HISTORY

1969-1983: The Seed is Planted

Our story begins in one of the more exciting periods of recent Belizean history when few of our present members were around. It was the late 1960's, and Belize, its independence still delayed by the Guatemalan claim, had settled comfortably into evolving its two-party political system based on the British model. But this calm was briefly shaken between 1968 and 1971 by an explosion of alternative political movements. The catalysts were young Belizeans who had returned from studying in North America, Europe and the Caribbean where they had been imbued with the politics of the civil rights and anti-war movements. The People's Action Committee (PAC), a political action group, and the United Black Association for Development, (UBAD) a black power movement, sprang to life. It was in this ferment of alternative political activity that SPEAR was conceived and given birth.

The founders and first members who registered the organization on May 16 in 1969 were Assad Shoman, Evan X Hyde, Said Musa, Mac Alamilla, Everal Waight, Charles X Eagan, Abdullah (Justice) Ibrahim, Lionel Delvalle and Ray Fuller. At the time, these nine men envisioned SPEAR as the think-tank, public education and research-oriented wing of the alternative movement. SPEAR's first objectives, as listed in the Memorandum of Association were, to "promote the involvement of those who have been fortunate in receiving higher education with the less privileged in seeking to raise national consciousness ... and … to encourage free thought and discussion and research into our social, economic, judicial and national life."

In these early years and up to 1987, SPEAR operated as a voluntary organization with members doing the necessary work. We sponsored public discussions and organized seminars on social issues, and operated a bookstore of alternative literature, first in Belize City and then in Orange Walk Town. Eddie Salas was the bookstore manager. Up to 1984, there were periods of little activity and there were times when some may have thought that SPEAR had withered away. This was not to be.

 

 

NEXT PAGE