MY initial reaction on hearing comments made by former nightclub owner turned tourism activist Tony Brannon in which he alleged the Bermudian hospitality industry began its precipitous decline because of the sullen mood of black Bermudians egged on by the Bermuda Industrial Union during the 1981 General Strike was one of outrage.

But that outrage was not in fact based on any racial connotations that could easily be read into Mr. Brannon?s remarks. Rather my thoughts went back to the days when I first entered the Bermudian workforce in the 1960s as an employee of Bermuda?s much vaunted tourism industry.

I remembered all of my fellow black Bermudians who helped to teach me the tourism industry ropes ? who familiarised me with the Bermudian way of doing the tourism business, a way that had in fact won Bermuda a world wide reputation for hospitality, courtesy and second-to-none service. To me, far more damaging than any racial slights contained in Tony Brannon?s ill-considered comments, were the slurs and grievous insults he aimed at that generation of Bermudians who helped to build a world-beating tourism industry, some of whom became my close friends and many of whom are no longer with us and therefore cannot counter these ugly stereotypes.

The fact is it was rank-and-file Bermudians like my former colleagues who carried Bermuda?s internationally renowned tourist industry on their backs. Tony Brannon?s remarks dismissed all of their hard work and effort, effectively negating the role the black Bermudian community played in creating the entire concept of the modern luxury resort.

In fact, if the truth of the matter was recognised by people like Mr. Brannon, they would realise it was the congeniality of black Bermudians ? their natural hospitality ? that was pivotal in establishing Bermuda?s reputation as a welcoming and safe tourist destination in the first. And remember, we did this at the height of officially sanctioned segregation ? which reached its zenith in Bermuda between the late 1920s and late 1950s, when the local Powers That Be stupidly decided they needed to pander to the prejudices of the relatively tiny percentage of wealthy, segregation-minded Americans we drew from the Southern States.

Black Bermudians not only cheerfully taught younger Bermudians the Bermudian way of tourism but also the foreign workers who came to the island to work in the tourism industry during the glory days of our hospitality industry. Even today we hear much about the proficiency and skill of the Europeans who came here to work in the hotels and restaurants during the early days of the tourism industry but most would probably admit they learned from their Bermudian colleagues ? Bermudians who brought something special to the industry and the handling of individual visitors, something that grew out of our culture and which was predicated on viewing all vacationers as guests in our island home, guests who were to be treated with respect underlined by good manners. Some people are saying that as a community we are now losing that bred-in-the-bone Bermudian courtesy but as long as my generation still has any influence over Bermuda?s social mores, this gentility will never completely vanish.

Tony Brannon has now apologised for his false allegations but in the eyes of many Bermudians his rings hollow. For despite his hasty public retreat from his untenable position about the black Bermudian contribution to tourism, Tony Brannon still maintains that the Bermuda Industrial Union is solely responsible for the dramatic decline of tourism that followed on from the ?81 General Strike.

I sensed this is where he was going when I first heard his remarks ? another attempt to demonise the BIU for a strike that effectively closed down the island. And I suspect there are still some in certain quarters who tacitly agree with Mr. Brannon?s judgement that the BIU bears sole responsibility for what became a mass labour stoppage ? although that support is likely to remain unspoken given the angry and fully justified reaction to what amounts to his broad-brush attack on the entire black Bermudian community.

Tony Brannon would like the BIU to admit its supposed culpability in the collapse of the Bermudian tourism industry which followed on from the ?81 labour strife. But as a witness to ? and participant in ? that watershed struggle I don?t intend to let Mr. Brannon or anyone else attempt to pass off a revisionist view of those momentous times to my fellow Bermudians, particularly those who may have been born after those events took place.

One of these days there will emerge a generation of Bermudians who will study their country?s history with a view to getting at the true story of all that has taken place during the 400 years this island has been settled. That is why I continue to write ? and to write passionately ? about events I am familiar with, to do my bit to present the other side of the story, the parts that are either glossed over or omitted from the history books.

Yes, it is true that in 1981 ? as a result of widespread labour strife ? Bermuda?s tourist trade came to a complete (but temporary) halt. But this is what happens in wars ? the innocent are sometimes hurt and a country?s infrastructure can be devastated in the heat of battle.

And make no mistake about it, the tumultuous events of 1981 represented the last battle in an on-again, off-again war that had been waged for almost 30 years against organised labour in this country. There had been a longstanding struggle between the workers of this country and the then United Bermuda Party Government, a Government determined to weaken and ultimately bring to heel the labour movement and its spearhead, the Bermuda Industrial Union.

Who can deny this is what Bermuda experienced throughout the 1960s and ?70s? There were a series of skirmishes between the merchant-dominated UBP and the largely black Bermuda labour movement, with the BIU determined to ensure Bermudian workers in the tourism-driven economy were rewarded with a fairer share of the profits they were instrumental in creating.

For years attempts were made by the UBP and its allies in business to deny the legitimacy of the labour movement and the trade unions in this country. Repeated attempts were made to characterise the labour struggle ? and the BIU in particular ? as unnatural developments in the Bermudian socio-economic context despite the fact they were created and supported by Bermudians.

The truth is that the BIU ? just as was the case with the Progressive Labour Party ? grew out of the Civil Rights struggle launched by black Bermudians in the immediate post-World War Two period. But because the Powers That Be refused to recognise the natural social evolution that was taking place in Bermuda at the time ? refusing to countenance that both an organised labour movement and an Opposition faction in Parliament were healthy, natural and necessary counter-balances in an emerging democratic society ? the growth of these two entities did not come about without attendant social upheavals. These upheavals were particularly marked in the case of the labour movement and the development of the BIU in particular.

As regards the events of 1981, it would be useful to ask yourself who actually started the conflict which culminated in a General Strike? If you had a Government leader publicly declaring ? week in, week out ? that the BIU was its main adversary, wouldn?t you come to the conclusion he was setting the stage for open warfare? If you had a Government that included among its members a reactionary clique who dreamed of fatally weakening the strongest union on the island, the BIU, then you can anticipate what ensued. In fact, this cabal of unreconstructed right-wingers exercised the sort of influence over then Premier David Gibbons that the Neo-Conservatives once had over George W. Bush ? and the results were equally catastrophic. Just as the Neo-Cons led Bush to believe he could successfully wage war in Iraq and transform that society overnight, so those egging David Gibbons on dreamed the BIU could be mortally wounded in a head-to-head confrontation. The Bermudian hardliners anticipated those in the UK who encouraged Margaret Thatcher to neuter the miners unions, those in America who urged Ronald Reagan to embark on a take-no-prisoners campaign against unionised air traffic controllers.

Faced with this kind of threat to its continued existence by a hostile Government, what do you think the BIU membership would do to defend its union and the very concept of workers? rights in Bermuda? We fought the union-busting designs of the UBP Government. We fought the UBP Government by going on strike; we fought the UBP Government on the picket lines, we fought it with our protest marches and with our pens. Yes, during the 1981 struggle Bermuda?s tourist industry did come to a complete stop ? and many people suffered as a result. Many tourist industry workers manned picket lines for as long as a month, losing their pay for that period. But we did it in defence of our union and the Bermudian working man ? and many of us agree that this was a price worth paying.

The events of that tumultuous period are all documented in the newspaper archives and in two books on the subject ? Ira Philip?s and a second volume on the ?81 labour stoppage written by myself and Sister Leleath Bailey titled .