Euclid A. Rose. Dependency and Socialism in the Modern Caribbean: Superpower Intervention in Guyana, Jamaica, and Grenada, 1970-1985. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2002. xxii + 454pp. $85.00, cloth, ISBN 978-0-7391-0448-4.
Reviewed by Cary Fraser
Published on H-LatAm (October, 2003)
This study of the political economy of the scribe and analyze the evolution, role, and struc‐ Commonwealth Caribbean and the struggle for ture of the Caribbean societies in the wider world. social transformation therein is an extremely am‐ The author sees this tradition as located in the bitious project. It seeks to explore the avenues broader intellectual trends that have shaped the through which Guyana, Jamaica, and Grenada be‐ study of the contemporary international political came sites of socialist experimentation in the economy--modernization and dependency. While 1970s and 1980s with the resultant intensifcation the author seeks to anchor the study within these of superpower competition in these countries and broader intellectual debates, the summary treat‐ the wider circum-Caribbean region. In addition, ment of the evolution of the indigenous intellectu‐ according to the author: "The study, beyond pre‐ al tradition in the Caribbean refects a lack of in‐ senting a panoramic view of the socialist develop‐ tellectual engagement with the insights of ment strategies and U.S. interventionist policies in thinkers like Derek Walcott, Vidia Naipaul, Martin the Caribbean--in particular, Guyana, Jamaica, Carter, et al., on both the history and evolution of and Grenada--assesses and evaluates the impact Caribbean civilization. This gap is particularly evi‐ of dependency, which continues to have lasting dent in the author's discussion of the political, cul‐ and devastating impact on the mainstream of po‐ tural, and psychological dimensions of dependen‐ litical life in the region" (p. xix). cy in the Commonwealth Caribbean. For the purposes of this study, the author pro‐ This failure to engage other streams of vides a summary overview of the history of the thought in Caribbean life leads to the extraordi‐ region over the last fve hundred years during nary statement that "West Indians in general are which the Caribbean became an integral part, and unaware that cultural dependence exists because cornerstone, of an Atlantic-centered global econo‐ of its subtlety and, as a result, are not able to my. The study explores the development of an in‐ make distinctions regarding signifcant changes in digenous intellectual tradition that seeks to de‐ the status quo" (p. 77). If West Indians "are not H-Net Reviews able to make distinctions regarding signifcant and political formations. In efect, should social‐ changes in the status quo," then the question that ism in the Guyanese context be seen as a strategy arises is, Why did Caribbean activists/intellectuals for social transformation or was it about closing such as Eric Williams, Arthur Lewis, C. L. R. the political system in order to facilitate the domi‐ James, Norman Manley, and Alexander Busta‐ nance of the two main parties representing the mante, among others, understand that they could major ethnic groups? In addition, to what extent change the context of Caribbean life by challeng‐ was this closure of the political system a major ing the colonial order? Unfortunately, the author's stimulus to the population exodus from Guyana conception of dependency provokes uncertainty that over the next two decades would contribute about his understanding of the agency of Carib‐ to a net decline in the Guyanese population? In ef‐ bean people in reshaping the context of their fect, it can be argued that the attempt to establish lives. It also refects a failure to understand that some version of socialism resulted in an even "nation-building" and "state formation"--the twin greater level of dependency as Guyanese human tasks confronting Caribbean societies exiting a and intellectual capital migrated to escape the clo‐ colonial framework--are multi-generational goals sure of the political system. One of the key ques‐ that would require the inter-generational transfer tions that arise from the Guyanese experience is, of intellectual capital that is a prerequisite of all Can social transformation occur under conditions forms of institutional development. The construc‐ where human capital is consistently exported? tion of the colonial order in the Caribbean was a This lack of clarity over the issue of depen‐ process of trial and error that took place over cen‐ dency in the Caribbean and its relationship to the turies. It should not be blithely assumed that the idea of social transformation is also evident in the creation of institutions for a post-colonial order author's discussion of Jamaica. According to Rose, should be any diferent. "The novel concept of democratic socialism was It is this lack of engagement with the context never free from profound ambiguities. It was a of Caribbean life that is a fundamental faw of the combination of capitalist and socialist socio-eco‐ study. While the author has read a wide range of nomic principles with parliamentary democracy scholarly literature on the region, it is not evident as the mainstay of the political process in the that his familiarity with the literature translates country" (p. 219). It is a remarkable leap to de‐ itself into an understanding of the intricacies of scribe democratic socialism as "novel" when its political life in the territories that he studies. On relationship to the wider international debates various occasions, the author's analysis conveys a about social democracy in Europe and Latin rather formalistic quality that leads the reader to America, and to Marxist-Leninist debates about take issue with his assessments. For example, in non-capitalist strategies in Africa and Asia, is not the case of Guyana the author argues: "The re‐ elucidated in signifcant detail. The presumed striction of freedom and the rigging of elections novelty of democratic socialism is rendered even that accompanied the nationalization process more problematic when the author goes on to de‐ were not conducive to the reduction of dependen‐ scribe Michael Manley, the leader of the People's cy, which was the primary goal of co-operative so‐ National Party which espoused the strategy of cialism" (p. 212). It is one of the paradoxes of democratic socialism, as a Fabian socialist--like Guyana's political trajectory that, despite the ten‐ his father and predecessor, Norman Manley (p. sions among Guyana's ethnic communities, by the 225). Later, the author describes Manley's ideolog‐ mid-1970s the two major parties--both professing ical orientation as "a social democrat, educated in to be socialist--had established an entente cordiale the Fabian tradition at the London School of Eco‐ that foreclosed the development of other parties nomics and ... a strong admirer of the reformist
