Member talks violence at launch of political party

Members of the National Liberation Movement (NLM), a new political party launched last month, had to scold a member at their head table for using gun talk.

“Doris…my natural instinct is to take up a gun and kill all the leaders…” Gregory “Shaka” Edwards said at the official launch of the party at top Questelles on December 16, 2024.

At the time Edwards made the comment, he was sitting with three members of the NLM. Leader, Dr. Doris Charles-Frederick; Elton James; and Newton George.

Dr. Charles-Frederick and George responded in unison, telling Edwards he should not have made the comment.

Dr. Charles-Frederick pointed out that the party is not about violence, it is calling for a bloodless revolution.

“We are calling for a revolution in our mindset,” she said, while adding, “we should not listen to him…we don’t want no bloodshed.”

George responded, “No…we will take them down differently…sometimes you may be tempted to do that, I know the feelings too because I was trained that way too…”.

Edwards added that he was born to lead, but he prefers to remain in the background because when he sees certain things, he knows that his reaction would not change anything.

Adding to the discussion, George pointed out that in Grenada, Maurice Bishop had a bloodless revolution. He also said that in St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), there are “nice” policemen, but alleged that there are law enforcement officers who are taking bribes.

Edwards also noted that there was a bloodless coup in Burkina Faso, “but after that, they had to shed blood because people kept attacking the revolution”.

Responding further, George said, “we in St Vincent, we have a different mindset eh. We have a total different mindset”.

“That guy who in authority, he initiated us into bloodless revolution you know. Him, the one dey, you remember he talk about Marxism. Marxism say victory by the bullet or by the ballot. If you can’t get it by the ballot, you get it by the bullet and that is why he block the road you know….

“That is why we had the block road revolution, come on…. he can’t do that now because at that time he had 90 per cent of the police with him. Now, I don’t think he have a good 30 percent because people who suppose to get promotion, he not giving them so them guys not stupid.”

Edwards said while he was not inciting violence, he is of the opinion that people in “position” should “stop taking the nation for granted, remarking that in 1935 nobody expected an uprising against Italy.

“… people must stop, because once you keep taking our people for granted, you setting up a bloodbath, stop take the people for granted.”

Charles-Frederick interjecting again said, “I urge us not to think about shedding blood”, to which Edwards replied, “…no, no, we can’t think about that…”.

Charles-Frederick stressed, “bloodless revolution, a revolution of the changed mind.”

The outspoken Rastafarian also said that agriculture should be used to help move people out of poverty, and critical thinking is needed for people to learn how to avoid handouts.

He said there are a lot of “bad” youths in prison but one must ask, “is who bad them?”.

The link of the NLM launch, which was broadcast live, has since been removed.

SEARCHLIGHT has been reliably informed that this was done because of the remarks made by Edwards.