Some Reflectionson Labour Unionismand Class Relationsin the Pre and Post

Independent Caribbean(1900-1993)

byWHITMAN T. BROWNE

Department of Education / University of the Virgin IslandsSt. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands

Prepared for Presentationat the Eighteenth Annual

Conference of the Caribbean Studies AssociationMay 24-29, 1993

Jamaica

SOME REFLECTIONS ON LABOUR UNIONISM

AND CLASS RELATIONS IN THE PRE AND POST

INDEPENDENT CARIBBEAN (1900-1993)

Labour unions have had a unique role and a distinguished history in the humanising of Caribbean

societies. They worked to remake the social, economic and political world here. It does not

matter where in the Caribbean the society existed. During the pre and post emancipation era, and

up until the 1940's - 1950's, there were deep chasms between the social classes. Wealthy

landowners and merchants manipulated and dominated the working class. By the 1940' s that

group consisted largely of the descendants of the former African slaves and descendants of the

indentured Asians who came to the Caribbean area after the English abolished slavery during the

1830's.

For the poor desperate workers in the Caribbean islands the chains of slavery were gone. Their

labour was being paid for. But they were being exploited, dehumanised and physically abused at

an unthinkable level. Liberal ideas such as Fabianism and Christianity were growing in popularity

yet vulgar capitalism dominated and overwhelmed every other idea in the area. Actually, the film:

The Mission l , a touching depiction of Spanish and Portuguese capitalism in Brazil during the

1700's, could probably have been made about any Caribbean island up until the mid 1900's.

There was much innocence to be exploited for profit.

The book, To Shoot Hard Labour (Smith and Smith, 1986). 2 recounts the horrible experiences of

one Samuel Smith. He was born in Antigua after emancipation and lived to be 105 years old.

Another book, From Commoner to King (Browne,1992) 3 devotes its second chapter, A Time

When Wrong Was Right, to a discussion of the difficult circumstances under which the working

class struggled to survive in St. Kitts, Nevis and Anguilla. Richard Hart, an expert on labour

unionism in the Caribbean also made this comment about that horrible time: "Thus in the post

emancipation period, the majority of workers in the English speaking Caribbean area were

condemned to the perpetuation of a very low standard of living." 4 . That was all before labour

unionism was legitimised in the British West Indies. In all those situations the leading churches

were passive participants in the tragedy. There is no consistent record that they reprimanded their

leading parishioners - the planters. Rather,the willingness with which their liberal offerings were

received made the culprits pillars of the church. Liberation Theology could find no place in that

crude, inhumane society.

Despite a growing workers' willingness to accept Christianity and its promises, for them it offered

no respite from the prevailing economic, social and political oppression. Instead, Christianity

alternated as a carrot at one time — offering some sense of appeasement on one hand, or on the

other hand, according to Smith and Smith (1986), one priest was certain working class people

were beneath the reach of God. He boasted that his Anglican Church was not built for African

people. 5

By the early 1900' s socialist ideas had been filtering into the Caribbean from Europe and North

America. Soon leading members of the working class began to accept the suggestion that vulgar

capitalism as it existed be challenged. Gradually, the workers started to understand their objective

interest. They saw it as being different from that of their sometimes patronising exploiters. The

idea of labour unionism became increasingly attractive to those who sweated and bled to provide

the privileges and luxuries for the dominating elite class. At least, to the workers, labour unionism

appeared to be the tool to some human dignity. It also seemed an avenue to some economic

participation in a society that gave them nothing.

2

The planter class controlled the system of production.It liked the social realities as they existed.

Everything was to its benefit. That social group could not envision itself sharing any of its

privileges with the working class then, or ever. In the minds of that planter class, the despised

Africans, Asians and the mixed descendants who laboured incessantly, were to be forever destined

to nothingness - persistent poverty,landlessness, limited life spans and political alienation.

In every aspect of their lives, workers in the post-colonial Caribbean began their journeys here as

dwarfed beings. The structures of all the systems they met in place-social, economic, political,

were designed to keep them that way. The evolution and change Europeans were experiencing,were

not to include the Caribbean working class in their flow. Those despised and humiliated people

who served the wealthy elite were to be forever, "hewers of wood and carriers of water".

Ultimately, however, in the story of man, every cause does find champions. Men such as Michael--

Angelo, Erasmus, Petrarch, Machiavelli and others forced the European Renaissance towards new

ideas and humanistic thinking. 6 And according to Eric Williams, then later Walter Rodney, 8

African slavery in the Americas helped to reorganize the European economy and society. But,

despite slavery's massive contributions to the development and growth of capitalism,the anti-

slavery movement, too, found its champions among critics of slavery. These included Frederick

Douglas, Moses(Buddhoe) Gotlieb, Lloyd Garrison, Frances Harper, Harriet Tubman, Toussaint

L' Ouverture, Thomas Clarkson and a host of others.

