David Abdulah — To Friends of JLR

Comrades,

Today we remember John, our friend and comrade. I am sure that we can all recall where we were and what we were doing a year ago when we got the news about his being hospitalised and then succumbing to a heart attack. For us in Trinidad it was Carnival Tuesday morning. It seems like yesterday, yet an entire year has gone by already!

In that time much has happened in the world. The successes of left forces in Latin American elections and moves by some of these governments to take greater control of the economies; the illness of Fidel and the beginning of a leadership transition in Cuba; the ongoing terror which Bush and Blair unleashed in Iraq and the quagmire that they created; the massive electoral defeat of the Republicans last November; social forces organising for change in so many parts of the world; the ongoing crisis throughout the Caribbean; Trinidad and Tobago playing in the World Cup. The list is by no means precise – as John would have expected – but just an indication that on all these and more, we would have heard his voice offering advice, sharing information, providing insights and suggesting ways of moving forward.

I am sure that we have all missed his voice this past twelve months. But at the same time, we continue to press on, always in hope! For this was his message to us all, a message of hope which means that death could not find us thinking that we die. This is also why we have had so many celebrations of John's life in so many different places, these past 12 months. They speak to the legacy that he left for so many of us, involved in so many things in so many spaces.

I certainly would have liked to be physically in London for the wonderful Musical Tribute for John that has been organised by the GPI and LKJ Records. Linton, especially, thanks so much for this!! Know however, that we – all John's comrades in Trinidad – are there with you in spirit on Sunday!!

If there is a moment for it, please communicate to everyone at the concert the solidarity of: the OWTU; of the progressive trade union movement; youth movement; and of the radical and revolutionary comrades of John based here in Trinidad and Tobago. John's Spirit Live On!! Indeed, we will remember John, Lennox and Nello when we have a series of conversations entitled "Socialism or Barbarism" starting on March 18th. (I will send details in a later email)

We especially say to Sarah, Michael, Keith, Wole and all the members of the La Rose family, that our thoughts are with you today. Rest assured of our continued solidarity and friendship.

In solidarity, and in hope!

David

(c) David Abdulah

Winston Best

I was on an extended visit to Barbados when news of John La Rose’s passing was relayed to me via email. I was, to say the least, stunned with disbelief having seen John a few short weeks previously and commented on how well he was keeping.

Having recovered from the immediate shock I decided that, come what may, I had to shorten my stay in order to be present for his funeral. Such was the admiration, respect and deep bond of love and friendship that I felt for John.

I also felt the need to place on record my own personal knowledge of John and the association we have had over the years. What I have written here, therefore, is but a snapshot of the many experiences I have shared with him at a number of levels. Of all the memories I have of my relationship with John, perhaps the one that stands out most vividly in my mind is the warmth with which he has always greeted me when we met. Always I felt I was being greeted by a dear brother who was only too pleased to see me and to share common experiences.

My association with the great and incomparable John goes back some 40 years. During that time I came to know him as a friend, a colleague and a mentor.

John, for me embodied all those characteristics that one associates with a person of great stature and the highest form of human qualities — intelligence, deep sense of care for fellow human beings, selflessness and utter dislike for unfairness.

My first experience of John’s generosity and kindness was when I had the privilege of meeting him for the first time in 1964. I was a mature student at University of London, Sydney Webb Teacher Training College. I was working on a project exploring aspects of Caribbean music and dance with particular reference to the Calypso.

A Trinidadian fellow student told me about him and suggested that I should talk to him as he had a wide knowledge of calypso music and its origins.

John at the time lived in upper Hornsey and I went along to see him somewhat apprehensively. When I knocked and he came to the door, he greeted me like a long lost friend. That was to be the beginning of a friendship that has spanned a lifetime.

John’s knowledge of the subject was phenomenal and we had a wide ranging discussion on the topic. But typical of the man that he was, the conversation covered everything from education to Caribbean and world politics.

John came again to my rescue a year or so later when I visited his fledgling bookshop at number 2 Albert Road, Stroud Green to get some children’s books for the school library.

There was very little black children’s literature available at the time and I ended up taking away almost half the children’s books he had on the shelves. John’s personal knowledge of the literature and the authors was most invaluable in helping me with my book selection.

John had a strong commitment to justice, a deep sense of fair play and was highly intolerant of anyone whom he felt abused their power and authority.

He took a particular interest in the education and development of young black students growing up in London in the early 1960s and indeed up to his untimely death.

When the Haringey North London West Indian Association started the first Black Supplementary School way back in 1966, it was John who came on successive Saturdays to talk to the children about black history and heroes of the Caribbean and Africa.

I remember him constantly reminding them that they should reject the notion of “Black hen Chicken can’t do nothing” but be proud of who they are and aim for the highest.

Some of these youngsters are now very successful men and women who still recall those early experiences whenever I meet any of them.

These visits led to a long association with John in the struggle to stop the British Education system, from as early as 1965, condemning black children to the education trash heap better known as schools for the Educationally Sub Normal. We worked together along with people like Jocelyn Barrow, the late Robert Hart, Martin Bart and many others, some no longer with us, to set up Caribbean Education and Community Workers association (CEWA) 1968/9, and the National Association of Supplementary Schools some 20 or so years later.

John played a significant role in the battle between the North London West Indian Association and the Haringey Borough Council to stop the dumping of Black children in ESN schools or banishing them into the lower streams of the secondary schools.

It was, in my view, one of the, if not the greatest land mark in the history of the black struggle for better education for our children. John, myself and many others led the struggle over many weeks against the Haringey borough council’s banding and bussing education policy.

This was being done under the pretext of having an even spread of mixed ability pupils across the borough’s secondary schools. The real truth was that the council wanted to limit the number of black children in any one school. Their Advisor, Alderman Doulton, had indicated that black children were of inferior intelligence and, therefore, lowered standards in the schools where they formed a large part. That was in December 1969.

I can recall sitting up an entire Saturday night in John’s kitchen preparing a document which we entitled ‘The Real Challenge’ for circulation on the Monday afternoon at a protest meeting.

We managed to get the debate postponed. This gave us more time to mobilise the community against this nasty piece of planned legislation. We won the argument and ultimately the fight.

John did not just react to issues, he was also a great innovator; whether it be the black book shop, the Black International Book Fair or The Association of The Black Supplementary School Movement, John’s foresight, organising ability and leadership skills contributed significantly to the impact these movements have had on black people’s progress and development in this country.

John was one of the greatest men I have been privileged to have met and befriended. I owe an enormous debt to him for his friendship, support and collegiality.

I shall miss his warm hugs with which he always greeted me; the last one being some time in December of 2005.

