This account of the Caribbean labour movement in the 1930s was originally published in 1939 by Gollancz and the Fabian Society. At the time of New Beacon’s reprinting, it remained the only Caribbean-wide account of this key period in the region’s social and political history. It captures the sense of progress and hope emerging from the general strikes and workers insurrections that took place across the English-speaking Caribbean between 1935 and 1938. Although he became politically active after those years, these events were a formative context for the organisations in which John La Rose’s early political ideas developed. The book covers the founding of the Oilworkers’ Trade Union (formed 25 July 1936) and its achievements in Trinidad (29-30). La Rose was a key figure in this body throughout his life. Its author’s appeal to British trade unions to help improve understanding of the work and role of unions in the Caribbean is of clear interest to the international history of trade union activity.

By Arthur Lewis

Published By New Beacon Books

ISBN: 10478