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CARIBBEAN LABOUR MOVEMENTS 1930s (Context (Migration (Exposure to trad…
CARIBBEAN LABOUR MOVEMENTS 1930s
Context
Migration
Exposure to trad unionism or Garveyism
e.g. West Indians in the US - more discrimination but also more political freedom. less citizenship
Exposure to more political rights - many workers couldn't vote
Great Depression
Big decline, widespread instability
Impact on monocrop economies, esp those that relied on export industry e.g. Cuba
General rise in nationalism and labour militancy but v varied
Nationalism and labour often lniked
Often became basis of independence movements
Momentum not sustained everywhere
WW1
Increase in race & class consciousness
Discrimination encountered during war
Persistent economic hardship - Bolland
Strikes 1919 first Trinidad
"Heightened expectation of political and economic empowerment" - Green
Garvey - many labour leaders were influenced by him, anti-colonialism champion- Green
Seasonal work in many places meant always poverty and unemployment
Haitian and Dominican Unrest
Rafael Trujillo rules 30-38 and 42-52
1937 Perejil massacre - 37,00 Haitians massacred
Bolland - hardly changed
largely rural, peasant based societies
Under authoritarian rule
Response
Varied across Caribbean
Repression
Bolland - British authorities defined every protest, demonstration or strike as a riot - increase in police force
Concessions
1940 Colonial Development and Welfare Act 1940 - vanity project devoted more to welfare than long-term solutions
Often ad-hoc
West India Royal Commission was a result - produced in Dec 1939 but findings of poverty could've been used by Germans/enemies so suppressed - only recommendations were published
Result
Bolland - social and economic structures "essentially the same"
Bolland - most places had lasting social and political reforms
Green - more representative govt, strong trade unions, and a drift toward decolonisation and democratizTation
Hart - increased confidence of workers
Had forced royal commission
Trade Unions and peaceful picketing legal
Trade Unions
Generally illegal or v restricted by colonial authorities - Bolland
Trinidad and Tobago exception- 1897 Trinidad Workingmen's Association one of earliest organisations of working people in Cbean + pioneered- Bolland
Legal in Trinidad 1932
Cuba
Cuba Communist Party est. 1925
Hunger marches, demonstrations and strikes
"Open warfare" 1931 Bolland
Became a revolution
Revolutionary govt Sep 1933
Gave women the vote, established minimum wage for cane cutters
Machado overthrown by Batista
General strike that paralysed the island 1930
Govt declared state of siege Nov 1930
Violence between soldiers and workers
Repression increased protest
Hart doesn't mention
Trinidad
Pioneered a lot - 1919 strikes Trinidad Workingman's Association 1897
Poor conditions and abuses on sugar estates
When demonstrations turned violent mass demonstrations resulted - 15,000 ppl involved
Oil fields
V important to govt
Trinidad largest producer of oil in British empire
Profitability rising rapidly but wages didn't
1935 strike - Cipriani refused to sanction but happened anyway
Cipriani increasingly moderate, overtaken by and obstructing younger more radical leaders
Open challenge of Cipriani's leadership by Tubal Butler
Unpopular by 35
Butler also used African nationalism - not just here
Racial discrimination - wage rises and promotions given to white employees, preference
June 1937 riots
police instigated
caused by continuing deterioration of conditions
Warrant out for Butler's arrest - police attempted to arrest whilst he spoke but were attacked - Corporal Charlie King burnt to death, Butler escaped
Repression led to island-wide unrest
Spontaneous seris of actions, not unified - paralyses island
State of emergency declared and 2 British warships deployed
Result
Increase in trade unions
Repression
Number of arrests and imprisonments, inc Butler in Sep
Major Figures
Captain Cipriani
Initially big leader but increased moderate views made him unpopular
Devoted to legal and constitutional methods - began to hold back progress e.g. refusing to sanction strikes
As mayor of Port of Spain in 1935, attempted to stop NWCSA using Woodford Square for meeting
1923 president of Trinidad Workingman's Party - renamed Trinidad Labour Party in 1934
Tubal Butler
Soicalist and African nationalist language
But unpopular for being too pro-Britain - Bolland
Influential in oil belt
Expelled from TLP in 36 for being too extreme
NWCSA
Negro Welfare Social and Cultural Association
Researched cost of living, nutrition, health.
Anti-imperialist and anti-foreign intervention - v important in agitating against Italian invasion of Ethiopia - dockers refuse to unload Italian ships