I have no hesitation in saying that John was one of the greatest gifts to the black community and their struggle for justice and a proper education for their children.

He will be greatly missed but his work and contribution will continue to inspire the community for many more years in the future.

Thank you, John, for your friendship and thanks to Sarah and his family for affording me the privilege of being associated with such a giant of a human being.

(c) Winston Best 13 March 2006

 

Institute of Race Relations

John La Rose 1927-2006 by Jenny Bourne

A stalwart of black struggle in Britain, John La Rose, has died. As a writer, publisher and political organiser, his contribution to the development of black cultural expression in the UK cannot be rivalled.

It is with great sadness that the staff of the Institute of Race Relations heard the news of John's death on 28 February from a heart attack. As a member of IRR's Council, and its Chairman in the early 1970s, he helped to guide the organisation during a particularly turbulent time in its history; its transformation from an establishment body into a radical think-tank.

John was born in Trinidad in 1927 and, after leaving school, became involved in the work of radical political, trade union and cultural organisations. Having joined a Marxist study group, he became an active member of the Federated Workers Trade Union and held meetings throughout the oil belt of southern Trinidad. In 1952 the FWTU, joined by other radicals, formed the West Indian Independence Party and John was appointed its General Secretary- contesting a seat in Arima, his home town, in the 1956 elections. In 1958 he left Trinidad for Venezuela, where he worked as a teacher and in 1961 left for Britain.

In 1966 John founded New Beacon Books, a bookshop, publishing house and international book service, (which, despite the demise of so many alternative bookshops in the UK, uniquely, remains to this day). The same year he also helped to found the Caribbean Artists Movement, which was to launch the careers of many of the greatest of West Indian artists, writers and film-makers. During the 1960s, John became concerned about the poor education black children were receiving in school and ran from his home the George Padmore supplementary school which went on, in 1975, to expand into a Black Parents' Movement. There was hardly an important black issue that John was not involved in, agitating over or bringing to public notice. His achievements read like a potted history of black struggle itself. For example, in 1973 he made a short film on the Mangrove trial, in 1981 he joined the New Cross Massacre Action Committee, in 1990 he co-founded the European Action for Racial Equality and Justice.

But John's greatest contribution was probably the unique black book fairs from 1982 to 1995. The International Book Fair of Radical Black and Third World Books, of which New Beacon was a central co-organiser, would rock London's cultural world for three or four days each year, attracting audiences from Europe and farther afield. For these events, run in inner-London town halls with volunteer staff from bookshops and black organisations, did exactly what their description said. Contributors to the fairs' many public events of discussion, talks, films shows, plays, poetry, dance, were not just black, but also Asian, not just First World, but also Third. And the politics was never narrowly nationalist, but invariably incorporated a socialist perspective.

In 1991, realising how important it was to record and chart the black history that he and others had made in Britain, John, with Sarah White (his partner of over thirty-five years), founded the George Padmore Institute to act as an archive and education centre. And it is, no doubt, through its activities that the dynamism and commitment enshrined in his life's work will live on.

John gave of himself unstintingly. He was one of the most incorruptible of men. With his intellect, range of contacts, skills as an orator and gentle, easy-going style, he could have carved out a niche for himself anywhere - in the media, in academia, as 'a spokesman' or a cultural critic. But he was interested not in status or position, but service. And that's his legacy to us all.

(c) Institute of Race Relations, 1 March 2006

http://www.irr.org.uk/2006/march/ha000006.html

 

Biodun Jeyifo

For John La Rose

'Esu sleeps in the yard

The yard is too small for him

He sleeps in a room

The room is too small for him

Esu sleeps inside a palm nut

Now he has space enough to contain him'

(From the praise poetry of Esu, the Yoruba trickster god of chance and uncertainty)

 

'What lies within us is bigger than what lies behind and ahead of us.'

(Ralph Waldo Emerson)

 

On Tuesday, February 28, 2006, John La Rose died in London at the age of 78. Born in Arima, Trinidad and Tobago, he was essentially of all the Caribbean island nations, and he was a radical, cosmopolitan citizen of the world. In his death, the world lost one of the most important internationalist intellectuals and political and cultural activists of the last half-century. I personally lost a mentor, older friend and comrade; I lost a person who, simply stated, is probably the most remarkable human being it has been my great pleasure and reward to meet, know and cherish in my entire life. As I wrote the friend in London who communicated the news of John’s death to me, at that instant when I read the email bearing the fateful news, the world came to a complete stop and all was darkness. Let me show that this is not a merely sentimental and inflated use of words and language on account of great grief.

For a Nigerian readership that is conversant with world affairs, perhaps the best way to give an indication of John’s life and work is to locate him in the tradition of the great Caribbean revolutionary thinkers and activists of the last one hundred years who made their mark, not only or even primarily in the Caribbean itself, but in other continents and regions of the world — Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas. This tradition includes figures like Marcus Garvey, C.L.R. James, George Padmore, Frantz Fanon, Claudia Jones, Walter Rodney and Stokely Carmichael (a.k.a. Kwame Toure). This is a diverse group and there are many important distinguishing characteristics about their experiences and legacies. For instance, you possibly cannot have more dissimilar figures than Garvey and Fanon. All the same, there is a distinctively Caribbean element common to all of them, an element that needs careful elaboration.

The Caribbean is one of the most super-exploited regions of the world in the modern history of capitalism, slavery and colonialism. Correspondingly, it is a region in which the movements of resistance to these dominating, exploitative forces have been exemplary in duration and scope. But then, these observations about the forces of worldwide exploitation and domination, together with the resistance movements to which they have given rise, could be made with equal validity with regard to other regions of the world like Africa, Asia, and South America. What is distinctive of the Caribbean in these matters is the fact that central to both domination and resistance in the region has been the historic, transformative convergence in the Caribbean of all the races, peoples and cultures of virtually the whole world. In other words, more than any other region of the world, in the Caribbean the contending forces and movements of slavery and emancipation, of colonisation and decolonisation, and of servitude and freedom have been played out in the historic context of forging one people out of all the descendants of the peoples of the whole world. All those great revolutionary figures – Garvey, James, Padmore, Fanon, Claudia Jones and Walter Rodney – were fundamentally shaped by this distinctively and irreducibly Caribbean dimension of modernity and the vocation for freedom and justice. Another way of expressing this thought is to say that if radicals, progressives and all thinking people in the world now know that all the peoples of planet earth live in the same world and the world ought to be a place where all of them can live together in equality, peace and dignity, Caribbean revolutionaries have always known this both about their region and about the whole world. This is why the Caribbean, perhaps the smallest geo-hemispheric region in the world, has nonetheless produced outstanding “expatriate” revolutionary figures more than any other region of the world. John La Rose was a towering figure within this group precisely because he embodied, perhaps more than any other figure, this fundamental aspect of the Caribbean revolutionary experience. This is so much the case that one can only be selective with regard to the facts of his life, work and legacy that one chooses to highlight in illustrating this contention.