A time came, too, when a movement against the exploitation of the lower classes in the Caribbean

found its champions. Rothschild Francis of St. Thomas, Captain Arthur Cipriani of Trinidad and

Tobago,Thomas Manchester of St. Kitts, Marcus Garvey of Jamaica,T.A. Marryshow of Grenada,

and Hubert Critchlow of British Guyana, to name a few, were all early voices in the Caribbean

area speaking out for justice to the workers here.

3

The drive for changed social and economic relations began slowly in the late 1800' s. 9 Every

precaution was taken by the wealthy elite to smother any movement forward for the working class.

For a time, too, total victory appeared within their grasp. They controlled the economy. They

manipulated the politics. 10 And they paid little or no attention to the authorities from Europe who

recommended or pleaded for humane changes. 11 Rather, the dominant elite wallowed in the

writings and ideas of social philosophers such as Walter Bugehot and John Bodin. Those thinkers

suggested that the working class domination by the elite class should be counted a privilege, since

the elites were naturally superior to the lower classes. 12 Further, it was the best arrangement for a

stable, progressive society -an idea still very much alive in the 1990' s. As expected, such thinking

finds its best reception among the political, educational and entrepreneurial elite. To some in the

Caribbean, however,that thinking is a subtle facet of New World Order thought — the wealthy,

powerful nations of the world should dictate and determine the destiny of those others, who are

less wealthy.But, according to Perry Mars (1983) 13 , such relations allow foreign nations to

intervene and destabilise Caribbean nations. Besides, those foreigners always have their national

interests as the urgent matter. The objective interests of the people in the nations being dominated

receive very little focus.

That phenomenon where the larger wealthier nations manipulate and dominate the smaller less

wealthy ones, is common in the Caribbean area. The scenario is very similar to that in which

groups with wealth and social prestige dominated the other people in the Caribbean at an earlier

time. Such was the case before workers throughout the Caribbean rose up behind inspired leaders

and moved to change their destiny.

There were always working class revolts against class inequalities in the West Indies - St. John,

Virgin Islands 1733, San Domingue (Haiti) 1791 and St. Croix 1848. Many Caribbean scholars

also suggest that repeated revolts during slavery created the instability, and affected the island' s

economy enough to help force the agreements which abolished slavery.

4

The best organised and most persistent class revolts in the Caribbean area began to take shape

about 1933 in Trinidad and Tobago. 14 Working class people called illegal strikes,burned the

properties of the planter class and demanded more humane treatment in their societies. Besides

Trinidad and Tobago, protests erupted on Barbados, St. Kitts, Jamaica,British Guyana and

elsewhere. They occurred intermittently over a period of seven years (1933-1939). As a response

to the working class' discontent the horrified elites called in the police and military to protect their

privileges. The military was also to punish those upstart lower classes who dared to challenge the

way 'things were meant to be' . A number of workers did die at the hands of both the police and

military. Unfortunately, some were merely innocent passers-by.

The government in England responded by sending the famed Moyne Commission (1938-1939) to

discover what was going on in the colonies. Just before the explosion however, there was

nonchalance and insensitivity. But,

"Surveying the scene colonial officials, representatives of the big foreign-owned

enterprises... and the upper middle class generally felt confident and secure. When

Professor W.M. MacMillian wrote his book, Warning From The West Indies

(1936), after he visited the area, his warnings were dismissed as the work of

alarmists, troublemakers." 15

At a time when the fortunes of working class people were changing around the world because of

socialistic ideals, the planter class which dominated Caribbean societies and politics responded

like ancient dinosaurs. They preferred extinction over change. They also cherished the notion

that labour unionism could never take root in this area. Very desperately, that elite group clung to

its privileges and a false sense of security.

As early as 1839, Law 15 passed in Jamaica was designed to prevent the formation of any worker

organizations. Its preamble read in part: "...all combinations for fixing the wages of labour and for

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regulating and controlling the mode of carrying on manufacture, trade or business or the cultiva-

tion of any plantation ... are injurious to trade and commerce, dangerous to the tranquility of the

country and especially prejudicial to the interest of all who are concerned in them ...' ,16

Later, in 1917, another infamous piece of legislation passed in the Leeward Islands Assembly in

Antigua. Benevolent Associations were permitted. 17 But not workers organizations that could

challenge the way things were on the British owned islands.

In the Danish West Indies, however, there tended to be more change responses to working class

uprisings. Direct pressure from the slaves led to an ending of slavery in 1848.Another uprising in

1878 saw disgruntled wage workers burn some fifty plantations on St. Croix. Mary Thomas,

immortalized in the Virgin Islands working class history as Queen Mary,burnt public buildings

including the courthouse, jail and schools. Such pressure and expressions of social discontent on

St. Croix could very well have been factors which influenced the establishment of the first

legitimate labour union there in the year 1915. Labour leader D. Hamilton Jackson led that group.

