foreign, primarily British, capital: Geest Industries and L. Rose & Co. had a monopoly on the export of bananas and citrus, Dominica's main foreign exchange earners; The Royal Bank of Canada and Barclays Bank International, both foreign, dictated the modus operandi of local finance capital, as well as monopolized foreign exchange transactions by local industry or remittances from Dominicans overseas. The foregoing, is not to disregard the fact that Dominicans like J.B. Charles, R.B. Douglas (and others) were significant players in the world of commerce and agriculture. Or that the bulk of the teachers, policemen, firemen, bank clerks, civil servants and others who constituted what passed for Dominica's growing middle class, were of African descent. In fact the political ascendancy of the reformist Labor party had created the space for an enlargement of the middle-class. Nonetheless, all Dominicans resided within a system of economic control that noted Caribbean academic Lloyd Best had described as "plantation economy further modified"; i.e. passively responsive to metropolitan demand and metropolitan investment; with very little of a "residentiary" sector, locally owned, serving domestic markets, using domestically developed technology, and subject to local influence.

It may have soothed somewhat that in Dominica, unlike other Caribbean islands like Jamaica or Trinidad (where a significant East Indian or Chinese commercial class existed), most small retail sales, rum shops, grocery stores were in the hands of a primarily black, commercial strata. Several significant Roseau stores were, however, owned by Dominicans of Arab extraction; i.e. Philip and Elias Nassief, Josephine Gabriel, George Karam, Wadid Astaphan and others. The old Roseau free colored elite; i.e. the Greens, Shillingfords, Burtons, Edwards, and Philips still maintained stores. However, it was apparent and rather notorious at the time that their businesses were not faring well. It is now commonly felt in Dominica, that several of the Dominicans of Arab extraction threw in their lot with Labor, and so benefited from many government contracts . While the old Roseau elite, which postured (and was otherwise perceived) as an ally of the Freedom party was denied such access to the public coffers. Thus, even if Dominicans of African descent had a better foothold in the economic sphere (albeit, on a local level) than their other Caribbean neighbors of African descent, it still rankled that more control was not possible. As well, the recognition that Dominicans had no real control of their trade with Britain, or that colonialism had not benefited the population after hundreds of years began to gain adherents.

Of equal importance in tracing the origins of black power thought in Dominica, were the psychic scars lashed into the minds of Dominicans by centuries of Western-taught self hate and the ridicule lavished upon Africa and people of African descent. American movies, featuring Tarzan and other white super-heroes lording it over blacks had reinforced that self-hate and ridicule of all things black. That maelstrom of prejudice, self-hate and doubting of self among the African descended population, was reinforced by the prejudices of many who made up the mulatto elite. Marrying "White" (i.e., someone of lighter complexion), was sometimes the preferred route of "escape" by many a local black of accomplishment. "Black like butt" (Butt, being the patois term for a small whale with black, oily skin) was a common pejorative before and during that period. The indigenous Carib people fared little better; castigated, as they were, for being lazy and prone to drink. However, as the racial pride spawned by black power thought took root, the frequency of ethnic or color-based insults decreased. Both among Caribs and African-descended Dominicans, a new pride would prevail.

That such prejudice could find exponents in the press as recently as 1951, is testimony to racism which preceded Labor, and continued (to a lesser extent) afterward. In the Dominica Chronicle of September 22,. 1951 what passes for an editorial piece admonished Dominicans thus:

In England, Englishmen work hard, hard, hard. They can argue and reason in terms of such hardness, but here we would be pure apes to think we can do so...

In that same editorial, the paper told Dominicans:

There is nothing more laughable or fantastic to convince people here, that for all our ills and requirements past and present, and for all other purposes, there exist in Dominica various political parties any one of which will sooner or later be in power.

Thus, on its own, there existed a sufficient local imperative with which to galvanize new cultural awareness and self-respect. Nonetheless Dominicans, their history considered, had shown concern for black struggles overseas. In La Guerre Negre (or the Negro War) of June 1944, a William Ellisonde of Stowe Estate testified that one of the insurrectionist of Grandbay, African-born Remy had said the rebellion in Dominica ought take on the pattern of St. Domingo (i.e. the Haitian revolution). It was clear that even before the age of swift communications, Dominicans were observing overseas struggles for freedom, emulating them where possible. Later in the 1920's Messr. W.W. Wyllis, Mongerie and J.R. Ralph Casimir agitated on behalf of Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association (U.N.I.A). The record reveals concerns by colonial administrators in Dominica over U.N.I.A rallies and support expressed for Ethiopian Resistance under Haile Selassie against the invasion by the troops of fascist Italy. An invasion which was not resisted with any vigor by the Britain.

Black Power: The Movement, The Changes Organized black thought eventually coalesced in the Movement for a New Dominica (M.N.D), formed in Roseau in the Summer of 1972. The movement wasted no time in raising black consciousness, by popularizing dashikis, afro hairstyles, and hosting meetings at the D.T.U hall in Lagon, Roseau. At different times during the 1970's, black power marchers would gather Windsor Park, the Botanical Gardens, Pebbles (better known as Peoples) Park or Four Corners in central Roseau. They would then wend their way past foreign owned symbols of colonial commerce, such as Barclays Bank, Royal Bank of Canada, Cable & Wireless Commonwealth Development Corporation (C.D.C) where marchers would pause and listen to a speech on how much money the particular institution was "ripping-off" from Dominicans. Later, the marchers (sometimes 2,000 to 3,000 strong) would regroup at their point of origin. At that time speakers like Bill Riviere, Desmond Trotter and others would speak to the mostly youthful crowd. The highly educated black power orators would delve into history, economics, statistics: hard facts. For Roseau crowds which had hitherto enjoyed the entertainment provided by the saucy political mud-slinging (or "mepuis", in patois) of the traditional polticians, the new oratory was sobering fare; a new form of poltical education. The mass of Roseau residents, even if they were to later catch-on to the dress code and oratory of radical chic, were still onlookers; listeners; not yet actors in the unfolding drama. Those who considered themselves Freedomites, were openly critical and scornful of these "ungrateful black power boys, for whom white people had done so much".

Another important facet of black power thought in Dominica was the focus on Pan Africanism and the liberation wars being waged in Portuguese controlled areas of Africa such Guinea Bissau. One learnt about Amilcar Cabral's PAIGC in Guinea Bissau, the FRELIMO movement of Mozambique led by Samora Machel and the M.P.L.A. of Angola led by Agostinho Neto. Resolutions were drawn-up and solidarity calls issued in support of the liberation struggle in Africa. Statements calling for the release of Nelson Mandela and the unbanning of the African national Congress, were issued after clenched-fist resolutions by massed crowds, long before such became popular in many countries of the West. Films were shown at schools, or the Goodwill Parish Hall, educating young Dominicans about the struggles of their African brothers and sisters' portraying them in roles of resistance or governance never before witnessed on film in Dominica. Sometimes, money was collected to be donated to the Organization of African Unity Liberation Committee. Focusing homeward, the involved urban youth attacked inadequacies of a school curriculum which taught Latin and Shakespeare to the disregard of local or Caribbean history. As well, the importance of local control of agricultural production, the heightening of local cultural values and a new search for identity were championed. Real confrontation with the establishment had not come though, except in random cases of police strong-arm tactics. In search of more daring leadership, many followed the trials and imprisonment of Rosie Douglas on charges stemming from the Sir George Williams University protest in Canada and wished his return. At rallies many were heard to mutter, "They'll see fire in their skin, when brother Rosie comes".