Clearly, the longest, most sustained and visible aspect of John’s work in the last five decades is his central role in the struggles against the myriad forms of race and class oppression that Black peoples from the Caribbean, Africa and Asia have encountered in Britain following the setting of the sun on the empire and the migrations from Asia, Africa and the Caribbean. These entailed struggles against race and class oppression in the workplace, in education, in the policies and acts of the state and its agencies, especially the law-enforcement agencies. Also included as a special composite domain of these struggles were the discriminatory practices and denigrating, objectifying representations of black and immigrant peoples in the corporate media and the culture and entertainment industries. In these struggles and the movements to which they gave rise, John was both activist militant and organising genius; he was prominent both in the barricades and the long sessions dedicated to planning and organising for these struggles. Indeed, it is all but impossible to separate the practical activist and militant from the organizer, thinker and visionary in John La Rose, in these particular struggles and in the many others with which he was involved in the last five decades. This observation is directly pertinent to the institutions that will perhaps endure as John’s legacy to the struggles for a “post-imperial”, multiracial and multicultural Britain in which the gains of social democracy are consolidated and expanded for all of its citizens and residents, irrespective of their race, class, sex and national origin. Of these institutional elements of John’s legacy, four stand out, each of them significant enough in its own right to place any man or woman in the front ranks of progressive British intelligentsia of the last five decades.

The first of these is the New Beacon Books, consisting of a publishing wing and a bookshop. The publishing arm is one of the most remarkable of British radical and progressive “little publishers”. It has brought out titles from both established writers and new, budding authors from many different parts of the world, some of them being authors whose works grow out of, and speak to conjunctural situations which are far from the radar screens of the corporate publishers and media. Correspondingly, the bookshop is a sort of place of pilgrimage. For people visiting London and looking not only for titles published by New Beacon Books, but also books on multicultural Britain and Europe and the developing world, it is one of the essential places to go.

The second of the institutional legacies of John La Rose is the so-called “Book Fair of Radical Black and Third World Books”. This was the series of extraordinary book fairs that took place in London between 1982 and 1995. By creating an ambience of festival around the commerce in books, book fairs are especially cherished by book lovers everywhere. This factor probably explains why the Book Fairs of Radical Black and Third World Books left such a lasting impression on all who took part in them or came to one or more of the fairs as a visitor. But there is far more involved here than this common denominator of all book fairs. For in this particular series, the fairs were located at the heart of contemporary struggles for better conditions, better futures on all the continents. Specifically, the artistic events, the lectures and symposia, and the performances that accompanied the fairs brought to the attention of all who attended or reported on them the cultural and intellectual dimensions of contemporary social and political struggles worldwide. This is why going through the archives of the Book Fairs is like going on a journey through the great crises and struggles of the period: the assassination of Maurice Bishop and Reagan’s invasion of Grenada; the beginnings of the racist, right-wing backlash against the gains of the civil rights movement in the United States and the reinvention of the freedom struggles of the Sixties and Seventies in the wake of this backlash; the rising tide of neo-fascism in Europe and, and as a response to this violent and reactionary upsurge, the awakening of many black and other immigrant groups on the continent to their rights and identities as Europeans; the great, epic battle between British mineworkers and Margaret Thatcher; and the struggles against military and civilian autocracies in Africa in countries like Nigeria, Kenya and, especially the Sudan. These and other struggles, together with the epochal and revolutionary changes in information and communication technologies and their consequences for oppressed groups and classes all over the world formed the context, the driving engine of the festivals surrounding the Book Fairs. And besides, these cultural and artistic events and symposia were tremendous fun: poets, playwrights and writers of fiction, documentary filmmakers and stage and screen actors and actresses, musicians and painters, activists and militants, all were as much in evidence in the Book Fairs as publishers and booksellers. Some of the artists and writers were some of the world’s greatest and most influential cultural figures; some were then famous only in their local cultural and artistic neighbourhoods but have since become internationally prominent. Particular names that come to mind here from Nigeria are Niyi Osundare and Ben Okri.

The third and fourth institutions that stand as landmarks of the legacy of John’s life and work are the George Padmore Institute (GPI) and No 2, Albert Road, London N4, the house of John and his partner, Sarah White. Both have a special clarifying relationship with the things I’ve identified as the first and second institutional elements of John’s legacy, these being New Beacon Books and the Book Fairs of Radical Black and Third World Books. GPI is a facility that houses most of the archival materials from the Book Fairs; it also serves as a permanent research centre on issues pertaining to the experience of the immigrant communities in Britain and Europe. About No 2 Albert Road as a sort of “institutional” legacy, more will be said presently in this tribute. The clarification that GPI and No 2 Albert Road provide is the fact that they help us to see something that made the achievements of New Beacon Books and the Book Fairs, and indeed all of John’s activities and life’s work, possible, something that I’ve so far left unsaid in this piece. This is the simple but profound fact that John had a peerless gift for drawing circles or collectivities of collaborators around him across barriers of age, race, gender, nationality, religion and even ideology. In other words, if so far I have given the impression that John’s achievements were the products of one lone, heroic and larger than life figure, I hasten to disavow that suggestion. New Beacon Books and the Book Fairs were such extraordinarily successful events because John had the collaboration of dedicated and gifted individuals. As a matter of fact, this is one of the most valuable lessons of John’s work and life: he inspired, and was in turn inspired by the large number of dedicated, gifted individuals that he either worked with locally or with whom he maintained close contacts throughout the world. Among those who worked with him in London, one thinks here of his partner, Dr. Sarah White, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Gus John, Roxy Harris, and John’s eldest son, Michael La Rose. Across the world, the list is too long of revolutionaries, progressives and ordinary folks who were in constant and close contact with John to give even a minimally adequate naming of those involved.

I should add that in this matter of those whom John profoundly touched and in turn deeply touched him, I am deliberately choosing my words vary carefully, for it goes without saying that being a steadfast and reliable revolutionary intellectual and activist, John attracted a lot of radicals and progressives to the causes he championed and so one met the usual “political types” in his house and among those with whom he frequently associated. But he did contain within himself such surfeit of unflaunted self-possession, solicitude and generosity that one also found around him – in the organizations with which he worked and above all at No 2 Albert Road, London N4 – people from all walks of life and from all corners of the world. I certainly know no other place in the world like No 2 Albert Road, a place where you could meet some of the most famous and influential writers, artists and intellectuals in the world as well as people whom one could call just plain, ordinary folks, young and old, male and female, black, white, brown and all the other hues by which humanity is divided into separate and different indices of social identification. This amounts to two halves of the same coin of a vast and capacious human sympathy and generosity: John attracted people from all stations and “estates” of social existence around his person and his life; people sought him out from all corners of the world. This assertion is perhaps best illustrated with a testimony provided by James Kelman, the British writer.

