A
CALL FOR A UNION OF CARIBBEAN STATES (PART 1)
Anyone with a modicum of genuine interest in the
welfare of the masses of Barbadian and Caribbean people would recognise that with
a massive global economic crisis threatening unprecedented destruction, the
Caribbean needs, now more than ever, to come together in brotherhood and
solidarity under the banner of our "Caribbean Community"
(CARICOM)!
Yet, this is precisely the time that halfwits and
quislings are creeping out of the woodwork and seeking to convince our people
that Caribbean regionalism is "irrelevant", and that "in a
globalised world economy we’re all better off fending for ourselves." The Peoples
Empowerment Party (PEP) would like to urge the masses of our people to
treat these backward and destructive sentiments with the contempt that they
deserve.
The PEP is hereby issuing an urgent call to all the
civic and political leaders of the Caribbean Community to respond to the
international economic crisis by boldly embracing and fast-tracking the goal of
a "political union" of our sub-region!
If we take the step of establishing a "political
union", what we would in effect be doing, is creating a new and
powerful executive instrument that will complement our existing individual
island governments, and bring to bear additional resources, focus and energy on
fostering the development of our people.
A political union will strengthen us rather than
weaken us! A new, collective, regional executive mechanism should be viewed in
terms of its ability to increase our capacity for self-generating development,
rather than in the purely negative conception of a costly addition to the
bureaucracy of government.
The state of Florida in the United States of
America, for example, possesses a state government that fosters the development
of the territory and people of Florida. But it is also served by a federal
government - the Federal Government of the United States of America - which also
brings additional attention and resources to bear on the development of the
territory and people of Florida. Why would we Caribbean people wish to continue
to deny ourselves the additional developmental assistance of a collective
"Federal" or "Union" government?
Wake up Caribbean people, and recognise that our
salvation rests in establishing a multi-territory "Union of Caribbean
States"!
Granted, all of the territories of CARICOM may not
yet be prepared to make this leap forward, but let us start with a coalition of
the willing and most suitable! And such a coalition, in our view, could be the
nations of Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, St Vincent & the Grenadines, St
Lucia, Dominica, Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda and St Kitts and Nevis.
In recent times, a fascinating scenario has
developed in the Caribbean, in which the territory with the strongest economy
and with the best prospects of going it alone - Trinidad and Tobago - is the
territory that is most keen on establishing a political union.
Of course, in times past, the Caribbean integration
movement has been bedeviled by the economically stronger territories believing
that the weaker economies would simply be a drag on their developmental
prospects, and choosing therefore either to opt out of the Federation or to
insist on a slowing down of the integration process.
To his credit, Prime Minister Patrick Manning of
Trinidad and Tobago, seems to be able to see beyond this myopic conception of
development, and to envisage the long term future of a thriving multi-territory
Caribbean nation and civilization.
The political and civic leadership of Barbados now
also needs to rise to the challenge of conceptualizing the long term future of
our physically small, natural resource deficient, but intellectually fertile
nation within the context of a multi-territory nation and civilization.
DAVID A.
COMISSIONG
27/10/09
PART 2
The time is ripe for us to press onwards towards
the establishment of a ‘political union’ - a Union of Caribbean States (UCS)
in the southern and eastern Caribbean! Indeed, the late great Errol Walton
Barrow signalled this to us as long ago as 1962 when he stated in the Barbados
House of Assembly that:-
"Anyone
who does not understand the economic, political and geographical background of
the West Indies will not readily appreciate why these islands should want to
come together in a federal system of government. If there were one area which a
federal system of government eminently suits, it is the Eastern
Caribbean".
The Peoples Empowerment Party (PEP) is of the view
that if the countries of Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and the Organisation of
Eastern Caribbean States were to unite politically they would - overnight -
equip themselves with a number of powerful instruments that could be deployed
to generate economic development and provide enhanced life opportunities for
their people.
Of course, the highest and most powerful such new
instrument would be a ‘Union Executive" equipped with well defined
management and administrative responsibilities in relation to the entire
territory and population of the ‘Union of Caribbean States ’.
Clearly, the Union Executive would have to assume
responsibility for the establishment of new collectively owned regional
industries, and for overseeing the efficient functioning of a "single
market and economy." Furthermore, the Union Executive could also be
mandated to ensure that every geographical area of the Union attains an agreed
upon ‘minimum’ level of development and human welfare, since the whole
purpose of having a political union would be to ensure a lifting of the quality
of life for all citizens of the Union!
The existence of a political union would also
provide us with an opportunity to create a ‘common currency’, and to use the
initial issuing of this currency as a mechanism for financing new developmental
projects.
Naturally, the Union Executive would have to
possess the power to issue the new currency of the Union, and would do so
through a newly established Union National Bank. And the initial
quantities of the currency could be issued through the ‘National Bank’
in the form of ‘credit’ or loans to the various state governments, state
enterprises and appropriate private sector entities for the sole purpose of
financing developmental projects designed to add to the productive capacity of
our sub-region.
The issuing of credit for the purpose of increasing
production will not have an inflationary effect, and would allow the Union of
Caribbean States to gradually phase in the common currency while at the same
time phasing out the various state currencies over a period of time.
One can clearly see therefore how the establishment
of a Union Executive, a National Bank and a Union common currency
would provide us with a new and enhanced capacity to finance industrial,
agricultural, fisheries, manufacturing, airport construction, and a host of
other developmental projects.
The new Union Executive will also have to undertake
responsibility for fostering a collective sense of indentity and consciousness
among the people by developing appropriate regional mass media, film and
educational mechanisms, as well as by so enhancing the regional mass transit
system that the people and goods of the Union are able to travel efficiently
and cheaply within the Union.
The establishment of a ‘Union of Caribbean
States’ is our destiny and is certainly not beyond our capacity to achieve.
Indeed, virtually all of our greatest leaders - Cipriani, Garvey, Marryshow,
Manley, Adams, Crawford, Williams, Barrow - have envisioned the Caribbean
united in a grand political union. Surely, the time has now come for us to
fulfill our destiny!
DAVID A COMISSIONG
President
2/11/09
Further
reading: How
Small Nations Were Cut Adrift by the Global Economic Crisis, Gideon
Rachman, Financial Times