In 1916 another union led by George A. Moorehead started on St. Thomas. Later, Rothschild

"Polly"Francis was to eclipse Moorehead' s fame as labour leader on St. Thomas. He also rivalled

D. Hamilton Jackson in terms of his working class consciousness, and in terms of his contribu-

tions to the emergence of working class politics in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Through his newspaper, The Emancipator, Francis challenged the race and class stigmas which

plagued the working class in the U.S. Virgin Islands. On July 25th, 1921, The Emancipator

published this letter from Roger Baldwin, the director of the American Civil Liberties Union(ACLU).

"Dear Mr. Francis, I have just looked over the first number of The Emancipator

and congratulate you on a publication with so much punch and life and real feeling

in it. If you follow the fearless course of championing the rights of the workers and

of the black people on the islands, of the Negro against white exploitation, you will

render a great and needed service." 18

6

Another letter, written by the naval authority that served in the U.S. Virgin Islands from 1917 -

1931, was very critical of Francis. The letter said in part,

"Francis is the editor of a radical sheet called The Emancipator which quotes from

the vicious and radical (generally Negro but sometimes White) press of his union

and teaches anti-governments socialistic, semi-Bolshevik, and race hatred stuff." 19

Despite the organized, historic resistance, to its taking root, labour unionism did come to the

British West Indies by the 1940' s. That was suggested in the report of the Moyne Commission

(The Royal Commission' s Report) at the urging of the British Labour Party politician, Sir Cecil

Citrine. He was a member of the fact finding commission,sent out by the British Government in

1938. The injustice he saw in the Caribbean Area during late 1930's caused Citrine to favour the

legalisation of labour unions in all the colonies. Thus by early 1940 labour unionism had become

a weapon in the arsenal of the working class as they struggled for social justice in the area. After

years of insensitivity on the part of the local government, and virtual disinterest on the part of

England the working class' battle had become legitimised.

Attempts to control the flow of information to the masses, particularly about union activities, were

not successful. Slowly, but surely, the workers were becoming enlightened. Reading material and

news about the activities of workers' movements in Europe and North America did reach the West

Indies. And West Indians who had travelled abroad,or who had served in the armies of England

and the United States of America assumed point positions, to lead protests against the unequal and

inhumane conditions that persisted on their islands. One such champion who is well known in

Caribbean labour union history was Captain Arthur Cipriani of Trinidad and Tobago. A less well

known person was William (Robin) Davis of St. Kitts. He faithfully sought to rivet the right to

labour unionism in the minds of cane cutters on St. Kitts, at a time when there was uncertainty

over which direction they should take. 2°

7

The teachings and ideas of Marcus Garvey also helped Caribbean people to come together. He

encouraged them to resist racism and class exploitation. But those struggling Caribbean people

were also driven by a will to experience justice, survive beyond their now, and to bequeath to their

progeny a legacy of hope and some experiences of dignity.

In time, the labour union movement was poised to create one of the most dramatic, social and

political revolutions in the history of the West Indies. Charismatic leaders such as Robert

Bradshaw, V.C. Bird, Norman Manley, Alexander Bustamante and others began to rewrite the

economic, social and political history of these islands.

Strikes, some successful, others less so, became a major weapon in the hands of labour union

leaders. In St. Kitts for example, there were strikes in 1940, 1943, 1944, 19461947, 1948, 1958,

and 1969.21 That of 1948 lasted for 13 weeks. It resulted in recrimination and a taking of revenge

on both sides of the class divide. Workers received no wages for 13 long weeks. There was a

deliberate effort to force the working class to its knees through hunger, and increased misery.

They responded by burning 51,294 tons of sugar cane.By the time of an eventual agreement some

31,400 tons of cane could not be reaped. The cost of that strike to the planters and the Island' s

economy was about £87,000. 22 That both sides suffered almost equally was a change in the

normal flow of things. It was a new phenomenon in Caribbean social history.

Before the coming of labour unionism, being of the working class in the Caribbean was equivalent

to being part of a despised caste. But the production system depended on such persons for the

privileges and profits their cheap labour provided. Mind control 23 and a fear relationship

between the workers and the planter class were important.Neither material success nor social

mobility was to be experienced by those workers. Their destiny was to be one of use and abuse.

As the labour leaders moved to re-socialise the area,they focussed on public health, education, and

8

the evolution of a new perception of self for workers and their children. Housing for all the

working class, received the kind of concern that was never shown for all the years since Africans

were brought to the West Indies form Africa. The unions pressured plantation owners into setting

apart areas on their plantations for working class housing. At the same time, thousands of workers

were encouraged to leave the plantation housing — the only homes some had known for

generations. Usually, they were overcrowded, without privacy and filthy. Vermins, such as rats,

bugs and lice preyed on the already desperate inhabitants. It was little wonder,the wilful and

deliberate social distress perpetrated on those who lived under such unfortunate conditions

encouraged emotional depression.

The new housing provided in response to the challenge of the labour unions gave a new lease on

life to the workers.It vitalised their being, gave new reasons for living and encouraged a reaching

into a different future for themselves and their children. That shift from the traditional dependent

living to an experience of independent living became a crucial psychological and political move.

It sowed seeds for the Island' s future politics in which the working class would participate and

become a dominant force.