James Kelman is a Scottish novelist, essayist and cultural activist; he is a Booker Prize laureate and one of the most prominent figures in contemporary British literature. He is a radical intellectual who is perhaps best understood in Nigerian literary-cultural terms as a combination of Femi Osofisan, Niyi Osundare and Festus Iyayi. Kelman has written a wonderful essay titled ‘Go and talk with John La Rose’. The essay is in one of Kelman’s collections of non-fictional writings. It gives a lengthy but riveting account of how the writer followed the advice of an older friend and comrade to visit John the next time he was in London and how the visit turned out to be an unforgettable experience. It is impossible and unnecessary to make an estimate of how many people throughout the world have heard and followed that advice to “go and talk with John La Rose”.

It is certainly one of the highlights of my life’s experiences that I went and talked with John La Rose. Without consulting them, without their permission, I can affirm that many of the following compatriots, both living and dead, would say almost as much about their encounters with John: Eddie and Bene Madunagu, Balarabe Musa, Yusuf Bala Usman, Siddique Abubakar, Ola Oni, Femi Osofisan, Kole Omotoso, G.G. Darah, Odia Ofeimun, Yemi Ogunbiyi, Niyi Osundare, Femi Fatoba and many, many others. We all went and talked with John and took much out of the encounters, just as we felt that he too took much from what we had to talk about. This, in my opinion, is the core of who John was: he was prodigious in giving and taking, and he made it a central aspect of his life to leave much where he had taken much, indeed to leave more than he took. I would like to end this tribute to my friend, comrade and mentor on this particular point.

John La Rose had so much to give and he gave prodigiously because he was a bibliophile of the first order. He was immensely well read. Speaking as a professional academic who makes his livelihood and vocation from books, I testify that John was one of about a half dozen of the most well read persons I have met in my life. He delighted greatly in talking about books on virtually all subjects and about all the regions of the world. He combined detailed and extensive information on publications on contemporary, topical issues with an impressive coverage of the classic books on history, especially the history of revolutions and revolutionary leaders, political economy, culture, the arts and developments in science and technology. One special aspect of John’s bibliophilia was his avid openness to the great Book of life, in its fullness, complexity and resilience, and with its cycles of unremitting tragedies and comedies. To the great learning that he got from printed books, John added the wisdoms that he derived from the unwritten and endlessly open Book of life. This was why so many people sought him out: his command of printed books and the Book of life. The old Malian proverb that says that every time that an old person dies, a whole library perishes with him or her found perfect illustration in John’s life and death. We have lost him and in a way that loss is as irreparable as it is irrevocable, especially with regard to what he had in him to give to the world.

But that Malian proverb stands corrected by the epigraphs at the beginning of this tribute. The paradox of Esu finding a space to contain his selfhood, his being, not in the wide expanse of a yard or a whole room but inside a tiny palm nut, this paradox is explained by the great laws and rhythms of life and nature: inside the nut, Esu has the possibility to germinate and spread his being across the barriers of time, space and finitude.

In my reckoning, John secreted his being, his great knowledge, wisdom and generosity, not inside one human palm nut, but within innumerable ones. Like Ralph Waldo Emerson, he knew intuitively of the germinative vastness that lies in each human being and this was why every single person who came in contact with him felt acknowledged with absolutely no preconditions. Considering this factor, Esu, the trickster god, is no apt metaphor or analogy for John’s life, work and legacy. For that, we have to conjoin Esu with Orunmila, the Yoruba god of wisdom and prognostic, anticipatory knowledge. There is a basis for this in the sacred and secular iconography of Esu and Orunmila: in the myths, the sculptures and the tales and songs of these two avatars, they are always shown conjoined, one always by the side of the other.

I give apology for seeming to deify my departed friend by all this talk of gods and mythic avatars. But I give explanation that like Karl Marx, I believe that the holy, celestial family is a reflection of, and a projection from the human, earthly family. And so in my grief for the loss of my friend and comrade, and in celebrating the great legacy of his life, I derive great solace in these tropes of Esu and Orunmila, tropes that tell us eloquently of the great complexities and possibilities that lie in all of us. As did John La Rose with humour, generosity and grace.

© Biodun Jeyifo, Ibadan, Nigeria, March 2006

Biodun Jeyifo is Professor of English, Cornell University.

 

Nicole-Rachelle Moore

On John La Rose

On Monday 13^th March, approximately 1,000 people congregated at the New Testament Church of God in Wood Green to say “farewell” and “thank you” to one of the finest men I have had the privilege to meet.

During his life John La Rose had that rare and enviable gift of being able to bring diverse peoples together in a common purpose. In the wake of his passing the power of that gift was keenly felt again as citizens of the world came together to honour him and lay him to rest. As we gathered together we were aware that our political landscape was shifting.

My relationship with New Beacon Books began in earnest in 1993 when I embarked on a degree in Caribbean Studies at the then University of North London. It was not until 1995 that I met John La Rose at was the last International Book Fair of Radical, Black and Third World Books at Camden’s Town Hall. Having heard and read about the man, I was fascinated to meet him in person. I recall telling him about my visits to the bookshop and about meeting “the lady with the white hair”. John smiled broadly at me and said, “Ahh…that would be my beautiful Sarah.”

Sarah White and Janice Durham have been the bookshop’s strongest pillars and it was through a strengthening of friendship and sisterhood with the latter that my inclusion in the New Beacon “family” came about. Over the years I gradually understood just how necessary New Beacon Books was to the black community; not only as a bookshop but as a meeting place and a community “think-tank”.

John’s active interest in, and knowledge of, different issues affecting the social condition of black people’s lives both here in the UK and throughout the world was amazing, humbling and inspiring. His ability to remain calm, coherent and focused when dealing with often crucial political and social issues, served and continues to serve, as a model of deportment for those of us who have found/find ourselves facing similar challenges (whether personally or in support of others in our community).

John La Rose was not afraid to think, to challenge, to act and to lead by example. He gave meaning to what he engaged in and the generosity he displayed with his vast knowledge, his vast network and his precious time made him truly remarkable.

Last October, during Black History Month in the UK, my nine year old son was required to write about a black person who has in some way contributed to society. Having been taken out of school some months before to hear the great Mandela speak in Trafalgar Square, he initially decided to write about the man. I reminded him that we were fortunate to be quite close to another great man: his “Uncle John”. Nabhān was genuinely impressed and intrigued by what he and I read about John and he ended up writing a beautiful piece on the person he says “I’ve known all my nine years.”

