JERSEY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE - A Political Party by any other name?

 

JERSEY CHAMBER of COMMERCE  - A Political Party by any other name?

 

According to the Chamber’s own website it was founded in 1768 by Jersey merchants who were

“not satisfied with their representation by the ruling elite in the States.”

 Then as now it is a very political organization that is regularly consulted by government and it  lobbies for reform over a wide range of activities.

It claims now to represent a diverse community but its Executive Council is dominated by persons from a very limited range of business backgrounds.

 They would fit in well with any Tory Party in the UK context but here in Jersey they exist as a “business” promoting organization claiming  over 250 years of “influencing change for the good.”

 They claim a membership of nearly 600 “business” organizations employing 30,000 but what those many thousands of employees actually think is presumably not within the organization’s TOR to determine.

Like most people I have seen the C of C logo many times on the wall of the Royal Square building (donated to the Chamber in 1821) and have not really considered what it represents now or when it was first designed.

Whether it shows a pagan goddess or female slave with a barrel of Newfoundland cod and a box of smuggled tea is not of much importance today. But it is significant in an historical context for Jersey and something that the Chamber might usefully re-consider today.

Is it still an appropriate image for the Chamber?

 Does the image have any political significance today?

 The general public too might like to consider what the political or other roles of the Chamber of Commerce are - or should be - in the 21^st century?

Should it be consulted so regularly and widely by government?

Is it behaving like a political party without the democratic constraints that a party system imposes and which many think that Jersey desperately needs.

Especially since “business” is represented by many other organizations too in Jersey.

 We should not forget that just 12 months after the Chamber was formed in 1768 the so called “Corn Riots” overthrew the rotten Jersey Royal Court on 28 September 1769  - now called “Jersey Reform Day” - to initiate long term democratic and judicial changes by direct action of the people.

 Of course many of the merchants who formed the Chamber then were also exploiting the general public through arbitrary impositions and manipulations of “corn prices.”

But then as now, the Chamber was not formed to speak for the general public interest.

It still speaks for business

and claims to

 “promote trade and build on the prosperity of the Island.”

 But  that may be just a fanciful PR claim in this Island where the demands of COVID 19, BREXIT and CLIMATE CHANGE are much more important .