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in 1902, Pastor Charles Monk of Allen Temple in somerset stood up for the rights of black people when he published accounts of the mistreatment of black labourers working at the Royal Naval Dockyard in his newspaper the New Era - Monk was quickly charged and found guilty* of criminal libel and spent 6 months in jail, stripped of his money and he left Bermuda soon after; chased out.
*years later the Colonial Office in London discovered that the judge in that trial was corrupt and unfit to be a magistrate.
in 1920 Reverend Richard Tobbitt of the Richard Allen Church in St. Georges was the respected headmaster at St. Georges Parish school, one of only 2 high schools for black children on the island. However when then governor, Willcocks discovered that Tobbitt was a "garveyite" espousing black empowerment in bermuda, he instructed the govt. and the board of education to threaten the AME church (who ran the school) that they'd cut off funds to the school unless Tobbitt was fired. They did, Tobbitt was fired and he too left Bermuda soon after.
in the 40s dr. e. f. gordon tried to create a unified front while lobbying for fair labor practices and for Black representation on the powerful all white Labour Board - the board went behind gordon's back and "chose" 2 Black men of their "liking" to sit on the board. the unity was broken and workers had to take what was given to them.
in 1959, dockworker joe mills tried to form a unified front for the dock workers under the BIU against the unfair practices of the stevedores. the stevedores engineered dissidence among union members by a.) using a smear campaign against mills and b.) encouraging the formation of a rival union, as a result a rival union, the bdwu was set up and again the unity was broken and workers had to take what was given to them.
in 1965 the BIU tried to form a unified front against belco over working conditions and wages at the power company. belco ,to diminish the strength of the biu, encouraged some workers to set up a rival union, the ESTU, the unity was broken and workers had to take what was given to them.
in the 80s, while on the verge of success, infighting within the plp caused a split and the party suffered. the unity was broken and the ubp stayed in power.
in the 90s, some bermudian kids of the same colour started to divide themselves into "town" and "country" factions and began fighting each other. unity was broken and the island suffered as whole.
today, there seems to be a division in the plp between the central committee and the local committee that threatens the progress that has been made.
it's as if the powers that be have used their bullying tactics and their divide and conquer tactics so effectively that we now just bully away our leaders ourselves, or we just divide and conquer ourselves. it's time for a change.
in 1981. the biu held a massive general strike action that many other unions came out to support - this time unity was held and the union was victorious on a landmark labour ruling. let's take a lesson from that moment in history and be victorious again.