Lawrence Scott, the Trinidadian born and London based writer recently wrote of John in The Guardian (March 4^th 2006): ‘He was a West Indian renaissance man … The world passed through his kitchen and his bookshop; you were as likely to meet a coalminer or a steelband man, novelist or chef, dancer or theologian … He saw the world through the prism of Trinidad’s creole culture, and believed it to have changed Britain entirely.’

In life, as in death, John La Rose attracted a protean mix of people, all gathered together for a common purpose. On Monday 13^th March we banded together to honour, remember and thank this great but humble Trinidadian star.

John La Rose, 27.12.27 – 28.2.06: Founder and Director of New Beacon Books; Director of the International Book Fair of Radical Black and Third World Books; Chairman of the George Padmore Institute; poet; essayist; filmmaker; cultural and political activist

(c) Nicole Rachelle-Moore

 

Alex Pascall

Crouch Hill

London

N4 4AJ

March 13th 2006

 

Dr. John La Rose D/Ceased

Farewell Passage

Finchley

North London

UK 06 R.I.P

 

cc: The George Padmore Institute

 

Dear John

Re: Life beyond our imagination.

Had you not pulled out so unexpectedly I would not have had to bother you at this early stage, but I thought we should contact you before you retire and your diary becomes too overcrowded. Let me begin on a philosophical note, before I give you a full update and commentary on how things went on since.

First check this out: "A flower dies! No, it blossoms in fields beyond our imagination". This in many ways raises the question as to whether there is "life beyond our imagination" and you are now in a good position to tell us and for sure we expect you to deliver.

John such are the thoughts you left us mulling over; the things you did, the ones you inspired throughout your life and the legacy that should now be kept alive in your honour. In the minds of many would be questions; what is it that brought people to you? What was it you shared with them? For me you were a quiet and approachable friend, a symbol of the old form of our Caribbean family elders, with whom one could talk to, in confidence. Such a quality is rare in the society and community that we now find ourselves.

John, man to man, tell me, why did you just pull away from us so speedily? You pulled a fast one on us; you never gave any notice at all that you were slipping out so unexpectedly. Nevertheless, as comrades and close buddies we do understand that, when a man got to go he just got to go. That was you all over; you did it swiftly singing one of your favourite songs, "Time for man go home". Do you remember when Deirdre played it for you at your 75th birthday celebration, how you joined in smiling and singing? Well she played it again while you were quietly lying listening to all who came to pay respect to you and we again sang it later at your resting place. We will always remember you singing along:

"Time for man go home

Time for man go home

Ah time for man and ah time for beast

Time for man go home

Time for man go home

Monkey ah bush and e say qua-qua

Time for man go home

Time for man go home"

Let me take you back to your farewell at the Pentecostal Church ceremony, which was an amazing gathering of minds in deep thoughts. Boy it was like a revival, an inspiring revelation of the International Book Fair loaded with memorable recitations and glorification, in an atmosphere with close friends and family, comrades from Africa, France, Trinidad & Tobago, Barbados, Jamaica, the

Bahamas and USA. Silent and tearful faces said it all; colours, creed and races, professors, philosophers, activists, thinkers, poets, musicians and trade unionists, young and old a testament from us as a people to you.

All came in deep admiration bearing messages, voicing passages that meant so much to each of us. I also noted them as they tried to submerge their emotions. Your sons were amazing, Michael's eulogy was brilliant, he touched on passages of your life that I'm sure many of us knew little of; passages that embraced the entire family, from whence you came to now. The rest of the proceedings were also remarkably dignified, Kamau, Kole, BJ, Linton, Susan, Alkalimat, Remi, and Chantelle honoured you, and musical interludes by Deirdre, Keith, Aubrey and Clifton Allen made melody to soothe our souls. There was no time for airs and graces.

The event reminded me of how great we are, not only as a people who came to this dreary shore, but the complex community we still live in. Why is it that we now only meet at times of bereavement and other crises?

Your farewell allowed us another chance to meet, greet and reminisce on "life beyond our imagination". Many commented that for them, it was a spiritual celebration of calm, with a community of oneness.

How about that, John? Professor Gus John the Moderator, the Padre, and the professor of all arrangements. If you saw how his boyhood Roman Catholic background came back alive and surprise, surprise, how about his Gregorian chants in Latin? That is certainly one for the book; let me quote a little piece from what Mark Blunden and John Gulliver of the Islington Tribune had to say about your farewell in a column headlined, "Black community's farewell in song to its elder Statesman": "The extraordinary moving quality of the service owed itself largely to Gus John, an eminent Black campaigner, Hackney's former education chief and author of a government report into race riots in Birmingham in the 1990s. A Roman Catholic, he led the service as its ‘moderator', he described John La Rose as a man, who combined his fight for racial and social justice with a generosity of spirit, a true revolutionary … .then Gus John who revealed himself as a distinctly good singer throughout the service — sang one of John's favourite Gregorian chants in Latin".

John you see what ah mean about Gus, your good friend and comrade, and if you think that is all, wait till you read the rest yourself. The only article we expected and have not seen yet is the Independent’s. They made Gus enlarge the article he previously sent them and up to now they haven't published it. We are waiting to see what they are goinng to do. We are also waiting to see if The Times said anything. We remain vigilant.

From the balcony position from which Jacqui, who was standing in for Ayandele, my wife Joyce, Aggrey and I with others occupied during your farewell celebration. I was able to sit back and view the attendance of those who came to see you off. Boy it was an amazing turn out and just in case you missed seeing some of who turned up, because your eyes were fully closed, let me give you a ball by ball commentary of the proceedings of the day. Whoever I have left out others will fill in with time. Gus, Sarah, Zita, Michael, Keith, Irma, Roxy, Linton, Janice and Tony, plus the young generation of grandchildren and friends made sure that all the plans were in place. What went on behind the scenes was quite an massive operation worth documentation, that I know you would love, so that others may with time look at the model of how families, comrades, friends and well wishers come together at times of bereavement.

At the end of the service we followed you to your resting place, carefully chosen to allow you the privacy and quietness they felt you would like; the gathering sang lots of your favourite hymns and cultural songs: ‘How great thou art’, ‘The Lord is my Shepherd’, ‘The Red Flag’, ‘Rivers of Babylon’, the OWTU ‘Union Song’, ‘Swing low sweet chariot’, ‘Some glad morning’, ‘Bring it Mr Chairman’ and many others. Boy the only thing that was obvious was some of we people have forgotten how to sing the songs we used to sing lustily back home and some others who have become so sophisticated that they've lost touch with the spirit of singing songs by the grave side.

