

































Democratic Socialism a Solution to Colonial Tourism Structures

Kennedy-Jude Providence
University of Toronto
FAS Biology and Health and Disease/Caribbean Studies

The Caribbean’s environmental diversity and 
tourism products have been a longstanding source 
of income leading many to argue that the detriments 
of tourism outweigh its beneficial, economic 
effects. However, as the COVID-19 pandemic 
changed the course of travel- and by extension, 
tourism, countries have been forced to re-evaluate 
travel structures, means of income and longstanding 
Clientelist relationships with their North American 
neighbours. In this commentary, I discuss the socio- 
economic effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on 
tourism- in the context of Jamaica; as well as the 
possibility of  re-engineering Democratic Socialism 
for implementation in the post-pandemic environ-
ment as a way to psychologically decolonize the 
region and alleviate the potentially lingering, 
devastating effects of the pandemic. Furthermore, 
while there are other prevalent issues that threaten 
tourism and have plagued the region for years 
including and not limited to pollution, environmen-
tal degradation, climate change, crime and natural 
disasters, this analysis is simply intended to focus 
on identity, economy and the seemingly never-end-
ing cycle of Western Imperialism threatening West 
Indian identity. 

A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Commentary, 
COVID-19, Continuity and 

Change, Jamaica, Democrat-
ic Socialism, Clientelism

B I O

Kennedy Providence is a 4th year Biology, and Health and Disease double major, also 
pursuing a minor in Caribbean Studies. Having lived and grown up in the beautiful twin 
islands of Trinidad and Tobago, she studied the region’s history and culture all through-
out her pre-tertiary academic career.

© 2021 Kennedy-Jude Providence
Caribbean Studies Students’ Union, Canada - https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/cquilt/

                       This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- ShareAlike 4.0 International License. 
                       To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

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     Link to Instagram Textpost: https://www.instagram.com/p/CKwrFKKMsE1/
     Burleigh, N. (2020, August 4). The Caribbean Dilemma. The New York Times. 
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/04/travel/coronavirus-caribbean-vacations.html. 

       

 

1
2

I first saw the quote “The Caribbean is not 
a Disneyland dumping ground for first 
world entitlement”   in a February 1, 2021 
Instagram post explaining inter alia that, 
despite the ongoing catastrophic 
COVID-19 pandemic, Western Hemi-
spheric tourists, celebrities, and high-pro-
file individuals continued to venture to the 
Caribbean as it posed a ‘safer threat’ and 
was a ‘blissful escape’ from the tragedy 
and rigid safety restrictions and lockdowns 
then imposed within continental countries. 
If one were to peep outside of the destina-
tion resort however, it would be revealed 
that this fantastical sea, sand, sun as 
advertised did not avail itself to the 
majority of the islands’ local work-
ing-class population except of course, as 
staff. This is representative of the Caribbe-
an region’s residual neo-colonization and 
dependency on Western wealth, welfare 
and Clientelism. 

In this commentary, open to be disproven 
or modified by empirical data and statis-
tics, I discuss the socio- economic effect 
of the COVID-19 pandemic on tourism as 
well as the possibility of re-engineering 
Democratic Socialism in the post-pandem-
ic environment as a way to psychological-
ly decolonize the region and alleviate the 
lingering, devastating effects of the 
pandemic. This research uses the context 
of Jamaica as a case study as its prior 
Democratic Socialism reforms provide a 
baseline for future iterations and due to its 
current dependence on tourism as a 
primary industry. While the focal point of 
this paper is to consider a re-engineered 
democratic socialist framework as a 
solution to issues in tourism, it 

acknowledges but does not study other 
prevalent issues that threaten tourism and 
have plagued the region for years such as 
pollution, environmental degradation, 
climate change, the illicit war on drugs, 
crime and natural disasters. This analysis 
is simply intended to focus on identity, 
economy and the seemingly never-ending 
cycle of Western Imperialism threatening 
West Indian identity. 

