Caribbean Correspondence #1 (1975)

Historically, one of the worst handicaps of the poor and oppressed has been their own illusions

Really!?!? We thought, The rich man's wealth, his strong city; destruction of the poor, their poverty.

We must be thankful then that the good fellows of the Caribbean Correspondence are here to dispel our illusions and thus set us free. Their answer to our conundrum can be found in France, in 1973, by means of workers' self-management of the production of, wait-for-it, TIMEPIECES!

Take us to the border and we will step across. We won't jump no fence. Caribbean lore

Thanks for uploading this, muttworks. Your intro says 1979 but the cover seems to say 1975?

That's correct, Fozzie.

The cover art is taken from a written work of Gwendolyn Brooks, an American author and poet. She wrote a wonderful poem, Have you seen my baby, which we will try to recall from memory:

Have you seen my baby?
Last seen hanging 'pon a tree
In the City of Peace.
He is described as
Tall in stature
But small in height,
Ruddy complexioned
With pock-marked face.

Always took it to be Mary's lament for her executed son but poetry is open to interpretation.

muttworks wrote:

westartfromhere wrote:

Historically, one of the worst handicaps of the poor and oppressed has been their own illusions

Really!?!? We thought, The rich man's wealth, his strong city; destruction of the poor, their poverty.

We must be thankful then that the good fellows of the Caribbean Correspondence are here to dispel our illusions and thus set us free. Their answer to our conundrum can be found in France, in 1973, by means of workers' self-management of the production of, wait-for-it, TIMEPIECES!

Jump off of a bridge, cracker

It's true though isn't it? Self-management is just us managing our own slavery. It has no impact on the political economy at all. The pillars of the building are left standing. In actual fact, we mostly manage our own work anyways.

Self-management is an illusory reaction to working class struggle, just as the Garveyite illusion of economic self-reliance is a reaction to the African liberation struggle. Just one more vestige of historic social-democracy, tinkering.

Workers' self-management of timepieces is just irony upon irony.