Meanwhile, Black American films of what is now considered the "Blacksploitation" period in Hollywood, would cause massive crowds of Roseau residents to jam the entrances of the two cinemas, Arawak and Carib, in frantic search for seats. Blacks were now in movies in heroic, not menial roles. Sometimes, they were shown striking out at white oppressors. Featuring black stars such as James Brown, Sidney Poiter, Fred Williamson, or Richard Roundtree, movies such as Shaft, Cotton Comes to Harlem, Cleopatra Jones, Buck and the Preacher, Nigger Charlie, and the The Return of Nigger Charlie sent their mammoth audiences wild with pride. Locally, the new radicalism in art and culture explored Dominican themes. By 1973-1974 a cultural and literary paper Wahseen was being published, with contributions by Daniel Cauderion, Alwin Bully, Lennox Honeychurch, and others. The Waiti Kubuli dance group under Raymond Lawrence introduced modern dance interwoven with elements of Dominican national dress and evoking a rising sense of cultural awakening. The newly formed People's Action Theatre (P.A.T.), with Alwin Bully, Roger Atherly and others, was later founded and presented a spectacular play which featured the travails of contemporary Dominican urban life: Speak Brother, Speak. The play opened to rave reviews and overflow crowds at the St. Gerard's Hall and Goodwill Parish Hall. To crown that flowering of Dominican self-identity, local historian Lennox Honeychurch drew a rapt national audience to their radios every day with his series "The Dominica Story". A well dramatized affair, the program chronicled Dominica's history from Columbus' time onward. It was later to be published in book form.

All the while the Labor party remained suspicious of black power leaders, some of whom like Ronald Green, Peter Alleyne, Joey Peltier, Birdeux Shillingford and Desmond Trotter were from families which comprised the old Roseau elite, or were mulatto. Seeking to sow doubt about the true motives of the black power leadership (many of whom were light skinned), The Labor newspaper The Educator cried foul:

bogus...their black power is really mulatto power, a sinister plot ... to return the mulatto to political power.

Nonetheless, that radicalization of the sons of the privileged would, not only bridge the societal gaps created by differences in class and color, but (in an ironic and prophetic-but wholly unintentional-twist) ease the way for the conservative Freedom Party's ascent to power.

Black Power: The Troubles Mass support or not, the societal surge for change fostered by black power thought was building. When the first memorable confrontation would come, high school students would take the lead. Since, 1970-71, students had met at One Hundred Steps at the Botanical Gardens and other places, arguing, discussing; with books on Malcolm X, Angela Davis, Che Guevara, The Black Panthers, Soledad Brothers and other (primarily black American) radical leaders and movements clutched in their increasingly feverish and impetuous grasps.

When the call for action came, it was first answered by students from the most unexpected and, hitherto conservative, of sources. In 1972, the first overtly black power demonstration by high school students took place at Roseau's prestigious St. Mary's Academy. At that time the Academy (as it is more commonly called) was a stronghold of all the "good" Roseau elite names. Run by the (primarily American) Christian Brothers and situated in the heart of conservative Roseau, the Academy stood right behind the massive Roseau Cathedral, adjacent to the Roman Catholic Bishops' Palace. Prior, the government run Dominica Grammar School (D.G.S) which had been created in the last century for sons of the local plantocratic and bureaucratic class held the honor of first place. By the 1970's, the D.G.S was quietly acknowledged by a strongly Roman Catholic Roseau population to be inundated with country folk, especially students from Wesley and Marigot, two Methodist enclaves. Meanwhile, the S.M.A. was (quite ironically) the high school of Reggie Armour, Desmond Trotter, Perceval Marie, Birdeaux Shillingford and many other known "black powers", as adherents of black racial pride ideology were called. In a 1972 dispute with a student over his afro hairstyle, it was said that a Christian brother administered a kick. Other histories recall, that the student was merely sent home to cut his hair. In any case, the students were outraged. Several statues of white Roman Catholic saints at the nearby cathedral and cemetry were painted black. Placards were prepared with slogans supporting racial pride. Frederick Mondesire (son of 1920's Garveyist radical Mongerie), and other outside sympathizers handed-out red arm bands. At assembly, the day following the incident, a walk-out was staged. The students poured into the streets, "black powers" in the lead. The protest made its way through the Roseau business district. Onlookers from shops, stores, offices were aghast. Roseau had never seen such a spectacle before, except in newsreels about demonstrations in the U.S. and elsewhere. The troubles in Trinidad and Jamaica were still fresh on peoples minds. But there was no violence, apart from a few parents who caught-up with marchers (some during, and others after the march) to administer tongue lashings. It is remembered by some, that quite a few ultra conservative parents resorted to outright belt lashes on sons who they could grab-out of the crowd. Eventually, the student marchers arrived at the new government headquarters at Bath Road and Kennedy Avenue and appealed to Premier Leblance. He was attentive, responsive. He was said to have agreed with the students action in principle. For that he was attacked by the conservative Dominica Chronicle and other establishment media. Later, upon resignation from his position as Premier Leblance was to remark in an interview:

...I accept and welcome change...that is why people said that I was black power and this and that.

Whether Leblance was a black power sympathizer or not, an increasingly radicalized and boisterous youth was proving to be politically oppositional and bold in its challenges to his rule. It seemed that the societal ferment which accompanied black power thought had also added muscle to the voices of the traditional opposition. Henceforth, the Freedom Party and M.N.D. would seek political mileage from any disturbance, black power inspired or not.

In 1973, the Labor government had declared a state of emergency over a strike by the civil service. Though the issue then revolved over the transfer of popular disc jockey Daniel "Papa Dee " Cauderion, the Freedom party scored points with its Roseau political base by supporting the strike. Adherents of M.N.D could be seen mingling with and agitating C.S.A crowds at public meetings. In one incident (which served as a harbinger of the future conflict between the security forces and the public) a young Royal Dominica Police Force constable struck academic Rupert Sorhaindo (and relative of Freedom party founder, Martin Sorhaindo) in the head with a baton while he was pacing about with a pro-strike placard at the ministerial building. The constable, nicknamed "Sogo-Fly" was one of a new crop of zealous police officers, like "Groovy-Bat", "Star-Black", "Falcon", "Governor-Cake" and others who would later clash with black power adherents, amidst charges of police brutality. It now appeared that a tumult had been let loose in the land.

