This book is a rich memoire of a natural rebel, born in the 1930s to a struggling working-class family in the British Empire Island of Trinidad in the Caribbean. His first means of standing up to the vicious race and class oppression of the time was through the early steelband movement in the tough streets of the capital, Port-of-Spain, in the 1940s and 1950s.Pan players were seen as outlaws and undesirables, even as they made sweet music on the road at Carnival. His refusal to conform, reputation as a fighter and brushes with the law led him to the UK and eventual active involvement in organised politics as a Black Panther, and in the wider Black and radical movement. Through study, he developed his political understanding and became ILEA youth worker, educationalist and trade unionist.

This is a must-read to understand the contribution of Caribbean radical thought and organisation to British politics and history. An important feature of the history recorded in the pages of this book is an account of the struggle and debate for a progressive youth service, and provision for Black and White working-class youth in Britain’s cities.

Co-author: Jean Tate

Edited by Michael La Rose

ISBN: 9781999629908

Publisher: Eli Shabazz Publications