Ralph Gonsalves

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Ralph Gonsalves

Ralph Everard Gonsalves (* 8. August 1946 in Colon Arie , St. Vincent ) is since 29. March 2001 the Prime Minister of the island state of St. Vincent and the Grenadines . He is chairman of the Unity Labor Party (ULP).

Life

Ralph Gonsalves comes from a family whose ancestors came to St. Vincent from Madeira in 1845 with the status of “ indentured servants ” as sugar cane separators ; hence the Portuguese family name.

Gonsalves attended the Catholic School in Colonarie and the High School in Kingstown . He studied economics and political science at the University of the West Indies (UWI). There he was deeply impressed by Walter Rodney , who has been teaching at UWI since the beginning of 1968. When the Jamaican government refused Rodney to re-enter Jamaica on October 15, 1968, Gonsalves was one of the students who organized a protest march. He received his doctorate from the University of Manchester in 1974 with a dissertation on the trade unions in Uganda . He then studied law; In 1981 he was admitted as a Barrister-at-Law by Gray's Inn . After returning to his homeland, he worked as a lawyer and as an attorney at the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court , the supreme court of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States .

In 1994 Gonsalves was first elected to the Parliament of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, the House of Assembly , and in 1998 became chairman of the Unity Labor Party. His party narrowly lost the 1998 general election. Gonsalves became opposition leader . After ongoing strikes and demonstrations, the then Prime Minister Arnhim Eustace felt compelled to call a new election two years before the end of the legislative period. In the March 28, 2001 election, Gonsalves and his Unity Labor Party achieved a "landslide victory", winning 12 of 15 seats. The next day Gonsalves became Prime Minister.

As a student, Gonsalves was considered a Marxist . Today he is one of the most respected intellectuals in the Caribbean . He wrote numerous articles and books: on the history of the labor movement , on the history of slavery in the Caribbean, on Caribbean personalities such as Frank Worrell , George Augustus McIntosh (1886–1963) and Maurice Bishop , on the political economy of the Caribbean and on Caribbean culture . Gonsalves advocates a union of the small island states and territories in the region. He is at times associated with Rosie Douglas , former Prime Minister of Dominica , Georg Odlum , a politician and actor from Saint Lucia, and Tim Hector , a socialist politician from Antigua and Barbuda . All strive or strived for pan-Caribbeanism .

Gonsalves is committed to ensuring that the United Kingdom, as a former colonial power , compensates the descendants of the slaves deported from Africa to the Caribbean for the crimes committed against their ancestors. This was the subject of his keynote address The End of Slavery in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Our Commemoration in 2012 in the House of Assembly on the 174th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in the British colonial empire on August 1, 1834, as well as numerous articles.

Gonsalves is a devout Catholic who holds a retreat with the Benedictines of Mount St. Benedict Monastery in Tunapuna .

Fonts

  • The politics of trade unions and industrial relations in Uganda (1950–1971) . University of Manchester, Faculty of Social and Economic Studies, Manchester 1974.
  • The specter of imperialism. The case of the Caribbean . The University of the West Indies Press, Cave Hill, 1976.
  • The non capitalist path of development. Africa and the Caribbean . One Caribbean (OC) Publications, London 1981, ISBN 0-907611-00-1 .
  • On the political economy of Barbados . One Caribbean (OC) Publications, London 1982.
  • History and the future. A Caribbean perspective . Kingstown 1994.
  • The trial of George McIntosh. The McIntosh trial and the 1935 uprising in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, West Indies . Caribbean Diaspora Press, New York 1996, ISBN 1-878433-23-7 .
  • The making of "The Comrade". The political journey of Ralph Gonsalves. An autobiographical sketch of a Caribbean prime minister . SFI Books, Kingstown 2010.
  • The case for Caribbean reparatory justice . SFI Books, Kingstown 2014, ISBN 978-1-5032-1069-1 .
  • Our Caribbean Civilization and Its Political Prospects . SFI Books, Kingstown 2014, ISBN 978-1-5032-3599-1 .
  • The Rodney Affair and its aftermath. A 50th anniversary commemoration of the protests in Jamaica on October 16, 1968 . SFI Books, Kingstown 2018.

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Michael O. West: Walter Rodney and Black Power: Jamaican Intelligence and US Diplomacy . In: African Journal of Criminology and Justice Studies , ISSN  1554-3897 , Vol. 1 (2005), No. 2, pp. 1-50.
  2. ^ Ralph Gonsalves: The Rodney affair and its aftermath . In: Caribbean quarterly , Vol. 25 (1979), No. 3, pp. 1-24.
  3. ↑ a b The opposition wins the elections in St. Vincent. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung of March 31, 2001.
  4. ^ Ralph Gonsalves: Leadership and our cricketing culture. Frank Worrell and the contemporary Caribbean . In: ders .: Our Caribbean Civilization and Its Political Prospects . SFI Books, Kingstown 2014, pp. 47-119.
  5. ^ Ralph Gonsalves: The Spirit and Ideas of Maurice Bishop Are Alive in Our Caribbean Civilization . In: Wendy Grenade: The Grenada Revolution. Reflections and lessons . University Press of Mississippi, Jackson 2015, ISBN 978-1-62846-151-0 , pp. 264-274.
  6. ↑ Ralph Gonsalves: Road map for reparations for native genocide and slavery in the Caribbean . In: ders .: The case for Caribbean reparatory justice . SFI Books, Kingstown 2014, pp. 89-97.
  7. ↑ Ralph Gonsalves: Diary of a prime minister. Ten days among Benedictine monks . SFI Books, Kingstown 2010.
personal data
SURNAME Gonsalves, Ralph
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gonsalves, Ralph Everard (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Vincentian politician, head of government (since 2001)
DATE OF BIRTH August 8, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH Colonarie , St. Vincent