The Tribune

FORMER Englerston Independent candidate Alex Morley thanked his friends and family for their support during his unsuccessful bid for office during the May 2012 General Election.

Despite his 'very moderate' support received at the polls, Mr Morley said that he has the political maturity to understand that mass movements begin with 'very tiny steps' and can only triumph with sustained struggle.

Mr Morley lost his $400 deposit on May 7 after securing only 19 votes out of the 4,806 persons who cast their ballots.

"Presently, we have a situation in the Bahamas whereby the political parties of the ruling class use everything in their arsenal to seduce the masses and workers into handing over power to them at their own expense.

"This seduction was thoroughly apparent during this election season at 'parties' that masqueraded as political rallies where there was hardly any constructive discussion of how we would concretely improve the living conditions and overall well-being of the masses. All the while, cries from the public for a national debate on the issues went ignored.

"In addition, tradition, and the lack of ongoing political education by a revolutionary political party, voting for ruling class political parties is currently recognized as the only method for achieving change," he said.

Mr Morley said the last election would not change the conditions of the people.

"The economic conditions will continue to deteriorate, with joblessness and the cost of living reflecting the ongoing exploitation of the human and material resources of the people of the Bahamas.

"In light of all this, I recognise that my primary task now is to build the African People's Socialist Party-Bahamas, a section of the African Socialist International, to begin the process of educating the workers and masses to an understanding of their own class interests and organizing the workers to recognition of the necessity of struggling to replace the class in power with themselves as workers, the producers of all the wealth indigenous to the Bahamas.

"Moreover, I am convinced that the Revolutionary National Democratic Programme (RNDP) presented during my campaign is the best starting point for projecting the interests of the workers and the revolutionary national democratic sector of the population of the Bahamas."

The RNDP, he said, puts forth the platforms of Economic Development and Job Creation, Community Control of the Police, widening Citizenship Rights, and ending Imperialist Domination of the Bahamas.

"The working and democratic forces of the Bahamas must come into our own independent organization to make a genuine contest for power in our own hands at the expense of the international corporations and the neocolonialist agents who continue to administer the country and economy for them at our expense," he said.