As there is so much to say about Hugh Shearer..

[Tropicana]

I have started a new thread to learn more about him.

Let's start with this:

Childhood memories of Hugh Shearer

by Heather Robinson



<span style="font-style: italic">I remember Hugh Shearer as a tall and handsome black man, with one of the most exciting smiles. I do not really remember him as a JLP Prime Minister. I remember him as our Prime Minister, so much so that in 1968, my sisters and I allowed him to greet us and lift up my younger sister at a netball match at Eldeweise Park. We did not see him as an 'ole labourite PM' but rather as this tall attractive black man who in 1968 happened to be our Prime Minister.

CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL

In that same year while a student at St. Hugh's High School, a group of us as third formers would go to the Children's Hospital to play with the children on a Wednesday after school. One Wednesday after visiting the hospital, I went home and wrote a letter to the Prime Minister complaining about the condition of the hospital. About two weeks later our headmistress, Inez Carnegie, informed the school after prayers that she had received a letter from the Prime Minister. Mr. Shearer had written to her asking her to meet with the students who visited the hospital and promised to do what he could to improve the conditions there.

On Tuesday when we were sharing memories of Mr. Shearer, the following story was told. <span style="font-weight: bold">Two young girls attending the Port Maria High School in the late '60s, tried their luck at 'bumming' a drive home to Highgate after school. A nice Mercedes Benz approaches and they decide this is an excellent vehicle to drive in, and so they flagged it down. The car passes, stops and reverses. In those days there are no tinted window, so they immediately see the occupants of the car. It is Prime Minister Hugh Shearer and his driver. He offers them a drive and they accept. During the drive from Port Maria to Highgate they receive a lecture about the benefits and uses of a good education.</span> Mr. Shearer's words did not fall on deaf ears.

Another of my colleagues told a story of receiving a Parker fountain pen from Mr. Shearer as a reward for excellent academic performance. She recalled how much pleasure the pen gave her and how each time she filled it with Parker ink she sought to ensure that it was always used to improve her educational level, and ensure that whenever she saw Mr. Shearer she could give him a positive update on her progress. Someone else recalled with great pleasure how at a wage negotiation meeting he invited her to sit beside him.</span>

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20040709/cleisure/cleisure3.html

[Tropicana]

Re: As there is so much to say about Hugh Shearer..

<span style="font-weight: bold">Okay, let's look at the Walter Rodney Affair. Why was Hugh Shearer so upset with him?</span>


<span style="font-style: italic">ON OCTOBER 15, 1968 the government of Jamaica barred Walter Rodney from returning to the island. A lecturer at the Mona campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI), Rodney had been out of the country attending a Black Power conference in Canada. The Guyanese-born Rodney was no stranger to Jamaica, having graduated from UWI in 1963. He returned to his alma mater as a faculty member at the beginning of 1968, after doing graduate studies in England and working briefly in Tanzania.

Rodney’s second stint in Jamaica lasted all of nine months, but it was a tumultuous and amazing nine months. It is a measure of the mark he made, within and without the university, that the decision to ban him sparked major disturbances, culminating in a riot in the capital city of Kingston. The U.S. government, as represented by its embassy in Kingston, took a keen interest in what was immediately dubbed the “Rodney affair” and in the Black Power phenomenon it so powerfully highlighted.

The American authorities were then engaged in a full-scale repression of a Black Power insurgency at home,(1) and the Rodney affair brought into sharp relief the international character of the “menace.” Accordingly, U.S. diplomats not only closely monitored Black Power activities in Jamaica (and elsewhere in the Caribbean), but they also worked in concert with the Jamaican government to rein in Black Power movements and militants, even as the Americans sometimes took a jaundiced view of the activities of the Jamaican authorities.

Official U.S. documents, until now untapped, shed new light on the Rodney affair. We learn, in detail, about the surveillance of Rodney and his activities by the Special Branch of the Jamaican police in the months before he was banned, documents the Jamaicans apparently shared with the U.S. embassy. The evidence also sheds light on the inner workings of the Jamaican government and why it acted against Rodney at the particular time that it did.</span>


<span style="font-weight: bold">This is what Makabush was saying and yes any mention of Castro would have alarmed people:</span>

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
<span style="font-style: italic">The Jamaican intelligence services, which had kept a file on Rodney during his days as an undergraduate at the UWI from 1960 to 1963, resumed its surveillance of him on his return to the island as a lecturer in January 1968. Summing up his activities over a period of seven years, <span style="font-weight: bold">the Jamaican spymasters reckoned that Rodney was a “convinced Communist with pro-Castro ideals, and latterly to have taken an interest in Black Power.</span>”</span> </div></div>