New and better housing was only one part of the public health drives encouraged by the thrust of

labour unionism.Stressing the use of proper diets, clothing and improved sanitary conditions also

received timely focus. Child health and welfare, too, began to receive more serious attention.And

soon improvements started to appear in the horrendous infant mortality rate noted in the West

Indies. St. Kitts,for example, was reported to have one of the highest infant mortality rates in the

West Indies during the 1930's. 24 At the same time, however, sugar production was booming on

the Island. The Basseterre Sugar Factory was so successful that in the 1930' s it was chosen by the

Colonial Office as "a model of efficiency". Some £40,000 were added to its capital reserve in

short order. And an average of £17,000 per year was paid in dividends between 1929 and 1934.

During the same period the workers weekly bonus was discontinued and their wages cut. The

total reduction in pay equalled 25%. 25

9

Sir Probyn Inniss, a former Governor of St. Kitts, Nevis and Anguilla, wrote about those times

when the planter class openly and mercilessly exploited their underlings;

"The social conditions prevailing in St. Kitts were deplorable. The standard of

housing was poor. In Basseterre where the majority of the population lived, hovels

were densely packed together in areas such as Irish Town and New Town ... The

infant mortality rate was high and notwithstanding the fine work done by The Baby

Saving League starting in 1921, the Moyne Commission found in 1938, that St.

Kitts had the highest death rate and the second highest infant mortality rate, in the

entire British West Indies. Malnutrition was rampant, particularly among the

children of the working class."26

Also, according to a former Governor of the Leeward Islands, Sir Kennet Blackburne, the islands

of the Caribbean, during the 1950' s,

"... were still in a deplorable backward state as little attention was given to

development. The money sent out by the British Government to clear major slums

in the islands and build proper housing was not spent." 27

It was very obvious, that the planter class and the other elites in the Caribbean cared little or

nothing about the workers who ensured the pomp and privilege in the West Indies, and which had

become legendary in Europe. 28 Unfortunately, Euro-centric thinkers such as Rudyard Kipling

concluded that the results of forced dependency, as was depicted in the British colonies was a flaw

in character.Thus he theorised about what he saw as the "White man' s burden" to rule every other

people. He never understood that colonised people too, are political animals. Neither did he

foresee that one day, they would demand that inalienable right to sovereignty and self determina-

tion.

Before the takeover of political leadership in the West Indies by labour unionism, those who

managed the governments did not regard the education of the masses as necessary. 29 For years all

types of deliberate devices were designed and created to keep the working class on the islands

10

backwards,ignorant and illiterate.30 Generally, the children of the working class barely had access

to education up to the 7th grade. Many children ended formal schooling between the ages of 12

and 16 so that they could go to the estate and assist in boosting the family' s income. Education

beyond the 7th grade was rare, even when it was desirable. Governments spent little or no money

outside of the Anglican, Methodists Moravian and other churches to make grade school possible

for the masses. And probably one of the most discouraging features about the system of higher

education, back in those days was how thoroughly it was colonised.

Those who were lucky enough to receive a higher education had to pay for it, or compete for

limited scholarships. If the scholarships provided were for study abroad, they were limited to one

or two per island, or group of islands per year - the Leeward Islands Scholarship for example. At

one time this was shared among Antigua, Anguilla, Dominica, Montserrat, Nevis and St. Kitts.

Often the scholarship winner would return from England thoroughly trained into rejecting his

class reality. Most of those scholarships did go to male students. On returning they were

frequently seconded to some European. Sometimes they had become so de-culturised that it was

impossible to survive in their own neighbourhoods. Either way, they were of little use to their

societies.

Generally, class conflicts had severely emasculated the poor, non European people of the West

Indies prior to the coming of their revitalisation dominated by the labour union movement. Even

during the 1950's, Kenneth Blackburne felt that he had to "... instil new heart into the people of

the islands," particularly in Antigua.31 But anyone who has read, To Shoot Hard Labour can

probably begin to understand why it could be written that up until the 1950' s, the masses in

Antigua were still uncertain of themselves.

Those problems of class relations repeatedly haunted the social progress and political success of

11

the masses on all Caribbean Islands. In March 1931, after visiting the U.S. Virgin Islands,

President Herbert Hoover concluded they were the "effective poorhouse of the United States." 32

Commenting on those same times in the U.S. Virgin Islands,Leba Ola Nyi wrote in March, 1993:

"The ideological foundation of U.S. expansion and hegemony in the region were

the white supremacist and imperialistic policies of the Monroe Doctrine and the so

called Manifest Destiny. The driving force of U.S. Imperialism is the capitalistic

exploitation of cheap resources (labour, land, mineral, agriculture, etc.) for power

and privilege. Thus the transfer (of the Danish West Indies to the U.S. Virgin

Islands, 1917) meant that these islands went from one colonial power to another.

