Charles Fawkes, journalist and businessman, has resurected the old socialist Vanguard Party.
Fawkes, who is also the president of the National Consumer Association will serve as the party’s first secretary.
Originally founded in 1971 as the Vanguard Nationalist and Socialist Party, the party grew out of the youth arm of the Progressive Liberal Party, drawing inspiration from the Black Panther Party in the United States. The party ceased political activities in 1995.
Despite offering candidates in the 1977 and 1979 elections, the original Vanguard Party was unable to win even one seat in parliament.
From 1979 to 1985, the party was led by John T McCartney, an academic and political theorist who is now the department head and associate professor of government and law at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania.
Fawkes intends to bring back the left-leaning party’s old slogan – “Dare to Struggle – Dare to Win” – although the words “socialist and “nationalist” will be dropped.
Over the next six months the party will reorganise its Central Committee, recruit additional supporters and begin publication of the party’s old newspaper, “The Vanguard”.
“In the coming months, the organisation’s philosophy will be further explicated and disseminated to the public as the second edition of the party’s book, The Struggle for Freedom in the Bahamas” will be published. Other officers of the party will also be named and elected from the reorganised general membership and supporters in the immediate future,” said a statement issued by Fawkes.
