by Evan X Hyde

In November of 1969, at a house rented by William “Silky” Stewart, owned by Curl Thompson, and situated off the Northern Highway behind the Shell Gas Station, representatives of the National Independence Party (NIP), the People’s Development Movement (PDM), the United Black Association for Development (UBAD), and the People’s Action Committee (PAC) met to discuss a possible coalition for the general elections called for early December that year.

Older readers will remember that Dean Lindo had split off from the NIP and formed his own PDM in April of 1969 after his bid to unseat Philip Goldson as leader of the NIP, failed.

When Mr. Price announced general elections in October, Lindo and Goldson hurriedly made up their differences, probably under instructions from up north, and sought help from the young radical movements, UBAD and PAC, for their unwieldy NIPDM coalition. 

At this night meeting in a house surrounded by bush, the NIP were represented by Philip Goldson, Buntin Fuller, Henry Fairweather, and Allan Andersen; the PDM by Dean Lindo, Colville Young, and Charlie Woods; the PAC by Assad Shoman, Said Musa, Lionel Del Valle, and Silky Stewart; the UBAD by Charles X Eagan, Ismail Shabazz, Galento X Neal, and myself.

Both UBAD and PAC insisted that the Opposition NIPDM should boycott the elections because they were rigged and the Opposition had no chance to win. The Opposition leaders, predictably, felt they had to contest the elections, and the meeting broke up hurriedly when a large fire erupted in the gas station about 70 yards from the house.

(NOTE: The above information is extracted from an article originally published in the Friday, April 27, 1979 edition of Amandala.)