SIR ARTHUR LEWIS COMMUNITY COLLEGE SOUTHERN

EXTENSION
Caribbean Issues and Perspectives
Lecture: 004
Main Objective
1. Discuss key political movements in the Caribbean throughout three critical time
periods:
a. post emancipation to 1945.
b. Pre-independence to independence: post 1945 to 1990.
c. Contemporary Caribbean: post 1990

SEMESTER 1 2020 2021

Prepared by: Hugh Maitre
Political movements in the Caribbean through three critical periods
Post Emancipation 1918-1945;
. ECONOMIC DIFFICULTIES

1. Sugar prices were falling

2. West Indian producers were facing severe competition not only from other
producers in the British empire but from the following:

--- India, South Africa, and Australia

---Cuba and Brazil – non-imperial cane sugar producers
---Europe and the United States.

3. Falling prices coincided with rising labor costs, complicated by the urgent need to
regard the ex-slaves as wage labourers able and willing to bargain for their pay.

4. To mitigate labor difficulties, the local assemblies were encouraged to import

nominally free laborers from India, China, and Africa under contracts of
indenture

FREE VILLAGES

5. Emancipation of the slaves resulted the rise of vibrant peasantries throughout the
Caribbean.

6. A large proportion of the ex-slaves settled in free villages

7. They formed cooperatives to buy bankrupt or abandoned sugar estates.

8. Where they lacked the capital, they simply squatted on vacant lands and
continued the cultivation crops for local consumption- subsistence farming.

1934 1939
The Labour Rebellions of the English-Speaking Caribbean
1. During the 1930s, a series of events occurring in different island contributed to
what later came to be called, ‘The Labour Rebellions of the British Caribbean. It
is claimed that these disturbances occurred in almost every colony of the
Anglophone Caribbean.
2. Records show that during the period spanning 1934 and 1939 these of events led to
a number of rebellions and the creation of trade unions.

3. The islands of the English speaking Caribbean in which these rebellions occurred
are: Belize, St Kitts, St. Vincent, Saint Lucia, Trinidad, The Bahamas, Jamaica,
Antigua and Guyana.

4. In most Anglophone territories low wages and oppressive working conditions are
identified as the contributory factors that led to unrest in the islands.

5. After emancipation most workers faced tremendous hardships on the former

plantations on which they worked. Some even worked for their former owners
who paid them very low wages.

6. The period also captures the strikes for increased wages and workers
insurrections that took place across the English-speaking Caribbean between 1935
and 1938. These conflicts had a lasting impact on relationships between workers
and their employers and the creation of labour unions throughout the region.

7. The distress of unemployment and the inability to care for families tipped the
working-class populations over the edge.

8. THE UNREST WERE NOT ALL CAUSED BY THE SAME

CIRCUMSTANCES:

 In Belize the disturbances started after the economy fell apart as a result of the
passage of a hurricane that destroyed its ability to export forest products, which
was the main item of export of the country.

 In St. Kitts, the disturbances started after the mass layoff of workers on the
largest plantation on the island, due to the death of the plantation owner.

 In Trinidad, strikes were initiated by a number factors:

1. Returning 1st world war soldiers

2. Repressive laws designed to limit the power of unions
3. Disgruntled oil field workers all contributed to the backlash against the
state.

 In Saint Lucia and St. Vincent, the disturbances started over disagreements with
wages paid to coal carriers.
 Workers demanded a 100% increase in wages but the companies claimed they
could not pay.

9. What started in Belize (British Honduras) swept to Trinidad and Guyana (British
Guiana) 1934; ending in Jamaica in 1938; and in Antigua and Guyana in 1939.

Reactions by Sir Arthur Lewis:

  Sir Arthur Lewis claims “that it was not until then [1930s] that there was
“anything that could be called a movement among the working-class people of the
British West Indies - Emergence of unions.

Note that there were two waves of transregional rebellions before the 1930s.

1895 and 1910 1st wave

1917 and 1925 2nd wave

 He also asks, “… what has emerged out of the years of working-class upheaval …
[of] strikes, riots, death and victimization?”
 He outlines two things:
a. The rise/emergence of trade unions.
b. The entry of the working class into West Indian politics.

10. Note that in most of the islands, Unions emerged on account of the fight for
increased wages and a form of collective bargaining power.

11. O. N. Bolland, On The March, Labour Rebellions In The British Caribbean 1934-
1939. (IRP 1995) considers the 1930s and the formation of trade unions, ‘A
watershed mome
12. nt in the modern history of the Caribbean’.

Question: Why is this period and the ensuing events considered a ‘watershed moment in
Modern Caribbean History?

PRE-INDEPENCE 1950 and 60s

The pre-independent Caribbean is characterised by a number of factors that include
sociopolitical and socioeconomic events, and realities.
Chief among them were:
1. ADULT SUFFRAGE- locals allowed to cast their vote for the first time (1951).
2.The Black power Movement in the Caribbean
Political and social movements in the Caribbean region from the mid-1960s to mid-1970s
that focused on overturning the existing racist [colonial] power structure.
Guyanese academic Walter Rodney defined as

1. the break with imperialism[colonization] which is historically white racist

2. the assumption of power by the black masses in the islands-independce
3. the cultural reconstruction of the society in the image of the blacks who
formed the largest segment of Caribbean population.

