1968 was a tumultuous, rollercoaster year for politics in the Bahamas. A new political cement was hardening. Realities had sunk in. Alliances had been made, and worse, were already being tested. Soon, some would be irretrievably broken. Two hundred years of unfettered political power had suddenly withered on the vine for some, while accrued financial powers still remained steadfast for the Bay Street merchant class.
(The San Francisco Examiner, Sunday, 21 April 1968)
Calls for a new type of collective Bahamian power were being heralded by the UBP. Black and white were suddenly being asked to find common political ground. These words had never been echoed before in all of the islands’ long history. No one was really listening.
Both political parties, by 1968, were asking for a new type of political solidarity. Each however carried their underlying meaning and intent to different audiences.
The Pindling led PLP government were about to introduce sweeping domestic and immigration changes, focusing on putting Bahamians first in the Bahamas. For this, the PLP knew many bridges would be burnt. Alliances made by the white minority ran UBP government with a myriad of foreign investors, in the Bahamas, were all up for review.
(The San Francisco Examiner, Sunday, 21 April 1968)
The world was watching how and if the UBP could regroup. The world was also watching how and if the PLP could maintain its newly won political power.
1968 was the first political convention for the United Bahamian Party, after its narrow defeat in 1967. The Party was in disarray. Political pundits had already declared the party dead as it predicted the outcome of 1967 general elections. They said the general elections of 1967, only dressed the Party up for its funeral.
1968 was also the first political convention for the Progressive Liberal Party after its historic win in January 1967. By 1968, ‘black power’ as the international media dubbed it, was already being fractured, not from the outside, but from deep within the Party. For new Premier Lynden Pindling, keeping the peace within the PLP Party was proving just as hard, if not harder, than winning the 1967 general elections.