The conditions for most Africans were deplorable, repressive, and unequal." 33

On almost every island labour unionism emerged as a powerful force for change. This was

because, they shared the common feature of deep class divisions encouraged by racism and

capitalism. Those very social realities however, did set the stage for the emergence, development,

and nurturing of labour unionism. That is one of the truisms of Caribbean history.

During the 1940' s, and up to the 1970' s, labour unionism forced a number of critical social,

economic and political changes in the Caribbean. On every island, working class people began to

experience some social mobility, better education, and some aspect of political participation.

By the early 1970' s, there was a new politics of hope in the area. Caribbean people held an

optimism about their future. They even began to sense a role in later global politics. Jimmy Cliff,

a famous reggae singer, wrote in the early 1970' s, "We will remake the world." That song

mirrored both Caribbean optimism and confidence then, as it looked at the future. The masses

were uniting behind their leaders in unprecedented numbers and most of the former colonies

moved to become independent nations. Probably it was that new spirit of independence which

caused the U.S.A. to respond with trepidation in the late 1970's and cry "communism". 34 It

plagued Cuba and could not rest until Grenadian nationalism was muzzled. Meanwhile, much fear

12

was created in the other islands.

The failure of the attempt by England, 1958 - 62 to create a federation of its former colonies left

mixed feelings in the Caribbean. A pessimistic Robert Bradshaw lamented "I verily believe, that

we are the only people in creation who having fixed the time for independence, failed to keep our

collective date with destiny." 35 Optimistic Alexander Bustamante and Eric Williams, on the other

hand,seemed rearing to move on and face that 'brave new world' of Caribbean politics into the

60's and 70's. Bustamante called on Jamaicans to move from the Federation idea to that of

Jamaican Independence. And Eric Williams surmised if Jamaica withdrew, there could be no

further federation. So he made that now famous statement, "one from ten leaves nought"(10-

1=0). He was never really enthused about a Caribbean Federation, particularly, a weak one as was

suggested by Jamaica. 36

Years before there was a meeting of Caribbean labour leaders in Dominica October 28, 1932.

Some of the then leaders talked about their determination to move the islands towards indepen-

dence eventually. They had even selected a date designated as West Indian Independence Day. 37

When the Federation collapsed, Caribbean political leaders could not have agreed to accept

another indefinite period of colonialism with Britain. They were ready for a more autonomous

relationship. Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago,Barbados, and Guyana were soon independent

nations. The Windward and Leeward Islands also accepted a new relationship with England.

They moved to Associated Statehood - a temporary step before they too pushed for independence

from England. By 1983 all except a few of the former English colonies in the Caribbean

(Anguilla, Montserrat, The British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, The Turks and Cacos

Islands) had become independent states.

There is now an emerging new shift in terms of the class that controls politics in the Caribbean

area. Class and race struggles do remain endemic factors in these societies.Generally the planters

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and merchants, due to their wealth and to some extent colour, remained at the top of the social

echelon. Their politics tends to be less obvious, but it is very class oriented in its results. There is

a classic example of this situation on St. Kitts. For years the planters and merchants there tried to

openly dominate, and return to being the critical force in the politics. But each time they failed at

the polls. In the 1960's they devised a plan to get back into politics, through the use of proxies. 38

This was done by using large sums of money and by co-opting disgruntled intellectuals and other

citizens who felt alienated on the island. Today, the agenda of the government on St. Kitts, no

longer shows a politics to benefit the masses. It is an exclusive politics. The goals and desires of

the wealthy and middle class are high on its agenda.This is a very obvious shift from the carefully

orchestrated working class, mass agenda politics of the late Robert Bradshaw' s Labour Party of

the 50' s to the 70' s.

That situation on St. Kitts is a model of how the mass politics, and the working class agenda of the

40's to the 70's has changed. But it is not the only island where the decline in labour union

dominated politics is leading to new and rising levels of class conflicts in Caribbean societies.

Labour unionism of the Caribbean in the 1990' s does not have the attraction, the leadership, the

legitimacy or the abandon it had in the 40' s. Consequently, Labour unions today cannot

challenge class and other related injustices as efficiently and effectively as they did at an earlier

time.The unions tend to have two fights on their hands. One is their survival as viable organiza-

tions. The other is the actual issues which are being challenged.

For a number of years after the 1940' s the only politics that mattered on most Caribbean Islands,

was that grounded in labour unionism. Names of labour union politicians such as V.C. Bird,

Norman Manley, Robert Bradshaw, and Alexander Bustamante became common throughout the

area. Generally, it is accepted that they contributed to remaking the world that the working-class

people in Caribbean Islands live in since the 1940' s. Through the efforts of those dedicated and

class committed politicians the working class changed from being disenfranchised, alienated

14

observes on the islands, to being active participants in their societies and politics.

Under the guidance of those leaders from that earlier era, education, and education opportunities

improved for the masses. Economic opportunities also advanced for them and their status in the

societies began to rise. In time, as conditions of existence changed, for these people they became

less inhibited and more optimistic. Like the politicians, the general population was pushed into a

brave new world to search for the good life - social success and progress — at all cost. But all did

not remain well for the working class.

