By Bryan Khan
Dr. Bryan Khan is a Caribbean Economist, working in the areas of Development Policy, Culture, and Intellectual Property Law
Editor’s Note: Today, Monday June 12, from 2:00 to 4:30 p.m., The Institute of International Relations, in partnership with the Centro de Estudios del Caribe at Casa de las Américas in Havana, Cuba is hosting an online event: “Kari Polanyi Levitt: Celebrating a True Caribbean Woman, ” to celebrate her 100th birthday and her outstanding contribution to Caribbean political economy, activism in the New World Group, and her work at The UWI. To register visit, https://bit.ly/ TrueCaribbeanWoman
June 14 marks the 100th birthday of Professor Kari Polanyi Levitt. Kari is Emerita Professor of Economics at McGill University in Montreal, but more importantly, she is an icon of independent Caribbean thought. She was born in Vienna, Austria in 1923 as the only child of Karl Polanyi – famed Austro-Hungarian economic historian, and Ilona Duczyńska, a Polish-Hungarian revolutionary. Despite her heritage and roots in European social movements, and career in Canada, the Caribbean has always very much been Kari’s intellectual and cultural home.
Kari has written, co-authorised, or edited more than fifteen books – many of which have been translated into other languages or re-published – and has authored over a hundred articles which have been published in various international journals and editions all over the world. Two of her most celebrated works are her 1970 book ‘Silent Surrender: The Multinational Corporation in Canada’, a widely cited criticism of Canadian political economy, and her 2013 collection of essays ‘From the Great Transformation to the Great Financialization’ which builds on the Karl Polanyi tradition of criticising the embedded market-economy.
Since 1974, Kari has served as a visiting professor at the University of the West Indies. During her visits, she would lecture on Caribbean Development issues, comment on the state of the Caribbean economy, and inspire generations of young Caribbean economists. Her work on Caribbean Political Economy was published as ‘Reclaiming Development: Independent Thought and Caribbean Community’ in 2005. This book has become important reading for students of Caribbean Economic Development courses. In terms of her legacy in the region, Kari’s most famous and influential work is the ‘Model of the Plantation Economy’, developed in collaboration with Trinidadian economist Lloyd Best. The essence of this model is that the colonies of exploitation – from which Caribbean states emerged – inherited very specific structural characteristics which persist even after formal political independence. This results in limits to the domestic economy’s ability to develop, and entrenches colonial-era inequalities and external-dependencies. Plantation economy has become not just an explanation of Caribbean economics, but is used as a framework for understanding Caribbean society, political history, and international relations. Still to this day, this model is used as a tool to explain the patterns of extractivism within the Guyanese economy, and its focus on hydrocarbon and mineral production.
Kari has been the recipient of multiple honours by institutions all over the world, including an Honorary Fellowship at The Hungarian Academy of Sciences (2004), the John Kenneth Galbraith Prize from the Progressive Economics Forum (2008), an Honorary Doctorate from the University of the West Indies (2008), the Order of Canada (2014), and the Golden Merit Sign of the State of Vienna (2018). These awards were for her work in international development, as well her contribution to the political economy of the Caribbean. On the occasion of her award in Vienna, the celebratory event at the Austrian National Bank was even titled “A West Indian from Eastern Europe: Development economist Kari Polanyi-Levitt”. Most significantly however, she was awarded the 2020 Hummingbird Medal Gold for her contributions to the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago in the field of Economics and Education, symbolising a formal recognition of her contributions to the region by a Caribbean government.
Kari was part of a group of Caribbean intellectuals called the New World Group, who were concerned with issues of Caribbean development, politics, and international relations. Among the group’s contributors were prominent Guyanese intellectuals Clive Thomas and the late Havelock Brewster. The Group’s vision was to provide a space for unique Caribbean-centred thought, and to enrich social dialogue through rejection of colonial legacies of scholarship and education. After all, Caribbean problems need Caribbean solutions formulated by Caribbean people. The first issue of the Group’s publication – the New World Quarterly – was produced in Georgetown in 1963, after which the publishing base shifted to Mona in Jamaica. In 1966, Special Issues of the Quarterly were produced for Guyana and Barbados on the occasion of Independence, edited by famed Barbadian writer George Lamming. The Guyana Independence Issue contained a series of essays from postcolonial thinkers and artists, including many Guyanese icons and public figures such as Martin Carter, Donald Locke, Jan Carew, Wilson Harris, Edgar Mittelholzer, Miles Fitzpatrick, Denise DeCaires Narain, Walter Rodney, Eusi Kwayana (Sydney King), and even both Cheddi Jagan and Forbes Burnham themselves. According to Kari, discourse around that publication sought to outline “an alternative development plan for Guyana, based on Caribbean experience and institutions.”
Kari has worked in the Caribbean for some six decades, and has often been called upon by Caribbean Governments and regional institutions to advise on economic policy matters, including implementing national accounting systems, management of relationships with international institutions like the IMF, and formulation of economic development strategy. She was particularly sought after for her expertise in ‘Input-Output’ tables, and their use in economic planning. Kari’s writings and lectures on Caribbean Economics have included commentaries on developments in Guyana. As a strong advocate for the Regional Integration movement her writing has often noted the role of Guyana and Barbados in initiating a Free Trade Area of the Caribbean (CARIFTA) in 1967, which was effectively the forerunner of the Caribbean Community. In particular, her work along with other Caribbean economists of the time, analysed Guyana’s efforts to coordinate a bauxite-producer cartel with Jamaica and Suriname in the 1970s. The sweeping nationalisation of bauxite and sugar operations were part of the Burnham Administration’s aims to become self-sufficient in food production and control foreign trade. However, Professor Levitt – along with other prominent UWI economists led by George Beckford – withdrew their services following the human rights violations of the Guyanese Government.
Reflecting on her vast body of work, there are many lessons that remain critically relevant to Guyana today. The first lesson might be the importance of a renewed focus on domestic agriculture, not just for the sake of economic development and trade, but as an effort towards food security, ecological sustainability, and self-determination. Second, is the importance of regional collaboration within the region – both politically and economically – as a necessary element of any Caribbean vision of inward-driven development. This is particularly important for Guyana given its unique geo-political position as a large continental landmass among a sisterhood of small islands. Third, Kari and the New World Group stressed the importance of strategic economic planning. This is more important than ever, given Guyana’s new developments in the energy sector, the anticipated inflows of foreign investment that follow, and the consequent risks of perpetuating the structural limitations of the Plantation Economy. The key point is that for economic strategy to be transformative, development should come from within the culture and society of West Indian peoples, rather than be driven by the interests of foreign capital which perpetuate patterns of inequality and external dependency.
Kari’s contributions to the wider Caribbean region have spanned six decades since the days of the West Indian Federation, and her influence on the state of West Indian politics and economics has been immeasurable. However, we should see her contributions to the region as not just academic and intellectual, but as advocacy for meaningful development which promotes inclusivity, cultural diversity, and the preservation of human dignity. For those who have the honour of knowing her personally, she is one of the kindest, friendliest, and most genuinely compassionate souls to grace the Caribbean landscape. Remarkably, at the age of 100, she continues to act on her passion for and dedication to Caribbean development and transformation. The people of the Caribbean will always remain indebted to this adopted daughter for her remarkable contributions, and so on this occasion of her centenary, we take the time to recognise and celebrate her work and legacy.