The COVID-19 pandemic rendered the 
world stationary, remote, distanced, 
masked, and isolated: even in illness, even 
in death. In most countries, travel was 
heavily restricted, involving a face cover-
ing, quarantine and a negative result covid 
test upon arrival at a destination. For the 
majority of the world’s populations, the 
idea of travel became a structured privi-
lege, reserved for essential services and 
priority personnel. Despite the risks 
associated with aircraft travel, travel 
agencies, airlines and even some countries 
continued to advertise temptingly cheap 
flights and ‘escape’ deals. The fact is that 
many countries, especially Small Island 
Developing States (SIDS), are dependent 
on international travel and the tourism 
industry accounts for substantial foreign 
income and exchange. Nina Burleigh of 
the New York Times states in a December 
2020 article, “Tourism has always been a 
two-edged sword for the region. It brought 
money for some, but also brought corrup-
tion, environmental degradation and 
unchecked development.”  Having 
observed these trends emerging out of the 
COVID-19 pandemic, Burleigh’s 
“two-edged sword” became more apparent 
to me, as I witnessed SIDS, with varying 

2 

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68

     Cross Mike, Solange. “Effects of COVID-19 on Trinidad and Tobago.” Diplo.edu. Accessed May 4, 2021. h
ttps://www.diplomacy.edu/blog/first-month-covid-trinidad-and-tobago. 
     Better Banking Policies Needed to Blunt COVID-19 Impacts in Latin America and Caribbean.” IADB. Accessed July 
2021. https://www.iadb.org/en/news/better-banking-policies-needed-blunt-covid-19-impacts-latin-america-and-caribbean. 
     D'Souza, S. (2021, February 5). Jamaica warns Canada's Caribbean flight ban will badly hurt island's economy | CBC 
News. CBCnews. https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/canada-travel-ban-covid19-caribbean-jamacia-1.5901495. 
       

 

3

4 

degrees of dependency on tourism battle 
the extensive pros and cons of opening 
their borders to international tourists and 
preventing their economic collapse or 
stagnation. The massive risk of 
island-wide tragedy, and the inability to 
withstand a viral outbreak that would 
further stagger the opening of the tourism 
industry, is a real threat.

It is interesting to note that, even those 
Caribbean states for which economies are 
not solely dependent on tourism, similar 
challenges were faced. For instance, 
“before the crisis, Trinidad and Tobago 
were experiencing an economic downturn 
from the external collapse of commodity 
prices of their main revenue sources 
(natural gas and oil) as tensions between 
Russia and Saudi Arabia contributed to a 
fall in prices…[however], [Trinidad and 
Tobago] will also be hit by the disruption 
of earnings in the tourism sector as this is 
one of the primary sectors in Tobago.”  
Similar challenges were faced in jurisdic-
tions with a joint dependency on tourism 
and banking.

Since the abolition of slavery, and the 
plantocracy, the Caribbean has been stuck 
in a never-ending ‘tug-of-war’ with the 
Western Hemisphere regarding its 
economic autonomy; post-colonial, novel 
modes of capital control and neo-coloniza-
tion were introduced and disguised under 
the pseudonyms of Clientelism and 
Industrialization by Invitation. The 
tourism industry has been heavily fuelled 
by these frameworks, as foreign compa-

companies would permissibly ‘invade’ the 
homes of Caribbean locals with gargantu-
an cruise ships and massive, all-inclusive 
resorts. Oftentimes, the economic benefits 
of these attractions outweighed the detri-
mental effects to the environment and to 
the locals, as a flourishing tourism indus-
try can help combat unemployment, with 
job opportunities and revenue streams of 
foreign exchange. However, the pandemic 
forced SIDS like Jamaica to (temporarily) 
shelve the sea, sand and sun package and 
close international borders, in efforts to 
protect their populations from detrimental 
outcomes caused by the movement of 
people. With little to no international 
tourists, local stay-at-home orders and 
public health regulations, the inevitable 
closure of the public and parts of the 
private sector, left all the people who 
staffed these institutions, jobless and 
dependent on the government for support. 
According to CBC News Canada, Jamaica 
lost approximately $508 million US 
dollars in revenue, last year due to the 
pandemic . Continuing along this train of 
thought, with the government dependent 
on tourism for revenue, the unemployed 
labour force dependent on the government, 
and the pandemic wildly controlling the 
reigns of the economy, parallels arise, that 
mirror Jamaica’s economic state in the 
latter half of the 20th century during 
former Prime Minister Michael Manley’s 
term in office. 

