Walter Rodney must be turning in his grave on what the WPA has become

Mar 18, 2017 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I sincerely believed that over a long period of time, Christopher Ram was a leading member of the WPA. All the information I got, through casual conversations with people associated with the WPA, made me believe that Ram was indeed a leading figure in the WPA, and a major benefactor of the WPA.
We are talking here about more than ten years ago. It was because of this knowledge that I made passing reference to Ram as one of the leaders of the WPA in one of my columns early in 2016. Ram replied to indicate he was never a WPA member. This really shocked me. I was literally confused. I sought an opinion from Dr. David Hinds, a good friend of mine. He indicated that Ram was right when he wrote that he was never a member, because Ram never held a membership card.
I was still confused. I suggested to David, the WPA issue a response with the clarification that though Ram was never a member, because of his activism in the party, the WPA considered him as equal to being a member.
The whole world knows about the terms, “de jure” and “de facto.” We use those terms all the time in conversation, literature, journalism and academia. Ram wasn’t a de jure member but a de facto member of the WPA. But David’s point was that Ram was right when he wrote he wasn’t a member. I insisted that the WPA clarify the situation. My attitude was totally unrelated to Ram. It was shaped by my belief that historians and researchers would be misled on reading what Ram wrote.
I am obsessed with the publication of facts, because history then is properly recorded. I had my first university training in the discipline of history. The WPA never offered the clarification.
In response to attorney Jerome Khan, in a letter of May 10, 2016, Ram wrote; “If Mr. Khan did basic research, he would not claim, falsely, that I am currently or have ever been a member of the Working People’s Alliance.”
Last week, one of the WPA members, Tacuma Ogunseye, in a KN letter revealed that Mr. Ram for a number of years sat in the executive leadership of the WPA. The issue here is not Mr. Ram. He has done nothing wrong. He stuck within the law and literal interpretation of words, when he wrote that he was never a member. It was the WPA that was the dishonest party.
In not responding to the public statements of Ram with a clarification, the analyst and historian would not have known about this juncture of the WPA’s politics. In writing about the history of politics, all information is poignantly priceless. Ogunseye brought out the de facto membership of Ram because of a particular situation – Ram was pungently critical of Clive Thomas. Ram even devastated the WPA by saying the WPA’s two co-leaders have occupied that position since 1985.
One can safely assume that if Ram was not publicly impertinent to Thomas, the historian would never have known about Ram’s insertion into the WPA’s leadership. This entire incident just goes to show how dishonest is political leadership in this country. The WPA knew that Ram was a valuable comrade to the party, but for some ungodly reason, didn’t think it had a political and moral obligation to explain Ram’s role in the WPA at a certain juncture in the WPA’s life. Surely, Walter Rodney must be turning in his grave.
The WPA, of course, does not exist, so there will be no WPA response to this column. One or maybe two (does the WPA have more than two members?) individuals in the WPA will write in their personal capacity, but as a party, we won’t see an official response. These individuals only respond to me when I note that the party is virtually and functionally dead. But never in their reaction would they describe the ways, modes and shapes of the party’s existence.
Dr. David Hinds and I are personal friends. Our politics does not interfere with our friendship. I spent more than one hour one evening at Nicky’s Fish Shop showing him why the WPA is dead. But he didn’t accept my adumbrations. Last Thursday, we were in the picket line in the anti-parking meter protest, and when it was over, I suggested lunch at a new Creole restaurant on Camp Street. He said he couldn’t make it; he had to attend a WPA executive meeting. I said the meeting has to be held in the cemetery.

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