THE WORLD

Build-up of defence forces, dismantling state-run enterprises

[IDGETOWN, Barbados — Its
ous support of the brutal U.S.-led
asion of neighboring Grenada,
pled with a crackdown of extra-
amentary opposition forces and
vasion journalists has fueled fears
, of a further turn to the right by the
Seven-year-old regime of Prime
Ster Tom Adams.

, a British-trained lawyer
sé Barbados Labor Party (BLP)
to power in general elections in
mber 1976, has made no secret of
admiration for Washington’s recent
doat diplomacy and aggression in the

On a nation-wide TV broadcast two
S after the invasion, Adams praised
U.S. and President Reagan whom the
Dadian Government head said had
their eternal credit’? came to the
he conclusion’? as the Barbados
€rnment about intervening in
he slavish backing by the Adams
istration of Washington’s policies
Owhere better reflected than in the
sphere. The Barbados Defence
©, as the local armed forces are cal-
nd which along with a detachment of
al Constables provided over 300 per-
nnel for the invasion, has long had a
dining agreement with the National
lard in Puerto Rico.
Over the last five years too, the 144
Ware mile island, whose economy rests
\the three main pillars of tourism, agri-
ture (sugar cane) and small manufac-
g (mainly garments and electronic
Mponents), has been the stopover port
‘for recreational purposes”’ of a number
fU.S. Navy vessels such as the nuclear
Wered aircraft carrier Karl Vinson.
¢ ship, undoubtedly carrying nuclear
fapons, chose the island as its first
€ign port of call on its maiden voyage.
Defence Build-up
Significantly, the island’s Grantley
S International Airport, names
er the Prime Minister’s father, was a
area from which U.S. para-
Ts were airlifted out on the morn-
f the intervention. A month and a
after the landings, lumbering USAF

On. Speaking to islanders and tourists _

Barbados takes shift

From the

Caribbean
ou
Norman | ~~
Faria | |

C-130 and C-5A transports and Cobra
helicopter gunships still share tarmac
space at the airport with commercial
traffic like the Canadian Wardair jumbos
which come here every week from
Toronto.

The island’s Official Opposition, the
Democratic Labor Party (DLP), like the
ruling BLP modelled on the social demo-
cratic lines of the British Labor Party,
has expressed concern about the build-
up of the Defence Force which also
operates three relatively large gunboats.

Headed by former Royal Air Force
navigator, but now practicising lawyer
Errol Barrow, the DLP has criticized the
ruling party for not fully discussing with-
in the island’s House of Assembly — the
Commonwealth’s second oldest — its in-
tentions before it: (the BLP top brass)
made the decision to participate in the
invasion. Political analysts here however
see the DLP’s eventual voting in favor
during a post-invasion debate in the
House as an opportunistic decision
rather than an outright support for the
government’s stand. The voting took
place in the emotional atmosphere
among the island’s 250,000 population
following the tragic deaths of Grenada’s
Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and most
of his cabinet at the climax of an inter-
necine quarrel in the ruling New Jewel
Movement party in the Spice Isle.

i

The DLP, which holds 10 of the 27-

seats in the parliament, had for example
opposed the 1979 sending of Defence
Force troops to crush a short-lived insur-
rection of rebellious youths on the tiny
St. Vincent-administered tourist resort
island dependence, Union Island. Inter-
estingly, it was to St. Vincent that an
Adams critic, a Vincentian lecturer in the
political science department at the Bar-
bados campus of the University of the

Barbados prime minister Tom Adams reviews his troops.

West Indies, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, had
to flee four years ago when his work
permit was revoked by the Adams
government.

The relatively large military build-up
and close alignment with Washington
has been more open than any unconstitu-
tional harassment of the parliamentary
opposition in this eastern Caribbean is-
land which gained its political indepen-
dence from Britain in November 1976.

Round-up and Detention

However, the round-up and detention
without access to counsel of leaders of
the main extra parliamentary Marxist
group, the Movement for National
Liberation (MONALD), by the island’s
security police in the wake of the Gre-
nada invasion, indicates a capacity on

the part of the state to move swiftly’

against opposition forces. Two years
ago, MONALI had received offers of
scholarships from the Cuban Communist
Party. Following a fuss by the Adams
regime, the scholarships have since been
offered through Barbados’ Ministry of
Education, although none of them has
been advertised in the island’s media as
is customary with scholarships received
from foriegn countries.

Dominica PM rides high on invasion

to political right

While Dominican Prime Minister Eugenia Charles is inter-
Nationally viewed as the dupe of Washington, for her invited
‘Invasion of Grenada by the U.S., a well-orchestrated media
_ Campaign has made her a heroine at home. :

_ Onreturn from her television debut with Reagan to the tiny
island’s capital of Roseau, Charles paraded down a corridor
of flag waving spectators misled into thinking Dominica had
Made it into the big time.

