Bibliography

1. The Caribbean People Book 4, Lennox

Honychurch, Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1995.
2. The Colonial Caribbean in Transition ‘Essays on
Post-Emancipation Social and Cultural History’,
Edited by Brigit Brereton and Kevin A. Yelvington,
The Press ,University of the West Indies,1999.
3. Topics in West Indian history, A. Garcia, Harap
London in association with Columbus publishers
limited Trinidad 1970.
4. The Journal of Caribbean History, Michael
Craton, Neville Hall, Bridget Brereton (contributors)
,Heinemann Educational Books (Caribbean) Ltd. ,
1980.
5. Caribbean Story Book2, William Claypole John
Robottom, Pearson Education Limited, 2001.
Table of contents
1 Cover Page
2 Table of contents
3 Question
4 Summary
5- Subject
14
1 Conclusion
5
1 Appendix
6
1 Bibliography
7
Appendix

Michael Manley

Sir Alexander Bustamante

After organizing the first labor union in Jamaica in 1938, Alexander Bustamante went on to
found the Jamaica Labor Party in 1946. Elected Jamaica’s first prime minister when the country
gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1962, Bustamante aligned Jamaica politically
with the United States.

.
Appendix
 The reasons for unrest in the British
West Indies
As tempers began to rise among the workers of
the Caribbean, the world was facing an economic
crisis in the 1930s which shook the finance industry
and commerce of every nation. The effects of this
crisis were disastrous for sugar prices, because the
world wide depression in trade which followed hit
the sugar estates and factories in the West Indies.
The spark which triggered this chain of events was
set off in a wall street, New York, in October, 1929.
Wall Street is one of was one of the world’s major
centers of business. It is the site of the New York
Stock Exchange, where people buy and sell shares in
industrial and trading companies. By 1920 the
United States was a powerful Industrial nation, but
the giant companies which controlled this industrial
boom were only owned by a small percentage of the
population. While the business tycoons were getting
richer, the workers in the factories were poorly paid;
the farmers were not receiving fair prices for their
crops and therefore the mass of people did not have
enough money to buy what the factories were
producing. Soon the factories came to a standstill
and the workers were laid off their jobs. That was
when panic hit Wall Street.
Investors rushed to sell to shares which they held
in the failing companies, people rushed to the banks
for money and withdrew their savings. Companies
went bankrupt overnight and many banks closed.
The effects of the Wall Street Crash, also known as
the Great Crash, spread to the industry in Europe,
because many European countries depended on the
United States for credit and trade. This was the cause
of a world-wide slump in commerce, a period of
modern history which was called the Depression.
During the Depression millions of workers in the
United States and Europe were unemployed. Their
workplaces were shut, they had no wages and most
of them had to line up for food rations. The factories
which imported crops and raw materials from
Africa, Asia, South America and the Caribbean
could not afford to pay profitable prices and this was
how the depression affected West Indian sugar
estates. The prices of major exports were almost
halved between 1929 and 1933 and workers were
forced to submit to drastic wage cuts, increased
taxation and unemployment.
This crisis added to the discontent already
evident in the Caribbean. There was an aggressive
mood among the workers and a spirit of
determination to redress their grievances by some
sort of action. The frustration had been building up
for some years and the disturbances which followed
were often sparked off by some minor incident; a
rise in tram fares, the political figure. It was a case
of the last straw which breaks the camels back.
Events in the world outside the workers’ own
small communities added fuel to the flames. Not
only were the labour leaders speaking about the
plight of other workers abroad, but the radio
broadcasts were received by the West Indies for the
first time during the 1930s, bringing up to date world
news to the region.
The effect of these developments was clearly
shown in the case of the Abyssinian war. In 1935 the
fascist dictator of Italy, Benito Mussolini, ordered
am armed invasion of Abyssinia, the country we
now know as Ethiopia. It was expected that Britain
would come to the defence of the independent
African nation, but the British government of the
time did nothing and Abyssinia was conquered by
the Italians. This disturbed the people all over the
British Empire. As one member of the British
parliament pointed out: ‘I am afraid that the moment
we are choosing for the recognition of Abyssinia
(under the Italians) will not benefit our authority
among many millions of the kings coloured
subjects.’
He was right. People in the Caribbean said that
