By the time you read this essay, the leadership issue within the BNTU will have been decided, so nothing we write here can influence the votes of the union members. The more militant branches of the BNTU ? those in the Belize and Orange Walk Districts, and in Belmopan, ended up accusing the incumbent Fuentes/Frazer leadership of a betrayal between February 2 and February 4.

The issues within the teachers union became emotionally charged to an almost revolutionary extent, the main reason being that after January 21, the teachers, as an organized body, reached the point, within ten days, where their support from the masses of the Belizean people became so evident and so immense that the government became alarmed, and the disaffected Belizean masses began to hope that the teachers could not only bring the government to its knees, but actually force fundamental leadership changes.

We feel we know enough to speculate about the gravity of the BNTU power struggle which will take place in Dangriga this week, but we will take the coward?s way out at this point, and instead seek to place the BNTU situation within a historical context. There is a massive irony in the present situation, where GOB is trying to ensure union moderation.

British Honduras was a British colony ruled by a so-called Legislative Council until December 31, 1949, when the British-appointed Governor used his so-called ?reserve power? to devalue the B.H. dollar, which had previously been on par with the U.S. dollar. Devaluation sparked the organization of a so-called People?s Committee to lead the fight against the British colonialism which had rammed devaluation down the throats of the people of British Honduras. The leaders of the People?s Committee, which became the People?s United Party in September of 1950, were all either officials of the General Workers Union (GWU), by far the colony?s most powerful and militant trade union, or they were supported by the GWU, or they sought to curry the favour of the GWU. In other words, what we are saying to you is that the GWU was, in 1950, the indispensable foundation, the backbone, the strength of the People?s United Party.

The story of how the PUP has become a union-hostile ruling party is a story the PUP leadership does not wish to be told. From one perspective, it is clear that the PUP were allowed to betray their union roots and the militancy of their GWU foundation, because the petit bourgeois nature of their political opposition allowed the PUP to become more and more capitalist-friendly, while retaining, in default, the political loyalty of the Belizean workers. This does not change the damning historical indictment, however: a party the workers of Belize essentially established and fought for in 1950, has betrayed their children and grandchildren. So.

The danger to the corrupt and neoliberal PUP in 2005 derives more from the trade unions of Belize, especially the Belize National Teachers Union, than from the Opposition political party ? the United Democratic Party. This is not a hypothesis we can prove in a definitive manner. Most observers will quickly agree, nevertheless, that during the PUP?s most vulnerable period ? January 21 to February 4, 2005 ? it was the teachers who were the danger to the PUP government, not Barrow, Finnegan, Contreras, Faber, et UDP alii.

So GOB has a big stake in the BNTU elections this week. Even if the moderate slate preferred by GOB is successful, one bad thing for the ruling politicians is sure to take place in Dangriga. Teachers from the more remote areas of Belize will learn first hand from their colleagues in the media centers just how much wool GOB has been pulling over people?s eyes in the rural areas where Belize?s financial situation is concerned.

It is the people of Belize who are under pressure from the PUP, but if the BNTU militants are elected to office in Dangriga this week, then the pendulum will begin to swing back to where it was between January 21 and February 4. It will be the PUP which again begins to feel pressure from the people. The teachers, and their union, are that important, and that powerful.