Quarterly Jamaica Diaspora & Returnee Update — April to June 2005

Published: 2 July 2005 | Jamaica Homes News

Key Takeaways

• Blair Wins Historic Third Term in UK General Election May 5
• Make Poverty History Campaign Unites Millions Across the Globe
• Live 8 Concerts Draw Two Million People in June
• G8 Gleneagles Summit Approaches: Debt Relief on the Agenda
• London Awaits IOC Verdict on 2012 Olympic Bid
• P.J. Patterson Continues as Jamaica PM Amid Succession Murmur

Introduction: A Quarter of Global Solidarity

The second quarter of 2005 was animated by a remarkable convergence of global solidarity movements centred on poverty, development, and the obligations of wealthy nations to the world’s poor. The Make Poverty History campaign, the Live 8 concerts of June, and the approaching G8 Gleneagles summit of July all positioned the quarter as a moment of unusual political and cultural mobilisation around development issues that were of direct relevance to Caribbean diaspora communities — communities that sent remittances home, supported island economies, and lived daily at the intersection of global wealth and Caribbean need. Tony Blair’s third-term victory on 5 May confirmed the United Kingdom’s political continuity in the period ahead. This update draws on Jamaica Gleaner, Jamaica Observer, Bank of Jamaica, PIOJ, MFAFT, and Caribbean diaspora media through 30 June 2005.

Blair’s Third Term: What It Means for Caribbean-British Communities

Tony Blair’s Labour Party won the UK general election of 5 May 2005 with a reduced but still commanding majority: 356 seats against 198 for the Conservatives and 62 for the Liberal Democrats. The swing against Labour — attributable principally to public anger over the Iraq war, which had produced the largest anti-war demonstration in British history in February 2003 and sustained dissatisfaction with the government’s stated rationale for the invasion — reduced Labour’s majority from 167 in 2001 to 66. But it was, nonetheless, a historic third consecutive victory — the first in the Labour Party’s history and a reflection of Blair’s transformation of Labour’s electoral coalition since 1997.

For British-Jamaican and broader Caribbean-British communities, the May 2005 election result was a continuation of a government whose relationship with minority communities had been shaped by the landmark Macpherson Report of 1999 — which had found the Metropolitan Police institutionally racist in its investigation of Stephen Lawrence’s murder — and by Labour’s implementation of the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000. The concerns that Caribbean-British communities brought to the 2005 election — NHS waiting times, school quality, neighbourhood policing, and employment — were the same domestic priorities that Labour had promised to continue to address in its third term. The shadow of Iraq hung over the government’s political authority, but for diaspora communities whose priorities were primarily domestic and economic, the commitment to public service investment that Labour’s programme represented outweighed the foreign policy discomfort.

David Blunkett’s resignation from the Home Office in December 2004 had removed one of the figures whose approach to immigration and asylum had generated the most friction with minority communities; his successor, Charles Clarke, was navigating a complex portfolio that included both the approaching counter-terrorism legislation and the immigration review that would eventually produce the points-based system. For Caribbean-British communities monitoring both policy streams, the Blair third term’s early months offered watchful continuity rather than clear resolution of the policy questions most directly affecting community life.

Make Poverty History: Diaspora Engagement With a Global Movement

The Make Poverty History campaign of 2005 — which brought together hundreds of NGOs, faith organisations, trade unions, and community groups under a white wristband symbol that became the visible marker of the year’s dominant moral campaign — was the most significant global development advocacy mobilisation since the Jubilee 2000 debt relief campaign. Its three demands — trade justice, debt cancellation, and more and better aid — were framed around the global South’s structural disadvantage in the international economic order. For Jamaica’s diaspora communities, the campaign’s resonance was immediate: Jamaica’s own debt burden — one of the highest per capita in the world — was the fiscal constraint that most directly limited the government’s capacity to deliver the public services and economic conditions that diaspora investment and returnees required.

Caribbean diaspora members in the UK were active participants in the Make Poverty History campaign’s events through the spring of 2005. The campaign’s white wristbands were visible in Caribbean community organisations; its messaging resonated with diaspora communities whose countries were the textbook cases of the debt trap, the commodity price squeeze, and the structural adjustment programmes that Make Poverty History named as the mechanisms of global inequality. The campaign’s strength in the UK reflected both the British public’s post-Jubilee 2000 engagement with global debt relief and the coalition-building capacity of the UK’s civil society organisations — including many Caribbean-heritage organisations that joined the coalition.

Live 8: Music, Politics, and Caribbean Diaspora Culture

The Live 8 concerts of 2 and 6 June 2005 — organised by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure in conjunction with the Make Poverty History campaign and timed to coincide with the approaching G8 Gleneagles summit — drew an estimated two million people to free concerts in Hyde Park (London), Philadelphia, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Barrie (Ontario), Tokyo, and Johannesburg. The London concert, headlined by a reformed Pink Floyd performing together for the first time in twenty-four years, attracted 200,000 to Hyde Park. For Caribbean diaspora communities in London, the Hyde Park event was simultaneously a global solidarity moment and a statement of the place of diaspora communities in the city’s cultural and civic life.

G8 Gleneagles and the London Olympic Bid: A July of Decisions

As this update is published on 2 July 2005, two major decisions are imminent that will shape the quarters ahead. The G8 summit at Gleneagles, Scotland, opens on 6 July and is expected to produce commitments on African debt relief and development aid that the Make Poverty History campaign has been pressing for across the spring and early summer. The Gleneagles commitments on debt cancellation for the world’s poorest countries will be closely scrutinised by Caribbean diaspora communities to assess whether the Caribbean’s own debt crisis will be addressed in any future multilateral framework. Also on 6 July, the International Olympic Committee meets in Singapore to vote on the host city for the 2012 Summer Olympics — with London, Paris, Madrid, New York, and Moscow as the candidate cities. London’s campaign, backed by Blair and a new sporting legacy framework, has generated significant community anticipation. The Olympic bid verdict and the G8 outcomes will shape the opening of Q3 2005 that we will report on from 2 October 2005.

Jamaica: Patterson’s Final Season

P.J. Patterson continued as Jamaica’s prime minister through Q2 2005, but the internal PNP discussion about his succession — which Patterson had indicated he intended to manage before the end of the parliamentary term — was an increasingly present background to Jamaican political life. Diaspora community organisations were tracking the succession question with attention to which PNP leadership contenders would prioritise diaspora engagement and whether the institutional momentum built through the 2004 inaugural Biennial Jamaica Diaspora Conference would be sustained under new leadership. Remittances through Q2 2005 continued to track toward another strong annual total — maintaining the diaspora’s position as one of Jamaica’s most reliable economic assets. We report next from 2 October 2005.

This Quarterly Jamaica Diaspora and Returnee Update is researched and published by Jamaica Homes News. Sources include Jamaica Gleaner, Jamaica Observer, Bank of Jamaica, PIOJ, MFAFT, and PICA. All figures and developments are accurate as of the publication date, 2 July 2005.

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