NB (Walter Anthony Rodney (23 March 1942 – 13 June 1980) was a

prominent Guyanese historian, political activist and academic. He was assassinated in
1980)

The black power movement embodied the cry for self-determination and independence
from European control

3. Political Change from Crown Colony to Associated Statehood

During colonization the islands of the Caribbean became Crown colonies.

A Crown colony was directly controlled by The Crown-The Government of the United
Kingdom, and was headed by a Governor, appointed by the Monarch.

Most Islands went through a process of governmental change before assuming

independence.

They moved from Crown Colony to-

 Associated statehood headed by a premier

-John G M Compton became the first premier of Saint Lucia (1967). He

assumed responsibility for its internal affairs. Britain retained control of its
external political decisions.

 Currently, Montserrat, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, and
the Turks and Caicos Islands remain crown colonies with limited internal self-
government.

 Anguilla, having broken away unilaterally from St. Kitts-Nevis in 1967,

became an Associated State of Great Britain in 1976.

INDEPENCE 1960s and 70s

 Saint Lucia attains its independence-John G M Compton becomes the first Prime
Minister. (1979)
Chronological List for Independence of Caribbean Countries

Country Date of Independence Previous colony of

Haiti 01 January 1804 France

Dominican Republic 27 February 1844 Haiti

Cuba 20 May 1902 Spain

Jamaica 06 August 1962 United Kingdom

Trinidad and Tobago 31 August 1962 United Kingdom

Guyana 26 May 1966 United Kingdom

Barbados 30 November 1966 United Kingdom

The Bahamas 10 July 1973 United Kingdom

Grenada 07 February 1974 United Kingdom

Suriname 25 November 1975 The Netherlands

Dominica 03 November 1978 United Kingdom

 Saint Lucia 22 February 1979 United Kingdom

St. Vincent and the

27 October 1979 United Kingdom
Grenadines

Belize 21 September 1981 United Kingdom

Antigua and Barbuda 01 November 1981 United Kingdom

St. Kitts and Nevis 19 September 1983 United Kingdom

CONTEMPORARY CARIBBEAN 11990 and beyond

A. Modern Caribbean society and culture

1. All Caribbean societies are economically stratified [based on wealth] (Simpson

1962a) trade continues with mainly former colonial powers including new
arrangements.

2. Extra regionally, the European Union, Canada and the USA

-This helps expose Caribbean economies to wider markets.

3. Between 2006 and 2011 saint Lucia signed on to European Partnership

Agreement EPA. A trade agreement between the European Union and the
ACP – African Caribbean and Pacific states.

4. Caribbean economies have benefited tremendously from strong regional and

extra regional trade relationships.

- Regionally CARICOM and the OECS

5. Saint Lucia depends on a variety of industries to facilitate growth and

development. They include:

 Tourism

 Bananas

 Off shore banking services

 Citizen by investment programme

 Small regional trade

 Other

6. Caribbean societies are racially heterogeneous, with diverse and identifiable

ethnic groups.

- Blacks, Whites, East Indians, American Indian, Chinese, others

- Whites occupy the top of socioeconomic pyramids in Saint Lucia

Whites
Browns
 blacks

o This means that whites have economic and political power,

including influence and prestige.

o Browns, which include people of East Indian descent and

mulattos form the middle class and enjoy substantial amounts of
wealth in land and business properties. Have no political power.

o Blacks in great measure occupy the bottom rungs of the

economic stratified society but a number do enjoy wealth in land
and property and inheritance. Have no political power.

Reference

Social Stratification in the Caribbean. (2011, March 30). Retrieved October 22, 2020,
from https://www.studymode.com/essays/Social-Stratification-In-The-Caribbean-
644130.html

https://www.studymode.com/essays/Social-Stratification-In-The-Caribbean-
644130.html#:~:text=%20Social%20Stratification%20in%20the%20Caribbean
%20%201,value%20system%20%28Braithwaite%29%20%E2%80%A2%20Ryan
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OTHER REFERENCES:

(n.d.). Retrieved October 21, 2020, from http://countrystudies.us/caribbean-islands/9.htm

(n.d.). Retrieved October 21, 2020, from

http://www.caribbeanelections.com/education/independence/default.asp

O. N. Bolland, On The March, Labour Rebellions In The British

Caribbean 1934-1939. (IRP 1995)

World Regional Geography: People, Places and Globalization. (n.d.). Retrieved October
12, 2020, from https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-worldgeography/chapter/5-
4-the-caribbean/

 Quinn, Kate (2013). Black Power in the Caribbean. University of Florida Press.

p.  2. doi:10.5744/florida/9780813049090.001.0001.

 Lewis, Rupert. Jamaican Black Power in the 1960s. pp. 53–

75.  doi:10.5744/florida/9780813049090.003.0003.

Social Stratification in the Caribbean. (2011, March 30). Retrieved October 22, 2020,
from https://www.studymode.com/essays/Social-Stratification-In-The-Caribbean-
644130.html