By Chantalé Fletcher
IT all started 66 years ago, the night of January 24, 1956 at the University of Woodford Square around 8 pm.
One speech and several thousands gathered to listen to the People’s Charter, given by the late founding father of the People’s National Movement (PNM) Dr Eric Eustace Williams, who paved the way to its existence today.
The audience was taken by storm.
This was stated in a release on Monday by the PNM.
Before, the event, January 15, 1956, marked the convening of thousands to the inaugural conference of the PNM which approved the People’s Charter, the name given to the fundamental principles.
At that time, the people stated, “We are not another of the transitory and artificial combinations to which you have grown accustomed in election years, or another bandwagon of dissident and disappointed politicians each out merely to get a seat in the Legislature.
“We stand or fall by our programme – a comprehensive social security programme for the general welfare of all the people of Trinidad and Tobago and their families. Nor are we an ordinary party in the accepted narrow sense of the word.
“We are rather a rally, a convention of all and for all, a mobilisation of all the forces in the community, cutting across race and religion, class and colour, with emphasis on united action by all the people in the common cause.”
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