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

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.
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