Britain had let them down. They looked on the issue
as a matter of colour, protesting that because
Abyssinia was a black nation Britain allowed the
Italians to do whatever they wished. When riots
occurred in Barbados in 1937 the Abyssinian war
was included among the list of causes. Grantley
Adams the spokesman, for the workers, made this
clear when he out lined the reasons for the riots:
‘Fundamentally, the main cause was economic.
The people felt their wages were at starvation level.
They would not have raided potato fields if there
were not stark poverty. The price of food stuffs was
unnecessarily high and there was acute distress
owing to widespread unemployment. The Italio-
Abyssinian war had a great deal to do with the
matter. For the first time in my experience, people
were beginning to talk “white” against “black”.’
That statement sums up the problems of the
decade – poverty and economic and political crises.
The disturbances made business men, officials,
planters and the British government take notice, for
the people demanding that something must be done.
Many people, farmers and planters alike were
weary. Before they started working on the crop the
cane cutters wanted to be assured of an increase of
wages. The management refused and a group of
workers marched around the island calling on every
one to strike. The mood of defiance spread quickly
and suddenly exploded when a manager fired upon a
protesting crowd, wounding three.
The people reacted violently in blind anger,
police were called in, and they fired on the crowd
killing three and wounding eight. The governor
called for a warship of the royal navy to give a show
of force. Large numbers of strikers were arrested and
within a few days the plantations were back in
action, but the employers refused to increase wages
 St Vincent was the next scene of unrest, in
October 1935 when the people rioted against a plan
to increase custom duties. This would make
imported food and dry goods even more expensive.
The governor would not yield to the pleas of the
Vincentians and when rioting began a state of
emergency was declared and the newspapers were
censored, to prevent the matter being given
publicity. A warship arrived and in the disturbances
which followed three people was killed and 26
injured.
A moment was born out of the rioting, in the
formation of a Workingmen’s Association which
demanded land settlement and changes in the
constitution.
St Lucia was not an important sugar island, nor
was there any other industries, but the Port of
Castries was one of the principle coaling stations in
the region. Coal fueled steamships docked here to be
loaded by tons and tons of coal, carried into the
holds of the ships by hundred of woman porters.
There had often been minor strikes among the
coal workers but the most serious occurred around
the end of 1935. The events n St Vincent was still
fresh in everyone’s minds and the governor also
decided on a show of force in St Lucia. He
summoned a warship paraded police and volunteer
force, and ordered night patrols of Castries. A
committee set up for the purpose reported that no
wage increases could be granted. As in St Kitts, the
matter rested there, in spite of continued
dissatisfaction. Two years later, when agricultural
labourers went on strike, similar force was used to
quell the strikers. The first St Lucians workers’
union was formed in 1939 and was registered the
following year as St Lucia Workers’ Co-operative.
Barbados was still dominated by the planter class. In
business, social life and politics the large plantation
owners and merchants of bridge town held sway.
There were some coloured members in the assembly,
but until 1937 they held little impact.
In March of that year a man called Clement Payne
arrived in Barbados from Trinidad. He was the son
of Barbadian parents, but had been born in Trinidad.
There he had picked up the ideas on workers’
organizations and strike action. As soon as he
arrived in Barbados from Trinidad Payne had told
the immigration officials that he had been born in
Barbados, and he was now charged with having
made a false statement and willfully lying about his
place of birth. Amidst wide spread protest from his
followers in Barbados, Payne was found guilty. He
appealed and was defended by a successful young
lawyer, Grantley Adams. The case was quashed, but
an order was issued for Payne to be deported and
Adams was unable to prevent this.
When his supporters learnt that Payne had been put
upon a steam ship without their knowledge their
anger overflowed. They swept through Bridgetown
in disorganized mobs, smashing motor cars, shop
windows and street lamps. They showered the police
with bottles and stones and as the news spread into
the countryside hungry estate workers raided potato
fields. British warships were summoned to restore
order and the police were ordered to use guns.
Fourteen were killed, 47 wounded and over 400
were arrested.