<span style="font-style: italic">The mixture of so-called pro-Castro communism and Black Power would soon prove combustible. We read in Rodney’s intelligence file that he “lost little time in interesting himself in Jamaican politics on his return to the island.” One of his first acts, reportedly, was to organize a meeting of “six ‘reactionary fellows’ (Rodney’s words).”(3) It was a case of birds of a feather flocking together: “All present at this meeting have adverse security records,” the intelligence file notes. Determined to organize for “the struggle ahead,” Rodney sought the advice of the “reactionary fellows” as to the best course of action. “Two organizations were suggested to him,” the opposition People’s National Party (PNP) and the New World Group (NWG), “an organization of ‘armchair’ left wing intellectuals” that operated throughout the Anglophone Caribbean.

Rodney, the spymasters asserted, was less than pleased with the counsel of the “reactionary fellows.” “He was not impressed by either” the PNP or the NWG. “The former he felt (and rightly) would wish to have nothing to do with him, and the latter was too academic and not sufficiently in touch with the masses.” Rodney, as represented by the spooks, opted to bypass the existing political movements and go directly to the toilers. “He wished, he said, to meet the working people anywhere and everywhere in Jamaica. He expressed interest in the Rastafarians.”(4)

Besides the Rastafarians, the intelligence file indicates, Rodney took a special interest in two other groups: urban youths (including youth gangs) and a heterodox religious movement led by the Rev. Claudius Henry. Henry, in particular, had long been a thorn in the side of the Jamaican government. Convicted of leading an uprising in 1960, he was imprisoned and then released in 1966, whereupon he promptly resumed his jeremiads against the regime.

Rodney’s political activities during his 1968 Jamaica sojourn likely had a strategic purpose. His goal, it seems, was to forge a broad Black Power alliance, a formation that would include Rastafarians, urban youths, and religious rebels like the Rev. Henry. Painting a picture of a man of boundless energy, Rodney’s intelligence file notes ruefully that he also “has interested himself in the formation of a Black Power Movement (BPM) in Jamaica and is attempting to set up branches in the UWI and in the city of Kingston.”</span> [/quote]

<span style="font-weight: bold">Now why was this considered to be such a bad thing?</span>

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">

<span style="font-style: italic">At an exploratory gathering at UWI, he reportedly outlined four aims of Black Power:
- creating an awareness of blackness,
- mobilizing black people “to act in their own interests,”
- rejecting “white cultural imperialism,” and ensuring “the rule of blacks in black society.”

</div></div>
For sure this next part would have upset people:
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">

<span style="font-weight: bold">He demanded “a complete break with the capitalist system,” and rejected the official Jamaican creed “out of many, one people.” Jamaicans, the report quotes Rodney as saying, are “predominantly black and not a multiracial community. Therefore they should be governed only by black people.”</span>
</div></div>


<span style="font-weight: bold">Okay I can also see why THIS would be of concern:</span>
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
These aims, he is supposed to have concluded, “could be achieved only by revolution, adding that no revolution has ever taken place without a violent struggle.”(5)</span></div></div>

http://www.solidarity-us.org/node/136

Okay, this is from USNA, RG59, Box 2242, file JAM – A: Internal Security Review: Walter Anthony Rodney Background in Detail, August 1968, 4.


My questions is how did they come to this conclusion. Did Walter Rodney call for violent struggle and say he was a communist or is this similar to J Edgar Hoover saying that Martin Luther King Jr. was a &quot;known&quot; communist.

[makabush]

Re: As there is so much to say about Hugh Shearer..

<span style="font-style: italic">He demanded “a complete break with the capitalist system,” and rejected the official Jamaican creed “out of many, one people.” Jamaicans, the report quotes Rodney as saying, are “predominantly black and not a multiracial community. Therefore they should be governed only by black people.” These aims, he is supposed to have concluded, “could be achieved only by revolution, adding that no revolution has ever taken place without a violent struggle.”(5)</span>


Suddenly I feel no pity for him.

[Tropicana]

Re: As there is so much to say about Hugh Shearer..

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: makabush</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><span style="font-style: italic">He demanded “a complete break with the capitalist system,” and rejected the official Jamaican creed “out of many, one people.” Jamaicans, the report quotes Rodney as saying, are “predominantly black and not a multiracial community. Therefore they should be governed only by black people.” These aims, he is supposed to have concluded, “could be achieved only by revolution, adding that no revolution has ever taken place without a violent struggle.”(5)</span>


Suddenly I feel no pity for him.



