Class Warfare

Abstract

Class warfare .. Share this Story: Share on google Share on twitter Share on facebook Published:Friday \textbar January 6, 2012 . by Peter Espeut We sociologists are trained to analyse society and events using certain paradigms, paying attention to certain particular variables, especially race and class. There are many who would wish to avoid that sort of analysis and to sweep matters like this under the carpet for, depending on how you position yourself, it can be uncomfortable. Woven into the fabric of Jamaican society are race and class divisions (in Jamaica there is a close connection between the two). Our systems of education and health care, and almost every other facet of Jamaican life, have been constructed on these realities. Some of us take these divisions (and the unequal distribution of economic and social benefits they imply) for granted, and have accepted them as ’normal’, especially if we benefit from them because of accidents of birth. People at the bottom of the social ladder do not accept these immoral and unjust social and economic divisions as inevitable and the norm, and there is widespread protest against it, some of which contributes to Brand Jamaica. Reggae is, essentially, rebel music, finding resonance with protest movements across the world, especially but not exclusively in the black world. Rastafarianism is countercultural, rejecting a white god, and putting forward a black god. Pentecostalism (the largest religious movement in Jamaica) rejects European Christianity, seen as being in cahoots with the oppressive social system. The way so many Jamaicans dress and wear their hair is intended to challenge societal norms of neatness and propriety. The adoption of the language of royalty and ’top ranking’ is an attempt to claim equality and respect, and to banish ideas of inferiority. Before 1944, the divisions of race and class permeated Jamaican politics, as only persons with property were qualified to vote; with universal adult suffrage, the lowest on the social ladder have the same vote as the captains of industry, and those who would wish to rule (and thereby determine the direction of flow of public funds) have to come to some arrangement with the underclass. No political party in Jamaica can win an election without the support of those at the bottom, who are mostly poor and black. The party must convince the poor that its victory is a victory for the poor. The big man’s party I thought the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) had learnt this from the days of Bustamante, who managed to pull together both labour and capital in an alliance against those with socialist leanings. Seaga, the anthropologist, built his base in the ghetto. And even though many unlettered of the party faithful sat around the table, there was no doubt who was in charge. Under Golding (and Holness), the JLP gave the impression of being a big man’s party. The main boast was macroeconomic stability, which, even though the lot of the poor depends upon it, came across as the big man’s joy. Clearly, the moneyed classes were funding the JLP and starving the PNP of funds; to support the JLP was to support big business, and all that big business stands for. The ridiculing of Mrs Simpson Miller’s way of speaking and her mannerisms was interpreted in class and ethnic terms, which it undoubtedly was. The attack ads were designed by middle-class JLP spin doctors to appeal to middle-class voters - basically to themselves. Where was the appeal to the majority of the electorate, of the same ethnic make-up as Mrs Simpson Miller? It was a huge miscalculation. At least the PNP says it loves the poor, even if it has so far been unable to come up with a plan to alleviate poverty on a sustainable basis. This election was a moment of class warfare where many in the working class withheld their votes rather than support a party which, they believed, did not defend their interests. To these were added the many who withheld their votes because they could not see in either option the route to their liberation. The election was won by the majority - those who have no confidence in either side. The PNP may have a lot of seats, but it won only about 27 per cent of the votes of those who were registered to vote; thousands were so disillusioned that they did not seek to get registered. There will be no honeymoon for this administration, and it will be watched closely. As I listened to the new prime minister’s inauguration speech yesterday, what came to me was ‘Nah change no course’. The 2012 PNP Government seems to want to take up where it left off in 2007. Same agenda: Caribbean Court of Justice, crash programme by another name, and no action on conserving our natural environment. We will have to wait and see. Peter Espeut is a sociologist and environmentalist. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.