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This article examines the interactions between the British labour movement and those West Indian workers, trade-unionists, and socialists involved in the wave of strikes and riots that engulfed the region from 1934 to 1939. It focuses on the English-speaking Caribbean, covering eight countries – St Lucia, St Vincent, British Honduras, Trinidad, Barbados, British Guiana, St Kitts, and Jamaica. The disputes are examined through local contemporary reports and subsequent studies.
The labour movement in the UK, meanwhile, was focused on the ravages of mass unemployment, the rise of fascism, wars in Spain, Manchuria, and Abyssinia, and the debates over protectionism and rearmament. Some of the deeply rooted attitudes towards the colonies, colonial workers, and the empire more generally within the ranks of labour are explored. These continue to raise sharp questions of the role of the British working class and their organizations (parties, unions, pressure groups) over the legacy of imperialism and racism.
