Resolutions
Passed By The
Fifth Assembly
Of Caribbean People
Barbados, August 5 & 6, 2010
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
We, the delegates of
the Fifth Assembly of Caribbean People, meeting in Barbados at the Cave Hill
Campus of the University of West Indies affirm that our Caribbean nations are
caught in a trap of unsustainable foreign debt, much of which is a result
of an inherently unjust and exploitative capitalist dominated international
economic order, and concede that the current international financial and
economic crisis, which has its origin in the deeply flawed and exploitative
system of North America and European capitalism, is threatening to devastate
our already hard pressed Caribbean economies and to subvert the social welfare
condition of our people.
We therefore resolve as follows:
1. To issue a CALL and agitate for the
governments of the Caribbean to come together collectively and implement a process
of cancellation of the admittedly largely unpayable and unjust foreign debt of
the Caribbean, and to link such a campaign of debt cancellation to the historic
and sacred demand of the Caribbean people for the payment of Reparations by the
relevant national governments, companies and institutions of Europe and
North America for the centuries of slavery, slave trade,
colonialism, genocide of indigenous peoples and indentureship that were
inflicted on the people of the Caribbean:
2. To engage in a collective Pan-Caribbean Campaign of
mass education about the inter-linked issues of debt cancellation and
Reparations, and to develop relevant linkages between our campaign and
already existing debt cancellation and Reparations efforts such as the
Campaign of the international non-governmental organization known as Jubilee
2000:
3. To advance the notion that the only way for the
Caribbean to stave off the currently unfolding economic crisis is for our
Caribbean nations to intensify efforts to produce food, agricultural products
and manufactured articles for ourselves; to develop new, collectively
owned Pan-Caribbean industries and structures or mechanisms of
production; and to drastically reduce our foreign import bills:
4. To launch a Pan-Caribbean programme under which
members of the Assembly of Caribbean People will reach out to and seek to
develop a special and supportive relationship with the Farmers,
fisherfolk and manufacturers of the Caribbean and their representative
organizations, in order to advance a ‘BUY CARIBBEAN’ programme and
to propel forward all relevant efforts to develop the manufacturing,
agricultural and fishing industries of the Caribbean:
5. To issue a CALL and agitate for the Governments of
the Caribbean to come together and institute, in collaboration with
relevant civil society organizations, a collective emergency programme designed
to defend and protect the social welfare status of the masses of Caribbean
people, as reflected in our health and education systems,
employment levels and welfare and public housing programmes, by
collaborating with each other, sharing resources and expertise and
engaging in collective approaches to nations and entities in the international
arena that may be prepared to support such a collective,
developmental, people-centred initiative:
6. To issue a CALL and agitate for Caribbean
Governments and financial and developmental institutions to give much more
attention and financial support to the development of the cultural industries
of the Caribbean and to young Caribbean entrepreneurs engaged in establishing
productive enterprises:
7. To launch a Pan-Caribbean programme of mass
education, lobbying of Governments and activism designed to bring the Caribbean
into a much closer relationship with the Bolivarian Alternative for Latin
America and the Caribbean (ALBA).
COLONIALISM, MILITARISATION AND BLOCKADE OF CUBA
We acknowledge that much of
our Caribbean region is still under colonial domination, and that even while
Caribbean anti-colonial movements are struggling heroically to achieve the
total de-colonisation of our region, the United States of America has
intensified its illicit and immoral long standing effort to militarise the
Caribbean and to strangle the Cuban Revolution through its criminal near 50
year long blockade of Cuba.