Earlier, in mid-1972, the workers on a C.D.C estate at Castle Bruce had revolted under the leadership of a Cornell University educated agronomist Atherton Martin. Martin, was from one of the "good" families of Roseau and a graduate of the Academy. Upon his return to Dominica from the U.S., he was made an estate manager at C.D.C. He later disagreed with what he considered to be a draconian managerial directive to fire 53 workers for financial reasons. A move which, in his estimation, would further impoverish the village which depended on the estate for income. As well, Martin was uncomfortable with his role as overseer for a multinational corporation, entities which (like the earlier plantations of the slave era) had exploited Dominica and Dominicans leaving them little to show for their labor. Accordingly, Martin had bridled at the exploitation of village peasant laborers on C.D.C's Castle Bruce estate and thought they should run it in their interest on a collective basis. Accordingly, he supported a estate workers strike call and threatened unilateral occupation of the land. Initially, the Labor government supported the estate workers. At a gathering, Education Minister and parliamentary representative H.L. Christian claimed that Labor stood for socialism and the petite bouge. Later, the government backed-off stating that the dispute was a private worker-employer matter and broadcasting its fear of "collectives" and preference for cooperatives over radio. The Roseau commercial class shied away and hinted at "communist plotting" . A view its political ally, the Freedom Party, most likely supported.

On November 3, 1973, a contingent of Castle Bruce farmers under the leadership of Martin attempted an entry into the National Day joint military and school parade at the Botanic Gardens. Forewarned, the police swooped down on the farmers seizing their red and black banners. Black power sympathizers amongst the Academy and D.G.S contingents on parade broke ranks and shouted anti-government slogans. School children fled helter-skelter. The Governor, Sir Louis-Cools Lartigue, went into a swoon and had to be escorted away. Much disorder ensued before a semblance of order was restored to the event. However, the pressure tactics worked and the farmers voices were heard. In time, the land at Castle Bruce was purchased and turned into cooperatively farmed property, and Martin would move on to organize the farmers, nationwide, into a strong political force.

By carnival 1974 , calypso, that medium of popular Caribbean expression was giving vent to sentiments of outrage and forecasting the death, of a society which, in the lingua franca of the time, was called "babylon"; with the police officers being designated as "babylons" or "babylonians". Rich in biblical symbolism about oppression, the Dominican young (of whatever party persuasion) had adopted the language of scorn and resistance, with regard to the status quo and its denigration of things black. There was a certain fearlessness which stalked the discourse of the young, of whom the majority could be said to have adopted the basic race pride tenets of black power by 1974-1975. In the tradition of Soul singer James Brown, "Say it Loud. I am black and I'm proud" was a common response by youth to anyone who would make race-prejudicial remarks. Even the Catholic church was allowing drums and alternative modalities to it otherwise dull and traditional masses. The Latin mass was dropped. Feminism became a more accepted local concept too, as black thought emphasized respect and equality for the "sisters". Women dressed more informally (i.e. pants, etc.) at worship in the mainstream churches (i.e. Anglican, Catholic, Methodist); ceased straightening (or "frying" as it was popularly called) their hair; afros were in; curlers were out. Meanwhile, a small segment of the population (scared by the tumult and viewing it as the impending end of a sinful world) was swept-up by conservative Southern Baptist and Pentecostalist preachers from the United States led by the likes of Holmes Williams and Jimmy Swaggart who (via radio, crusades and cassettes) increasingly sought local adherents at the expense of the Catholic Church. At schools, Caribbean literature and history texts were increasingly introduced at a time when the U.W.I graduates to teach those subjects were just coming into their own. At the high school level, woolen blazers, boat hats and ties patterned on the British public school system were discarded for the looser fitting guayabera-type "Shirt-Jack", more suitable to Dominica's climate.

Speaking of the troubles and in defiant reaction to his arrest the previous year under the emergency, the calypsonian and school teacher, the Mighty Caterer belted-out a number which swept the crowds of revelers in carnival 1974:

Oh Sogo-Fly why you arrest me? State of Emergency, you push me in the prison. Oh, Sogo-Fly what you do, you do. State of Emergency, you use your powers on me!

and:

I say, When the kingdom, fall. I and I,(refrain) Babylon go Kill Babylon!

Enter the radical people of "Sout" as the area around the big Southeastern village Grandbay was called. Grandbay, a heavily populated southern village, was a strong hold of opposition: First, as a Freedom stronghold in the early 1970's, later as a redoubt of black power thought . The record reveals that Grandbay has always been a cockpit of violent conflict between the masses and the landowners. With its settlement origins rooted in slavery, that conflict has almost invariably made the struggle a black/white issue. However, the root cause reposed in what was an inequitable land distribution in the area of the village. In its heyday Grandbay's main estate, Geneva, was said to employ 300-400 slaves. Apart from that estate, there is very little cultivable land in the area . A March 30, 1974 New Chronicle article reported that five buildings on the estate of Elias Nassief, a Dominican of Syrian extraction had been burnt to the ground. Cattle were spirited away, other livestock left behind had their entrails strewn about, coconut trees, the main crop, were chopped down. A police contingent arrived in Grandbay, led by an inspector Bannis. A cunning and seasoned officer of long service in the police, Bannis promptly seized a young man, whom he felt (on good source) was the leader. Unicef, as the alleged leader was popularly called, escaped as quickly as he was caught. Immediately upon his escape, a good portion of youth in the village moved into a state of general insurrection against the established order. The presbytery was assailed by a hail of stones, telephone links to Roseau were cut, trees were strategically placed along several points of the one road linking Grandbay to Roseau, and an estate shop was seized and its contents distributed Robin-Hood style. School life in the village was disrupted, and students who went to school in the capital were stranded or had to hike all the way over mountain tracks. The ring leaders of the uprising brandishing old muskets and locally made guns, were heard to vociferate against, Babylon, the tough praedial larceny laws (enacted to prohibit the theft of crops), and exploitation. The main plantation house itself was consumed in a conflagration. On Wednesday, April 3rd, a state of emergency was proclaimed. In further attacks, the estate's coconut drier and diesel fuel station were fired. Fire officers sent to extinguish the blaze were fired upon, from nearby bushes. Before calm was restored, the insurrection fever sweeping Grandbay seemingly executed a foray into the capital Roseau. Mysteriously, Nasieff's huge convenience store, near the Dawbiney market on King George the V, street was burnt to the ground. Soon, with Defence Force reinforcements and the re-arrest of Unicef, the uprising was quelled. Later, the estate was to be purchased by the government and sold to the villagers as part of a small-farmers scheme.