Today, even some governments historically derived from labour unionism have come to be very

cautious or openly hostile to the goals and ideals of labour unions. This unfortunate situation has

occurred because of a variety of reasons:

(1) Some educated West Indians (doctors, lawyers, businessmen) are at times

overly concerned about status and presentation of self. Such persons, as they

emerge as leading figures in the Caribbean, do not take time to trace the roots of

their present day success back to labour unionism.

(2) Many other persons benefitted from labour unionism over the years but now

rank among the upper class in their societies. They become very attached to the

trappings and symbols of their new status. Very often such persons choose to

express and defend the consciousness and culture of the group their trappings

represent. They too deny their personal and social history.

(3) Caribbean islands have very high unemployment rates (20-40 percent) in many

cases. Since foreign corporations keep trying to turn back the hands of time, in

terms of their rates of pay, these islands' high unemployment rates are considered

gold mines. The corporations present promises of high employment to govern-

ments. The political leaders in turn promise to accept low wages and to discourage

unionism in the work-place.

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(4) That IMF policy of forcing structural adjustments on Caribbean Governments

also works to weaken labor unions in the area. When governments have to let go

workers, those who remain employed are more interested in maintaining their

employment than in struggling for higher wages they may never receive. Under

such circumstances the survival of the government becomes the priority. An

aggressive, demanding labour union becomes a culprit to the society.

(5) Hilbourne Watson39, and to some extent Micheal Manley° discuss a similar

phenomenon that is weakening the role of labour unions in the area. Certain

influential groups in the Caribbean, politicians included, are bribed and co-opted to

support the agendas of foreign concerns above those of their own less fortunate

fellow citizens. Often low wages are acceptable and other rights of workers are

negotiated away. In such situations, the interests of Caribbean people are not

served. Labour issues are not treated as being central to the success of all people in

the societies. By design they are pushed to the periphery where little attention is

paid to them.

(6) Many labour union leaders today are only concerned about their personal

status, prestige and politicking. The concern and commitment which earlier

leaders depicted are not as evident. Too often, these leaders become caught in the

trap of materialism and `middleclassism' . Then they become alienated from the

objective interests of the working class people they are supposed to lead and

represent.

All the factors discussed above have worked to lessen the attraction and success of labour

unionism in the Caribbean of the 1990' s. Repeatedly, Caribbean workers employed in tourism

related areas and small businesses (the two major areas of new employment today) are at the

mercy of employers greedy for quick profit. Very often, too, the workers are advised by the same

employers or their agents. And in most situations they are told not to align themselves with labour

16

unions. Other businesses offer attractive wages initially.Or they offer special incentives to their

workers. These situations also detract interest from labour unionism.

The leadership of Caribbean labour unionism today is not poised to experience, enjoy, or benefit

from that special symbiotic relationship 41 with the working class of an earlier time. Back then,

those leading, and those who were being led received benefits from each others' successes.

Benefits won for the working class, guaranteed the labour union -political leaders votes, and

political longevity. The working class used their voting numbers to express gratitude for their

social successes.

Those votes today are fickle and less predictable. New social, political, and economic variables

that did not exists during the 40' s and 50' s now impinge on how the new generation of leaders

make decisions. Often, the interests of the working class are overlooked or placed on the back-

burner. And, as it is with all other organisations, when the leadership is preoccupied with other

matters, the organisation does not progress as it should.

Because of a decline in strong, focussed and effective leadership, labour unionism in the Carib-

bean is losing its attraction and its legitimacy. The children of the masses can trace most of their

social, economic, and political successes back to the glory days of labour unionism. But today,

many from that very group are questioning its relevance in the society. Further, since the true

story of the accomplishments of labour unions has not been told and written often enough in

Caribbean societies, the movement is being taken for granted. For some it is an irrelevant

institution societies in the Caribbean can do without.

While such thinking becomes more and more pervasive in the Caribbean foreign corporations are

staking their claims on the area. Always, despite their sales pitches, the corporations and other

businesses are in the Caribbean chiefly to enhance their profits — not to resolve Caribbean social

17

or economic problems. They are never opposed to using the leverage they have with govern-

ments, or to use local agents to discourage a legitimisation of labour unionism in the islands.

Meanwhile, such corporations expect slave labour from their workers and they pay as little as is

allowed for it. In the process, even though members of the working class work daily, their

condition of desperate poverty hardly ever changes. Such families do not experience the 'good

life' or social successes labour unionism once promised. But their right to be defended by

effective labour unions is no longer a priority of political agendas in the Caribbean area.

During the period of strong labour unionism there was a tendency towards more egalitarianism in

working class societies. The class divisions between the elite society and the workers pushed the

labour movement forward. At every facet of the society where there was blatant inequality labour

unions challenged for change. Thus social mobility became an expected experience, particularly

for the children of the working class. Soon professions such as law,medicine, teaching, and

cricket started to be dominated by the working class. They were no longer monopolised by the

children of merchants, planters, and the top echelon of the aspiring working class. By the mid

1970's, it was evident that the children of the working class were on the verge of reshaping the

world their parents knew. They were also re-evaluating their place in the global setting.

