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April 21, 2023
“[H]istorical writing is a process of constant revision and expansion, as new sources, information and perspectives become accessible.”–Dr. Bridget Brereton
In history and historical research, so much is often overlooked that, to grasp and understand contentious issues surrounding the ‘proprietorship’ of history, we must plumb the registers to unsilence previously silenced voices. Today, the 53rd Anniversary of the February Revolution and the 1970s Soldiers’ Mutiny, to more deeply appreciate and discern past lessons, we look back and sample voices that may not have factored into the post-1970 research.
In this “Special Issue… Part II,” we interrogate two viewpoints missing in the research on 1970. Such reconsideration is both necessary and timely. We begin by asking: Whatever happened to the fourth lieutenant and the first person charged and convicted for the 1970 Mutiny? At the First Mutiny Trial held at the Chaguaramas Convention Center in June 1970, Lieutenant David Brizan received the maximum sentence for writing a letter supporting the mutiny.
In “From Laventille Through Sandhurst To Star Dust: Beyond The 1970 Mutiny,” Brizan documents not just the farce of the tribunal but touches on social conditions which led to soldiers forging connections beyond the barracks. In searing words, he reveals that moved by the passion for going beyond flag independence, soldiers, like the masses, were searching for ways to transform and improve upon what society bequeathed to them, and no longer wanted to be mere ‘hewers of wood and drawers of water,’ as Dr. Williams once observed.
In “Part 2: Reintroducing Ex-Lieutenant Rex Lassalle,” Roger Toussaint excavates Rex Lassalle’s prescient 1970 Court Marshall Speech, which offered a clear vision of the transformative potential of A People’s Army, presenting this all-but-forgotten address as a stark contrast to “the more compliant… neo-colonialism under Eric Williams.”
Finally, we offer Rex Lasalle’s “1970 Court-Martial Speech: ‘Here I Stand!‘”, a clear-sighted invocation reflecting, as Toussaint notes, “a product of much thought and behind-the-scenes discussions… among the soldiers involved in the mutiny.” In “Here I Stand,” Lasalle provided insights, still relevant today, of an army as a catalyst for change–in agriculture primarily–serving as an engine of growth and a spark to development and not just using the Trinidad and Tobago Regiment as a crime-fighting unit alongside the police. Indeed, “Here I Stand” provides a forward-thinking assessment for fostering human and societal development, even today.
Click here for “Special Issue Marking, The 53rd Anniversary of The 1970 February Revolution in Trinidad & Tobago, Part I.”
Read on and post your comments at the end of each article.
For BDN Editors.