Around that same carnival period, February 1974, an American tourist John Jirasek was killed. Police affidavits were later entered into evidence, which purported to show that one Antiguan female visitor (alias Pretty Pig) was in the company of Roy Mason when, black power notable Desmond Trotter, whispered excitedly, "I just kill a white man". On the basis of that (and other evidence that Trotter was found with the murder weapon) both Mason and Trotter were charged and tried for the crime of murder. The case of the Queen v. Desmond Trotter and Roy Mason was the most politically charged trial in Dominica at that time, and drew huge crowds which blocked the courthouse entrance and overflowed into the nearby grounds of the Roseau Public library. To his supporters, Trotter was a valiant black power activist framed by babylon system. To his detractors in both the Labor government and Freedom party (who shared in attacking Trotter and those who shared his political views) he was a troublemaker whose bad influence had "spoilt peoples children" and ruined the tourist industry. Trotter was defended by a handsome and dashing young lawyer from Grenada, who was to endear himself to Dominican youth who adhered to black power thought, Maurice Bishop . Later to-be-foreign minister in the Freedom Party government, Brian Alleyne joined in the defense. Mason was found not guilty. Trotter lost and was sentenced to hang. Though found guilty, a world-wide appeal was launched by black power, humanitarian and liberal organizations. At home pamphlets and wall-slogans alleged a "frame-up" and called for Trotter's release. Trotter's death sentence was later commuted, with his final release occurring during the tumult of 1979.

Trotter's trial represented the split in the movement of black power thought. M.N.D. and it organ Twavay were more effective in pointing out problems and agitating, as opposed to identifying long-term goals, solutions, or building a sustainable movement. Many of the academics, like Riveire, Joey Peltier, Hilroy Thomas, Bernard Wiltshire and others drifted in and out of the country, between university study breaks and foreign lectures. Accordingly, serious rifts developed between those who stayed behind and those who left; those who were more schooled and those who were less-well schooled. Such stratification between the local base and what was perceived as an itinerant, campus hopping leadership was one problem. Another, was the lack of political foresight by those who could whip a well-intended Roseau crowd into a frenzy over the Angolan peoples struggle for liberation from Portugal, but yet failed to realize Dominica's colonial status under Britain and seek to focus on the mechanics of ending it.

The frustrated black thought adherents would now split into three paths: One would choose cultural resistance to babylon via Rastafarianism or Dreadism. Others, would analyze Dominica's politics, deem political independence from Britain as the next logical step and struggle for the accomplishment of that phase; the other step aimed towards eventual economic independence (as much as such is possible in an interdependent world economy) and full national liberation, inevitably leading to socialism. The third path sought the removal of the Labor party as the immediate objective (before all else) to be followed by some sort of socialization of the means of production.

By 1974-75 Leblance was gone; resigned to going back to his distant rural hamlet and family life. A populist who had led a social reformist Labor Party to electoral victories, he seemed at a loss for leadership in the face of the youthful upsurge. An avid supporter of local culture and the petite bouge, he would resign in 1974 before Dominica's radical politics turned violent. His successor was a former trade unionist of humble origins with a populist streak, the diminutive and fiery Patrick Roland John; popularly known as "P.J".

A New Radicalism: The Dreads Not many people consider that Dominica fought a small, undeclared and semi-secret internal war between 1975 and 1980, which continued somewhat into the 1980's. That conflict was to continue into the reign of Ms. Charles' government because the root causes which gave it birth were not resolved. The war pitted the machinery of the state against Dominican dreads who had resorted to guerrilla methods to secure their rights and/or autonomy from traditional society.

Though "dread" as a term is associated with pejorative establishment designation, it was to become commonly accepted to describe those who accepted some tenets of rastafarianism as practiced in Jamaica. The distinction was that a Dominican dread would violently resist any attempt by babylon to arrest or curtail his/her activities. Whereas, a classic rasta in the Jamaican mold, is not known to favor armed resistance but rather await the judgement of Jah4 upon babylon. Essentially, the Dominican dread of the 1970's was a youthful (primarily male) adherent of black power thought, who at the time claimed distinct christian virtues, affection for nature (and unprocessed foods), and an Afrocentric view and faith, separate and apart from the organized religion of babylon system. An obligatory bow was made towards Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, as most rastas of Jamaica and elsewhere are known to do. Dread notables, in the mold of Tumba, Peter Alleyne or Pokosion were more like modern day variants of the escaped slaves who had earlier founded guerilla camps in Dominica's mountain fastness in the 1700's and early 1800's. In contrast to Jamaica, where the rastas are primarily an urban phenomena, not known to occupy the mountain fastness of cockpit country . Unemployed, mostly literate, youth for whom the social reforms of Labor had fostered greater expectations those who became dread, had opted out of established society when those expectations for jobs, higher education, a respected and meaningful role in contemporary Dominican society, went unmet. Many had attended M.N.D meetings and had felt a need to go beyond mere mouthings of black nationalist jargon. A need was felt to go back to the land, to nature, to create an entirely new and pure social alternative to babylon. Yet, dreads, as a group, were never organized in any manner adequate to push their agenda. Rather, groups would coalesce among certain leaders, in certain geographic spots, at certain times. Only rarely did they petition government, but then with no clearly definable aim than to "reason out". Witness one such missive:

..so come let us reason-out in Zion...at which time time we will provide you with plenty itals, brother man...

Overall, dreads felt that contemporary Dominican society had failed them. Yet, they did not seek to engage in organizing the masses, issuing a program or printing pamphlets as the M.N.D had done.

In rejecting babylon's dress codes (to the degree of using loin clothes, or grass skirts on occasion), its iron implements (sometimes fashioning knives out of coconut shell) and Western values, dreads placed themselves outside the societal mainstream, and as such prone to attacks from the establishment, without any base of support which would mitigate such attacks . Dreads, for their sustenance, relied on "itals" or natural foods; those who touched pork were deemed "swine" or "swine-ish". They, would also engaged in craft making, or small-time subsistence agriculture where possible. Mostly though, for cash income necessary to maintain contact with the money economy, they traded in marijuana. In so doing they came into conflict with small farmers with whom they competed (for increasingly scarce land) upon the difficult-to-farm foothills of Dominica's mountainous crown (i.e. government) lands. Most fatally, the dreads came up against anti-drug legislation and a local security conscious regime swift to enforce it.

Unorganized, without a political leadership or program, dreads represented political alienation at its worst and most self-destructive. For such, the price would be paid with blood. In November 1974, The Prohibited and Unlawful Societies Act , better known as the Dread Act was passed by the Labor government under Patrick John. Its aim was to weed out the dreads and at the same time garner support among small farmers (a traditional Labor Party base) who felt threatened. The Act drew the outrage of some in the political opposition, Twavay, and newspapers further afield when it made the killing of dreads a lawful act. However, dreads were to be killed, or have their locks forcibly cut, in many cases for no better reason than being classified as a member of an "unlawful society". In what was commonly perceived as retaliation, a few farmers were threatened or killed . Such only brought stronger measures from the Dominica Defence Force and the Special Service Unit (SSU) of the Royal Dominica Police Force. In several gun battles between 1975-1981 at Fond Figues, Fond Cole, Belles, and Giraudel several dreads were to be killed. About two or three members of the security forces lost their lives in a conflict which could have been avoided. It is commonly thought that many more dreads were slain in the woods, their deaths left unannounced. The remainder, with the woods now being thoroughly combed by roving patrols of joint defence force/police expeditions, fled the hills and took to the city. Meanwhile, Patrick John's anti-dread campaign had helped his March 24, 1975 election victory over Freedom.

