[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 103 (Thursday, July 22, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1498-E1499]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      HONORING THE COUNTRY OF JAMAICA ON THE OCCASION OF ITS 42ND 
                            INDEPENDENCE DAY

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 22, 2004

  Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the country of 
Jamaica and to celebrate the 42nd anniversary of its Independence.
  The history and traditions of the Jamaican people are knitted tightly 
within America's cultural fabric. Jamaica's influence is particularly 
apparent in Black and Brown communities throughout the United States, 
where the sounds, smells, tastes, and mores of Jamaica have found a 
second home. From Brooklyn to Baltimore to the Bay Area, Jamaicans and 
Jamaican-Americans have made their mark as successful, knowledgeable, 
and hard-working ambassadors of both a vibrant culture and an 
impassioned commitment to social change.
  The Jamaican spirit is vibrantly shown by the two men who perhaps did 
the most to set the country on a path towards independence. Following 
the 1938 labor unrest, William Alexander Bustamante, founder of the 
Jamaican Trade Workers and Tradesmen Union JTWTU 3 years earlier, 
captured the hearts and minds of workers made furious by British 
indifference and oppression. Bustamante emerged from the strikes as the 
leading spokesperson for working class interests in Jamaica. By 
leveraging the power of the JTWTU to create the Bustamante Industrial 
Trade Unions, Bustamante formally inaugurated Jamaica's worker's 
movement, which was the primary piston in the engine of Jamaica's 
independence campaign.
  While Bustamante organized the masses in the streets, Norman W. 
Manley, an Oxford-trained lawyer, Rhodes scholar, and humanist 
intellectual, laid the groundwork for the theory behind the 
independence movement's action. On September 18, 1938 Manley 
inaugurated the People's National Party PNP, which was guided by the 
principles of equality of opportunity and the need for a welfare state. 
Manley established a broad network in both urban areas and rural 
parishes, and built support for progressive public policy across wide 
swaths of Jamaican society.
  Although Bustamante eventually founded the Jamaican Labor Party, a 
political rival of the PNP, the two men, both visionary nationalists 
and advocates of fundamental social change, worked towards the singular 
goal of freedom for Jamaica's people. Their efforts as alternating 
Premiers led to constitutional amendments which strengthened Jamaican 
self-governance and gradually eroded British control the island. This 
period, known as ``constitutional decolonization,'' ushered in the 
great day of Jamaica's independence, August 6, 1962.
  But Jamaica's independence is not just marked by a date. It is 
carried instead in the bosom of emissaries of peace and justice, 
Jamaicans who have sown seeds of their particularly fiery brand of 
liberty across the world.

[[Page E1499]]

  Thus we cannot tell the tale of American liberation movements without 
mentioning with highest regard the great Jamaican-American leader 
Marcus Garvey, founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association 
and champion of oppressed people of African descent across the globe.
  And the very marrow of the anti-war, Black Power, and anti-
colonialist movements of the late 1960s, 70s, and 80s was the 
inspirational and haunting melodies of Bob Marley, perhaps the most 
important figure in 20th century music. Marley elevated music beyond 
the level of an art form and made it instead an earthly embodiment of 
spiritual truths, melodious wisdom which transcended daily problems and 
cut to the heart of man's most pressing struggles. Even today, the 
music of Bob Marley articulates the groanings of people's movements 
throughout the world, unceasing in its cry for peace and freedom.
  The list could go on: `Granny Nanny,' the revolutionary maroon who 
fiercely and successfully battled the British throughout the 18th 
century; General Colin Powell, our national hero; Claude McKay, the 
great poet and inspiration for the Harlem Renaissance; Dudley Thompson, 
Sheryl Lee Ralph, Grace Jones, Harry Belafonte, and many, many others. 
These Jamaicans and Jamaican-Americans have had an enormous impact on 
American history and culture, cutting their own paths across the world 
and touching the lives of millions of Americans.
  On this special occasion, I hold that Independence Day is not simply 
a 24-hour period in Jamaica; it is, instead, a way of life. And it is 
my hope that we in the United States, with our economic policies and 
diplomatic relations, encourage the spirit of self-determination and 
independence in Jamaica, assisting Jamaica's people as they work for 
the economic and social freedom that they so sorely deserve.

                          ____________________