In light of the foregoing, we:
1. Demand that the government of the United States of
America bring an immediate end to its illegal blockade of the Republic of Cuba
and adhere to all relevant international legal principles pertaining to respect
for the sovereignty and independence of Cuba and the Cuban nation’s right to
self-determination;
2. Commit ourselves to engaging in a Pan-Caribbean
effort to inform and educate the Caribbean people about the long struggle of
the Cuban people against U.S. imperialism, the many successes of the Cuban
Revolution, and the tremendous role that Revolutionary Cuba has played in
advancing a humanitarian and developmental agenda all over the world;
3. Undertake to lobby all of the governments of the
Caribbean to intensify their denunciation of and opposition to the U.S.
blockade of Cuba in the United Nations and all other relevant international or
regional organisation.
4. Reaffirm our support for the five Cuban heroes
(known as the ‘Cuban Five’) who have been unjustly prosecuted and imprisoned in
the United States, and commit ourselves to struggle on their behalf until the
day that their freedom is secured;
5. Affirm that all of the people and nations of the
Caribbean possess the inherent human right to freedom and self determination in
all of their forms and aspects, and we therefore denounce the United States,
Britain, France and Holland for continuing to inflict colonial domination on a
multiplicity of Caribbean territories and peoples, and call upon these
imperialist nations to move expeditiously to put de-colonialisation processes
in place, on terms that will satisfy and do justice and make adequate
recompense to the currently colonized populations;
6. Undertake to initiate a process aimed at bringing
together all of the Caribbean’s anti-colonial and independence movements,
parties and organizations in a grand Pan-Caribbean convocation designed
to unify and strengthen the overall regional de-colonialisation movement;
and
7. Resolve to engage in a determined Pan-Caribbean
campaign of agitation, lobbying of governments and popular education dedicated
to transforming the Caribbean into a zone of peace by, among other
things, securing the removal of foreign military bases and presences from
such Caribbean territories as Puerto Rico, Haiti, Cuba,
French Guyana and Curacao.
INTEGRATION, POLITICAL UNION AND GOVERNANCE
We deplore the prevailing
balkanization of our Caribbean region, and assert that we are not prepared to
sit idly by and allow the negative legacies of our long history of colonialism
to continue to keep us divided and weak or to enmesh us in systems of national
governance in which the masses of our people are denied the full enjoyment of
their inherent rights to participate in and indeed to own and control the
mechanisms of governance and national decision-making.
We, the delegates of the Fifth Assembly of
Caribbean People therefore resolve:
1. To advocate for a ‘bottom-up’ approach to Caribbean
integration in which the masses of Caribbean people are intimately
involved, thereby avoiding the malady that plagued the ill-fated West
Indies Federation of 1958 to 1962, and that has also plagued the efforts
centred on the Caribbean Community (CARICOM);
2. To advocate for a model of Caribbean integration
that places at its very centre, the development of the economy and productive
structures of the Caribbean, and the delivery of a concrete and measurable
improvement in the standard of living and life opportunities of the masses of
Caribbean people;
3. To undertake a programme of agitation and mass
popular education to disseminate knowledge and information about the
history, uniqueness and valuableness of our shared Caribbean Civilization
and to acknowledge and celebrate the achievements and success of outstanding
sons and daughters of the Caribbean;
4. To CALL and agitate for the creation of a
centralized regional co-ordinating body to integrate the region’s airlines in
order to facilitate cheaper and more accessible travel arrangements across the
Caribbean;
5. To CALL and agitate for the development of a much
deeper and wider trading and economic relationship between the Caribbean and
Africa;
6. To launch an initiative to bring about the
establishment of a Pan-Caribbean Radio Station dedicated to investigating and
disseminating information about all aspects of our Caribbean
civilization;
7. To CALL and agitate for a programme of political
reform across the Caribbean dedicated to establishing much greater people
control of the mechanisms of government, inclusive of provisions for the
recall and/or impeachment of members of Parliament and of the Executive who
have manifestly betrayed the trust and lost the confidence and support of the
people.
BOBBY CLARKE
Regional Executive
Committee
DAVID COMISSIONG
Regional Executive
Committee
Assembly of
Caribbean People
clementpaynechambers@gmail.com
August 5 and 6,
2010