The old radicalism, centered around M.N.D, had splintered. Alienation, as epitomized by the dreads retreat into the mountains, away from political struggle, did not suffice as an alternative. When the crack-down came none in the Labor Party were strong or wise enough to compel a national debate on the issue of state sanctioned and/or societal violence (or the reformist alternatives thereto), so that government and dread oppositionist could meet face to face. It did not matter that those who were killed were, for the most part, the sons and daughters of the "roots" people that Labor had sworn to protect. In the anti-dread hysteria, the Freedom Party allied itself with Labor, even though individual members (as members of the Dominica Human Rights Society ) sometimes condemned a government too quick to resort to the mailed fist. The old M.N.D.'s voice, though shrill in opposition to the unslaught on human rights, was ineffective; its members searched, harassed, harrried. With new tactics, Dominica's radical thinkers and adherents would soon regroup and build new strength.

The New Radicalism of "Leftist Politics"

Such regrouping took hold in 1977, with the return to Dominica of Rosie Douglas. Influenced by Communist party of Canada cadres, Rosie brought an orthodox marxist-leninist view to Dominican radical politics. In his view, simple black nationalism, or opposition to the governing political class would not suffice. Now it would be clearly enunciated that the analysis of choice would be class based, not merely color based (though the legacy of slavery, racism and color prejudice would be acknowledged). Alliances, loathsome as they sometimes might be would be forged with whomsoever assisted Dominica's accomplishment of what was termed the National Liberation Revolution. Such a path would entail an alliance, grouping progressive elements of the national bourgeoisie, petty bourgeoisie, farmers, laborers, students, and lumpen proletariat. Collectively, such an alliance would forge an anti-imperialist policy to eliminate as much of the foreign control over Dominica's economy as possible. The idea was never to build socialism at that stage, but rather to push policies, such as education, industry, land reform, equal rights for women, narrow the gulf between town and country, promote health, popular participation in political decision-making, and thus create a rise in the standard of living and national consciousness. Once that consciousness level were reached, the new radical thesis held that National Revolutionary Democracy had been arrived at. Only at that phase would the strugglers then begin to push for socialism, having already prepared its basis, by concrete achievements. The first objective, in that national liberation struggle, would be the attainment of political indpendence from Britain.

Apart from the return of university trained Dominicans like Rosie Douglas, U.W.I Extra Mural Department tutor Bernard Wiltshire, or Harvard trained Ph.d Hilroy Thomas, another impetus to the growth of the new Dominican left, was the rising influence of the Cuban revolution on local political thought. The early U.S. response to the Cuban revolution had been an economic and information blockade which essentially insulated the English speaking territories from Cuba since 1960. However, by 1975 Barbados, Jamaica, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago had independently resumed commercial and diplomatic ties with Cuba . Most dramatically for the region, the November, 1975 Cuban intervention on behalf of the M.P.L.A in Angola was the first time in history that a Caribbean island had provided concrete military assistance for an African liberation struggle. Prior, Caribbean support had been restricted to diplomatic initiatives at the U.N. and within the British Commonwealth group, or local solidarity marches. Cuba's action was granted more emphasis when it's special forces successfully repulsed an armored column of the hated South African apartheid regime's army sent in to assist a competing Angolan faction, U.N.I.T.A. The Garveyites who longed to assist Ethiopia resist Italian aggression in the 1930's, but were unable to effectively do so, would have been impressed. Many Dominican youth who followed world news, and may not even have considered themselves radical, were moved and supported Cuba's action as assisting a fellow black people. In addition, a Dominica-Cuba Friendship Society was launched in the first quarter of 1977. That followed the first trip to Cuba by a semi-official delegation from Dominica, which included Desire John (the wife of then Premier Patrick John) and Alwin Bully, noted playwright, artist and English teacher at the Dominica Grammar School and others. On their return, positive reviews were to be heard of the Cuban situation, especially in education and health. Mrs. John, who had previously experienced difficulty in child-bearing, was to bear her first child soon after. An event commonly attributed to a much-touted Cuban medical prowess. Such developments, with regard to Cuba, eased the appeal of the new leftist politics of freedom from colonial rule and socialism.

In that ferment new organizational structures were to be set up to replaced the, by now dormant, M.N.D . On Thursday, July 28th, 1977 Cadre No. 1 was established in the Roseau suburb of Pottersville as a model of what was to become known as the Popular Independence Committees (P.I.C's); the main objective of the P.I.C. cadres being to organize and agitate the masses towards support for Dominica's independence from Britain. Other cadres were established in Portsmouth, Mahaut, Wesley and Grandbay and elsewhere. These committees, centered around a political core of Hilarian Deschamps, Augustus Lebruine, Smiley Burnette, Joseph Guiste, Weston Seraphin and Curtis Victor (Roseau) Rosie Douglas, Romus Lamothe, and Steve John (Portsmouth), Francisco Esprit (Mahaut), Pierre Charles, Paul Alexander (Grandbay), Angus Aulard (Wesley) would provide "critical support" to any Labor move towards political independence. Further, as cadre they were to operate as the spearhead of political organizing at the schools, within youth groups, the entire government structure, workers and farmers so as to fire the spirit of a weak Dominican nationalism. These sectors were to be organized to support independence first and foremost . In a deeply Catholic country, with a population brought-up on the milk of anti-communism, all public talk of communism would be left for a later stage when popular consciousness would be ripe.

From early, a confrontation developed between the P.I.C and the old M.N.D. leadership. In retrospect, that schism seems akin to the conflict which later led to a bloody denouement and collapse of the Grenadian revolution six years later, on October 19th, 1983. Then, as with Grenada, it pitted those who had kept the embers of struggle burning within Dominica against those who had been abroad; those who had a more populist feel, from those who were too doctrinaire . Grouped around the P.D.P (see footnote 44), the old M.N.D. leadership may have well viewed Rosie Douglas as a "Johnny-Come-Lately", who had not endured the "roughing-ups", arrests and other tribulations of the early 1970's radicals. In response, Rosie pointed to his struggle against racism in Canada and his analysis that one should (in his paraphrase of Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah) "seek ye, first, the political Kingdom [i.e. independence], and all will follow". Further, he openly criticized the old left (by that time, all radicals were popularly lumped together as "leftist") for not supporting the Labor government's move to independence and for aligning with the Freedom Party's call for a referendum on the issue. . An attempt by Riviere to meet with Roseau's Cadre No. 1 to smooth out such disagreements over tactics foundered . In the notes of that November 3, 1977 meeting, Riviere was said to have argued "uselessly...an obscure theory of ill-defined two stages (of national liberation struggle). He was "made to see the light" (i.e. on the necessity of political independence) before being wished adieu in the spirit of "left-wing unity". The records of Cadre No. 1 reveal that Riviere's theories were characterized as "revisionist" (from what, it is not clear) and "faulty".

