NEW YORK (CMC):

A Guyanese lawyer and prominent community activist in New York has called on the United States Democratic Party to incorporate a Caribbean plank in its 2008 election platform.

Testifying Wednesday before the Barack Obama campaign and the US Democratic National Committee platform hearing at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, Colin Moore outlined two reasons why the party should adopt his recommendation.

He said, first, the Caribbean American community is a significant demographic force throughout the US.

Moore, who is also editor-in-chief of the Caribbean American Weekly - a community-based newspaper in Brooklyn - said even though the Caribbean American community shares many of the social, economic and political problems of the African American community, it constitutes a "distinct demographic group, which has distinctive problems related to its immigrant status".