Leaving you behind in that cold place, in this winter time was quite hard for many, but we expect you to cover up well till the summer comes. Enjoy the leafy breeze, the singing of the birds and the stillness of the surroundings.

The news of you bowing out is still a blow to many of your close comrades, neighbours, people who did not know you personally and now read about you in the news papers are learning so much about you, so every now and then they would ring up, or pop into the shop and at Albert Road. We have already gathered lots of newspapers cuttings from the Guardian, New Nation, The Voice, and Islington Tribune, plus the Nigerian Guardian which BJ brought with a four page article, emails, cards and messages from here, there and abroad; there are also recorded tributes for you to listen to. Dr Wilfred Wood sent his from Barbados with Winston Best, the recording is there so that you can pop in at the GPI at your own leisure and listen to him talking about you from sunny Barbados. Man the news hit Winston so bad that the guy cut short his holiday vacation and flew right back just to be with you.

Stop Press:

Traffic, Apologies, News and Views

John you nearly had a special appearance from the Mayor of London. According to a telephone bulletin he was unable to make it personally and his advisory/representative was supposedly coming, but to cut a long story short, he must have forgotten, or got sidelined in the rush hour, that we must assume, because neither have seen or heard from him up to now.

For the Dame Jocelyn Barrow things did not work out well, unfortunately her car chose to break down on the way, and with things being what they are, with traffic wardens and parking charges in London, it was impossible for her to abandon her car; John you see what the Mayor and these money vultures have caused? One good thing I must report is that parking charges were suspended for the church ceremony, so at least the police and the Haringey authorities deserve a little praise for that, such I'm sure you would endorse.

John boy, it's a good thing all the people who rang up from here and abroad could not turn up, otherwise it would have been impossible to seat or even stand them all in the church, and the traffic would have been a nightmare for hours.

Sincere apologies also from your good, good pardner Ian Macdonald QC and also Dianne Abbott MP. Hear this John: Jeremy Corbyn proposed and Dianne seconded an early day motion in Parliament and it was presented to the House, so boy your name is posthumously listed in Hansard in the Palace of Westminster. Beat that John, you are now in what they would term the British respectable fraternity. What ah ting eh! This shows that there is some "life beyond our imagination" eh John? Well, as far as I am concerned, Tony Blair could put that in he pipe and smoke it. As the saying goes in Grenada, "Davinay in tray, take it today, take it tomorrow, It’s still the same in he kummana".

One thing ah must tell you John, with all this spare time now on your hands, don't keep us guessing about how things operate on the other side. Seeing that we now have you there and you have a more informed network, opinion and a clearer view of events, passages and proceedings, we expect some constant Bulletins from you as soon as you settle down and get to know the runnings.

Just imagine you missing the game between Trinidad and Iceland and you goin also miss out on the 20-20 in the Caribbean, plus Trinidad in the World cup. Boy, big thing like that, wish you did hang on longer, man you something else.

Man, dig this low-down about the match between Australia and India. Boy the finish was dynamite, one wicket left and one ball, Australia hit a four and that was it, boy that was a close shave and a toe nail biting situation for India. Now ah know you don't want me to tell you about the West Indies at this present time so let's blank that out till later? By the way John, what's the sporting situation on your side like?

Any chance of a preview of Trinidad chances in the World cup? And your opinion on the recovery of the West Indies Cricket Team? We want to try a little bet. The boys and I have worked out two safe positions for you to take in cricket, the third eye umpire, so that you could dig the outside bacchanal and inside movements. Then in the football you should play in the Left Outside position as a back, so that you would not get hurt. In taking such positions you can commentate and analyse to your heart's delight.

As a matter of fact Horace Ove, who could not make it, said that you now have the opportunity to lime up with Kitch, Quevedo, Small Island Pride, Houdini, Iron Duke, the Lords Invader, Caresser and Melody, Roaring Lion and the other extempore boys to write a new road march; let the others do the composition and you and Nello should comment on the text. And you could get Rudolph Charles, "the Hammer", to fashion a pan for you that could play music out of this world. Everyone and all, boys, santimanitay!

John, please keep your feet warm, tuck in and stay covered up, wrap up with a blanket and find a chair to sit while digging the political and sporting scenes from the TV if one is available to you. Keep us posted and watch out for Nello, Pearl, Salkey, George Weekes, Padmore, Claudia Jones, CLR, Nkrumah, Butler, Eric Williams and the rest of the comrades.

Boy I'm missing you bad-bad for the old talk around the chair. Since you left no body turned on the TV, but people sat in your chair because they know you goin like that. Between me, you and the kitchen table John, people already missing you bad, Lawrence, Dave, Margaret, Eric and Jessica all trying to come to terms with your absence, it goin take some time to realise that you quit for good.

John you see the spot close to you, just survey the area when you decide to take a stroll, you will find a few people that you know well having a long rest, check them out; fellas like Nkrumah, and a heap of others from early times.

After leaving you, guess what? Yes, you're right, We went to Chestnut Hall, on St Anns Road and continued the lime. Boy, between the old talk, the booze and Jeffrey Simon cuisine there was constant jamming; Tobago Crusoe and Alberto hit two fab kaiso. One was about education and the other one was about dem terrorist, two fitting compositions for what is going on in the world today and Parliament with the vote on the Education Bill. John, the education bacchanal brought back great memories to Leila Ramdeen, she recalled the fight you, she, Winston Best and others put up in Harringey. I am sure if the politicians with their New World Order were there to listen Crusoe and Alberto, they would have been able to save all the billions wasted, it would then be easy to fund their election campaign and legal fees they will have to face after their elected terms are up.

On a musical note, Aubrey Bryan and Clifton Allen, a first class pan maestro who came across especially for the jam for your farewell with Lester, hit us with some of the old classics of Sparrow, Rose and Kitchener: numbers like ‘Jean and Dina’, ‘Fire in you wire’ and ‘Melda’. Boy everybody was nostalgically singing, and that little Ms. Perryman, Lord John she is dynamite, she took the microphone and you should see the woman move on the floor; while Aubrey and Clifton jamming on pan, me and Keith Waithe were blasting rhythm on the table, all those who were tearful became cheerful, like ‘the wake in Toko’, you remember that one John?

Departure aside John, the day was sunny, joyful and memorable; it made up for the nine nights we missed. It was also an inspiring day for your grandchildren, Irma, comrades, and well wishers. I was asked to pass on greetings to you from the New Beacon/GPI backup posse: Sharmilla, Sarah G, Nicole, Claire S, Zukie, Brian and Remi.

What's left to say now is that we feel that although you have physically gone your way, there must be "life beyond our imagination" and we look forward to hearing about it from you. We know that it will take you a little while to settle down and I guess all the others who you bounce up will be happy to see you, and for a while you will have a lot to tell them about tings on this side. But as soon as the pressures ease up send us Snail-mail because I know the computer is not your scene.

John, rest assured that when the video is ready, we goin send you a copy, so you could play it for all the others, so that all you could sum up and debate situations around the scenes. I just hope they have a video player. What might be necessary is for us to know the type of frequency you are using so that we can fix tings accordingly. I'm sure you've got the picture.

Finally, Greetings from Florence, she was so happy that she managed to see you on her last visit. Also present were Mogniss, Kole Omotoso, B.J, Kamau Braithwaite, Eric Huntley, Stuart Hall, Margaret Busby, Archie Markham, Akua Rugg, James Berry, Susan Craig, Nadia Cattouse, Joe Mogotsi, Winston Pinder & Azim. Lord boy, if I continue to name people I'll be here for hours, so don't mind if I stop now, too many more to mention. Keep covered and stay warm.

PS: Except for Jeremy Corbyn, all those House of Lords & Commons people that know you well never show their faces. I guess they were totally occupied trying to keep up with the saga of cash for peerage. Boy, you won't be surprised to hear that all ah dem were doing de same ting, so one could not blow on the other, and one ah dem just publish the whole list of who gave and who got, lot ah scandal in Parliament.

In closing let me thank you for being a close friend with whom I felt easy to share my thoughts. I am sure you will never forget how we fought the Millennium Commission to realise a Caribbean Heritage Centre, the landmark Caribbean building to mark the beginning of the 21st century for what we Caribbeans have contributed here in Britain. I know one good thing about you, you will always love your politics, the steel band and the kaiso, so check out Kitch, Quevedo, Spry Simon, Maurice Bishop, Errol Barrow, CLR and the thousands who are missing from this side and have all your own debate and jam sessions. As a matter of fact John, have a competition to see if any of those guys could out talk you. I'll be more than surprised if any one could, as one of your greatest gifts is conversation.

We gonna miss you bad, bad, bad. John there must be"life beyond our imagination". We look forward to hearing from you. Once again as the saying goes, when a man got to go, he got to go. "It's time for man go home".

Nuff Respect

Alex

© 2006 Alex Pascall

Alex Pascall is a storyteller and cultural strategist. He is the former presenter of Black Londoners, the influential BBC Radio magazine programme for the black community.

 

Kenneth Ramchand – UTT Honorary Doctorate Presentation

Chancellor,

I present John Anthony La Rose

man of culture and man of action,

man of ideas and man of feeling

a man who dreamed to change the world and rose early in the morning to catch the dream and make it come true

 

Chancellor,

The burden of my case is this: John La Rose lives on

 

There is, however, a peculiar circumstance that we have to admit:

On an early-Spring day in March 2006

The same John La Rose who I just told you lives on

was buried Trinidad style in a wooded London cemetery

Where trees overhang the grave.

 

He had chosen the spot himself.

 

Black and White faces sang political songs, hymns, and spirituals

‘The workers’ flag is deepest red

It shroudeth all our martyred dead’

And: ‘Swing low, Sweet Chariot’

 

Mourners and celebrants took turns shovelling dirt

 

Honey poured in the grave.

Puffs of incense in the thin still air

The blowing of a conch shell from across the sea

 

It was a meeting of the continents.

Friends from Europe, Asia, Africa, and America gathered

to honour a protean New World man

whose bold ideas,

concrete projects,

enquiring spirit

and generous heart

had nurtured them as individuals

and helped them in the hard hard campaign for fundamental change in the societies to which they belonged

 

Chancellor,

Permit me to refer to a tribute to John La Rose from Linton Kwesi Johnson the Black British poet of Jamaican origin who wrote ‘Dread, Beat and Blood’ and ‘Inglan is a Bitch’: ‘John La Rose, who has died aged 78, was the elder statesman of Britain’s Black communities. Like Marcus Garvey, CLR James, George Padmore, Fidel Castro and Frantz Fanon, John belongs to a Caribbean tradition of radical and revolutionary activism whose input has reverberated across continents. The depth and breadth of his contribution to the struggle for cultural and social change, for racial equality and social justice, for the humanisation of society, is unparalleled in the history of the Black experience in Britain. He was a man of great erudition whose generosity of spirit and clarity of vision and sincerity inspired people like me. John was not only my mentor, friend, comrade, he was like a father to me. He was the most remarkable human being I have ever known.’

I do not have the room in this presentation to list John La Rose’s facilitating of creative cooperation between Blacks and formerly colonised people all over the world. Nor can I document fully here his instrumentality in helping Britain’s Black community to claim an identity it was being schooled to despise as the foundation that would allow them to belong to and influence the new land of their birth. But we must sample and we must feel the spirit.

I hope that in sampling I can suggest the range and depth of what he actually did and, perhaps even more importantly, allow you to see him as a major theorist of how we can achieve fundamental social change unlimited by the agendas and perspectives of funding agencies and compulsory consultants from abroad, unfettered by the invalid politicians and the validating elites who are complicit with them in supporting the status quo.

La Rose’s most spectacular achievement was the International Book Fair of Radical Black and Third World Books which ran in London between 1982 and 1995, organised initially with Bogle L’Ouverture Books and Race Today Publications. This massive Book Fair brought together from all the Continents and sub-Continents “the writers, publishers, distributors, booksellers, artists, musicians filmmakers, and people who inspire and consume their creative productions”, and was an expression of La Rose’s burning conviction that meaningful social and political change could only come from the indigenous thought and feeling that lay waiting to shape a New World in the cultural and artistic expression of Caribbean peoples.

La Rose’s practical and sustainable work in enhancing the quality of life of Britain’s black population and helping them to claim their place as citizens can be seen in his struggle for the establishment and survival of the Notting Hill Carnival; his involvement in the campaign to end the practice of placing Black children in schools for the educationally sub-normal; his founding of the Black Parents Movement to encourage parenting and appropriate education for the rising numbers of black youth recognised by the host society only as candidates for criminalisation; his lead in the formation of an Alliance of interest groups that became the most powerful cultural and political movement organised by Blacks in Britain — fighting for justice against police oppression, agitating for the education system to reform itself to service Britain’s emerging multicultural society, and giving support to Black working class struggle. He believed passionately that you make change not by imposing your ideology or practice but through the power that comes from struggling along with people in their own interests.

To honour a great thinker and champion and to make sure that the Black community would have the archaeological record of itself he founded the George Padmore Institute in 1991 to archive the black experience in Britain and Europe.

For me, Chancellor, John La Rose’s greatest contribution lies in the complex of peoples, ideas, and activities that spring to mind when we say “New Beacon Books”.

New Beacon Books was founded by John La Rose and his partner Sarah White in 1966 and it became the most important cultural institution, and the most profoundly political one for West Indian and Third World people in the United Kingdom and in the islands.

At least two generations, Chancellor, received their higher education at the University of New Beacon Books. Whether you lived in England or the West Indies you went to New Beacon Books at Albert Road or Stroud Green Road for books by West Indian authors, and authors from Africa and other formerly colonised places. You met authors and readers among the stacks and got into dialogue with many of the scholars and students from the West Indies who were attending British Universities. You found books you did not know existed. The bookshop became a place for readings, performances, and symposiums, and the place where cultural and political projects were planned. He encouraged us to talk our talk and shame those mocking pretenders.

You will remember, Chancellor that by 1996, London had become the West Indian literary and artistic capital. The names of Selvon, Lamming, Mais, Hearne, Mittelholzer, Carew, Selvon, Naipaul and Harris were shining bright. La Rose knew that West Indian militancy and real politics lay in the arts, and that our artists in whatever field were the thinkers, innovators, and true visionaries. He stocked their works because they formed the text for deconstructing and reconstructing our world in our own image.

New Beacon was not only a club, a bookshop and an intellectual centre. It was a publishing house devoted to rediscovering the lost literature of the West Indies, connecting up the present to our long tradition of indigenous thought and revolutionary politics, and by fostering new books whose relevance to West Indian life at home and abroad were not likely to make them a priority for mainstream British publishers. La Rose knew that healthy growth and rich development come from self-knowledge and self-respect, and that writing and publishing allowed us to take control of our own information and history.

Chancellor, as a publisher, John La Rose led an intellectual revolution. Here is a small indicative sample of the 65 books published by New Beacon Books. In 1969, he re-published two books by the Trinidadian John Jacob Thomas: Froudacity: West Indian Fables, a Black intellectual’s magisterial reply in 1889 to a racist book by the Oxford historian Anthony Froude denigrating the West Indian’s mental ability, his status as a human being, and his capacity to enjoy and exercise freedom; and The Theory and Practice of Creole Grammar in which the father of Caribbean linguistics showed that the Creole was a language in its own right and not a faulty imitation of a European one. Reprints of other West Indian classics were to follow. In 1967 he published exciting creative work by Wilson Harris, Erna Brodber and Lorna Goodison. He continued in this vein with new work by the Black British writers of West Indian origin. In 1967 too he published ground-breaking scholarship by Susan Craig and Rhoda Reddock. Other scholarly works followed.

Not long after the founding of New Beacon Books, and obviously connected with the philosophy and values of New Beacon Books, Edward Brathwaite, John La Rose and Andrew Salkey began an important series of conversations that led to the formation of the Caribbean Artists Movement (CAM): Edward Brathwaite and Kenneth Ramchand founded and began editing Savacou from Jamaica in 1970, as a journal of the Caribbean Artists Movement. In 1992, New Beacon Books published a history of the cultural movement that was CAM.

I am trying to suggest, Chancellor, that while New Beacon and CAM played a major role in the United Kingdom, their graduates, as it were, carried on the work in the islands. John La Rose was never out of our thoughts or out of our business.

John La Rose often uttered words to the effect that we were not made in England or did not come alive in England. He won a government exhibition and went to St Mary’s College where he taught for a while before working with Cyril Duprey who was just establishing Clico. Don’t worry Chancellor, our John was always a supporter of black entrepreneurship and this was the first local insurance company in Trinidad and Tobago.

From early he knew the necessity of art and culture. Music and poetry never left his soul. He was an active member of a literary group in Arima where he was introduced to Marxism and modern poetry by Neville Giuseppi (the death of whose good wife, a cultural activist and stern grammarian we mourn today). In the 1950’s La Rose and Raymond Quevedo worked together and produced a manuscript that was eventually published as Atilla’s Kaiso. He worked with Lennox Pierre to help the steelband movement to end their civil wars and become a social and political force.

In an essay entitled ‘Unemployment, Leisure and the Birth of Creativity’ he referred to people from behind the bridge, those from the yards and those from the ghetto who used their moments of forced leisure and asceticism to produce not crime and violence but brilliant inventions in words, music and instrumentation. Chancellor I am one of those subscribing to La Rose’s theory that a shorter working day and a shorter working week, a more equitable distribution of resources, and education for leisure would give people room to be people and free up their creativity and goodness.

The young Trinidadian belonged to political groups and trade unions as naturally as he belonged to artistic and cultural expression. He was an executive member of the Federated Workers Union led by Quintin O’Connor, a founding member of the Marxist Group the Workers Freedom Movement , and co-founder in 1952 with John Rojas, Quintin O’Connor and Lennox Pierre of the West Indian Independence Party. John La Rose won the ultimate recognition of being ahead of his time. He was rejected by an electorate controlled by the authorities and the powers that be, losing his deposit in the General Election of 1956 for the seat in Arima. CLR James and Lloyd Best would receive the same accolade

I claim him now for Trinidad and Tobago and the UTT because when you look at his whole career and especially the enabling spirit called New Beacon Books, you realise he was made in Trinidad and Tobago. He called his enterprise New Beacon Books because he wanted to affirm its continuity with the radical tradition, the marriage of art and politics, and the commitment to the anti-colonial struggle of James, Mendes and Albert Gomes who had shaken up Trinidad with their magazine called The Beacon in the late 1920s.

In a short moving essay about the Arima of his childhood and the Arima in his mind, we feel La Rose’s bond with the place, his exposure to the high and the low, the First Peoples and the late Asiatics, his absorption of green forest and Savannah, the Calvary hill of Lenten penance, the ghosts in the land under his feet; in short he writes in this piece about the formation of a sensibility that would carry all the natives and the native places of his person, the eyelets of truth within that would condition his spreading vision.

Chancellor, permit me to dedicate to the graduating class of 2006, ‘The Will’ of John La Rose from his collection of poems Foundations:

 

This is your inheritance

The sun, the sea, the air,

The land to feed all,

The house to cover all,

The school to teach all,

The factory for all to work:

These I bequeath to you .

 

If all is not yet won,

The day will come,

And you, my sons,

Will shed your sweat;

What we now have

Guard it well

Till the day comes

 

“What we now have, Guard it well”. Chancellor I request you, by the authority invested in you by the Board of Governors of the University of Trinidad and Tobago, to confer upon John Anthony La Rose, the Degree of Doctor of Letters honoris causa.

© Kenneth Ramchand November 2006, Trinidad & Tobago