A writer in one of the two PUP weekly newspapers was looking back recently, nostalgically, to George Price’s so-called “big tent” approach to his party politics. Mr. Price succeeded in holding together disparate elements in the PUP through much of the 1970s and into the early 1980s. One reason was that his reputation for electoral success was enormous. But another reason was that during those specific years, British-owned BEC was no longer a critical force in Belizean politics, and octopus Ashcroft had not yet arrived. So that, where the British were concerned, this period where Mr. Price’s “big tent” approach was presumably so successful, was an interregnum, so to speak. Ashcroft is the British, and Albion is back in Belize. Big time.
The United Nations was almost totally committed to decolonization in the 1970s, so that there was pressure on the British from the international community to hasten Belize’s journey to political independence. British Honduras had become a self-governing colony in 1964, but the Belize independence process stalled, primarily because of the Guatemalan claim to Belize.
As we know, Belize did not become independent until 1981, and it was just two years later, in 1983, that the ideological quarrel in the PUP between the Shoman/Musa left and the Sylvestre/Hunter/Briceño right, tore up Mr. Price’s “big tent.”
In this column, I wanted to consider the rivalries and divisions within Belize’s black organizations, because of how these played out before and during the Fifteenth General Assembly of the Central American Black Organization (CABO), December 2-5 in Belize.
Even the mighty PUP has been experiencing problems with unity, and the main reason for this is Lord Ashcroft. His money is too big. Every time he moves his financial weight from one side to the other, the PUP boat starts leaning in the direction to which he has moved. The reality is that both the PUP newspapers represent leadership groups which are heavily influenced, if not controlled, by octopus financing. Whereas Mr. Price was undoubtedly the biggest man in the PUP during the 1970s/early 1980s, there is an argument now to be made that it is el pulpo who is actually the biggest man in today’s PUP. But whatever his faults, Mr. Price was Belizean above all. No matter how you look at him, at the end of the day Lord Ashcroft is an expatriate. His allegiance is to Great Britain.
Let us return to CABO. In a scenario where representatives of the black communities in the Central American (and a couple South American) nations are gathering at the summit level in Belize, then there are two specific interests which some powerful people will feel must be protected – the interests of Belmopan, which is to say, the ruling United Democratic Party, and the interests of Washington, which is to say, the superpower United States of America. What we mean is, the Government of Belize and the United States Embassy in Belize would have wanted to do whatever they could to make sure CABO did not discuss, or pass militant resolutions on, such major issues as the Guatemalan claim to Belize, the political/military situation in Honduras, and institutionalized racism in the Central American republics.
It was important, for powerful people in Belmopan and for powerful people in Washington, that the UBAD/Kremandala group, arguably the most influential group amongst the black organizations of Belize, not be in charge of the Fifteenth CABO General Assembly. (I stress the adverb “arguably” in the previous sentence.) If UBAD/Kremandala had been in charge, the “danger” was that these three “controversial” subjects would have been the CABO headlines – the Guatemalan claim, the military coup in Honduras, and el racismo in Central America.
In the personality politics of black organizations in Belize, the “big tent” approach has not yet played a role. The reasons for this are tribal, but the reasons are also financial, and they are political, political in both the electoral and international sense. In one sense, power can be defined as the ability to divide your opponents. Once you can divide your opponents, then, by definition, they do not have the ability to divide you, so to speak. Belize is an important place for some big players, players like Washington, London, Taipei, Guatemala City, etc. The interests of the Belizean people are not paramount for these big players. Of ultimate concern to the big players are the natural resources and strategic security of the territory of Belize. There are therefore black organizations in Belize whose leaders are being supported by subsidies which can be traced to various of the big players. The only way the people of Belize can know who is real and who is bogus is to investigate the financing. Check the checks.
The largest single event promoted in my lifetime by black organizations in Belize was the Belize Black Summit in September of 2003. The finances of that event were run by Virginia Echols of the UBAD Educational Foundation (UEF). I believe the total budget was more than $30,000. Ms. Echols and her team did fundraising within the Belizean society. The Black Summit received donations from leaders of both the then ruling PUP and the Opposition UDP. Major Belizean business houses and private individuals helped to finance the event.
I would say that, from the standpoint of the organizers, the Belize Black Summit of 2003 was a major success. When you are organizing something which is unprecedented and which is ambitious in its size, then the logistics become your nuts and bolts. After a while, all you want to do is have the speeches, discussions, and functions go off as smoothly as possible. The potential for “snafus” in a two-day event featuring guests from abroad and participants from all over the country, is huge. My point is that the organizers are not in a good position to judge the overall impact of the event. All you want to do, after a while, is get it over with. In 2003, UEF and WGO got the job done.
In the CABO General Assembly, our people took a back seat. Those who were in the leadership roles have to explain why it was that some things began to fall apart on Friday. I feel that the performance of the 2003 Black Summit organizers, who were handling a budget more than twice as large as the CABO General Assembly budget, should have merited greater respect than it did. If black organizations in Belize are to move to a higher level of united performance, then there has to be a post mortem for the Fifteenth General Assembly of CABO.
Power to the people. Power in the struggle.