5

3

4 

5

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69

     Brierley, J. S. (1985). A Review of Development Strategies and Programmes of the People's Revolutionary 
Government in Grenada, 1979-83. The Geographical Journal, 151(1), 40. https://doi.org/10.2307/633276 

       

 

6

However, before we consider the condi-
tions that led to Jamaica’s reforms in 
1972-1980, it is important that we discuss 
the effects of ongoing international travel 
on the Caribbean region, and in Jamaica. 
Slavery and the plantocracy were the birth 
of Capitalism, as monetary values were 
placed on Black bodies, stolen land from 
Indigenous peoples and crops grown/ 
harvested. During these genocidal 400 
years, European masters began introduc-
ing the rapid turnover of enslaved servants 
who were considered to be disadvanta-
geous to business or who were compro-
mised by illness, pregnancy or otherwise. 
Most Caribbean societal frameworks were 
built on the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade 
and systems of Colonialism. Most of the 
Caribbean working class are descendant 
populations, so it is not surprising that still 
today, workers are treated extremely 
unfairly and are considered to be expend-
able; a tangible reminder that the world 
has never been truly decolonized. 

Going back to the quote, “The Caribbean 
is not a Disneyland dumping ground for 
first world entitlement,” despite efforts to 
combat the virus from the inside out 
(including and not limited to closing the 
borders temporarily and reducing activity 
within the public and private sectors) the 
aforementioned economic fallout forced 
Jamaica to reconsider operating its Tour-
ism industry – often referred to as the 
panacea for the financial woes of many of 
the region's small islands.

The issue with this, in the context of the 
pandemic and privilege, will be examined. 
Re-opening the tourism sector requires the 

physical attendance of locals who staff 
these institutions, where the attendant risks 
if contracted, and without proper care and 
attention, could be fatal.  For workers of 
the proletariat or working class, lock-
downs and stay-at-home orders are either 
accompanied by lost earnings from staying 
away or increased exposure from attend-
ing to visitor needs – sometimes the 
choice is made for them or non-existent.  
Whatever the perspective, if infection 
occurred workers are quickly replaced 
while families struggle economically and 
emotionally in the aftermath. Most of the 
workers in this sector commute using 
public transport to the “luxury and safety” 
of the resort; thus, adding another level of 
potential risk of cluster infection.

The privileges, protection and entitlement 
provided by wealth, in addition to relevant 
health care and a high quality of life, 
includes freedom to choose, which is 
sometimes at someone else’s detriment. 
The choice to escape the Global North 
despite the most persuasive warnings and 
descend upon the tropics may have to be 
re-thought: “the Caribbean is not a Disne-
yland dumping ground for first world 
entitlement.”

Upon further reflection, I began to imag-
ine a Post-Pandemic Caribbean and ways 
in which this vulnerable period of recov-
ery may be used to its advantage, as so 
many historic figures and revolutionaries 
have done before. Michael Manley intro-
duced Democratic Socialism in Jamaica 
during his elected term in office after a 
period of economic stagnancy plagued the 
island due to Clientelist relationships 

6

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70

     Ambursley, Fitzroy. "Jamaica: The Demise of' Democratic Socialism'." New Left Review 128 (1981): 76.
     Astor, M. (2019, June 12). What Is Democratic Socialism? Whose Version Are We Talking About? The New York 
Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/12/us/politics/democratic-socialism-facts-history.html. 

       

 

  

7

established with the Jamaican Bourgeoisie 
and the United States in the wake of 
independence from British colonial 
oversight and rule. 

To simplify, a Clientelist relationship 
entails the receipt of political support in 
exchange for goods and services. On the 
heels of economic stagnation and a rapid 
decline in productivity following the 
fluctuations in the budding bauxite indus-
try, Manley adopted a Democratic Social-
ist mode of operation to help combat 
Jamaica’s dependency, further liberate the 
newly enfranchised Jamaican people, and 
nationalize the economy. 

Though Manley’s experiment has been 
extensively critiqued and has been deemed 
unsuccessful, Fitzroy Ambursley states in 
a 1981 article that “The ultimate weakness 
of the PNP was its failure to unite and 
mobilize the small peasants, farmworkers, 
urban wage-earners and casual labourers 
who comprise the overwhelming social 
and political majority of Jamaican 
society,”   I propose that if Democratic 
Socialism were to be applied to Jamaica 
and possibly multiple SIDS in the wake of 
the COVID-19 pandemic, these detrimen-
tal effects of foreign-economic and 
industry-specific dependency would be 
alleviated and possibly reduced complete-
ly in the future… broken….  as we aim to 
continue the decolonization of the region. 
Democratic Socialism aims for the work-
ing class to control the economy, and by 
extension- society through democracy; 
“this requires a long-term outlook... [as] 
theirs is a minority position. Their goal is 
to convince a majority, [while] supporting 

many social-democratic policies.”  

