Party Workers' Liberation Front 30th of May

The Party Workers' Liberation Front 30th of May ("Partido Frente Obrero Liberashon 30 Di Mei") is a populist political party in Curaçao, the Netherlands Antilles. At the legislative elections in the Netherlands Antilles, 18 January 2002, the party won 23.0% of the popular vote and 5 out of 22 seats. At the elections of 27 January 2006, it won only 2 out of 22 seats.

History

The original Frente Obrero Liberashon (FOL) was founded by Wilson Godett, Amador Nita and other crucial figures of the May Movement in 1969. The May Movement was civil unrest fueled by poor labour conditions for working-class Curaçaoans. The Movement culminated on May 30th 1969 when a demonstration on May 30th 1969 turned into a riot that burned down buildings in the Otrabanda district of Willemstad. Wilson Godett was sentenced to four months in jail on the charge of sedition, based on allegations that he incited the May 30th riots. The May Movement was followed by social change in Curaçao, leading to the first ever black governor of the Netherlands Antilles, Ben Leito and the first Prime Minister Ernesto Petronia (Anderson and Dynes 1975). Doors opened for black working-class Curaçaoans in higher education and managerial posts in the private and public sector. In the 1970 the original FOL split up and the New Antilles Movement party was born, headed by black Curaçaoan intellectual Dominico Martina who would later on serve two terms as Prime Minister of the Netherlands Antilles.

The FOL party became substantially different in the 1990s. After Wilson Godett stepped down and was replaced by Anthony Godett and the senior party leadership retired, FOL was transformed from a socialist party into a veritable populist political machine. FOL won the elections in the early 2000s largely because of widespread discontent with the IMF-backed structural adjustment programs implemented by the PAR during the 1990s. Around the same time, investigations by the local authorities exposed Anthony Godett, Ben Komproe, Nelson Monte and other FOL members as being part of a political corruption ring. Anthony Godett was sentenced in 2003 alongside several other FOL members for fraud, embezzlement and accepting bribery. This conviction has fueled some cricism of "class justice"; members of other local parties were also allegedly guilty of similar crimes but were not persecuted. As Anthony Godett's criminal convictions precluded him prom taking public office, he pushed his sister Myrna Louisa Godett forward as prime minister after an election victory for FOL in 2002. Myrna Louisa Godett, who had hitherto been a minor administrative assistant at the SELIKOR waste disposal company, was considered to be a puppet of Anthony Godett by many in the Netherlands Antilles and elsewhere. Her stint as Prime Minister was brief and she stepped down in 2004. Because of these political scandals, FOL quickly fell out of favor among the voters in Curaçao.

References

William A. Anderson and Russell R. Dynes, Social Movements, Violence, and Change: The May Movement in Curaçao. (Columbus, OH: The Ohio State University Press, 1975)

External links

* [http://www.frenteobrero.com/ Official web site]