Is the Antigua Labor Party (ALP) guilty of its crime against humanity?

Power concedes nothing without a demand-

Frederick Douglass

By Kwame Nkosi Romeo

War is a Racket By Smedley D. Butler encapsulates the army's power and brute force by developed countries. Energy used to enslave, crush, and oppress the rights of people by violating all aspects of human rights is alive today as it was in the days of slavery outlined in Chapter one:

"WAR is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, and surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives."

How can Britain own what belongs to the people of Barbuda?

By brute force and dictatorial banditry! In Kenya, the British set-aside money to buy back land in the "White Highlands," which had been reserved for settlers, but reneged on paying reparation to the people of Zimbabwe and many other countries that suffered under the boot of colonial oppression. -Kenya (White Highlands)

HC Deb 30 October 1958 vol 594 cc463-74

South Africa is just one example; following the 1902 South African 'Boers' War, the British divided the spoils of war and turned a blind eye to the persecution of the black majority under the Apartheid system of being landless, pauperized, and disenfranchised. South Africa's next revolution remained on the issue of land and the 87% controlled by white settlers since neither Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki, Jacob Zuma, nor Cyril Rhamposa addressed this historical injustice.

Today, we witness the brutal British monarchial land regime practice in post-independence Antigua and Barbuda. The ALP government used this oppressive constitution handed down by the enslavers to continue the doctrine of the old colonial power under the guise of black neo-colonialism independence.

There are other examples of colonial power military might taking over the land belonging to the people. Between 1895 and 1963, British colonialism took away 90,000 acres of land from the Kipsigis and Talai of Kenya and gave it to white Europeans. Various British and multinational tea corporations now occupy the land. At the same time, Antigua and Barbuda prime minister Gaston Browne was encouraged by the United Kingdom Privy Council judgment to carry out land grabs in Barbuda under Imperial legislation.

This land grab started decades ago by leasing more than 500 acres to Aldo Pinto and continuing to Robert DeNiro and now Peace, Love, and Happiness (PLH). ALP's kleptocratic land doctrine amassed billions of dollars in politician coffers, the land grab in Antigua is a warning and notice of what's pending for Barbuda.

Additionally, it's a pity a black government is committing atrocities against people and scheduling, disempowering land ownership, and destroying black businesses from Parham to St. John's Antigua without compensation to business owners.

• A declared ALP financier who defies the Development Control Authority (DCA) laws is authorized to continue without any threat or ramifications for constructing an illegal beach bar in Long Bay Antigua. This colossal beach bar deprives local people of their place of enjoyment and space to relax on the beach and is green-lighted by the ALP, not giving concern to people's inherent rights. This right is not local but international; according to Beach Access -Beachapedia, "The public has an inherent right of access to and along all beaches and shorelines." Beach Access - Beachapedia

In the same instance, recipients of the high net worth Citizen by Investment Programme (CIP) get multiple acres of the people's inheritance and absolute control of our resources. Simultaneously, St. John's Parish has one of the highest population densities per sq km, which is way above the world average. None can afford to move because of increasing land gentrification.

Was this expected under a black government? 

Worse! Never forget ALP bought and sold politicians who betrayed the African liberation struggle by colluding with Space Research Corporation (SRC) to send arms to South Africa. 

Wikileaks disclosed the smuggling of these arms on December 2, 1978: "FROM 1977, SRC BEGAN TO SHIP EQUIPMENT TO A NEW HIGH-SECURITY TEST SITE IN ANTIGUA FROM THE NEAREST CANADIAN PORT, ST. JOHN NEW BRUNSWICK. EARLY IN 1977, 36 CONTAINERS WERE ASSEMBLED ON THE DOCKS IN ST. JOHN, NEW BRUNSWICK. OF THESE, 20 CONTAINERS OF 155 MM STEEL FORGINGS, ACCORDING TO SHIPPING PAPERS, WERE TAKEN BY THE SHIP MOURA TO ANTIGUA" (Canonical 1978USUNN05612_d)

In contrast, cricket's most dominant colossus of Social Integrity Respect (Sir), Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards, said NO to South Africa's open cheque to play cricket in Apartheid South Africa is a legacy of solidarity and social justice. Sir Viv's action resonates worldwide and with solid affirmation, South African President Nelson Mandela thanks Viv for not going to South Africa! Indeed Sir Viv is a global hero, taking the liberation forces' side against the forces of injustice. In supporting all oppressed people fighting against injustice, Sir Viv put it into context: "My Greatest Inning Was not Going To South Africa."

Forty years after Sir Viv's widely-acclaimed action against South Africa's Apartheid regime, calls for moral courage now rage with urgency. Apartheid surrounds us in Antigua and Barbuda, and ALP government ministers endorse that doctrine against the people of Barbuda.

Today local people are prohibited by buffer zones in Barbuda, similar to the dreaded pass system in South Africa under Apartheid and what is currently in the advanced stages at Wilmoth Bay south of Pigeon Point in Antigua. In addition to the enclosure of a public beach by Hammock Cove northeast of Antigua to Siboney Beach Club in the northwest. 

These beaches once opened to the public, are now shut as jobs are for local people. Prime Minister Gaston Browne's calls for skilled workers is a deceitful plan to bring in cheap foreign workers to accelerate PLH undertaking, as is occurring at the Wilmoth Bay development and many others.

Are these iron-fisted developers looking for another Beach's Rebellion evidence during Thomas Beach's tenure on Barbuda?

Also to come is the planned dispossession of Fort James, Jabberwock, Seaforth Beach, Darkwood, Fryes Bay, and Barbuda land.

We must mobilize against the practice of beach privatization in the same way black people in South Africa rise against segregation on Clifton beach.

Our people's most outstanding inning is yet to arise to effect much-needed revolutionary transformation. No stumps must be left standing. A warning is essential to the American University of Antigua (AUA) takeover of Jabberwock Beach Antigua is no different from the 32 acres of land giveaway to Elite Resorts in the National Park at Devil's Bridge for US$0.7407 (EC$2.00) per sq ft. All are bad deals that people's power must cancel and return to the masses all at once.

This wickedness is similar to the 25.59 acres sold to R. Allan Stanford in February 2003 at EC$0.407 (EC$1.10) per sq ft.

The haunting words of the Portuguese sailor onboard SS Trugeland transporting arms to the South Africa Apartheid regime remain poignant:

"It's a pity you have a black government encouraging shipping these things from here to South Africa." (Smuggling arms to South Africa - August 5, 1979)

On this Emancipation Watchnight, Antigua and Barbuda Reparations Support Commission must demand the ALP government publicly apologize to Royal Majesty King Bhungane III and his wife of the Embo Kingdom of South Africa, the community of Africa, and Caribbeaners for ALP's crime against humanity.