JNF-The-Working-Class-Struggle-of-Half-a-Century

important matter, I promise the Electorate, and this is no rash promise,
that if elected, I will work unceasingly to obtain a comprehensive inquiry
to the sugar industry of the Presidency... There was supposed to
be an inquiry some time ago, but in my view it was no inquiry at all.
For such an inquiry to be effective, Labour must be represented, and
the whole matter must be gone into from the base. The old system of
production for profit for a small owning class on the basis of wage
slavery for the producing classes should be superseded by a system of
full co-operation in which all classes will share their fair portion. This
is the issue in St. Kitts today…
In conclusion, Mr. Manchester said, I have worked - I speak
with sense of pride- for the better part of my life for what is now being
brought about, that is, the introduction of the Elective Principle; and I
did it with my eyes wide open... Whether we realize it or not, the fact
remains that the turning point in the political development of these islands
started when the Closer Union Commission communicated
through the St. Kitts Workers League. Up to the time the Commission
arrived in St. Kitts, there was no definite commitment that their terms of
reference would include consideration of constitutional advance towards
self-government. In time to come a glorious tale will be recorded
in connection with the activities of this organization when the political
history of the West Indies is being written.
The opposition team presented themselves to the electorate, as
independents. The voters knew where Mr. Clement Malone stood in
respect to the interests in Labour. But the other two candidates (a planter
and a merchant) who shared the same platform with him during the
electioneering campaign, showed up as a sort of Chinese puzzle to most
people, because they were prominent members of the St. Kitts Agricultural
and Commercial Society. The Society had fought against political
reform. Its adherents stood firmly against the right to vote yet they had
the audacity to ask the voters to use their new right to elect them. The
adventurers dared to face the electorate! They were perhaps confident
that they were masters of the situation, and still masters of the people in
the sense of the supremacy which that class held in the past generations.
Commenting on the puzzle, the Union Messenger of 23 rd April
1937 said, In our view the candidates have rightly regarded the Agri-
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