The struggle continues

A number of terms have now become part of the political, economic and social discourse in Barbados and other parts of the Caribbean region. These include, among others, the notions of resilience, sustainability, empowerment and inclusivity. These concepts all represent moral categories, reflecting things that are good as opposed to bad, benign as opposed to malignant, positive in contrast to negative. 

Resilience, for example, is an unqualified  ‘good. We would all want to be resilient or strong in the face of adversity. We would all desire to be able to sustain and prosper our respective fortunes over time. Economic, social and political inclusivity is, to quote Shakespeare, ‘a consummation devoutly to be wished.’ Wouldn’t we all like to be as one, to feel equal to each other, to feel equally accepted and cherished. The reality is, however, problematically different. It is particularly problematic given the history of the region. 

The historical factors that shaped the region’s economic and sociocultural reality did not conduce to inclusivity. The heritage is one of conquest, colonialism and plantation slavery, which all produced divisions based on culture, class, race, complexion, which is a derivative of race and of course, gender. As Barbadian novelist George Lamming has written, Caribbean people ‘still labour under the antagonistic weight of the past.’ Pre-existing structural inequalities are part of our reality. 

Writing in the RSA Journal (Issue 3, 2020, p.28) Anne Price of the American Roosevelt Institute, notes that Black people ‘have among the lowest wealth holding of any other racial and ethnic group in the nation,’ By the way, reparations alone will not ‘monetise’ that ‘antagonistic weight’ off of our collective backs. 

Given these historical antecedents one wonders what is meant when politicians posture about fashioning an ‘inclusive’ society in which purportedly ‘we are all in this together,’ all hands are asked to come on deck because more hands will make light work as we become our brother’s keeper. 

Jonathan Haidt, professor of Ethical Leadership at NYU’s Stern School of Business has suggested that there are three things that bind societies together. The first is Social Capital, the second is strong Civic Institutions and lastly, Shared Values such as trust.  

Certainly, inclusivity cannot be an absolute. There is no society beyond the very small where some members are not and do not feel somehow excluded or marginalised. However, some societies may be more inclusive than others. There are cultures in Latin America and elsewhere where there are vast divergences between rich and poor, between the mansions and the shanties, between gargantuan wealth on the one hand and grating poverty on the other. However, a polity that claims to be democratic and progressive must always strive to diminish the structural inequalities that separate its people. Societies where there are gross inequalities of living conditions are historically very unstable. 

Some time ago I remember Sir George Alleyne as stating that years previously the income distribution rate was good, but he wondered where it stood at the time he was speaking. One wonders what the income distribution rate in Barbados is in 2025. Barbados today is arguably less exclusionary than it was in the 1950’s and 60’s. People interact less on consideration of race and complexion than they did back then when to be white was to be ‘all right,’ to be red was an opportunity to ‘go ahead’ and to be black implied that one had to ‘stand back.’ 

Arguably the key determining factor in reducing or augmenting inclusivity is the economy. Professor Gordon Lewis as an avowed Marxist historian based his thoughts on the Caribbean on what Rupert Lewis termed ‘the primacy of the economic actor,’ where ideology is derivative of social and economic relations. Rupert Lewis contends that Gordon Lewis felt that ‘modes of social relations, even forms of social thought are shaped everywhere by modes of production.’ (See Review article ‘The writing of Caribbean Political Thought,’ in Caribbean Quarterly. Vol 36. #1 & 2. Pp153-164).  One does not have to be a Marxist to see that the statement has much validity. I have consistently argued that capitalism tends to produce and reproduce class stratification and, hence some measure of exclusivity. 

Today, when swashbuckling capitalism is the dominant mode of production with rising inflation in a materialist culture, it is tempting to feel that talk about achieving ‘inclusivity’ is little more than political manipulation of the excluded. Slow but anaemic growth coupled with high inflation is creating an atmosphere that is making many Barbadians feel increasingly financially insecure. The lower rungs of the middle class are being hollowed out. The working class struggles to make ends meet while we see the emergence of an economic underclass drowning in a regressive subculture that hinders any chance of upward mobility. My own very subjective impression is that upward mobility in Barbados is slowing due to prolonged slow economic growth and rising inflation. One wonders whether the young generation of Barbadians can ever hope to obtain the proverbial piece of the rock. The problem is likely to get worse if in a 166 square mile habitation, we open our borders to bring in 80 000 migrants and allow land to be sold to the highest foreign bidder. Far from creating inclusivity, we could be creating exclusivity and social alienation.

The ruling political elites hold on to their party sinecures, as the educated classes for the most part publicly shun the issues beyond their private coffee and tea rooms. More and more persons are seeking welfare or importuning those who appear better off.  Gun crime is clearly out of control. As I write, the 12:30 news reported a shooting in Parish Land, Christ  Church, in which again, children in the streets were apparently endangered. 

But the rhetoric of resilience, sustainability, empowerment, transformation and inclusivity persists. The struggle continues.   

Ralph Jemmott is a retired educator and commentator on social issues.