With the Labor Party increasingly disorganized and restricted to an unmotivated membership, Patrick John was only too happy to have the youth support provided by the P.I.C's. In March 1977 P.I.C supporters flooded the Dominican parliament during the independence debate , which Labor won. In what can only be analyzed as a tactical sop to the left, John started voicing support for "New Socialism" . Following May 1977 constitutional talks at London's Marlborough House between the government, Freedom Party parliamentarians headed by Eugenia Charles and the British Office of Colonial Affairs, the government negotiating team returned home jubilant. Disagreements with the opposition (which favored a nationwide referendum on the issue) notwithstanding, it seemed that independence was at hand. The Dominica Student Federation, formed that year by Gabriel Christian, Ramus Lamothe, Alix Lawrence Angus Aulard, Steve John, Debbie Douglas and others from Roseau, Portsmouth and Wesley , as a counterweight to the old United Student Council planned to capture attention for a leftist program at speeches planned at the welcoming ceremonies for the government team. However, following a rousing speech in which Portsmouth Secondary School Federation representative Romus Lamothe lambasted the failures of colonial society and called for socialism, the government team, enroute to Roseau by motorcade, had a change of mind once it arrived at the Windsor Park rally. The Federation representative at Roseau, was discreetly called aside by Mayor of Roseau, George "Jojo" Karam and told that his portion of the program was cancelled. That incident is notable for it signaled John's change of gears. He had used the P.I.C. to mobilize popular support for independence in the face of significant Freedom party opposition to the manner in which it was being sought. Now, he would reneged on his talk of socialism and approach right-wing characters from Texas, South Africa and elsewhere to support his development strategy, even though a thin veneer of socialist rhetoric was maintained.

By the end of January 1978, John cleared his cabinet of those he considered "communist", claiming that there existed a communist plot to overthrow his government once independence was obtained. In so doing, he dismissed Minister of Agricuulture Michael Douglas and Ministry of Agriculture Parliamentary Secretary Ferdinand Parillon. Douglas, amplifying his Catholic school upbringing, affirmed that he was a democratic socialist, not a communist. The Cuban Friendship society, in its first ever criticism of government, challenged John to arrest the communist plotters and send a top level mission to Cuba to investigate, arguing that anything short of that would reveal a government engaged in a diversionary tactic . Certainly, the Labor-left honeymoon was over; the politics of "critical support" was in shambles. During parliamentary debates Vic Riviere and Eustace Francis, both Labor government parliamentarians, could be heard boasting about their service with the Royal Air Force during the Malaysian Emergency and their impeccable anti-communist credentials. In parliament Francis himself was heard to say, "every time is comrade this, and comrade that; I myself fed-up with this comrade business". Nonetheless, the P.I.C. maintained its principled support for independence (even though with more reserve towards John's regime which seemed to be drifting rightward). That position was well stated by Michael Douglas who maintained a reasoned and moderately left-wing voice in parliament:

I wouldn't like the British government or anyone else to believe that they can toy around with independence because two ministers have been dismissed...independence of my country remains paramount to my mind and I shall continue to work harder than anybody else in the [Labor] party to bring independence to Dominica.

The period between January 1978 and Independence day, November 3, 1978 saw the left adrift. Attempts at enshrining a more socialist ethos to Dominica's constitution failed. Yet, organized efforts by the P.D.P of historian and former U.W.I lecturer Bill "Para" Riviere was beginning to bear fruit in the second town of Portsmouth. A traditional Labor base, and constituency of Douglas, Portsmouth saw the first official electoral victory of the new socialist left. In June-July 1978 town council elections, Para won a seat (only narrowly missing the spot of top vote getter by 75 votes) along with two of his other party members Neville Wade and Helen Nanton on the five seat city council. Mike was the top vote getter and secured a seat alongside one of his candidates, Joseph Hunter. Para's strength emanated from his community work, which included construction of a bridge. Indeed, the new radicalism' immersion in organization and the meeting of relevant community needs was solidifying its hold among certain sectors of the populace, especially in the rural areas and in urban sectors in the north of the country. The Freedom Party candidates had all lost; Labor, itself, had failed to contest that election.

Nonetheless, the anti-communist posturing of the government made political work by the left more difficult. In March of 1978, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Roseau, Arnold Boghart, Education Minister Henckell Christian and the Governor Louis Cools-Lartigue hurriedly convened a gathering of all secondary school and Sixth Form College Students at the Goodwill Parish Hall. The students were warned to beware of those who spread foreign ideologies (i.e. anti-imperialist or socialist concepts). The Bishop gravely intoned that Granma's had been found at the library of the Convent High School and that some teachers were teaching communistic atheism . If anything, the over reaction by the authorities drew smirks and guffaws from the crowd, which was otherwise happy at getting-off from classes early. Later, in Summer 1978, student organizers, youth leaders and community activists returning from Havana, Cuba where they represented Dominica at the 11th World Festival of Youth and Students, were detained by the police department's special branch led by inspector Desmond Blanchard. The customs area was efficiently cleared of all taxi men and other visitors and shut. Extra customs personnel, Norman Letaing and Val Obed were called in from Roseau. Arriving tourist were rushed through. Meanwhile, the books and other possessions of the native Dominicans were searched for several hours, much of it seized for a review which lasted months before release. It was later found-out that, in the delegations absence, a totally false charge had been made in parliament that the delegates had actually gone to Cuba for a bomb-making jamboree under the tutelage of none other than the P.L.O's Yasir Arafat. Such was the anti-left hysteria which gripped the government.

A September 1978, by-election to replace the recently deceased Labor Parliamentarian Isaiah Thomas, was won by a little known Labor Party candidate, ex-police corporal Wordsworth Lanquedoc. John reveled in his political strength by baiting his opponents:

We shall confound their politics, we shall frustrate their dirty tricks and we shall give them endless licks!

The left did not partake of that campaign. However, Freedom Party stalwart Alvin Armantrading was soundly beaten, leaving the party crestfallen. The Freedom Party's media ally the New Chronicle was to lament:

...the Freedom Party is still not able to effectively relate to the masses, it is still not able to capitalize on the enormous and countless mistakes of the Labor Party and to blow the myth of Labor for laborers.

By November 3rd, 1978 the student leadership at the Sixth Form College had decided to take the lead and protest the exorbitant sums lavished on fireworks and bunting which had been imported for the independence celebrations. Cooler heads cautioned national unity and the protest planners watched sullenly, as monies which could have been spent on sorely needed textbooks and lab equipment went up in puffs of colorful fireworks from the heights of Morne Bruce overlooking Roseau. Hot on the heels of independence, a new season of radical political activism was to awake, of which students at Sixth Form College, along with their other allies in the organized political left were to be part creators, part progeny.

