On the occasion of Trinidad and Tobago’s 64th anniversary of national independence, incumbent Prime Minister and United National Congress (UNC) political leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar delivered a stark, impassioned address to party members via social media, laying out uncompromising standards for the movement’s future leadership and reflecting on the party’s working-class origins.
Persad-Bissessar opened her message by emphasizing that UNC’s top leadership must never be held by individuals lacking resolve. She argued that while diplomatic tact and nuanced negotiation are core political skills, these approaches must be reinforced by unyielding toughness when it comes to protecting the party’s identity and regulating its membership. She warned explicitly against the threat of institutional takeover, claiming the rival People’s National Movement (PNM) had already fallen victim to infiltration by local drug trafficking networks and corrupt, self-serving political elites – a fate she said the UNC must avoid at all costs.
Beyond a political organization, Persad-Bissessar framed the UNC as a foundational belief system rooted in the values of resistance, equal rights, social justice, collective unity, and persistent hope. These ideals, she noted, draw their strength from the experiences of the party’s earliest working-class and marginalized ancestors, who never abandoned their struggle for dignity despite systemic disadvantage.
Looking beyond political strategy, the Prime Minister urged UNC members to center communal love as the foundation of collective success, urging supporters to avoid resentment and instead open their hearts to lift up communities around them. But she paired this call for empathy with a hardline stance on self-respect, stating that members should never beg or compromise their core values for political favor: “It’s either peace or total war, nothing in between,” she asserted.
Persad-Bissessar used her address to honor the generations of working Trinbagonians that built the UNC from its earliest days. She recounted the harsh struggles of the party’s founding base: many lived in deep poverty, surviving on simple meals of salt and rice, drawing drinking water from natural ponds and springs, and often skipping meals to put their children through informal classes held in cowsheds and church annexes. Before widespread public services were available, these early supporters walked or cycled miles for any government access, used hand-made flambeaus for light, and lacked access to basic healthcare. Persad-Bissessar claimed that for decades after 1962 independence under PNM rule, these marginalized community members faced widespread ridicule and discrimination across the country.
Despite these systemic barriers, she noted, generations of UNC-aligned families fought to educate their children, carving out a space for equal citizenship in Trinidad and Tobago. Looking forward, she called on current party members to continue this legacy of progress, urging continuous learning, economic ambition, and upward mobility. She pushed young Trinbagonians to pursue entrepreneurship and asset ownership rather than settling for wage labor or reliance on state social support.
Closing her address, Persad-Bissessar reaffirmed her gratitude for the opportunity to lead both the party and the nation, pledging to work tirelessly to amplify the voices of UNC supporters and keep the country on a path toward equitable progress, ending with a public declaration of lifelong affection for the UNC membership.