My fellow Jamaicans,
On August 6, 1962, Jamaica made a bold step. As the Union Jack was lowered and replaced by the Black, Green and Gold, we entered a new chapter in history with the dawn of a new nation.
However, it did not start in 1962. The seeds of our independence were sewn much earlier in the 1900’s, when workers began organising themselves to advocate for better pay and working conditions.
Out of that labour movement came the emergence of political parties and leaders to lead us forward out of our colonial past.
In 1932, the Right Excellent Marcus Garvey advocated for self-governance and what he called the ‘new Jamaican’, expressing ideas about a Jamaican identity that transcended the shackles of colonialism.
The labour uprising of 1938 provided the impetus for fundamental change, with the Right Excellent Alexander Bustamante and the Right Excellent Norman Washington Manley emerging as the workers’ champions.
N W Manley spearheaded the struggle for universal adult suffrage (meaning the right to vote for a government of the people’s choice), he negotiated for Jamaica’s political independence, and led the development of the independence Constitution, all culminating in Jamaica taking up the mantle of full statehood on August 6, 1962.
However, our journey to independence is incomplete.
Our head of state is the King of England and our final court, the UK Privy Council, a colonial institution in England that makes orders in the name of the King and is inaccessible to ordinary Jamaicans.
It is time to reaffirm our national identity and assert the confidence to shape our own destiny.
Time come to sever ties with the British Monarchy and become a fully sovereign nation, with the Executive and Judicial branches of our State being institutions of our own creation, in keeping with our vision of the future as a proud and independent people.