Readers of last weekend’s column have requested more information. So, here you have another excerpt from the recently republished book “A History of Antigua” (c)2023, by Brian Dyde.
The State of Emergency – March 1968 – St John’s, Antigua
Although this (the State of Emergency) specifically banned ‘all assemblies and gatherings of five or more persons in any public place’, as well as picketing and the carrying of placards, it had little effect, and by nightfall the streets of St John’s were crowded with AWU supporters refusing to disperse until they had been addressed by Walter and his immediate associates.
After lengthy negotiations with a harassed police chief, who had far too few men at his disposal to prevent it, a short public meeting took place – much of it occupied with ‘praying and singing’ – before the streets were emptied.
The following morning, totally ignoring the provisions of the State of Emergency, and with even more support from workers who had now joined them in sympathy, the AWU strikers again gathered in the city. This time the police and the defence force were better prepared, and in scenes which must have been reminiscent of those which had taken place in March 1918, fighting broke out between large groups of angry men and women who considered they were being denied their basic rights, and small units of armed men hardly trained in crowd control and scared of being overwhelmed.
The police countered bottles and stones with tear gas and baton charges in, for the most part, disciplined attempts to keep the peace, but the badly-trained and poorly-led part-time soldiers, once they had been given permission to use their firearms, acted in a much less orderly manner. During the day, as they cleared the streets, often firing at random, they managed to wound no fewer than fifty-eight people, one of them a young boy. In retaliation, a fire was started in the magistrates’ court, and during the night a number of other public buildings were set ablaze. The situation was prevented from deteriorating even further by the arrival from Barbados, the next day, of Desmond Kerr, the Deputy British Government Representative for the Associated States, who swiftly and skilfully arranged a formal meeting between Bird and Walter under the chairmanship of the Governor, Sir Wilfred Jacobs. As a result, Bird agreed to give full recognition to the AWU and to make it known that workers had complete freedom to join whichever union they chose. At the same time, he also agreed to increase the number of seats in the House of Representatives from ten to twelve, in order to provide a better chance of a parliamentary opposition being elected; something for which opposition groups like the Antigua Barbuda Democratic Movement (ABDM) who were represented at the meeting, had been calling for since the State came into being.
Afterwards, both Bird and Walter made placatory radio broadcasts, the strike was called off, and the State of Emergency was lifted; bringing to an end an unpleasant and largely unnecessary series of events which had further undermined the Premier’s standing.
One reason why the agreement had been reached so quickly, and Bird had been, and remained, so ready to compromise (he soon increased the additional seats in the House of Representatives to four), was because he probably felt that the State had already been showing sufficient signs of falling apart before the whole ugly episode had begun.
(The publisher of this book, “A History of Antigua: (c)2023, grants permission for this excerpt (pages 274-275) to be published as a Big Issues column, authored by Barbara Arrindell)