But not all the persons of planter class thinking and aspirations had left the islands. Some simply

hibernated during that period of blatant mass dominance, and they rethought their strategies for re-

asserting social and political control in the area. Meanwhile, increased social mobility, better

education opportunities, the success of capitalism in the area, the growth of materialism, and the

broadening of the middle class have worked to the advantage of the traditional elite groups. They

skillfully manipulated those social changes and the status aspirations among the working class, to

re-assert their values and culture in the islands.

Greed for social mobility, materialism, and particularly `middleclassism' left thousands of the

18

working class open to enticement and co-option by the traditional elites. Bribes from foreign

corporations, too, have been a particularly successful strategy for winning over members of the

working class. Over time, the differences in class interests between the elites, and those of the

working class who have been won over to a new world view and culture, disappear. They now

work together as having common class interests — foreign investors, their local agents, the

traditional elites, and leading politicians all claim they have common ground.

With these types of social alignments, the class battles are heightening again in Caribbean islands.

But with uncertainty and confusion in the union ranks the working class is again at the mercy of

deliberate, cruel, and insensitive exploiters. Even governments appear to be impotent, or despon-

dent when it comes to defending the rights of their working class citizens.

There is also another phenomenon in Caribbean societies which further limits the working class

right to fairness and sovereignty. It is a subtle feature underlying the new militarism in the area.

In order to encourage tourism and foreign investments Caribbean governments have become

obsessed with the issue of political and social stability. And an underlying notion related to these

issues is that the masses have to be repressed to ensure stability. It does not matter whether the

concerns of the working class are justified or illegal. Each time they rise up in defense of their

rights, it is considered a threat to stability and future investments. Consequently, many islands

now have their own para military and military forces to deal with insurrections — political or

social. Some are little more than repressive tools in the event of political uprisings.42

Others, as in Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Dominica and St. Kitts, do have linkages, some

secret, within and beyond the Caribbean. Despite the odds against their objective interests being

expressed, however, the masses are not all losing sight of their history or destiny of struggle.

Recent uprisings in Antigua, Trinidad and Tobago, St.Maarten, Guadeloupe, and a strike on St.

Croix, testify to the brittleness of the stability in some Caribbean societies. Always, the working

19

class will find a way to express its discontent, particularly when the group is repeatedly being

treated as less than equal in societies. Guns and armies have never stopped them.

Labour unions did not lose their vibrancy and vigour because exploitation of, and injustices to the

working class have ceased. The decline is due to combinations of factors delineated earlier. In the

meantime, however, with reduced interests in labour unionism, and the subtle co-option of

members from the working class, the elites are fostering a resurgence of those dreaded levels of

class hatred experienced in the Caribbean at an earlier time. The demarcations may not be readily

obvious as they were during the early 1900' s. But as the islands surge into the twenty-first

century, class barriers are again becoming very much a Caribbean reality. There is a subtle

regression to an earlier time in the islands' social history.

Back then, labour unions evolved and served as an effective vehicle to modify, or change the

crude social, political and economic relations between the existing groups. A sense of justice,

belonging, and political awareness developed where it did not exist before. Behaviours changed.

Prospects for the future were built on real possibilities, and a group of people who had only known

humiliation in unjust societies found some measure of justice.

Today, it is not correct to suggest that labour unionism has lost its original goal, philosophy, or

commitment to the working class. But changes in the times have forced labour unions in the

Caribbean to act dwarfed and sometimes impotent in the 1990' s. Whatever the present reality,

however, the working class in the islands continue to need an effective champion.

Probably just as labour unions evolved to provide new directions during the 1900' s, some other

legitimate force will do the same during the 2000' s. If not, members of the elite class and

members of the working class will continue to aggravate each other foolishly.

Both will also take time to prepare for war. And one day soon a vicious class war will be actively

20

fought in the Caribbean. So far there have been mere skirmishes. An all out war can be complex,

cruel and bloody. Then there will be all losers - no winners. As the survivors dig out from the

ashes they will probably begin to understand that each group in the Caribbean can only survive

with the other. But, in a sane, enlightened world, do greed and selfishness have to forever dwarf

the human potential for compassion and greatness until times of disaster? In 1970 Robert

Bradshaw wrote:

"Economic power in the Caribbean was founded upon the plantation system which

had slave - and cheap - labour of Negroes as its hand-maidens. It was secured,

fortified, and buttressed by Imperial statute and encouraged by Colonial enact-

ment. It was used in combination with political power to suppress the blacks and

preserve and advance the interests of the white settler-plantocracy as well as to

perpetuate their considerable influence and to this day it has remained in all but

black hands."43

What Bradshaw wrote then is still a fact of life in the Caribbean. There have been very few

changes to that reality.Probably the one change which makes the situation very unbearable and

very complex is the fact that the few blacks who have achieved some economic power often find

themselves,too, seeking cheap labour and influence without regard for whether they exploit their

own. That situation has brought Caribbean societies in a full cycle. Instead of avoiding the

historical class conflicts that have plagued them they are on the verge of re-living them as they

approach the twenty-first century.

