PNM marks 70 years since founding

Po­lit­i­cal Leader of the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment, Pen­ne­lope Beck­les, has paid trib­ute to the par­ty’s 70th an­niver­sary, mark­ing the pub­lic adop­tion of the Peo­ple’s Char­ter on Jan­u­ary 24, 1956.

In a me­dia state­ment is­sued to­day, Beck­les said the an­niver­sary ho­n­oured “the lega­cy of a move­ment that shaped a na­tion,” and re­flect­ed on the PNM’s role in na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment since its for­ma­tion.

She said the Peo­ple’s Char­ter laid “a bold and vi­sion­ary frame­work for self gov­ern­ment, po­lit­i­cal ed­u­ca­tion, eco­nom­ic de­vel­op­ment, hous­ing, ed­u­ca­tion, so­cial ser­vices, so­cial equal­i­ty, and na­tion­al uni­ty be­yond race and class.”

Beck­les said the PNM emerged from that mo­ment as Trinidad and To­ba­go’s first ma­jor po­lit­i­cal par­ty with a con­tin­u­ous or­gan­i­sa­tion and a clear na­tion­al pro­gramme, com­mit­ted to build­ing “a stronger, fair­er, and more unit­ed na­tion.”

She traced the par­ty’s lead­er­ship his­to­ry, be­gin­ning with Dr Er­ic Williams, whom she de­scribed as chart­ing the road for­ward for the Move­ment and lead­ing the coun­try in­to in­de­pen­dence.

Beck­les re­called that George Cham­bers was of­fi­cial­ly elect­ed Po­lit­i­cal Leader on May 9, 1981, af­ter as­sum­ing of­fice as Prime Min­is­ter on March 30, 1981.

She said Patrick Man­ning be­came Po­lit­i­cal Leader in Jan­u­ary 1987, af­ter serv­ing as Leader of the Op­po­si­tion from De­cem­ber 19, 1986, and went on to shape what she de­scribed as a defin­ing era of lead­er­ship and na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment.

Beck­les al­so ref­er­enced for­mer Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley, who be­came Leader of the Op­po­si­tion in May 2010 fol­low­ing the par­ty’s de­feat in the gen­er­al elec­tion and was con­firmed as Po­lit­i­cal Leader on June 16, 2010. She said he served as Po­lit­i­cal Leader un­til April 30, 2025, lead­ing the par­ty and coun­try “with strength and re­solve.”

Beck­les said she be­came the PNM’s fifth Po­lit­i­cal Leader on June 22, 2025, on the eve of the par­ty’s 70th an­niver­sary, and the first woman to hold the po­si­tion.

She said she was al­so the third Po­lit­i­cal Leader elect­ed fol­low­ing an elec­tion de­feat, a re­spon­si­bil­i­ty she ac­cept­ed “with hu­mil­i­ty, re­solve, and an un­wa­ver­ing com­mit­ment to the Move­ment.”

Beck­les said she re­mained ful­ly com­mit­ted to the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment and ready to chart “a strong, unit­ed, and pur­pose­ful way for­ward” as the par­ty marked 70 years of ser­vice.