</div></div>

I knew you wouldn't like that part.

My question is...how much of this did Walter Rodney say and how much of this was attributed to him?

[evanovitch]

Re: As there is so much to say about Hugh Shearer..

yawn...one begs the question y him neva do di said ting in Guyana....afta all is not like tings dere was any betta...stawt a u own yaad before u go abraad

and frankly Tropi, after reading allll ur posts over the years u wudden did chat to Walter Rodney given his propensity to 'reason wid him Bredrins, the Rastas...dis was 70s Jamaica wen people were even more classist dan dem r today....at least dose bak in the 70s who claimed classism had been living it fi a while...dem neva fly off di island enmasse yet...unlike dose who moved into dem homes n jobs an are noveau classists....

[Tropicana]

Re: As there is so much to say about Hugh Shearer..

When did I ever say I was anti-rasta? My religious beliefs are different and I don't support ganja smoking but I have never put down Rastafarians or said they don't have a right to practice their religion.

In fact, I have never said one negative word about Rastafarians. Frankly, I don't ever recall ever starting a discussion or participating in a discussion about Rastafarians.

Back to Rodney this is interesting:

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Even the U.S. embassy was unimpressed by the quality of the intelligence. Although sharply critical of the “impotent groups of agitators,” including “black power and other racist, Marxist, [and] anti-establishment” elements with which Rodney was associated, American diplomats impeached the Jamaican intelligence services as overzealous and partisan. </div></div>

Okay why didn't he try to make an impact on Guyana? Apparently he did and it is said that Burnham had him blown up with a bomb. Perhaps in his reading of the situation he felt that Jamaica was more fertile ground,

I still want to know how many of the things in the security report were things he actually said and how many things were just attributed to him. I mean when even the Americans are calling the Jamaican authorities of the day over-zealous.....that speaks volumes.

[Wahalla]

Re: As there is so much to say about Hugh Shearer..

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: evanovitch</div><div class="ubbcode-body">yawn...one begs the question y him neva do di said ting in Guyana....afta all is not like tings dere was any betta...stawt a u own yaad before u go abraad

and frankly Tropi, after reading allll ur posts over the years u wudden did chat to Walter Rodney given his propensity to 'reason wid him Bredrins, the Rastas...dis was 70s Jamaica wen people were even more classist dan dem r today....at least dose bak in the 70s who claimed classism had been living it fi a while...dem neva fly off di island enmasse yet...unlike dose who moved into dem homes n jobs an are noveau classists.... </div></div>

Evan u know we have to amophosise history into our own image,,, wait till dem fine out Rodney did ah lick chillum.... U cyan si tropi ah sidun wid rasta man an reason????

Personally I beleive that Shearer built alot more schools in his term than any prime minister since... in cludign Manley.... And he did a lot of what is now called public/ private investment in schools engaging with both the church and charities..

I know of two such projects... Bethlehem practicing school A new build school replacing an old school house on church land... and Munro (Dickenson Sangater building during his watch.. I beleive a new Santa Primary was also built in that time and Mountain side Allage..... there was an increase in literasy during his time....

Two Bauxite projects and the investment in ocho rios and Mobay as tourism was done in his time and it took another thirty years to have a 5 year period with that level of tourism investment... in the previous period of the pnp...

Had he not got those bauxite project manley would not have been able to pull more money out of them.. So the demonisation of him is not only unfair it is criminal...He is connected to the Busta - Seaga - Sangsta and Manley is connected to him..


Still Shearer was reputed to be related to Manley and Busta....

[St_Bess]

Re: As there is so much to say about Hugh Shearer..


I recall some scandal regarding Shearer and his long john silver. I don't remember the circumstances right now but it involved a much younger woman. I have e-mailed my Uncle in Kanada who is nuts about JA politics (having himself been locked up in gun court for a while). I am sure he will remember the event. Shearer had lots of women and quite a few children - when he married Dr. Eldermire's (sp) daughter he was quite an old man and she was a much younger if my memory serves me right.

[Tropicana]

Re: As there is so much to say about Hugh Shearer..

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Still Shearer was reputed to be related to Manley and Busta....</div></div>

Yes apparently Hugh Shearer was related to Norman Manley's and Bustamante's grandmother. Elsie Clarke-Shearer or something like that. She was born a Shearer. She was prejudiced and objected to Bustamante's mother as she felt she was too Black. I read that in a book by what's the York University Professor's name again?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Now though they had a common grandmother, Alexander Bustamante and Norman Manley had very different life experiences and personalities. But both married remarkable women. Manley's wife, Edna, was the first Musgrave gold medal winner, the country's most important sculptor, and a pioneering leader of Jamaica's indigenous artistic movement. Her story has been told in many books, especially those of her award-winning granddaughter Rachel.

