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February 28, 2023
“A Trini have a funny, funny way of forgetting,
Their History to them like don’t mean nothing.”
–Brother Valentino, “The Roaring 70s.
Fifty-three years after the February 1970 Revolution, it is still under contention, as it should be. Was it merely a change in consciousness that shook the pillars of society, or was it a fluttering shadow snuffed out by the government of the day, never to rise? Was it a transformative event that lit a flame in our continuing quest to be truly free? Can the trigger be reduced to a singular source? Has the role of a few critical actors been undervalued and or erased? Can we refashion a United Front to confront today’s challenges and Recapture The True Spirit of the 70s? What’s the role of art and popular culture in advancing the cause? How did the bane of our disdain respond in the “afterglow”?
In this Special Issue, contributors address some of these complex questions. We begin with Clyde Weatherhead’s “Beyond 60 Years of Independence: 1970 In Perspective,” which traces the roots to the February Revolution, emphasizing the contributions of the progressive Trade Unions and the pivotal role of Pegasus and its leader in the ongoing “nation-building process.”
In “Reintroducing Former Lieutenant Rex Lassalle,” Roger Toussaint presents a deeply reflective personal story that reveals the lasting impact of the soldiers’ actions and messages by providing a critical lens. Alluding to Lassalle’s contributions being undervalued, even suppressed in the historic register, this is the unexplored territory that Toussaint will explore in Part Two.
“In Conversation With Rex Lassalle On 1970 And Beyond,” Winthrop Holder ponders, ‘Who is this man, Lassalle?’ through the prism of poetry (“Indigenous Uprising“) and his unclouded memory of 1970 and the groundings and “running of subversive literature” in the barracks. It’s also a look at the forces that shaped him growing up in Belmont, awash with creative energy.
Since the then Prime Minister Eric Williams has factored into contributors’ “gaze,” a peek at his latest work may be instructive. Though we first heard of “The Blackest Thing In Slavery Was Not The Black Man” through a newspaper headline in the contentious days of the early 1970s, we kept looking for it to land–it only did late last year. It must surely be a defense, apology, or profound reflection on his governance during the February Revolution. However, disappointment seeped through reading this “Last Testimony of Eric Williams.”
It was only in the last three pages that, while acknowledging significant government adjustments to the demands from the streets, Williams nevertheless, in a Naipaulian and dismissive way, reduced The February Revolution as simply “drawing its inspiration from the black ghettos in the United States.” Of course, there was such a connection, but to minimize the legitimate aspirations of thinking citizens as under “Black American influence” is to render a version of History bordering on “Absurdity.” To be sure, “The Last Testament” is an edited compilation “crafted from a tome of considerable length, over a thousand pages of intense writing,” as Brinsley Smaroo, the editor, tells us in the Introduction. Although Samaroo accomplished quite a feat in trimming the book and keeping its overarching theme; still, one wonders if the editor could not have retained more of William’s writings about the 1970s.
And most tellingly, though a reviewer correctly hails the book as “perhaps the most concise and penetrating record of the malignity and historical pervasiveness of white racism that we have,” one is astounded by its “forgetfulness” in a critical area. To reduce the April 21 Mutiny to a single sentence: “The disturbances were complicated by an army mutiny when a state of emergency was declared,” hardly matches the nuances of contributors’ discussion in this Special Edition on the 1970 Revolution. Furthermore, one wonders if Williams’s uncritical take of “The Ras Tafari cult” doesn’t place him as Rex Lassalle–one of the leaders of the 1970 mutiny–may have, among “The colonial clones allergic to dreadlocks!“
Demonstrating civilian support for the soldiers, Clement Haynes noted, “I was sympathetic with the rebel soldiers because I saw it as an act in favor of the people because they didn’t want to come to Port of Spain to carry out the State’s orders.” Getting to the core of the matter in Brian Meeks’ “Narratives Of Resistance: Jamaica, Trinidad, The Caribbean:” Haynes, an early member of The National Union of Freedom Fighters—about which Williams doesn’t say anything–best reflected the spirit of the times: “The mass movement of the 1970s challenged the nation at its core, breaking the belief in Williams as a popular hero, thus removing the last integument.” Interestingly, in the Introduction, it’s revealed that Williams “deeply regretted the loss of life among members of National Union of Freedom Fighters.” Still, there is no evidence either in a 45-plus years book in the making or in the text that Samaroo cited.
Yet, we must be mindful of Hollis “Chalkdust” Liverpool’s caution in “From The Horse’s Mouth”: “It is therefore important that in the Caribbean we, who are deluged by Euro-centric history and literature, document our true history.”
Read on and join the conversation by posting comments at the end of the articles.
From BDN Editors