By Sunday January 22nd, 1979 the National Youth Council hosted a massive national youth conference at the St. Joseph government school. The conference chaired by Pierre Charles, saw several panels, on the economy, health, education, equal rights for women, youth problems, unemployment, drugs, culture etc. deliberate throughout the day. Fraternal messages from left wing regional organizations were read. Guyana's Peoples Progressive Party representative (doubling as representative of the Prague-based World Federation of Youth) spoke in support of the N.Y.C program. The event ended with a call for land reform and new initiatives in education, trade and industry to insure that Dominica's recently won independence would be more than mere "flag independence". The pressure upon the Labor government to deliver was on.

Nonetheless, a split had developed within the P.I.C. Bernard Wiltshire had become increasingly critical of Rosie's lack of detail and seeming disregard for strong a "vanguard" organization which would lead the working class and its allies in the struggle for complete national liberation. Wiltshire himself came under criticism from P.I.C members, as being "rude", "uncomradely", and an "ultra-leftist" who articulated marxist concepts like atheism which "frightened the religious masses, thus making political work more difficult for all. Wiltshire's retort, was that P.I.C. leadership cuddled "herb (i.e. marijuana) users" and had otherwise failed to organize and prepare for the de-linking between P.I.C. and the Labor government. Francisco Esprit, Hilroy "Castor" Thomas, Sobers Esprit, Pierre Charles, and Greg Rabess, and most Core members agreed somewhat with the criticism of Rosie. Only Cadre No. 1, and portions of the Portsmouth and Grandbay cadres supported Rosie in the factional fight. His brother Michael, who had by then formed a group of his constituents into a grouping called Dominica Democratic Alliance, remained outside the fray. In a final rejoinder, a meeting of P.I.C.'s Roseau affiliate Cadre No. 1 , dismissed Wiltshire as an "autocrat...a Trotskyist caught within a web of ultra-leftism, which is an infantile disorder in the words of Lenin." The language of that factionalism reflected more the hoary and irrelevant concepts of purge-politics under Joseph Stalin, than it did Dominica's reality. Nonetheless, serious questions over the nature of "critical support", personal discipline in organization, over-intellectualizing and sloganeering, and whether or not cadres should smoke marijuana were raised. These factional problems would continue to dog Dominica's new left, leaving it unable to adequately capitalize on the results of its activism, thus allowing the Freedom Party to capitalize on the fruits of its agitation.

In late 1978, early 1979, a serious crisis affected Dominica's banana industry, the life-blood of Dominica's economy. A disease, called leaf-spot (for the manner in which debilitating brown spots appeared on the banana tree leaves) threatened to cripple fruit production. The Dominica Farmers Union (D.F.U.) led by Athie Martin was quick to organize around the seemingly slow-response of the Ministry of Agriculture. Mike Douglas, leading the P.I.C. aligned D.D.A, added his voice to concerns at the parliamentary level . After a consultation with farmers and students, the D.F.U led a January 29th, 1979 march through the streets of Roseau. Since the S.M.A walk-out it was the first time students had poured into the streets for a poltical cause. The tone of the protests, though ostensibly showing concern over the leaf-spot crisis, was definitely anti-government. The alliance between students and farmers was new; and the involvement of left-wing personalities, like Martin and others in and outside the student and farmers movement was significant. D.F.U leaders, like Ted Honeychurch and Alvin Armantrading (known or perceived as Freedomites), spoke at the massed meeting following the march. The leaf-spot march prefaced an alliance of the left, Freedom Party, students and farmers which was to slowly take shape over the coming months.

In the midst of that upsurge in activism came a thunderclap of an event, heard as far away as London and Washington, and which was to shake the political establishments of the English speaking Caribbean to the core. That event was the March 13th, 1979 revolution by the New Jewel Movement (N.J.M) under the leadership of Maurice Bishop, which overthrew Eric Gairy. It was the first overthrow of government of its type, ever, in the history of the English speaking Caribbean territories. More so, the N.J.M represented the type of radicalism which had derived from the upsurge in black power thought in the earlier part of the decade. As an organization, it had counterparts in almost every English Caribbean territory. With Jamaica and Guyana under leaderships (Michael Manley and Forbes Burnham, respectively) which espoused socialism, the Grenadian revolutionaries even had access to friends in high places. But the greatest impact was to be felt on the ground, specifically in the Windward islands of St. Lucia and Dominica. Relations between the N.J.M leadership and Dominica's left was strong. Bishop had represented black power activist Desmond Trotter; Kenrick Radix had caucused with the P.I.C and P.D.P over differences in tactics during the lead-up to Dominica's independence. Just a year prior, in the Summer of 1978, N.J.M activists led by Liam James , had argued, consulted on tactics, strategy and otherwise shared living space with Gregory Rabess, Pierre Charles, and other P.I.C members at the Villa Lenin, the sprawling residential site for Latin American delegates to the 11th World Festival of Youth and Students, located on the outskirts of Havana. Now, the N.J.M was in power. Apart from sending congratulatory telegrams, and promises of support, the left was now imbued with a new zest and determination to assume the levers of state control. Immediately, the P.I.C. fashioned a slogan which was to become legendary, as it was spray-painted and popularized around the country: "GAIRY GONE, PJ NEXT! ALLIANCE IS THE ANSWER".

Before the leaf-spot crisis and the echoes of the March 13th , 1979 revolt were able to fade away, another issue exploded on the political scene. It concerned the plan by the John government to lease 45 square miles of prime agricultural land in Dominica's north, to a group of Texan investors led by one Don Pierson. Dominica's treasury would receive a measly $99.00 per year for a 99 year lease, in exchange for granting the investors what would be virtual autonomy in the free-port area. Once the news hit the streets, the left sought to coordinate the outrage felt by many. Another slogan was to be heard: "TEXAS FOR TEXANS, DOMINICA, FOR DOMINICANS". Without land reform, or good job prospects, Dominica's youth were receptive to the anti-free-port opposition which considered the deal a "sell-out" to foreign interests. With nationalist feelings stirring, the P.I.C and D.D.A. worked with the Freedom Party, D.F.U and student leadership to stop the deal from going through. At a March 2nd, 1979 meeting organized by Sixth Form College students, held at the Dominica Grammar School, Don Pierson's response to a barrage of questions from the students was found woefully inadequate. A momentum was building against the deal. For the first time the left and Freedom Party activists spoke on the same platform, at numerous anti-free-port meetings held nation-wide (that unity was a far cry from the left/Freedom schism over independence barely two years earlier!). In response to public disapproval, and wary of a demonstration planned for May 8th, 1979 John cancelled the free-port deal.