2 H-Net Reviews policies of the British Labour government" (p. nomic transformation in these countries, it is not 245). evident that the study helps readers to under‐ In his subsequent discussion of revolutionary stand the limitations, both intellectual and in poli‐ socialism in Grenada, Rose asserts, "Marxism had cy terms, of the strategies adopted by the various been lost to the region with the voluntary exile of leaders in the 1970s and 1980s. The author's anal‐ C. L. R. James and Richard Hart, while Soviet theo‐ ysis of the failure of the Grenadian project comes rists in Cuba were isolated by the division im‐ closest to ofering a concrete explanation: "revolu‐ posed by colonialism and U.S. diplomatic and eco‐ tionary socialism which embraced the Soviet the‐ nomic sanctions. In the Caribbean, the theory's ory of noncapitalist development and the princi‐ most prominent exponents were Trevor Munroe, ples of Marxist-Leninist doctrine was not a practi‐ Clive Thomas, Ralph Gonsalves, the NJM leader‐ cal solution to develop Grenada's fragile economy ship, and Michael Manley." This is an extraordi‐ which continued to be sustained by foreign capi‐ nary assertion that raises fundamental questions tal and North American tourists" (p. 339). about the author's understanding of the historical The author follows this observation with an evolution of radical politics in the Commonwealth entire chapter devoted to exploring the American Caribbean in the 1970s and 1980s. The failure to eforts to reverse the shift towards socialist strate‐ discuss the continuing role of Cheddi Jagan and gies in these countries, including the military in‐ the PPP in Guyana as a link to the Cuban regime tervention in Grenada by the Reagan administra‐ and its evolution, and to discuss the return to tion in 1983. His analysis of the American eforts Guyana of Walter Rodney and his role in the rise to sabotage these governments is less than com‐ of the Working People's Alliance (WPA) that chal‐ plete, and the omission of any discussion of the lenged the Burnham-Jagan entente cordiale, re‐ American role in the ouster of Cheddi Jagan in fect the author's unsteady grasp of radical 1964, with the collusion of the soi-disant socialist transnational politics in the Caribbean. One of the Forbes Burnham, again raises questions about the questions from this period that has yet to be satis‐ author's grasp of the political history of the Com‐ factorily answered is whether the overthrow of monwealth Caribbean. The reality, and prepon‐ the Gairy regime in 1979 opened the door to the derance, of American power in the Caribbean has assassination of Walter Rodney in 1980. The New been a critical factor in Caribbean politics for Jewel Movement in Grenada had come to power much of the twentieth century. Castro's Cuba, by in 1979 by forcibly overthrowing the Gairy invoking Cuban nationalism and the support of regime--the frst coup in the Anglophone Carib‐ the Communist countries, has escaped the yoke of bean. In 1979, the fragility of both the PPP and the American intervention. That critical space has PNC in Guyana was revealed by the unrest spear‐ provided the Cuban regime with an opportunity, headed by Rodney and the WPA and it was clear aforded to few others, to pursue a strategy of so‐ that the major parties faced an unprecedented cial and economic transformation driven by state challenge from another socialist party. Is it possi‐ ownership and control over much of the country's ble that the NJM's success in Grenada created a economy. Castro has also demonstrated a prag‐ determination on the part of the PNC leadership, matic and self-conscious strategy of geopolitics among others, that Rodney should not replicate that has helped to bufer the hysteria that has the NJM's success? driven American policies towards the regime. In efect, while there is little to quibble about In the Commonwealth Caribbean, the failure the author's thesis that socialism in several guises of the three socialist projects in the 1970s and emerged as a strategy of political and socio-eco‐ 1980s refected, in critical ways, the leaders' lack
3 H-Net Reviews of understanding of the geopolitical context of their societies and the difculties that they would confront. It also refected a failure to understand their own societies and the complexities therein. Social transformation in the Caribbean requires a level of historical understanding and engagement with the societies of the region and the socialist projects all collapsed because of the intellectual/ cultural divergences between the leaders and their respective societies. Paradoxically, the search for socialist transformation increased lev‐ els of dependence in these societies upon external actors, for intellectual validation and for material resources to deal with the economic conse‐ quences of political decisions. In Guyana and Ja‐ maica, there was massive fnancial and human capital fight from which these societies have yet to recover more than two decades later. In the case of Grenada, the self-immolation of the NJM led to the loss of an entire generation of leaders. It is this paradox of socialism as a strategy of social transformation that leads to increased depen‐ dence upon external actors that scholars of the Caribbean will have to re-examine in the twilight years of the regime that arose out of the Cuban revolution. Euclid Rose has ofered a useful start for the comparative analysis of socialism in the Carib‐ bean and that initiative must be applauded. One hopes that future studies will dig deeper and ofer more complex analyses of the comparative poli‐ tics of these societies and the wider region.
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Citation: Cary Fraser. Review of Rose, Euclid A. Dependency and Socialism in the Modern Caribbean: Superpower Intervention in Guyana, Jamaica, and Grenada, 1970-1985. H-LatAm, H-Net Reviews. October, 2003.
URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=8311
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