JNF-The-Working-Class-Struggle-of-Half-a-Century

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satisfied that the action taken by the Government was justified, and I decided that no useful purpose would be served by such an enquiry. The March Continues The 1935 revolt against low wages and bad living condition was not confined to St. Kitts. Gravely the distressing event echoed throughout the British Caribbean. The underlying causes granted emotional heat and it took but little to start off labour disturbance elsewhere. In St. Vincent rioting broke out on the 21 st October, 1935, nine months after the Buckley’s riots. During the unrest in St. Vincent four persons were killed, twenty-two injured and fifty-six arrested. The next eruption was in Trinidad. In June 1937 all industry in that country was paralyzed by strikes involving thousands of workers in oilfields, sugar estates and factories, public works, the waterfront, cocoa estates, passengers buses and more. The casualties were fourteen dead and fifty wounded. In June also strikes for higher wages broke out in British Guiana (now Guyana). Armed police moved swiftly after telephone lines were cut and cane fields fired. There were clashes. Police and civilians sustained injuries. Hundred of people were summoned for disorderly behavior. Court fines were imposed on some. Disturbances again flared up in August and September. Barbados followed. Serious disorder broke out in July 1937 and spread to several parishes. Six persons were reported dead and twenty-one injured. The malady struck the Bahamas in August. Riots caused widespread destruction to property and one life was lost. Jamaica was the hardest hit. During the first week in January 1938 cane cutters there went on strike against the low rate of 10½d. (21 cents) per ton. (Three years earlier the cutting rate which set off the Buckley’s riots in St Kitts was 8d (16 cent) per ton). Strike action in Jamaica was followed with picketing and agitation by labourers armed with machetes, sticks and stones. Seventy strikers were jailed, but the situation subsided when the cutting rate was raised to a shilling (24 cents) per ton. By April Jamaica was again seething with industrial unrest. Workers on several sugar estates struck for higher wages. Strikers blocked roads, burnt cane fields and damaged property. Police with loaded rifles and fixed bayonets rushed to the hot spots and had to resort to gun fire. In three days the casualty list was four dead and seventeen 129
injured. Over one hundred persons were tried for rioting, intimidation and malicious destruction of property. Towards the end of May 1938, bedlam broke loose again in Jamaica. Thousands of strikers paraded the streets of Kingston, stopping every form of work. Bread vans were seized, the drivers torn from their seats and bread distributed to the mob. City streets were littered with refuse. Rubbish containers on pavements were smashed and refuse was piled in the middle of the roadway. Railway and bus services were at a standstill. The waterfront was tied up. Two British warships came on the scene. Kingston had become an armed camp with police, volunteers, British soldiers and special constables in charge. There were several clashes. The rounds of death, injured and arrests were repeated again and again. Alexander Bustamante and another leader, Mr. Grant, were arrested and held without bail. During this time Bustamante’s cousin, Norman Manley, addressed dock strikers and other crowds and carried out negotiations with employers on behalf of the workers. Manley spared no pains in giving assistance in various ways during this dark hour for the Jamaica working classes. Bustamante and Grant were released on June 15 1938. These outbursts gave vent to deep-seated dissatisfaction with condition under which the workers lived and commanded serious attention from the British Parliament and led to the appointment of the 1938 West Indian Royal Commission, under the Chairmanship of Lord Moyne, to investigate social and economic conditions in the British Caribbean. 130
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J. N. FRANCE ______________________
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© 2015 Published by The National A
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Preface The Working Class struggle
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1 EARLY VISION Where is this countr
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With the passing of time, social an
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This early attempt at workers' orga
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post as a school teacher to succeed
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For several years the pressure was
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and school houses are being used fo
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housing condition arising from the
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3 PREPARING THE GROUND The thought
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That impressive English story told
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they had accumulated £28 with whic
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Commons that since the colony of th
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1922, some of the members of Legisl
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On 30 th August 1932 the Dominica T
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country and I regard British Guiana
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Mr. Marryshow then raised his tone
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Delegates to the West India Confere
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The conference opened its proceedin
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protests can be ignored with impuni
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Closer Union Commission widened to
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He said it was a privilege to him t
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possible, an education that must be
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and suffering, and in such a condit
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The land forming the Hospital compo
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ing able to grant the request of th
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prison sentences for what was commo
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sinned against the Factory. Theirs
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9 FROM PAUPER RELIEF TO PROVIDENT B
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1954 declared the first Monday in M
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it has proposed to interfere will b
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Change When the League came on the
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Children of the working class. 61
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had just dumped out a load of cane
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There was no reply from London. Twe
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president. When the delegation gave
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Under the law of 1937 only a limite
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Workers who would have benefited fr
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Grenada, and will seek to work in a
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Ferguson, Chairman of the Commissio
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Now let me say in the first place t
Page 88 and 89: We should like to refer to West Ind
Page 90 and 91: in West Indies there is a considera
Page 92 and 93: The 1932 Commissioners commented on
Page 94 and 95: not regard it as essential that the
Page 96 and 97: official news of its adoption by th
Page 98 and 99: gravity of the situation to the att
Page 100 and 101: On 13 th December, 1934 an unusuall
Page 102 and 103: employed by those who demand the ad
Page 104 and 105: concerning the right for the workin
Page 106 and 107: come relief to a grateful people an
Page 108 and 109: vance towards the goal of the Feder
Page 110 and 111: members of the Council. Mr. Marrysh
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Page 114 and 115: Unofficial Majority on the Legislat
Page 116 and 117: tional reform movement in this Pres
Page 118 and 119: combine to give the Closer Union Sc
Page 120 and 121: prominent part in marking the close
Page 122 and 123: when the slaves were set free, and
Page 124 and 125: The people in those days took it fo
Page 126 and 127: Sugar Factory workers were “chast
Page 128 and 129: At West Farm the marchers were prev
Page 130 and 131: Some of the men, it was alleged, we
Page 132 and 133: gear was damaged and the employees
Page 134 and 135: Inspector of Police and Magistrate
Page 136 and 137: H.M.S. Leander arrived in the port
Page 140 and 141: 16 THE FIRST ELECTION The clash of
Page 142 and 143: opposed to it. The 1936 Constitutio
Page 144 and 145: important matter, I promise the Ele
Page 146 and 147: could have no better representative
Page 148 and 149: whether it was a fact that the St.
Page 150 and 151: existing, it is not considered that
Page 152 and 153: 17 THE 1938 ROYAL COMMISSION The 19
Page 154 and 155: A: Any law-abiding citizen over 16
Page 156 and 157: appeared and presented the case of
Page 158 and 159: 18 A STAKE IN THE COUNTRY Land owne
Page 160 and 161: culture and Commercial Society. The
Page 162 and 163: After this, the land would vest abs
Page 164 and 165: age. In the following month, Januar
Page 166 and 167: 19 MARCUS GARVEY IN ST. KITTS St. K
Page 168 and 169: When he made man he said, ‘By the
Page 170 and 171: oil underneath his feet. Englishmen
Page 172 and 173: is a little four-page newspaper. Yo
Page 174 and 175: provided the major portion of the e
Page 176 and 177: which should be paid for the variou
Page 178 and 179: In April 1969 the Minister of Labou
Page 180 and 181: 21 POWER OF THE PRESS During first
Page 182 and 183: Commission headed by Sir Charles Fe
Page 184 and 185: President wrote, The issues are too
Page 186 and 187: the sea. The effects were terrible
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mendous crowd packed the Mutual Imp
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territory, the success of the past
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the notice, was that employees were
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