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BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS — January 2, 2026 — In a declaration loaded with history, emotion, and long-delayed justice, has proclaimed that “the martyrs of the Buckley’s Uprising can now rest in peace,” following the Government’s decision to enshrine January 28 as a national holiday commemorating the watershed labour rebellion of 1935.

Blanchette’s statement, issued in a public post Monday, frames the announcement as both a moral reckoning and a national awakening—one that finally restores the Buckley’s Uprising to its rightful place in the Federation’s collective memory after decades of advocacy, silence, and neglect.

He credited the decision squarely to the leadership of , saying the Prime Minister and Cabinet have taken a decisive step that will compel “the Caribbean and the rest of the world to acknowledge the rightful place of our courageous heroes and sheroes in the fight against slavery and colonialism.”

A STRIKE THAT SHOOK EMPIRE

The Buckley’s Uprising erupted in January 1935 when sugar estate workers across St. Kitts launched an island-wide strike against poverty wages and grinding exploitation. The colonial response was brutal. After the Riot Act was read, police opened fire. Three workers were killed. Eight were injured.

The shockwaves did not stop at Basseterre. The uprising ignited labour resistance across the British Caribbean, forcing London to confront the region’s appalling living conditions. A Royal Commission was dispatched, and the modern Caribbean labour movement took shape in the blood and sacrifice of working people.

Blanchette placed the moment within a wider arc of national struggle, reminding citizens that the Federation’s progress rests on generations of resistance—from enslaved Africans who rebelled, to political giants who built institutions, to workers who refused to accept injustice as fate.

VOICES LONG IGNORED

For years, Blanchette said, calls to honour the fallen were met with indifference. He named the Rastafari community, the Nyabinghi Theocracy Order, the late Sir Probyn Inniss, Earle Clarke, and himself among those who persisted—often unheard—in demanding national recognition for the martyrs of Buckley’s.

“Those cries fell on deaf ears,” he wrote. “Nevertheless, hope was not lost.”

That hope, he argued, materialised with the election of Dr. Drew as the nation’s fourth Prime Minister—an inflection point he described as ushering in “bold thinking, political representation and transformation.”

A HOLIDAY THAT REWRITES MEMORY

Ninety-one years after the uprising, the designation of January 28 as a national holiday is, in Blanchette’s words, “a very significant and lasting way” to honour the dead. He described the move as unprecedented in the region—an act of recognition that other Caribbean leaders had failed to deliver.

The impact, he said, will be generational.

“His single act of recognition and remembrance will transform the way that generations of Kittitians and Nevisians view their history and heritage,” Blanchette asserted.

HISTORY, IDENTITY, AND BOLD LEADERSHIP

Blanchette connected the holiday to a broader philosophy of governance, echoing Dr. Drew’s insistence that small size must never limit ambition. From governance and academia to culture and sport, he said, the Federation’s history is rich with excellence—and the Buckley’s holiday anchors that excellence in truth.

He pointed to the administration’s wider agenda—citizen security initiatives, crime-fighting reforms, the ASPIRE programme, economic and health sector reform, and the Sustainable Island State vision—as evidence of what he called “bold transformational leadership.”

“NOW A PART OF OUR NATIONAL PSYCHE”

With January 28 now permanently etched into the calendar, Blanchette concluded that the country has crossed a historic threshold.

“Thanks to Dr. Drew and the foot soldiers who laboured in the vineyard, the 28th day of January is now a significant part of our national psyche,” he said. “The martyrs of the Buckley’s Uprising can now rest in peace.”

For a nation still negotiating its past, the declaration marks more than a holiday. It is an act of remembrance—and a reckoning—long overdue.