St. Lucia (1983: Doomsday)

Saint Lucia is a member state in the East Carribean Federation, located in the east of the Lesser Antilles, on the boundary of the Atlantic Ocean. It shares maritime borders with the islands of Martinque to the north, St. Vincent to the south, and Barbados to the southeast. The island covers an area of 620 square kilometres. Its capital, also the capital of the ECF, is located at Castries.

Pre-Doomsday
Prior to Doomsday, St. Lucia was a newly independent country in the Commonwealth of Nations. Though originally a French colony, after decades of conflict, it was ceded to Britain in 1814. The next one and a half centuries of Saint Lucian history were characterized by a growing trend of self-government and self-determination. By Doomsday, having gained independence only a year before, in 1982, the nation was still coming to terms with its own independence. It had a growing economy and a strong culture, and the future seemed bright for the St. Lucia.

Doomsday
Though no nuclear strikes hit nations of the Caribbean, the devastation was felt on Saint Lucia. With the collapse of the United States and the United Kingdom, Saint Lucia's main trading partners were destroyed. With contact cut off from the surrounding nations and a majority of the national economy suddenly lost, Saint Lucia was plunged into crisis.

Prime Minister John Compton, with the support of parliament, declared a state of emergency. Food and water was immediately rationed, with the majority going to support the capital city of Castries and the northern communities, where a third of the population lived. Widespread unrest began to spread in the south of the nation.

Attempts to make contact with any surviving governments were immediately made. Contact was made with Barbados by radio on September 27, 1983. The two governments immediately pledged cooperation with one another, signing the Central Antilles Survival Accord. An emergency convoy was established, exchanging St. Lucian medical supplies in exchange for Barbadian fuel supplies among other things.

Contact And Cooperation
Contact was rapidly established with the nearby Caribbean nations, bringing waves of news to the people of St. Lucia. The French islands of Martinique, St. Martin, St. Barthelemy, and Guadaloupe had set up a provisional French government in the absence of leadership from the European Mainland. In the North, several former British islands, led by St. Kitts and Nevis, had bonded together into a economic group that called itself the English Island Cooperative. To the south, the nation of St. Vincent was in dire need of help, struggling with lawlessness and crime in the wake of the global collapse.

The Grenadines were overrun with native insurrectionists and local criminals seeking to expand their power in the wake of disaster. A contingent of St. Lucian and Barbadian police forces were selected and began training as a paramilitary marine force in late October, with the hopes of serving as a force of order. Reports revealed that the southern island of Grenada, a nation that had recently been wracked by a military coup, was a battlefield for various revolutionaries.

In the meantime, efforts were made to diversify the agricultural production of the island, which met with limited success, creating a small amount of industry in growing mangoes and avocados. Other minor crop businesses began to appear, bolstered by a large amount of government support for the establishment of food production industry. Meanwhile, economic cooperation with Barbados led to the introduction of a hearty corn crop.

By early January 1984, the St. Lucia-Barbados Protective Force, consisting of three hundred police-turned-soldiers was ready for action. They were deployed to the Grenadines on 17 January 1984, where they swept across the islands in a one week operation, purging the militants and restoring control of the islands to St. Vincent. They established a position on the southernmost island, where a fifty-man contingent would remain in order to defend against any violent overflow from Grenada.

Rebellion
In early March of 1984, after half a year of harsh rationing, a group of rebels, lead by a local man named Albert Sorrel, took control of the southern port of Vieux Fort, demanding that the government redistribute food supplies to better aid the suffering southern half of the island. The Prime Minister issued a statement in response, declaring that “In these troubling times, everything that can be done to aid the people is being done. Harsh measures are necessary to survive. By taking up arms and using violence as a bargaining chip, Albert Sorrel and his thugs have lost all legitimacy.”

On 22 March, 1984, a small group of SSU agents, authorized by the Prime Minister's office, infiltrated Vieux Fort. They managed to infiltrate his headquarters and, after a brief firefight, took Sorrel into custody. Three rebels were killed and eight wounded in the conflict. He was transported to the capital of Castries, where he was held in prison, to await trial. The rebellion fractured and dissolved in the wake of his capture, and in the following months order was restored to Vieux Fort and seventy-four men, including Sorrel, were convicted on charges of treason and imprisoned for twenty years.

The Wider Caribbean
Reports continued to trickle in from the far reaches of the Caribbean. By late May of 1984, the vast majority of the Caribbean, including the west and northern reaches, had been contacted. Cuba had been one Caribbean nation to actually be struck by nuclear weapons. Puerto Rico, too, suffered a strike against a military base. There was widespread crisis around the sea, even without more direct attacks.

