VICTORY OVER FASCISM AND MILITARISM IN WW II
by Norman Faria
Guyana Chronicle
November 10, 2003
Yesterday we in the English speaking Commonwealth countries joined others worldwide to remember those who gave their lives in the two main wars. Called Remembrance Day, wreaths were laid at "War memorials", as they are commonly called.
In World War II alone, there was a horrific loss of life and untold suffering, mainly among the poor and working people. Tens of millions of civilians and combatants lay dead. Many more were wounded and crippled. The then Soviet Union, whose help was instrumental in crushing Hitler's armies, lost an incredible 13.6 million brave soldiers and 25.6 million civilians. The European Jewish community suffered 5.93 million dead in the concentration camps and other ways.
The British armed forces had 264,443 casualties plus another 30,238 equally valiant merchant marine sailors who went down with their cargo boats. From the then British colonies in the Caribbean, British Guiana and British Honduras (now Belize), over 6,000 volunteers, of all races and religions, came. They served in all sections of the forces (mainly British and Canadian units) and all theatres of the war. The Royal Air Force, for example, had a large contingent of ground crew from Jamaica.
There are those who would question the English speaking circum-Caribbean peoples' participation in the War and the continued activities such as Remembrance Day activities every November.
As a letter to the Barbados Advocate newspaper a few years ago argued: this was a "European war", "a white man's war". The argument ran: "We should have stayed away. At war's end, we would still be shackled with colonialism."
That is foolish talk. World War II was not a squabble among European powers.
It impacted upon and had long-term implications for those in the colonies and less industrialized countries worldwide. Indeed, the defeat of German and Italian fascists and Japanese militarism would spur on progressive political thinking, leading to the people demanding independence and greater democracy and economic and social betterment.
Let us look at this more closely. Out of a successful struggle for something good, there is encouragement to advance further. The British historian Eric Hobsbawn observed (in the Independent newspaper of 31 May 1995): "The end of the war was not simply a triumph over a foreign army, but a moment of hope - a mood of confidence in social change that was enormously strong."
So too were the peoples in the then "Third World" such as British Guiana involved. It may be that some Caribbean servicemen and women enlisted for economic reasons (jobs were scare in those days). Yet a number of future anti-colonial activists and leaders, emerging from the experiences of the 1930s labour upsurges, honed their ideas by serving alongside progressive Allied service people or campaigning on their behalf on the home front. Those from the colonies, including a high proportion of valiant men (remember the Gurkhas who were given a high number of Victoria Crosses for bravery) from the Indian sub continent, also educated the British and Canadian lads about real life in places such as British Guiana.
The more far sighted of our people knew that social and economic forces which impact upon on the justified drive for more democratic governance and economic well being had basically similar roots for the average person in the colonies as well as the more industrialized world such as U.S. and Britain.
There was discrimination against Indo and Afro servicemen. A black Vincentian and now a National Hero there, Captain Hugh Mulzac, had for example to put up with a lot of shameful racism from the US top brass before he obtained his Master's ticket to be skipper of a US merchant navy cargo vessel. But those who went, including a relatively high number of whites, knew that the defence of "democracy" as was known at the time, would be the best move in the overall strategy for even deeper freedoms and rights for people of colour and everyone.
On the occasion of this year's Remembrance Day, we must remember the justified struggles against German and Italian Fascism and Japanese militarism. Those evils sought to destroy all that is good up to then in ordinary peoples' achievements in democratic institutions and the mixing and co-operation among those of different races and religions. In Guyana, we are celebrating eleven years of democracy and growing economic prosperity after 28 years of undemocratic rule and hardships. We must pledge to re-double our efforts to thwart the nefarious intentions of those modern cypto-fascists, whether it is our own home grown variants or places in Europe and elsewhere. Their attempts to divide people working for peace, security and well-being shall fail.
(Norman Faria is Guyana's Honorary Consul in Barbados).