Were the labour leaders of the 40' s - 50' s to return they would not recognise the physical structure

of the societies. But they would understand the class issues which continue to divide them. There

were similar divisions and conflicts at that time. But the Caribbean survived and changed because

those leaders defied the odds against them. They found creative solutions to their problems.

Today a search for new solutions to the present social and political problems should not appear an

impossible task. Unlike our forefathers, we have models to copy and learn from.

21

NOTES AND REFERENCES

1. Video: The Mission - Examines the conflict between the goals of early Portuguese and

Spanish capitalism in Brazil, versus the goals of Christianity in the same time and place,

as both forces exploited the Amerindians resources and culture.

2. Smith & Smith: To Shoot Hard Labour, Edan Publishers, Scarborough, Ontario, 1986.

3. Browne, W. T.: From Commoner To King, University Press of America, Lanham, 1992,

pg 19 - pg 39.

4. Hart, Richard: Origins and Development of the Working Class In the English-speaking

Caribbean Area (1897 - 1937), unpublished paper, pg 3.

5. Smith & Smith: To Shoot Hard Labour, pg 121-123

6. Lerner, Meacham & Burns: Western Civilizations, W.W. Norton & Company, New

York, 1988, pg 425 - pg 462.

7. Williams, Eric: Capitalism and Slavery, Putnam' s Sons, New York, 1965.

8. Rodney, Walter: How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Howard University Press, Wash-

ington D.C. 1982.

9. Hart, Richard: Origins and Development..., unpublished paper - Part I.

10. Bradshaw, Robert L.: Paper presented at the College of the Virgin Islands, St. Thomas,

February 11, 1970, pg 2 - pg 3.

11. Blackburne, Sir Kenneth: Lasting Legacy, Johnson Publications, London, 1976, pg 130

- pg 131.

12. Lerner, Meacham & Burns: Western Civilizations, pg 600 - pg 602.

13. Mars, Perry: Destabilization, Foreign Intervention and Socialist Transformation in the

Caribbean, Transition Issue 7, pg 33 - pg 54.

14 - 15. Hart, Richard: Origins and Development..., pg 31.

16. Hart, Richard: Origins and Development..., pg 25.

17. France, Joseph N.: Working Class Struggles of a Half Century, unpublished paper,

18 - 19. Ola Nyi, Leba: The Ideological Prism of Rothschild "Polly" Francis, unpublished paper,

1993, pg 3 - pg 4.

20. Browne, W.T.: From Commoner to King, pg 66, pg 73, pg 136.

21 - 22. 0' Flaherty, Fidel 0.: The Industrial Politics of the Sugar Industry of St. Kitts-Nevis,

unpublished paper, 1978, pg 35 - pg 39.

23. Browne, W.T: From Commoner to King, pg 97 - pg 113.

24 - 25. 0' Flaherty, Fidel 0: Industrial Politics..., pg 25 and pg 23.

26. Inniss, Sir Probyn: Whither Bound St. Kitts-Nevis, St. Johns, Antigua, 1983, pg 53.

27. Blackburne, Sir Kenneth: Lasting Legacy, pg 131.

28. Michener, James A: Caribbean, Random House, New York, 1989, pg 248 - pg 288.

29. Inniss, Sir Probyn: Whither Bound..., pg 53.

30. Inniss, Sir Probyn: Historic Basseterre, Basseterre, St. Kitts 1979, pg 38 - pg 41.

31. Blackburne, Sir Kenneth: Lasting Legacy, pg 149.

32. Dookhan, Isaac: A History of the Virgin Islands of the United States, Caribbean

Universities Press, 1974, pg 271.

33. Ola Nyi, Leba: The Historical Prism..., pg 1 - pg 2.

34. Newsweek: March 26, 1979, pg 22; May 28, 1979, pg 9; August 27, 1979, pg 31 and pg

34.

35. Bradshaw, Robert L: Paper..., pg 6.

36. Greenwood & Hamber: Development and Decolonisation, MacMillian, London, 1981,

pg 90 - pg 91.

37. France, Joseph N: Working Class Struggles..., pg 27 - pg 28.

38. Browne, W.T: From Commoner to King, pg 292.

39. Young & Phillips, Eds: Militarization in the Non-Hispanic Caribbean, Westview Press,

Boulder, 1986, pg 17-41

40. Manley, Micheal: Jamaica - Struggle in the Periphery, Third World Media Ltd, London,

1982, pg 219.

41. Browne, W.T: From Commoner to King, pg 135.

42. Browne, W.T: Overt Militarism and Covert Politics in St. Kitts-Nevis, paper presented

at Conference on Peace and Development in the Caribbean, Jamaica, 1988 (published,

MacMillian, 1991).

43. Bradshaw, Robert L: Paper..., pg 16.