Prospero’s Wishful Thinking

Over at Vexed our friend is suggesting that the organised labour in the form of the Unions should reconsider its relationship with the Party of organised labour, the PLP. Essentially s/he argues that ’sooner or later’ union members will conclude that the PLP is no longer a ‘labour’ Party. He provides a very quick analysis of the existing power dynamics of the Party (governed by a small private clique) and affirms the strength of the unions, the full extent of which s/he wonders if they are truly aware of. From these premises s/he reaches the conclusion that the unions should spend ‘a little more time cultivating the Opposition.’

I’m not going to deny, or take issue with many of this arguments premises. I happen to agree with many of them, although I would suggest s/he do a bit more in clarifying what exactly constitutes a Labour Party, as the Blairite New Labour prevalent in the UK, even under Gordon Brown, still considers itself part of the Labour movement, and there is still a sizeable minority within the greater Party that is also of this mistaken belief. I see New Labour, and its manifestations here, more as some sort of cancer within the movement, and in Bermuda it is compounded by the history of race. I have given my analysis of the race/class dynamics of the Party in several other posts, and won’t go to much in depth here. What is more I don’t think its any secret, or anything original on my part in this analysis, as it is written of quite explicitly in what may be regarded as Party commissioned literature (namely the memorial books on Freddie Wade).

Basically the Party is largely composed of Bermudas working class, which due to historical reasons is largely (about 90% Black), as well as the majority of what may be called the Black bourgeoisie/capitalists. The presence of this group in a nominally working class Party is connected to the historical need to smash the white racial capitalism that existed in Bda, officially under segregation, and informally for some time after (and still exists to a degree), and the weakness of the Black bourgeoisie in and of itself to smash this racial capitalism, as well as the shared cause of defeating racial ideology, of which the Black consciousness movement was instrumental in doing. There was, and still is, a smattering of what may be called white radicals as well as some elements of the white bourgeoisie who recognised the need to transcend racial capitalism for the long-term benefit of the country (and their businesses). I’ll let readers make their own evaluations as to who in the Party, elected or otherwise, represents these factions today.

Ultimately the only common denominator uniting these groups was opposition to white racial capitalism. The black working class and the white radicals largely opposed both the ideology of white supremacy and the capitalistic system, while the black bourgeoisie and the minority of white bourgeois members where more or less only opposed to the dominance of the local capitalist system by white supremacy. There are some very different positions that result from these perspectives, and only really one alliance, opposition to white supremacy, or alternatively worded, the historic white power structure, which in modern time is known as the UBP politically.

From this alone, an alliance of any kind with the Opposition UBP and the unions is, well, far fetched. Especially when one reviews the historical relationship between the unions (especially the BIU) and the UBP, this position becomes increasingly utopian.

The PLP grew organically out of the anti-racist and working class movements, the UBP grew organically out of the then dominant power structure trying to conserve its position, in reaction to these challenges, calling for tactical retreats here and there, with the aim of maintaining power with some modifications.

The unions and the UBP have very little in common, be it from a class or even race based perspective. Any such alliance would be some hideous chimera, something out of the island of Dr. Moreau. It would be entirely unstable and untenable.

The current situation however is also untenable and increasingly unstable though. The common alliance is increasingly non-existent, and the conflicting interests are creating more and more friction. With cancer, either the cancer wins (and the organism essentially perishes) or the organism is able to expel the cancer through some form of catharsis. This may occur sponteonously as it were, or can be assisted by various medical procedures, chemotherapy, radiotherapy or surgical removal. These are all viable options, or potentialities. For the moment I’ll leave it to the intelligence of the readers to figure out exactly how these medical procedures translate into political action.

Bdian politics is increasingly transcending the old race based politics and moving more and more towards a class based politics. In this new paradigm, it is not organised labour that has anything in common with the Opposition UBP, but the cancer within progressive labour itself that has commonalities with the Opposition.

Despite Prospero’s wishful thinking, despite his sorcery and conjuring powers, and despite even Stephano’s wine, Caliban is beginning to see through it all. A return to Prospero is to be rejected outright. Stephano and his lot are no better. But this does not mean for an instant that Caliban is doomed. It just means something new.

I preferred Cesaire’s play myself. Think I’ll go and reread it now after this post. I don’t have my copy with me right now, but here’s a bit from the net:

For years I bowed my head
for years I took it, all of it–
your insults, your ingratitude…
and worst of all, more degrading than all the rest,
your condescension.
But now, it’s over!
Over, do you hear?
Of course, at the moment you’re still stronger than I am.
But I don’t give a damn for your power
or for your dogs or your police or your inventions!
[...]
Prospero, you’re a great magician:
you’re an old hand at deception.
And you lied to me so much,
about the world, about myself,
that you ended up imposing on me
an image of myself:
underdeveloped, in your words, undercompetent
that’s how you made me see myself!
And I hate that image…and it’s false!
-Act 3, Scene 5

By the way, if anyone has an English copy of his La Tragédie du roi Christophe or Une Saison au Congo can I borrow them? French takes me a while to read.