THE EDITOR: Celebrations marking International Women's Day (March 8) in our capital were notably muted. Not that the issues highlighted have been addressed.
The opposite, one might easily assume. A cursory look at any media outlet reports missing young women, attacks on the elderly, domestic violence.
Then there is the organised collective begging/hustling/panhandling/solicitation as the ranks of the unemployed swell and women, as always, have to manage the situation for the families. Our prisons are filled with young men.
Organised labour, which used to be in the forefront of the celebrations, was noticeably absent. One imagines that this might be because the current leaders have simply folded and put away their banners of struggle. Unable to mount a serious resistance they are apparently more than ever content with press conferences and consultation. We must note too that less and less workers respond to their calls for action.
Maybe this is a period of transition. Certainly the ruling class, better organised and resourced, has the upper hand. When one speaks to some of them about the struggles that won our rights that we enjoy today, of heroic women who led and fought for a better day, they say they did/do not know. Even though the information is documented in public libraries and at UWI.
History tells us that a single spark can cause a prairie fire. The Red House in 1903 was set on fire by an issue involving water. Charlie King had no idea that his misguided zeal, in attempting to arrest Uriah "Buzz" Butler, would ignite a fury that set off the 1937 insurrection. It was a student demonstration that set the stage for the 1970 rebellion. The Muslimeen attempted coup of 1990 by a handful of insurgents was quickly snuffed out but for days there was no government in charge of the country.
In our present state of social disrepair and institutional collapse, history is pregnant with possibility. Will the spark be water as in 1903, fire a la Charlie King in 1937, anger as in 1970? No one ever surely knows.
RAE SAMUEL
Balmain
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