(Incidentally, Norman and Edna were first cousins, and both were also second cousins to Bustamante. Elsie Hunter, during her first marriage to Robert Clarke, gave birth to Bobby Clarke, Bustamante's father. In her second marriage to Alexander Shearer, she gave birth to Margaret Shearer, Norman's mother, and Ellie Shearer, Edna's mother.)

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20090802/focus/focus2.html

</div></div>

[evanovitch]

Re: As there is so much to say about Hugh Shearer..

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Tropicana</div><div class="ubbcode-body">When did I ever say I was anti-rasta. My religious beliefs are different and I don't support ganja smoking but I have never put down Rastafarians or said they don't have a right to practice their religion.

In fact, I have never said one negative word about Rastafarians.

Back to Rodney this is interesting:

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Even the U.S. embassy was unimpressed by the quality of the intelligence. Although sharply critical of the “impotent groups of agitators,” including “black power and other racist, Marxist, [and] anti-establishment” elements with which Rodney was associated, American diplomats impeached the Jamaican intelligence services as overzealous and partisan. </div></div>

Okay why didn't he try to make an impact on Guyana? Apparently he did and it is said that Burnham had him blown up with a bomb. Perhaps in his reading of the situation he felt that Jamaica was more fertile ground,

I still want to know how many of the things in the security report were things he actually said and how many things were just attributed to him. I mean when even the Americans are calling the Jamaican authorities of the day over-zealous.....that speaks volumes. </div></div>

one does not have to say it out not to say it...u have been classist and pretentious on occasion in ur depicting of people......so it is a given wat u implied...dont be sooo literal an combative...aint a fight or a criticism...merely stating how u have been read on occasion...following on,security reports r as accurate as the people who compile them , the reason the wanted them compiled and the aim n use of said report....Rodney was a product of his time....a young man with ideas contrary to the status quo and in keeping wid the big stick policy , anyting against the bigstick status quo wich was essentially white power, was deemed communist...as succinct as dat...but i m sure u will need to fine pick n read into...some tings CAN be summed up in a few words u know...even Jesus was deemed an agitator in His time...dont.....Rodney was no more dan another Marcus n a watered down version...as to his reading of Jamaica. dat is funny...he just tried a ting while on a university campus..after all , students have historically been open to agitation for change...no more dan dat...given how elitist the student pool at UWI was den, they were into it cause it was the cause celebre...proof of dat is dat nuff of dem is now the PNP old guard and we see how dem fail to hold fast wid Joshua

[makabush]

Re: As there is so much to say about Hugh Shearer..

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: evanovitch</div><div class="ubbcode-body">yawn...one begs the question y him neva do di said ting in Guyana.... </div></div>

Cau di duppy know seh more black people deh a Jamaica. Him try day a Guyana and the Indian people dem ooda kill him.

[St_Bess]

Re: As there is so much to say about Hugh Shearer..


They were all related Busta, Manley, Shearer by some relative named Clark(e). That is why when Sangster died it was rumored that he was killed so that the cousins could continue to be PMs.

[evanovitch]

Re: As there is so much to say about Hugh Shearer..

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: makabush</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: evanovitch</div><div class="ubbcode-body">yawn...one begs the question y him neva do di said ting in Guyana.... </div></div>

Cau di duppy know seh more black people deh a Jamaica. Him try day a Guyana and the Indian people dem ooda kill him. </div></div>

an yet Cheddi was an avowed Socialist..aint life funny

[evanovitch]

Re: As there is so much to say about Hugh Shearer..

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: St_Bess</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
I recall some scandal regarding Shearer and his long john silver. I don't remember the circumstances right now but it involved a much younger woman. I have e-mailed my Uncle in Kanada who is nuts about JA politics (having himself been locked up in gun court for a while). I am sure he will remember the event. Shearer had lots of women and quite a few children - when he married Dr. Eldermire's (sp) daughter he was quite an old man and she was a much younger if my memory serves me right. </div></div>

a caller to Mutty asked if is true seh di PM had his penis bitten by a paramour...dere was no delay an di call went out...much ado yet again amidst di laffter

[Wahalla]

Re: As there is so much to say about Hugh Shearer..

As for Rodneys complete break with capitalism.. what was he advocating in its place... Marcus... Hell no... Marcus was into the ownership by black people....

I guess I must have mis read it, but it struck me as something akin to Castroism....

How many migrated to that C coutry instead of Cuba....????