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Social Class and Partisanship in Dominica

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Social Class and Partisanship in Dominica RESOURCES, ORGANIZATIONS, AND STYLES: SOCIAL CLASS AND PARTISANSHIP IN DOMINICA Patrick L. Baker RESOURCES, ORGANIZATIONS, AND STYLES: SOCIAL CLASS AND PARTISANSHIP IN DOMINICA by Patrick L. Baker Department of Sociology and Anthropology Mount Allison University,New Brunswick Paper presented at the Caribbean Studies Association Conference St. Kitts 30 May - 2 June 1984 "From the point of view of the sociologist, the societies of the Caribbean are among the most interesting and important in the world. This point alone behoves us to reject simplistic "models" and assumptions and begin immediately to build up an adequate theoretical frame- work" (Cross 1968: 397). This paper examines fieldwork material (1972-1973) and its historical context in terms of "adequate theoretical frameworks." Caribbean societies experience interrelated internal and external dialectical relations. The external component in sociology has traditionally been presented as history and used to explain 'anomalies' in the structural analysis of the internal component. Wilson attempts to break this tradition in his study of Providencia with his model of two dialectically related value systems: an imposed 1 "respectability" and an indigenous 'reputation'. But his analysis remains essentially 'internal'. The 'dependista' or neo-Marxian perspective, however, emphasises external relations as integral to an adequate analysis of the internal structure. But this emphasis ignores the impact of the spread of rational-legal domination. This paper explores the appropriateness of these ideas for an analysis of emerging political parties in Dominica up to 1973. 2 The Past in Dominica's Present From its prehistory to the present, Dominica has expetienced actual or attempted external dominiation and been modified accordingly. The Spanish discovered the island in 1493, but it was the landing of Izndonniere in 1564 and Hawkins in 1565 who set the shape for the Anglo- French confrontation that lasted a hundred years and had a permanent impact on the island's culture and institutions. The island was finally ceded by France to Britain in 1763. Britain unsuccessfully attempted to make it a sugar island and the white proportion of the population has consistently dwindled since then. In 1763 it comprised 21% of the population. In 1970 it formed 0.4% of the population. What is significant about Dominican history is that whites did not establish a significant productive foothold on the island. The topography of the island thwarted ongoing attempts to establish viable estates and inhibitea the formation of a white plantocracy. Whites passed through the island; as government officials, as representatives of merchant houses, as would-be planters or as entrepreneurs. They represented the values of "respectability" (see Wilson 1973:9) but their transience' emphasized the external source of such values. Those who stayed, particularly the French, tended to lose their colour and contribute to the increasing number of wealthy coloured people. There emerged a coloured 'respectable' 3 class who boasted plantation houses, fine clothes, "perfumes from Paris", fine furnishings, maids, education and the like. As 'The Mulatto Ascendency" they became a significant force in island politics. They saw themselves as the defenders of Dominican interests against the rapacious interests of the metropole and its local representatives. In contrast there was the mass of people who were to play a significant role in the changes of the 1950s and 1960s. Emancipation in a poorly developed plantation society resulted in a majority of the population becoming subsistence farmers spread around the island in some 30 peri-island villages. These horticulturalists existed on the fringes of a cash economy either as independent 'farmers' 2 or in a 'metayaae', sharecropping relationship with an estate owner, reminiscent of feudal-like society. There arose, therefore a positively privileged propertied class comprising of expatriate whites or their coloured descendents. They had the ability to acquire high priced consumer goods,to control capital formation and to send their children abroad for costly education. Their resources were income from land and slaves. But land was a precarious resource in Dominica, and emancipation technically ended the slave resources. So this class was never strongly entrenched. There was also a positively privileged commercial class made up typically of merchants, bankers and professionals. Armytage observed that "the British merchants...belonged to 4 a large extent to a different society from the planters in their great houses...No doubt many of the men...spent only a few years in the West Indies, and found little difficulty in leaving when the trade was obviously in decline" (Armytage 1953: 6-7). This pattern in Dominica led to a commercial class of transient whites and permanent mulattoes with an increasing proportion of the latter includlng coloured professionals. The picture was significantly modified by the advent of Syrians from the early 1900s. Several of these became highly successful merchants and dominated the commercial class. Further changes occurred with the "Dominicanization" of the civil service following internal self-government in 1967. The commercial class was confined to Roseau, the capital and its success was related to a cash- flow situation largely controlled by the metropolitan market situation and until 1967 colonial office wages. In sum the topography of Dominica inhibited the development of a strong positively privileged propertied class and the restricted cash-flow inhibited the development of a strong commercial class. As such Dominica, substantiates Roxborough's observation that "the class structures of the third world differ from those of the advanced nations in two principal ways:they are more complex and the classes themselves are usually weaker (Roxborough 1979: 72). Besides categories of individuals who were influential 5 because of their 'class situation' there were also "communities" of persons in Dominica whose status accorded them social influence. Bell describes a style of life associated with 'circles' of white or light coloured people that was 3 identified as 'society' in Roseau, early in this century. It included an exclusive style of entertainment centred around more or less regular visits to Government House, "garden parties, dinners, and small dances are fairly frequent and enable us to get into more or less intimate touch with the pleasantest people in our circle" (Bell, 1946: 48). There was'also 'club life'. One immigrant observed, "Matthew...and some other young men, were elected to the Dominica Club which was for white men only" (Hawys, 1968: 168). Coloured persons of the 'Government House Set' were not to be outdone and formed 4 their own Dominica Union Club. What is evident, here, is the existence of circles of people with a conscious group-identity and a clear sense of exclusivity. They have a specific life style and restriction on their social intercourse. To this extent they clearly exemplify what Weber meant by Stgnde (status group), and are not coterminous with the economic categories or classes we just noted. But classes and status groups are usually related. "Property as such is not always recognized as a status qualificiation, but in the long run it is, and with extra- ordinary regularity." (Weber 1978: 1932). These different classes and status groups were the major 6 resources for political activity in Dominica. Borome expertly portrays the earlier vicissitudes of local politics which led to Crown Colony Status in 1898. "With the passage of the 'Brown Privilege Bill' in 1881 which granted full political the next year of three coloured men to the Assembly, whose gradual increase in numbers gave them a majority by 1898, the House proved more disposed to support legislation promoting the welfare of the dominant elements of the population: the long freed people and newly emancipated slaves. But the white attorneys, merchants and traders allied with the numerous absentee owners constantly threw up legislative roadblocks in the Assembly and the Council alike." (Borom41969: 26). Politics represented metropolitan versus local and propertied versus commercial class interests. But they also 5 represented status group and ethnic interests in the community. Two political parties, conservative and liberal, developed rapidly, supported by two newspapers, the Colonist (white) and the Dominican (coloured) respectively" (Borome'1969: 26). When Fleming proposed Crown Colony government for Dominica in 1898, William Davis, a prominent coloured politician and journalist, was greatly alarmed. He announced the issue to be one of whites and non-whites and declared a race-war. So, broadly speaking, parties represented metropolitan and local class interests:the latter cross-cut by local status 6 group and ethnic interests. 7 Interpretations How are we to interpret these phenomena? Bloch has argued that as anthropologists became more aware of the impact of colonialism on the societies they were studying, they became increasingly critical of structural-functionalism as an adequate perspective and the appropriateness of conceptualizing societies as integrated wholes. (Bloch 1983: 144-145). This tendency can be seen in the Caribbean in the work of M. G. Smith and Leo Despres who criticized the Parsonian model and adapted Furnivall's, colonially generated plural society concept to the Caribbean experience. (M. G. Smith 1965; Despres 1967). However, M. G. Smith was
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