Carnival done but the search is on for ‘Red Devils’

2026-03-15 - 02:08

Tony Rakhal-Fraser There are the beginnings, almost by stealth, to promote in a completely unsubstantiated and vulgar manner, the notion of a growing socialist/communist orientation and aspiration in Trinidad and Tobago and indeed the wider Caribbean. As can be predicted, the socialist/communist tagline is being attached to anyone, and/or group of individuals who have raised their voices against the acquiescence of those leaders amongst Caricom countries who are in the process of detaching themselves from the 50-plus years of regional integration in a collective foreign policy stance, in relation to third countries. Of course, this is not the first occasion that there has been a split in the adoption of common stances in such matters; the acceptance by a number of Caricom governments of the US being invited to intervene in Grenada to settle a conflict between two elements of the New Jewel Movement Government was another such instance. CLR James has outlined the context well: there are always those amongst West Indian politicians who remain on standby to point out a “communist” amongst their numbers as a means of gaining a favour, or fulfilling a promise to do so. The same precept applies in the socialist-communist identification parade; leaders willing to tag along with the American administration in the hope of gaining benefits, through the engagement in what journalist of the 1960s, Adrian Espinet, referred to as “political paquotille”—arrangements made in the gateways of the old Port-of-Spain of the period. Not too incidentally, this anti-socialist/communist alarum being spun in the contemporary period, also includes certain leaders of those Caricom states that, in an unprincipled and dog-like manner, are in the process of selling out their sovereignty to tag along with the anti-Cuba stance; yes, the same ones who for decades have received general and specialist medical assistance from Havana. Their actions and castigations of the present are to please their current masters. Among them are those now complicit with the USA to lay siege on Havana for the government there “failing to observe political democracy”. Were they, during the period when they received medical assistance, aware of political oppression and human rights violations being practised by successive Cuban Governments? When those who are now prepared to castigate the government in Havana were annually receiving hundreds of Cuban medical staff, were they preoccupied and indeed horrified that they allegedly had to turn over a portion of their salary to the exchequer? Are the said Caribbean governments saying that the system of governance in Cuba is now more restrictive and oppressive than it was in the past, when they fully supported Havana against the alleged crippling sanctions placed against them? But I continue from the opening concern of the deliberate spreading of the notion of a return by Caribbean politicians, parties, even governments, and by those who comment on social, political and economic matters, to ideological socialism/communism. One very dangerous and sinister aspect of such unfounded claims is the red flag being waved for the notice of Washington. In the circumstances of a US President on the march to “cleanse” the hemisphere of such ideology and ideologues, projecting, completely without substance, the claim of a communist philosophy in the region, provides the historical and hysterical anti-communists with fodder, and a sub-text to eliminate these “bad old communists”. “The heart of our agreement is a commitment to using lethal military force to destroy the sinister cartels and terrorist networks once and for all,” said President Trump at the signing of the Shield of the Americas agreement. Speaking directly to the selected Latin American and Caribbean leaders in Miami, the US President set down the basis for co-operation: “You have to just tell us where they are. We have amazing weaponry, as you probably noticed over the last short period of time.” You can be certain that the same rationale for getting the assistance of Caribbean and Latin American leaders to deal with drug traffickers will be used for the socialists/communists in the Caribbean. The above is not about unsubstantiated speculation, but rather confirmed US action during the 20th century, and continuing into the 21st, to crush the growth of socialism/communism from Vietnam, to Guatemala, to Jamaica under Michael Manley; the list is a long one. There is another matter that needs to be addressed, not a new one, but one in vogue in the present, and that is how the use of language by the West has been negatively attached to certain countries and their people. The “terrorist” tag has been fixed on groups and countries which have been seeking to pull themselves loose from the domination and plunder of their resources by the Western world. A more fruitful look for the real terrorists of the 21st century will find those who are at present dismantling, and in instances, completely demolishing sovereign countries, killing tens of thousands of unarmed civilians, non-combatant men, women, and school children, stealing in the most unapologetic manner, the mineral resources of other sovereign countries, at the same time that they deem said countries fighting against domination, as the terrorists of the world. Tony Rakhal-Fraser – freelance journalist, former reporter/current affairs programme host and News Director at TTT, programme producer/current affairs director at Radio Trinidad, correspondent for the BBC Caribbean Service and the Associated Press, graduate of UWI, CARIMAC, Mona and St Augustine – Institute of International Relations.