By that time, the John government was floundering. The party, as organized along structured units of branches all over the island, was a shell of its former self. The rural core of Labor could only passivley watch as a government, acting ostensibly on their behalf, failed to consult with them. John had increasingly surrounded himself with a Roseau-based coterie, considered by many to comprise opportunists, and others hoping to secure a government position, or some largesse from an increasing bare government till. Foreign trips, of dubious worth, were regularly criticized in the New Chronicle . Though Labor had won a majority of the vote at the 1975 election, the government found its supporters unwilling to come to its defense over issues, such as free-port or leaf-spot. John himself, now addressed over national radio as "Doctor" or "Colonel" was increasingly losing respect among the population, especially the young. To add to the atmosphere of drift and the bizarre, news began leaking that the government had approached the South African government with a proposal to access petroleum in exchange for a fee. The instigator of that proposal was thought to be Guyanese-born Attorney General, Leo I. Austin whose letter to the South African embassy in London was to wind up in the hands of the P.I.C. A B.B.C. documentary, on the program "Panorama", seemed to shed further light on the subject. The government was increasingly hard-pressed to dispel the rumors of a South African plot to use Dominica as a base for the purchase and storage of petroleum; with the earlier proposed free-port being a ruse. As well, the link between the government and Barbadian right-winger and confessed gun-runner Sydney Burnette Alleyne seemed to confirm the worst fears of the left that John had linked-up with the most fascist and racist elements in the world . The Dominican left now feared for its very physical survival. For, though none of its leadership had been imprisoned or killed, it was the common wisdom that John would have to resort to strong-arm tactics if his plans with such foreign interests (as those he were courting) were to have any chance of success. To this day, it remains uncertain as to whether or not John and/or his advisors had any idea as to the eventual outcome of that alliance being forged with shady elements of the international right-wing and pariah nations like South Africa. Or who, in reality, was the mastermind behind these efforts (if indeed a mastermind was required for deals which can only be described as outlandish).

Events were moving swiftly to confrontation, however. By May 29th, 1979 the government proposed two amendments: One, to the Industrial relations Act, the other to the Libel and Slander Act. The twin amendments would have the effect of cramping union activism, and muzzling a press which (led by the New Chronicle) was increasingly strident in its opposition to recent government policies. The major unions decided to confront the government effort, the official Freedom opposition and left joined in the effort.

May 29th, 1979, as an event (and its aftermath) will be examined in more detail elsewhere. Suffice it to say, it led to the final conflict between the radical politics which had developed in Dominica during the 1970's, and a government which had become increasingly viewed by the majority as authoritarian and unresponsive to the voice of the people. As a result of protests on that day, maty 29th 1979, the government of Patrick John was to be overthrown. In its place, an interim government grouping, rump elements of the former Labor administration, Freedom Party activists and leftist was to be installed.

The crisis, forced the Leftist dispersed amongst, the P.I.C., P.D.P, and D.D.A to come together, under one banner: The Dominica Liberation Movement. For the Dominican left, May 29th, 1979 represented an ascension to power of the Dominican radicalism which had steadily grown in strenght during the decade. Its stay in power, albeit brief and limited, was notable for what was revealed. That ascension exposed the left's weaknesses among organized urban labor and the depth of its inter-personal feuds and ideological dissension. As well, it allowed the left an opportunity to operate some of the levers of state power, and show-off its talent. Athie Martin, in the Ministry of Agriculture and Michael Douglas, in Finance, were to gain plaudits for efficiency and hard work. Others, like Rosie Douglas and Bernard Wiltshire were to gain credit for their diplomatic mission to Fidel Castro, who (along with Maurice Bishop, Forbes Burnham and Michael Manley) urged the Non-Aligned Movement heads of state to contribute money to Dominica's relief effort following the devastating hurricane of August 29th, 1979. That effort was later able to realize contributions in the region, of U.S. $13 million, from distant sources like Saddam Hussein's Iraq and Ayatollah Khomeini's Iran.

By the elections of 1980, the left had again split. Elements of the left, cognizant of the shift in public sympathies, favored an alliance with the anti-John Labor Party elements now coalescing around interim Prime Minister O.J. Seraphine's Democratic Labor Party (Dem. Lab.), which considered itself a social democratic party. Specifically, the P.I.C and D.D.A broke away in supporting the Dem. Lab. while, the P.D.P. of Bill Riviere (now joined by Wiltshire) decided to run a "purist" campaign under the Dominica Liberation Movement-Alliance cover. At the end the Left lost, garnering roughly 15% of the vote. The Freedom Party won, garnering a slight majority of approximately 52% of the popular vote. Dem. Lab. secured another 18% of the vote, with old Labor led by Patrick John and a few die hards gathering somewhere between 10% and 12%, the remainder going to independent candidates. In defeat, the left garnered more votes than any other marxist-leninist led organization has ever done in any of the other British Commonwealth Caribbean territories. In some constituencies, like Castle Bruce, Grandbay, Paixe Bouche, Carib Reserve and others, the left would have secured electoral victories, had its vote not been split. If the left wing voter support, dispersed among the DL.M. and Dem. Lab vote were counted in one bloc, it would surely have approximated a third of the electorate. When the dust had settled only Michael Douglas (Portsmouth) and Elford Henry (Wesley) emerged triumphant on the side of the political left.

Conclusion: By the end of the decade the left had become an accepted part of Dominica's political life. Issues, such as greater emphasis on free education, land reform, opposition to police brutality where it occurred, scholarships for higher learning, women's rights, a foreign policy in support of African Liberation movements, greater economic self reliance and control over local resources, relations with a U.S. blockaded Cuba, greater emphasis on local culture, and a pride in the African and indigenous roots of the Dominican population are now commonly accepted as valid; no longer radical. The radicalism which rocked Dominica in the 1970's lessened the bite of class and color prejudice, lent renewed focus to democracy, and the need for accountability by government to the governed. Indeed, many of the policies espoused by the left found resonance even within the conservative confines of a Freedom Party government eager to keep within the good graces of a populace which had exhibited revolutionary democracy, by taking to the streets. Dominica, had changed in a way that strengthened the dignity of blacks, Caribs and women. The Freedom Party had, itself, been forced to democratize and reach out to the working class and peasantry, in a way courting the voting power of the petite bouge as Labor had earlier done. Accordingly, though still the flag bearer of Dominican conservatism, the Freedom party leadership was pragmatic enough to manage an escape from the class and color politics that long frustrated its political ambitions. In time, the left and Labor would fuse. Intent on serving the masses, and coming (historically) from the same socialist perspective the left would come to constitute the core of electable Labor. As well, the left's radicalism would find a niche in Dominican enterprise, as many who took part in that flowering of radical thought sought to contribute, in a concrete way, to economic self reliance. Such a contribution, by enterprises like Frontline Bookstore, Star Brite Candle Factory, The Small Projects Assistance Team (S.P.A.T), Farm-to-Market (which exported local fruit) and others, met real needs and ensured continuity of a radical vision. Paired with the political awakening it had wrought (be that from a position in government, non-government organizations or enterprise), the forces of Dominican radicalism seemed poised to continue their role in fashioning a more just and independent Dominican nation for the foreseeable future.