Ideological Warfare

In the Caribbean, we were faced with our own crisis. In January 2009 in Trinidad and Tobago, CL Financial (originally CLICO – Caribbean Life Insurance Company), one of the islands biggest conglomerates, which controlled approximately 25% of the country’s economy, had to be bailed out by the government. In the Caribbean, however, the crisis has not been defined as the conflict between liberal and conservative economics. There are, however, some common issues. In the 1980’s, Reaganomics became influential in the Caribbean because of the Structural Adjustment policies which were promoted by the IMF and the World Bank in that era – the so-called “Washington Consensus” – which preached privatization, trade liberalization, deregulation and in general neoliberal economics. “Trickle-down” economics, as Reaganomics was called, became the order of the day.

In the period preceding the 1980’s, however, Keynesian ideas and socialist ideas were prevalent in the Caribbean. In Trinidad and Tobago, the PNM, under Dr. Eric Williams had professed a Keynesian model, i.e. a mixed economy; in Guyana, both Dr. Jagan and Forbes Burnham proposed socialist or Marxist models; in Jamaica, the PNP, under the leadership of Michael Manley, also put forward a socialist model; in Grenada, the PRG, under Maurice Bishop installed a Marxist model. So generally speaking, the Caribbean had favored a socialist or Keynesian approach to the economy. Manley himself became an eminent spokesman for the Third World, advocating a New International Economic Order (NEIO).

By the mid 1980’s, however, most governments in the region were adopting some form of Reaganomics that included deregulation, divestment, privatization, etc. In Trinidad and Tobago, the NAR came into power and introduced Structural Adjustment Policies (SAP’s); in Jamaica, Michael Manley was forced to adopt what was called the “zig zag” policy under pressure from the IMF and SAP’s were implemented; in Guyana, under the Hoyte administration, SAP’s were also implemented. Contemporaneously with the introduction of SAP’s, those who championed free-market policies emerged as the dominant voices in the society.

Perry Mars has looked at the rightward change of the Caribbean Left in Ideology and Change: The Transformation of the Caribbean Left. He defines the Caribbean Left as including:

…reformist politics at one end of the spectrum, and radical and revolutionary political movements and activities at the other. The Left, therefore, represents a varied array of agencies which challenge established precepts of the international and domestic status quo, and seeks to initiate change or relevant alternatives to the prevailing class structures within the established political system. (Mars 1998, xiii).

He attributes this change to “the relentless pressures towards ideological conformity stemming from the international capitalist environment, coupled with the consequential elitist and factional tendencies on the part of the Left leadership as a whole, would seem to be the most significant sources of the debacle” (Mars 1998, xiv). This study seeks to investigate in a more detailed manner this rightward shift in the Caribbean of the Left as defined by Mars, and in particular to look at the aggressive ideological warfare waged by the conservatives, who came to power in the Reagan Administration (and I want to deal in particular with those who are labeled ‘neoconservative’). This event, it is argued, transformed the World Bank policies from that based on a liberal worldview to that of one based on a conservative worldview. The result was the “Washington Consensus”, or what is popularly called “neo-liberalism” in the Caribbean. I should state from the outset that ‘Caribbean’ within the scope of this study refers to the Commonwealth Caribbean countries, in particular Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana.

What caused the change in Caribbean societies and Governments that were essentially Keynesian, socialist or Marxist to governments that supported free market policies and right leaning tendencies? What caused this replacement in ideology, from a left-leaning one in the 60’s and 70’s, to a right-leaning or conservative ideology in the 80’s, in the Caribbean – specifically in Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and Guyana? This study will seek to answer this question. Other relevant questions posed are: What was the impact of conservatism (more accurately – neoconservatism) on World Bank policy? What were the different processes by which SAP’s were imposed on Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana?