2013 july 23 tribute to teddy belgrave david abdulah

For all his adult life Teddy Belgrave committed himself to those who do not count. He was adamant that the system had to be changed so that each and every citizen could live a decent human existence. Teddy hated injustice and people being treated unfairly and disrespected. He was passionate about this and always expressed these views openly and strongly. But he was never an armchair critic. He sought to take action, to change things: to right the wrongs.

Thus it was not surprising that as a young student at the Sir George Williams University (now called Concordia University) in Montreal, Teddy became active in radical politics. He was part of the students group that organised the historic Black Writers’ Conference in Montreal in 1968 at which Walter Rodney, Stokely Carmichael, CLR James were but some of the keynote speakers. It was the banning of Rodney’s return to UWI, Mona by the Jamaican government that sparked widespread protests in that island.

Teddy was one of the student leaders who occupied a campus building in protest against the racism of a lecturer, which conflict escalated into the infamous burning of the Computer Centre and the subsequent arrest and trial of many West Indian students, Teddy and his wife Valerie amongst them.

The Sir George Williams affair precipitated protests by students and progressive trade union and other activists in Trinidad and Tobago against Canadian owned banks on February 26th, 1970. The protests developed into one of the most powerful mass movements in this country’s history.

On his return to Trinidad and Tobago, Teddy got active in the National Joint Action Committee but in early 1971 Teddy, Russell Andalcio and others broke with NJAC as they were of the view that the ideology of “black power” or, as it would have been described then “cultural nationalism” limited the possibilities of bringing about fundamental change.

In Montreal Teddy, Val and others were exposed to other ideas of radical politics and he brought this to the task of change in the interest of those who do not count. Around him were young activists – both on and off the UWI St. Augustine campus – and we read all the classical works of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Mao, Fanon, Che. But Teddy was never dogmatic in his thinking.

Thus it was that we also read and held in high esteem the far less heralded Amilcar Cabral. I never forget the exchange that some of us had with Trevor Munroe in the birdong panyard on campus. Trevor, then being seen as a