Left: Claremont Kirton (left), Department
of Economics, UWI Mona, greets Merle Collins, of the University of Maryland, after her presentation on the Grenada Revolution in poetry and prose fiction at the Social Sciences Lecture Theatre, UWI, Mona in St. Andrew last Saturday. The
occation was the 5th annual 'Caribbean Reasonings' conference on the life and times of Richard Hart. - NORMAN GRINDLEY/DEPUTY CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER. Right: Richard Hart
DESPITE THROWING him out of the People's National Party (PNP)
for being a communist and
restricting his travel movements, founding member of the party, Richard Hart
is still forgiving of former Premier Norman Washington Manley.
Mr. Hart, who helped Mr. Manley found the PNP in 1938, was inducted into the Centre for Caribbean Thought on Saturday night at the end of a three-day celebration of his life and work, held at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Mona. He credited Mr. Manley with being a flexible politician who had to be pragmatic in his demands for independence during the Cold War which led to Mr. Hart's expulsion in 1952.
ANTI-COMMUNIST
"How could he make safe that the British and American weren't turned against the PNPs demands for self-governance?" said Mr. Hart at the event. "He had to be anti-communist."
Mr. Hart who is happy to be described as a 'flexible Marxist', said that the PNP was always a broad church with the left becoming expendable at that time. He expressed gratitude to Mr. Manley for at first resisting calls for the expulsion of communists, denying they were a presence in the PNP.
Mr. Hart said that previously, to assuage fears, Mr. Manley had the leadership sign a document saying there were no
communists in the party. A confused Mr. Hart questioned Mr. Manley on his options given that he was an open
communist.
"A communist is a member of a communist party and are you not a member of a communist party?" replied Mr. Manley. Mr. Hart then signed.
However the pressure from the right became too great and after his expulsion as one of the '4Hs' (together with Frank and Ken Hill and Arthur Henry), Mr. Hart formed the People's Freedom Movement (later the Socialist Party of Jamaica) in 1954. That party folded in 1962.
Mr. Hart, 89, now lives in London. Last November, he received the Musgrave Gold Medal from the Institute of Jamaica for his work as an historian; that month he was also given an honorary degree from the UWI.
Mr. Hart has written extensively on slavery, the trade union movement and political issues. His latest book, 'The End of Empire' follows the five years before Independence in 1962.
He was editor of The Mirror newspaper in Guyana for a short time during the mid-1960s, and was an adviser to Grenadian Prime Minister Maurice Bishop, at the time of the United States invasion of that country in 1983.
