The public and bank holidays set aside to celebrate the “tribes” of Belize are important occasions, essential to the fabric of our nation. On August 1, Emancipation Day, we mark the removal of the shackles from the feet of our enslaved African ancestors after 300 years; on November 19 we rejoice over the arrival of the indomitable Garinagu to our shores. This Saturday, October 12, we observe Indigenous Peoples’ Resistance Day in honor of the people on this side of the world, particularly our Maya ancestors who, many of them to their last breath, resisted being subjugated by invaders from Europe.
October 12 is celebrated as Columbus Day in the U.S. A historical page from the desk of the U.S. Embassy of Switzerland and Liechtenstein said Columbus Day has been an annual holiday in the U.S. since 1937. The page said initially it was celebrated on October 12, but “it was moved to the second Monday in October to give workers a long holiday weekend.” The page further states that in the U.S. the holiday commemorates “Columbus’ landing in the New World on October 12, 1492…celebrates the cultural heritage of Italian Americans, since many scholars believe Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy [and] the transformations it [the voyage] provoked…” In the past, Columbus Day was observed in Belize, and people of mixed origin here who identified with their European roots joined enthusiastically in the celebration of the meeting of the two worlds.
The U.S. Embassy’s historical page noted that “the holiday continues to evoke discussions about the Age of Exploration and the transformations it provoked, including the injustices done to indigenous peoples.” (our emphasis) Prior to 1492, when Columbus and his crew set out from Spain aboard the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa Maria, we lived in a world without engines energized by steam or fossil fuel, in a world without electricity, telecommunications, computers, and cellphones, things that the people of today would find it very difficult to live without.
After the “conquest,” the Europeans would have control of all the natural resources of the Americas (and subsequently of Africa too), and free labor, which was supplied mainly by our African ancestors who were transported here from the African continent in chains in the holds of slave ships. There are few discoveries and no inventions without investment in research, and after 1492 the Europeans had the financial resources to pay for it. They had borrowed immensely from other cultures they had come in contact with previously, the peoples of North and Central Africa, and Asia, and with their new wealth, which was vast, more than any people ever had before, they were able to invest heavily in science and engineering; and, disastrously, in the development of more powerful weapons of war.
What the coming of Columbus meant to the people who lived in this part of the world when he came was overlooked for generations. Almost completely lost was the horror that the Europeans brought to the Americas, their weapons and savagery that decimated a people that were in many ways more advanced than they were, their diseases that nearly wiped out the peoples of the Americas, their genocide. However, the atrocities that occurred after Columbus’s ships grounded in the Americas could not be ignored forever.
In other parts of the world, mainly among the Europeans and people of mixed race who identify with their European roots, Columbus Day, also called DĂa de la Raza, will be celebrated with great joy and festivities. Belize is a land of many races, and understandably there are pockets that still venerate Columbus’s arrival in this part of the world.
Here in Belize we celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Resistance Day. While it is very much a solemn occasion, it is also greatly inspirational. There is triumph in resisting evil. On Saturday, October 12, we revere our ancestors and their resistance to violent invading forces that trampled on the sacred places, murdered and enslaved millions, and plundered the land.
Happy Indigenous Peoples’ Resistance Day to all Belizeans, in particular to our Maya brothers and sisters—the KekchĂ, the Mopan, and the Yucatec!
US dockworkers strike not too far removed from Belize
Had the recent dockworkers strike on the East and Gulf Coasts of the US not been resolved, there would have been an increase in the prices of a number of goods in Belize, on top of already highly inflated prices caused by the recent pandemic and ongoing wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. Any break in the supply chain anywhere on the globe, particularly in countries we trade with, negatively impacts Belize. Fortunately, the dockworkers strike was put on hold after a few days with a tentative deal.
A Telesur story reproduced in the Tuesday Amandala said the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) announced a “tentative agreement with operators on wages,” and that in a joint release the ILA “and the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX), a group standing for ocean carriers and port operators, agreed to extend their master agreement until Jan. 15, 2025 to facilitate negotiations on all other outstanding issues…”
Many Belizeans applaud the victory of the dockworkers in the US who have won a reported 62% pay raise. It is not a daily occurrence in this world that employees win raises from their bosses. While it isn’t lost on anyone here that any pay increase for workers in the US will be added on to the price of goods that find their way to Belize, we also know that the burden on us would have been greater if the impasse between workers and employers over there had been prolonged.
What is also of considerable interest to Belize about this strike is a core issue of their contention, the use of automation (robot-controlled machinery and computers), which the workers strongly and successfully resisted. The Telesur story said ILA president, Harold Daggett, said, about that critical outstanding issue, “we want absolute airtight language that there will be no automation or semi-automation, and we are demanding all Container Royalty monies go to the ILA.”
Wealth creation is the star factor in the capitalist system, but as with all things, there is an ugly side, which we face when too much wealth is in the hands of a few, and too little wealth is left to be distributed among workers. When that occurs there are strikes, or a total collapse of the system.
It is good for governments to have foresight, and fully appreciate their responsibility to protect workers’ rights to earn their daily bread. When the PUP privatized the port in Belize City during their 1998-2003 government, they ignored workers. Former PM, Manuel Esquivel, had set the table with the privatizing of telecommunications, with government maintaining control of 51%. Indeed, that UDP government borrowed a page from George Price’s mixed economy recipe for Belize that insisted on protecting the interests of the Belizean people, particularly the Belizean worker.
The problem with automation arises when the corporates get greedy. When corporates become rapacious, governments have to step in and regulate their activities, and if that fails, an enlightened people must bypass their products and services. The gains made from automation and the use of machines must be for the increase of all. Where automation would displace workers, it should only be introduced to the workplace after workers are successfully redeployed. Everyone has to eat; everyone must have a dignified job.