Even though the results of the 1956 elections had been foreseen by those who had supported Labour and those who knew the inside workings of the election system, the superficial view in the island had been that the Anvil, even if it did not take the government, would have won some seats and would have broken the seemingly perennial all-seat monopoly of Labour.

It had been assessed that Labour’s monopoly had been due to the existence of a trade union. Those opposed to Labour, therefore decided to create a trade union that would have given the Anvil the political, people-based foundation and clout that would have proved to have been the political counterpoise to the dominance of Labour, which was in reality, the Antigua Trades & Labour Union, that had been operating under its alter ego – Labour.

The new union was named the United Port Seamen & General Workers Union. Its president was Mannie DeSousa and its vice president was Strickland Crawford. Mannie was a formidable opponent whom I knew personally as a boy when I used to go to buy fish at the bay in front of his father’s home called Papa Mannie’s Wharf.

In retrospect, it was very good political experience, for I got to know Townsend the Blacksmith and others, while I was supposed to be waiting in Brother Henry’s yard for the boat to arrive.

Brother Henry, Muerah Boddie (the Mighty Artist’s grandfather) who was a Seventh Day Adventist owned a horse & cart which was a big thing in those days. I was supposed to be waiting peacefully there but as usual had wondered to the Point School and the gasolene wharf area, watching and feeding “Tiefie” ( (small illusive cavalli fish).

Suddenly I heard,  “Wait ah one white man pickney ah koom dong ah Pint an’ ah gie aryou all dat chat and trouble? Man, mek arwe grap he an’ bang he, an’ trow he over-board” I realized that I had to run. there were too many of them “ ’Tap he dey. no mek he get way!” I was preparing to make a run for my life when suddenly a voice said, “ You will do no such thing. I have been watching you. he has not interfered with you. Come son. Walk this way!” it was Mannie DeSousa, Papa Mannie’s son. he always claimed that he did not remember the incident, but we remained lifelong friends. I have tape-recorded him for hours and stopped seeing him after a serious motor-car accident forced me to stop driving.

Mannie had been an experienced trade union warrior who had been vice-president of the Antigua Trades & Labour Union and had been sent to Montserrat by VC Bird to organize a trade union to help Bramble to cement himself in power.

In my view, the UPS & GWU did not have the organizational depth, structure and overall experience to act as a counterpoise to the well-oiled, pervasive AT&LU system. Instead of limiting its role to being the people-based, trade union arm of the Antigua National Party (The Anvil), that had been perceived as an upper-class, hoity-toity Black/White entity that had been seeking to oust VC Bird from positions of power that they perceived to have been rightfully theirs, the new union sought to fight and promote itself as a separate entity from the Anvil. it issued its own political manifesto and fielded its own election candidates. Its trade union credentials had not been properly established and its recruitment of members was slow and anaemic. it was form without substance, but with a strong political bias.

My favourite speaker was a former waterfront man who was introduced as Brother bright. I suspect that he was from Jennings. His daughter used to work with Barry Stevens’ mother in her shop at the Point. he was far from being fluent and presented his organization’s waterfront policies. he always stuck in gear and became monosyllabic or stuck in a single phrase mode.

Both Mannie DeSousa, Strickland Crawford and myself referred to him as “ Dry Dock”. He visualized a Deep Water Harbour in St John’s with the bay-front segment once occupied by Food City and beyond, as an area set aside for dry dock facilities to cater to shipping in the Eastern Caribbean. When it is realised that the year was 1956 and that the Deep Water Harbour was not built and opened until 1968, the UPS & GWU with its plethora of innovative ideas, was remarkable for its forward-thinking and innovative presentations.

With very few exceptions, the doctors, lawyers, educators and those who ran the country were supporters of the Anvil. the few people who held degrees were literally regarded as demi-gods in the villages and in the town. what the UPS & GWU did bequeath to this country was the concept of trade union and political party being separate entities that did not operate as a hybrid organization with interchangeable personalities.

In later years, when George Walter ran into trouble with the AT&LU that was operating both as union executive, legislative government and Cabinet, he seized upon the cry that union and government ought not to be one and the same person, where the aggrieved litigant went from Caesar to Caesar. this, Eric Williams described as “ the same khaki pants.”

The country that had been caught in an administrative stranglehold by the AT&LU was relieved to react against VC Bird’s perceived tyranny. the streets of St John’s shook under the impact of over twenty-two thousand people marching with resolute determination to unseat VC Bird.

Norris Walter’s hypothesis that the union could not make any progress unless it controlled political power had been tried and had outlived its purpose. George, Norris Walter’s son had taken up the UPS & GWU’s concept and capitalised on it. Selvyn, another son threw down the gauntlet to VC Bird in St John’s Rural West, when others who now speak with vaunted authority and uncontrolled hubris ran with their tails between their legs and sought easier prey.

In the historic, colossal showdown, Selvyn decisively defeated VC Bird in every ballot box. the AT&LU was forced to reorganize. the Political Committee was abandoned and the Antigua Labour Party did not legally come into being until the multi-headed hydra that had emanated out of 46 North Street had been decisively beheaded at the polls by the Progressive Labour Movement in 1971.

Of Dis and Dat- The pioneering attempts to establish an opposition (Part 5)