David Vs. Goliath

GIVEN THE pressures of editorial deadlines I could not write this column after our Trinidad and Tobago football team - the Soca Warriors - played this country’s first ever football game in a World Cup finals. I therefore cannot comment on the result, nor would I wish to predict the outcome. Suffice it to say that I am confident that ‘the Warriors’ did us proud yesterday and that they will continue to make Trinidad and Tobago feel a sense of achievement at being competitive with the very best in the world in spite of being the smallest ever country to grace the World Cup finals. That is why I, like so many others, am flying a TT flag on my car for the period of the World Cup and why I wore red on Friday and a TT warriors jersey yesterday even though I was not in the country - having travelled to Jamaica on Friday to deliver a paper at a conference at UWI, Mona on Saturday.

I will therefore come back to the football in another column when I can do an assessment of how the team is actually doing in Germany. Only one other comment needs to be made at this point and it has to do with how we went about organising to make the best use of the occasion to promote this country and what we can offer to the world that is unique. Following our defeat of Bahrain in November last year we all knew that Trinidad and Tobago would be in Germany and that, because of our first-time status and the fact that we are the smallest country ever to get to the finals, there would be a fair degree of focus on us.

This could be parlayed into major advantages to us — both in terms of tourism and business generally. But for this to happen we needed to immediately plan for it. It was said by both the football authorities and the Government that this was going to happen. But months passed and there was no apparent action and worse, there was open conflict between the two. The result was that Cabinet decided on who should comprise our cultural delegation to go to Germany just days before the World Cup. Further, there has been no clear and cogent statement by the Government on precisely what the expected outcomes will be from our delegation’s performances. Will they make the major international news programmes? Will we be featured as the country of the World Cup - not as the winners of the competition, but as the country that is most interesting and which created the biggest impact? If this is the objective, how will it be achieved?

We just don’t know and therefore chances are that if it does happen it will either be quite by accident or by the sheer ability of our artistes to dazzle. It is a sad reflection on how we plan, make decisions and organise. And how we squander opportunities when they come our way. It is the same with the present oil and gas boom. We are wasting a tremendous — indeed unique — opportunity to transform this society: its economy, governance and social relations. In fact instead of transformation to a more progressive, enlightened, equitable and just society we are in fact on the way to barbarism.

This is why this June 19 — Labour Day is going to be so important. Many citizens, are feeling a sense of being in a great predicament. On the one hand there is the knowledge of what could be given our financial resources. And on the other a sense of frustration, helplessness and futility as things go from bad to worse and there is no visible way out. This is because people are primarily looking for an electoral solution. They believe that the way forward is to have a party of “good men and women” who can be a viable option to the hopeless PNM and the moribund UNC. But when people look around they see no such option, the DNA notwithstanding. In the absence of a really strong political party with the right people and policies, the citizenry feels trapped between the PNM and the UNC and it is in this trap that the sense of hopelessness sets in. For indeed, there is no hope to be offered by these parties. In fact they are an integral part of our problem. So why is Labour Day so important? For one very simple reason. All the social, economic and political progress made — from Emancipation through Indenture and up to Freedom — has been the result of the mass movement of ordinary people acting in their interest. And the fact that there is so much that is wrong with our society, so much degeneration, so much barbarism is due in no small measure to the fact that the mass movement was in retreat for much of the 1990’s and the early part of this decade.

We have had rampant PNM Governments before, we have had a weak Opposition party before, one that offered no hope for the majority of the population.

But the sense of futility and hopelessness which now permeates the country did not exist then because the mass movement of workers, farmers and communities was on the march acting at times as a check and balance on the power of the state and at other times acting proactively with the objective of fundamental change. To illustrate, I cite but three examples of the latter: the 1937, 1970 and the Day of Resistance General Strike of March 6, 1989. In those moments the mass movement was not simply seeking to balance the excesses of the state and the owners and managers of big capital.

The movements were seeking to sweep out the old and bring about a new society.

The key problem is that many citizens do not see that only a strong mass movement can take on the state and force it to back away from its destructive policies or face being swept away. This is why this year FITUN has chosen as its theme for June 19 2006, “A conscious, organised and united movement can never be defeated!” We are seeking to reawaken the awareness amongst working people and the poor and all those who are opposed to injustice that we have in the past and can once again in the present, come together as a conscious, organised and united movement in order to bring about a better future.

On June 19 the process will be taken further and so we invite all groups that have an issue at their workplace, in their sector or in their community to come to Fyzabad and be a part of this growing movement. In addition to building solidarity here in TT, we will have as the Feature Speaker the President of the Transport Workers Union, Local 100 of New York City - Trinidadian Roger Toussaint. Don’t miss Fyzabad this year June 19!