The officers and members of the Clement Payne Movement of Barbados are
demanding that the Caribbean region functions and be treated as a
“Zone of Zero-tolerance of all manifestations of anti-Black racism”.

We make this Call against the background of the September 25, 2013
ruling of the Constitutional Court of the Dominican Republic which
effectively decreed that some 250,000 black persons of Haitian
ancestry who were born in the Dominican Republic must be stripped of
their Dominican citizenship and all the rights that go with such
citizenship.

This ruling is nothing less than an ugly and glaring manifestation of
anti-Black discrimination in a country that has a long and sordid
history of anti-Black and anti- Haitian racism!

Anti- Black and anti-Haitian racism has been a feature of life in the
Dominican Republic for far too long now, and it is time that we– the
predominantly Afro/ Asiatic population of the Caribbean— publicly
indict the governmental leaders of the Dominican Republic on this
issue and demand that this social evil be extirpated from that
society.

It would do us well to recall that the last time there was a major
governmental crack-down against people of Haitian ethnicity in the
Dominican Republic – the 1937 crack-down of Dominican President Rafael
Trujillo — close to 30,000 black persons were massacred!

We, the masses of Caribbean people, must ensure that no such racist
tragedy ever occurs in our Caribbean region again! We must therefore
resolve to have an attitude of zero tolerance towards all
manifestations of anti-Black racism, and whenever a manifestation of
such an evil rears its head in the Caribbean, we must rise up in
unison to denounce it and strike it down!

It is therefore in keeping with this understanding and resolve that we
are hereby calling upon the black Prime Minister of Barbados, Freundel
Stuart, the black Opposition leader of Barbados, Mia Mottley, the
black Minister of Foreign Affairs, Maxine Mc Clean, the black Anglican
bishop of Barbados, John Holder, the Black bishop of the Roman
Catholic church, Charles Gordon, the black leader of the labour
movement, Sir Roy Trotman, and the black leader of the women’s
movement of Barbados, Marilyn Rice-Bowen, to issue strong and
forthright official statements denouncing the ruling of the
Constitutional Court of the Dominican Republic.

Let us all understand that our history of black enslavement in the
Caribbean, and the associated sufferings of our African ancestors, has
invested us with a special responsibility to forge our Caribbean
region into a “Zone of Respect and Regard for Black Humanity”! Let us
resolve to rise up and carry out that duty!


DAVID COMISSIONG
clementpaynechambers@gmail.com
President, Clement Payne Movement
Chairman, Caribbean Pan-African Network