Activist Glenn Fubler has a qualm or two about being named a Bermudian of the Year. The 75-year-old appreciates the accolade but admits: “This is not a part of my personality. I’m not a person who seeks recognition.”
His upbringing in North Village, as well as time spent with his grandmother in Flatts, may explain why. “The people who offered examples to me were people that were humble,” he says. “Humility is something that I think is needed in these times.” He recalls a childhood when the village really did raise the child, citing fisherman Bob Battersbee as a case in point of someone who was a “mentor and more” to many local youngsters. Fubler says: “I experienced that reality of a caring community where neighbours used to share. That love that got poured into me inspired me up to today.”
The softly spoken coordinator of Imagine Bermuda turned 18 in 1968 — a pivotal year for civil rights in the US. He initially went to university in Miami but switched after two years to Howard University in Washington DC, where he became a supporter of the Black Panthers. Back in Bermuda, he joined the Black Beret Cadre, a group focused on social programmes with the aim of Black self-determination. Fubler and others helped organise a defence fund for Larry Tacklyn and Erksine Burrows, who were eventually convicted and executed for killing the island’s police chief and governor. “I took the position that they were people right on the margins of society,” he says, detailing how the campaign included a push to educate citizens about social justice.
Teacher, union activist and, later, civil servant, Fubler became instrumental in the Bermuda Workers’ Socialist Party and, horrified by human rights abuses in South Africa, launched the Anti-Apartheid Movement. Now retired, his focus is on Imagine Bermuda, a non-profit organisation raising awareness and pushing for progressive change in Bermuda and globally. Its members regularly visit Westgate for “personal empowerment” sessions with prisoners and the group recently spoke out on Palestine.
Fubler traces his activism back to that village upbringing, summing up his philosophy as the “circle of life” — giving back to the community and “keeping that wheel going.” He says: “My wife and I have four grandsons. When we see our young grandsons, who have more resources than most children, we want the same thing for all children.
“Imagine Bermuda has a slogan right now, about how every life is precious, and that is true.”