With a wide cycle of supply chains and a slowly growing industry of food crops, the government of St. Lucia officially ended rationing in late June. John Compton, bolstered by stellar approval ratings, pushed westernizing legislation through the parliament, aimed at creating a wide amount of infrastructure on the island. Plans were laid for the establishment of a shale-burning power plant on the island, to be completed by 1990.

Trinidad and Tobago, as well as St. Vincent and the Grenadines, petitioned to join the Central Antilles Survival Accord in early August, and after a month of deliberation in parliament, the government of St. Lucia officially voted to allow admission, joining Barbados in approval. A four member council was set up to guide matters of multinational importance, consisting of one representative of each nation working in concert.

Restoration Of Grenada
On 17 November 1984 a seven-hundred man force from the growing Cooperative Defense Force, the result of the combination of the St. Lucia-Barbados Protective Force with military troops from the other two nations, landed on Ronde Island, a northern part of Grenada. They established control over the island and established a basing ground for their forces.

The next two months consisted of a fiercely escalating conflict for control of the island. By 24 December 1984 the capital of St. George's was captured and the warlords officially surrendered. An interim government was established over the island by the CASA council until order was restored and democratic elections could be held.

The East Caribbean Federation
By 1986, the foundation laid by years earlier by St. Lucian food industry came to fruition. What had once been a fragile industry dominated by bananas had expanded. The eastern fields of the island boasted a strong crop of bananas, mangos, and other fruits, while the south of the fields had been dedicated to the production of corns, yams, and sweet potatoes. The establishment of a strong food base allowed the St. Lucian economy to prosper. When up for election again, Sir John Compton won a majority government for his party, reorganized and renamed as the United Federation Party.

Taking this as a mandate for his pro-western, pro-unity policies, he pushed strongly in the CASA council to expand the Accord from an economic union into a true federation. His proposal gained support with Barbados and St. Vincent, but Trinidad and Tobago, in control of a considerable amount of the fuel supplies in the region, stalled the talks. Only after months of negotiation and a promise that the individual states of the federation would retain sovereignty over their own territory did Trinidad and Tobago accept the proposal.

On 1 January, 1987, the East Caribbean Federation was officially established, it's territory at first consisting of the states of St. Lucia, Barbados, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Politics
St. Lucia is a parliamentary republic and a member state in the East Caribbean Federation. The Parliament of St. Lucia consists of thirty-two seats, each representing roughly five thousand citizens. An entire thirteen seats represent the capital of Castries, where more than a third of the population live. The government is dominated by a number of political parties; the pro-Federation left-centre United Democratic Party, the right-wing Forward Conservative Party, and the ultraleft-wing Social Responsibility Party.

The government is currently a majority formed by the United Democratic Party, which holds seventeen seats in parliament. The opposition is formed by the Forward Conservative party, which holds ten seats, while the Social Responsibility only holds five seats. The Prime Minister is Robert Cardiff, while the opposition is led by Stephenson King.

Economy
The St. Lucia economy is dominated by agriculture and manufacturing. The nation boasts a wide crop of fruit trees and a number of hardier staples, such as corn, potatoes, yams, and beans. These make up roughly 40% of the economy, most of which consists of smaller private farms and larger state-run farms.

The manufacturing industry consists of primarily light chemical and electronic industries. A wide amount of medicines are produced in St. Lucian factories, for trade all across the East Caribbean Federation. A large amount of computer parts and electronic components are produced in southern factories, many of which are exported to South America.

A small tourism and media industry also exists in St. Lucia, mostly along the western shore. A small number of art and media is produced in St. Lucia, and it is considered one of the cultural hubs of the East Caribbean Federation.

Military
St. Lucia has no formal military of it's own. It hosts a single ECDF military base at Gros Islet. Compton Naval Base hosts a force of three hundred soldiers and a small number of military vessels. It is tasked with the defense of the islands of St. Lucia, Barbados, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the naval lanes connecting them.

Culture
Post-Doomsday, St. Lucian culture has undergone a radical shift. The people of St. Lucia consider themselves to be the founders of the East Caribbean Federation. They have strong British roots and consider the ECF to be the foremost English community in the post-war world. Education is free and mandatory from the ages of 5 to 15, and there are a number of medical schools across the island. Folk music and traditional dances are still celebrated parts of the island culture.