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Vol. 32, Issue 50 QUEENS/LONG ISLAND/BRONX/MANHATTAN December 10-16, 2021
JAMAICA
WANTS
TO GO
REPUBLIC
Nationals want to make major
changes to country’s constitution
By Bert Wilkinson
Between the remaining weeks
of this year and 2022 two of
CARICOM’s most influential
countries would have celebrated
major independence milestones,
giving them the opportunity to
make major changes to their
constitutions, including parting
ways with the British monarch
as their head of state and transitioning
to a republic.
One of them —Barbados —
last week twinned 55 anniversary
independence celebrations
with ceremonies that replaced
Queen Elizabeth as the island’s
head of state and installed Governor
General Sandra Mason as
the country’s first native president.
The other — Jamaica — clearly
stung awake by the ease with
which Barbados made the transition,
is now in a mad scramble
to ensure that the opportunity
of 60th independence anniversary
celebrations next August
should not pass without Jamaica
becoming a republic alongside
Guyana, Trinidad, Dominica and
now Barbados.
Leading the charge is elder
Jamaica and CARICOM statesman,
Percival James Patterson.
At 86 years, the former prime
minister appears to be in a hell of
a hurry to make one last major
contribution to Jamaica and he
has offered himself both as the
man who could bring the Labor
(JLP) and National Party (PNP)
together to complete the break
from its British colonial past and
also the one who wants to be the
loudest bell ringer for change.
Patterson in recent days wrote
both of the major parties urging
them to take advantage of the
euphoria that might be associated
with diamond jubilee celebrations
to make the move arguing
that the time is long past for the
country to be represented by a
head of state that is not native to
the island.
“It is repulsive to contemplate
Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) spoke at a Build Back Better rally near the Capitol, where
activists from the Center for Popular Democracy network, including groups like CASA,
New York Communities for Change and Make the Road, urging the Senate to pass the
bill with a pathway to citizenship before the holidays on Tuesday, Dec. 07, 2021 in Washington.
Joy Asico/AP Images for Center for Popular Democracy
Immigration activists arrested at Capitol rally
By Nelson A. King
The New York Immigration
Coalition (NYIC), an umbrella
policy and advocacy organization
for more than 200 groups
in New York State, says over
1, 000 activists and multiple
members of Congress rallied
on Tuesday near the Capitol to
call on the Senate to pass the
Build Back Better bill before
the holidays, as promised by
Democratic leadership.
Representatives Ayanna
Pressley, Rashida Tlaib, Jan
Schakowsky, and Lou Correa
spoke at the rally before 40
protestors occupied and were
arrested in an act of nonviolent
civil disobedience, NYIC
said.
“Democratic leadership in
both the Senate and House
have committed to delivering
a robust investment in human
infrastructure through the
Build Back Better bill by the
holidays,” it said. “The activists
called on the Senate to
‘Bring it Home for the Holidays’
by passing a Build Back
Better bill that contains the
full investment that working
people deserve.”
According to NYIC, activists
specifically called for: Good
care jobs; access to child care
and universal pre-K; paid family
leave; citizenship; green
infrastructure; healthcare for
all; and affordable housing.
“We came to our nation’s
capital to remind Senate
Majority Leader (Chuck)
Schumer of his promise to
deliver a pathway to citizenship,“
said Murad Awawdeh,
NYIC’s executive director and
FIRM Action co-chair.
“It’s time that the Majority
Leader remember that he, not
an unelected bureaucrat, has
the power and responsibility
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