The PM, through the country’s government controlled

Tadio station and newspaper had been one of the most out-
Spoken critics of the four-year revolution in Grenada. This
build-up of anti-Bishop, anti-New Jewel sentiment paved the
Way for Dominica’s role as a stooge in calling on the U.S. to
Intervene in Grenada’s internal affairs.
_ Absent from reports on the invasion, says Ron Green of
the Dominican Liberation Movement, has been international
Criticism of Charles’ actions. The attack on her at the
Commonwealth Summit in New Delhi, India last month, by
Front Line African states who charged that her invitation to
the U.S. had set a precedent for South Africa to follow, has
gone unreported in Dominca. The foolish excuse she offered,
that Canada was not informed of the invasion in advance
ause she couldn’t find Prime Minister Trudeau’s tele-
Phone number, has also escaped the media. :

_ Green says Charles has used events in Grenada in a prop-
ganda war against an alliance of groups in opposition to her

ee-year regime, which has brought worsening economic
Conditions and sharp infringements on democratic rights.

_ The Dominical Liberation Movement won 11 per cent of
the popular vote in the July 1980 elections which brought the
Toronto-trained lawyer’s Freedom Party to power with a
17-member majority in the 21 member house.

Granted self-government by Britain in 1967 (independence
in 1978), the small nation of only 80,000 has ousted two
consecutive governments on charges of corruption.

Although it appeared to be a landslide, Charles was actu-
ally elected with less than 50 per cent of the popular vote. A
four way split between the Freedom Party, the divided Labor
Party and the DLM won Charles at least nine seats.

In preparation for the next election the DLM had been
forging an alliance to challenge the Freedom Party one on
one. However Charles’ utilization of the Grenada events and
fostering of an anti-Communist, anti-Cuban position has
served to split the alliance.

But Green, who is an executive member of the DLM, feels
that subsequent developments around Grenada may yet be
the prime minister’s downfall. “‘Charles has tried to push
aside the revolution’s accomplishments’’, he says, “but the
real gains in Grenada will come to light as they are dis-
mantled. (Grenada’s governor general) Paul Scoon is not
interested in moving toward democracy.”

In addition Green doubts that Charles’ big gun stance will
be able to ward off criticism of her mismanagement of the
economy. The population is feeling the crunch of Inter-
national Monetary Fund regulations which have put a 10 per
cent ceiling on wage increases and instituted an import
freeze. There is also speculation that she may be moving to
reinstitute a plan to privatize the banana industry in favor of
the multinationals, a move which brought down her pre-
decessor Perry Seraphim.

Charles must call an election within the next 18 months.
The DLM doubts she’ll be riding so high by that time.

: — K.M.

Ominously, speaking at a recent semi-
nar for regional police commissioners,
the island’s police chief, Orville Durant,
said that one of the major ‘‘problems”’
his force had to deal with at present was
“‘Communists’’. Prior to the Grenada in-
vasion, Prime Minister Adams had pub-
licly said that the Barbados-based Carib-
bean Conference of Churches (CCC) was
‘riddled with Communists”’.

Ricky Singh, the Guyana-born editor
of the CCC’s monthly newspaper,
Caribbean Contact, was subsequently
told that his work permit was rescinded.
He has since left the island following
revelations that he refused to sign a
document offered to him by the Adams
government that would have allowed
him to stay in Barbados is he abstained
from criticizing the regime.

As with its pro-Reagan foreign policies
(its consistency perhaps best shown up
by last year’s support of the Thatcher
government’s claim to the Falklands
(Malvinas Islands). The BLP administra-
tion favors a Puerto Rican style indus-
trialization policy whereby American
and other Western transnational cor-
porations are given extensive tax con-
cessions to set up branch plants in the
island. Since taking office, and despite its
claim to being a democratic socialist
party — it holds membership in the
Socialist International — it has moved to
break up a number of state-run enter-
prises such as the island’s transit system.
Additionally, a get tough campaign is
now under way in the civil service. Its
aim: to reduce the number of sick days
from 21 days per year to six days per
year, among other measures.

Despite its origins in the trade union
movement, the BLP heirarchy has fre-
quently been at loggerheads with the is-
land’s trade unions. The largest labor
body, the 30,000-strong Barbados
Workers’ Union is, for example, care-
fully watching a piece of shelved legisla-

tion which if passed, the union says, _

would enable the government to force
striking workers back to work and
undermine the collective bargaining pro-
cess in a number of ways.

There are those who argue that the
Adams regime’s shift to a more hard line
right-wing position in recent years was
taken in reaction to the influence in Bar-
bados and neighboring territories of the
four-and-a-half-year progressive reform
experiment of Bishop's ill-fated People’s
Revolutionary Government, especially
among unemployed youth (estimated in
Barbados to be over 20 per cent of all
young people).

Opposition forces here will therefore
have to be on their guard against any
further moves by Adams’ BLP to
undermine and hamstring their rightful
participation in the democratic process.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—DECEMBER 21, 1983—Page 13