In the likeness of Prime Minister Manley, 
if 2021 Jamaica were to adopt a Demo-
cratic Socialist framework after the 
pandemic, it would be timely. One major 
strength of Manley’s experiment was the 
strategic use of the political climate of the 
day in the latter half of the 20th century. 
The atmosphere of the latter half of the 
20th century in comparison to the present 
day was that it was one ripe with various 
individual movements, revolutions and 
attempts at social change. Taking into 
account the pandemic and its associated 
politics, coupled with the re-ignition of the 
worldwide Black Lives Matter Movement 
in 2020, I believe that the Jamaican people 
would be receptive to a form of govern-
ment that promotes equality and the 
nationalization of the private sector 
through a fair, Democratic lens. 

Additionally, the adaption of Democratic 
Socialism would allow the government 
and the local population to have much 
more control over the tourism industry, as 
well as allow for the diversification of the 
economy. The dependency on longstand-
ing Western Hemispheric relationships 
would also be reduced astronomically.

Further, I believe that if Democratic 
Socialism were reintroduced, this frame-
work would also allow for greater man-
agement of the influx of tourists that visit 
the region, now and in future. In this way, 
“the Caribbean tourism industry could 
take this opportunity to differentiate the 
islands, and maybe even put responsibility 

8

8

7

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71

    Burleigh, N. (2020, August 4). The Caribbean Dilemma. The New York Times. 
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/04/travel/coronavirus-caribbean-vacations.html. 
    Mullin, Corinna, and Azadeh Shahshahani. “To Organize in Times of Crisis, We Need to Connect the Dots of Global 
Resistance against Imperialism.” Uneven Earth, 18 Apr. 2020.
       

 

  

9

on travellers to go beyond the resort walls 
or cruise ship all-inclusives and explore 
local food and culture.”  The COVID-19 
pandemic has transformed the travel 
industry… its full effect on the future is 
left to be seen but travel may become 
more selective and restricted, available to 
only those who possess the necessary 
privilege and entitlement. With a Demo-
cratic Socialist government and the 
reduction of dependent, foreign, economic 
relationships, coupled with selective 
travel- SIDS could rebrand the tourism 
industry to showcase more than sea, sand 
and sun, and cultivate a more appreciative 
tourist who is better integrated, with a 
more relevant and targeted tourism 
package of attractions, supporting the local 
economy.

Lastly, in the event of likely future US 
intervention, though it is difficult to 
propose a strategy to avoid future interfer-
ence from the West, especially since this 
commentary, is open to be disproven or 
modified by empirical data and statistics, 
we can continue to use the vulnerable 
political atmosphere of the post-pandemic 
world to our advantage, and attempt to 
establish greater local and regional control 
of resources in the public and private 
sector. 

As I close, “true liberation and surviv-
al—depends upon centring the needs, 
struggles and collective leadership of the 
most vulnerable among us.”  Looking to 
the post-pandemic future, in order to apply 
the suggested policies of social change 
offered by Democratic Socialism, it would 

be imperative that the needs and pleas of 
the working class, the lower class and 
those that comprise 99% of the population 
are placed at the forefront of government 
policies. Learning from the shortcomings 
of Manley, the active prioritization of the 
lower and working classes could increase 
the chances of success in the experiment. 

The pandemic is still raging and waging 
war on humanity, with unparalleled losses 
of life, loved ones and property. The 
forecast is grim in the aftermath, still not 
yet fully assessed; but the possibility of 
re-introducing a Democratic Socialist 
government to Jamaica and possibly to 
various other SIDS may provide the 
chance for true self-governance preserving 
the best of both political frameworks. The 
Caribbean’s narrative must be re-written 
and this period where the world is on its 
knees, is an opportunity to look back, look 
within and look forward and re-define our 
space, who enters it, terms of entry and the 
value of the resources within – human, 
natural and financial. I submit that a 
Democratic Socialist government will 
offer that option and give the Caribbean a 
fighting chance to dispel and reverse the 
perception or reality of being a dumping 
ground.

10

9

10

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Cross Mike, Solange. “Effects of COVID-19 on Trinidad and Tobago.” Diplo.edu. 
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         trinidad-and-tobago.
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         People's Revolutionary Government in Grenada, 1979-83. The Geographical 
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Ambursley, Fitzroy. "Jamaica: The Demise of' Democratic Socialism'." New Left 
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         Talking About? The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/12/
         us/politics/democratic-socialism-facts-history.html. 
Mullin, Corinna, and Azadeh Shahshahani. “To Organize in Times of Crisis, We Need 
         to Connect the Dots of Global Resistance against Imperialism.” Uneven Earth, 
         18 Apr. 2020.
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