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

Grenada, and will seek to work in association with existing progressive
political institutions through out the West Indies.
Indeed this was the first national organization in the British
Caribbean. It was designed to weld the interests of all the islands together
and to provide a machinery for collective action. The West Indian
National League incorporated all of the forward-looking elements in
the region with nationhood as the goal. The Labour organisation in various
Islands became branches of the West Indian National League. The
St .Kitts Workers League was the local branch. The Workingmens Association
of Antigua, Grenada, Trinidad and St. Vincent, as well as the
taxpayers reform association of Dominica and Montserrat, along with
other territorial Labour units, were all organised into the broad-based
West Indian National league.
A united Caribbean voice called for the widening of the scope
of the Closer Union Commission to include the question of selfdetermination.
Requests for effective control over public affairs had
gone forward many times and the response of the British Colonial office
had been disappointing. The leaders prepared for any eventuality before
they rose from the conference table in Dominica. They finalised
the plan of action with regard to the Closer Union Commission which
was to be sent from London in 1932 to deal with the amalgamation of
the Leewards, Windwards and Trinidad. Part of the strategy was to
prepare every island for the arrival of the Commission so that pressure
on the London team could be applied in every way from the outset.
The chief weapon was to be the boycott. The line to be taken
was set down in the Conference report: It was agreed that provided
that the terms of reference of the Closer Union Commission were extended
so as to include a constitutional advance towards selfgovernment,
a delegation, representative of the conference, should meet
the commission at each Island to urge that the recommendations of the
conference be implemented; but that unless the terms of the conference
be widened to include this subject, no conference delegation should
meet the Commission.
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