The shock of these riots stunned Barbados. The
society could no longer quietly accept the poverty in
its midst. An official commission of enquiry pointed
to the root cause of the trouble as being poverty and
unemployment. The Colonial Office pushed the
local government to correct the imbalances by
providing workmen compensation, old age pensions,
minimum wages and enacting trade union laws.
The unrest caused the middle and working class
Barbadians to be more active in trade unionism and
politics. In 1938 the Barbados Progressive League
was formed under the leadership of C. A.
Braithwaite. Grantly Adams, the lawyer who
defended Payne, now came to the forefront of
Barbadian politics. Adams was born in St Michael in
1898 and went to school at Harrison College. He
went on to study law at the British University of
Oxford and when he returned to Barbados he worked
successfully as a barrister at law and entered politics.
Like other ‘liberals’ at the time, Adams was willing
to follow a gradual path to change, but the events of
1937 made him realize that he should become more
involved with the mass of the people. He led the
Progressive League for a time, and the Barbados
Labour Party and the Barbados Workers’ Union
were founded under his guidance. Both
organizations still play a vital role in the political
and industrial life of the island.
 Guyana was the first colony to register a trade
union. Hubert Critchlow was still active when the
Depression of the 1930s hit the Guyanese sugar
industry. Most of the sugar workers were east
Indians, and because of their sense of national and
cultural solidarity they were united when the time
for action came. In 1935 agricultural labourers
struck for better wages, but there was no violence as
in other colonies. They did not receive an immediate
increase in wages, but the authorities saw the need
for an organization to be set up to mediate between
the workers and their employers.
Manpower and Citizens Association was formed
in 1936. A number of trade unions sprang up during
this period, representing miners of bauxite,
diamonds and gold, transport workers on the trains
and inland waterways, civil service unions and
unions representing waterfront workers.
Trinidad was the only colony that did not depend
wholly on agriculture. The oil industry was started in
1908 and by 1935 it accounted for almost 60% of the
island’s exports. However, there were still many
workers employed on sugar and cocoa estates.
Trinidad was a pioneer in trade union activity. Under
Cipriani’s leadership a trade union and a political
party had been formed, but the oil workers in the
south were prepared for more radical action and in
1935 the storm broke.
The leader of the workers was Uriah ‘Buzz’
Butler a Grenadian who worked in the oil fields. He
was also a preacher in the Pentecostal church and
called himself ‘The Chief Servant of the Lord’.
Butler mixed emotional religious sermons with
political ideas and in this way exerted a strong hold
on his fellow workers. His style was new to West
Indian politics and he was among the first to gain
mass support by using heated street meetings and
fiery picong or almost slanderous language to excite
the working class. Naturally this was viewed with
alarm by the authorities and even members of the
Trinidad Labour Party.
When Butler led a ‘hunger march’ of 120 men
from the oil fields in the south to Port-of-Spain in
1935, he was expelled from the Labour Party, but he
quickly formed his own group the British Empire
Workers Citizens Home Rule Party. Supporters
flocked to become members and to attend Butler’s
vibrant meetings. His followers sang about their
party leader:
‘We never went to college
But butler gave us knowledge -‘
The party was strong in the oil belt and Butler now
felt powerful enough to call a sit-down strike to
protest against low wages and certain cases of
victimization.
On 19 June, 1937 every single worker on the oil
fields laid down his tools. Their action was soon
followed by field labourers and some workers of
Port-of-Spain. All would have remained calm had
the police not tried to arrest Butler while he was
addressing a public meeting. A number of officers
came forward to take him away, but before they
could touch him Butler turned to the excited crowd
and asked them if they were going to let the arrest
take place. ‘No! No!’ they shouted back and fell
upon the policemen.
The police were overpowered, butler escaped,
and the incident gave the signal for a general
uprising. A police officer was shot, another was
burned to death, and rioting spread through the
district. The governor called for warships of the
Royal Navy and the marines who were landed
helped the police quell the riots, but not before 14
people were killed, 59 wounded and hundreds
arrested.
While butler was in prison his ideas were
influencing other leaders of the workers in the
Caribbean, men like Clement Payne who carried the
seeds of protest to Barbados. When Butler was
released he reentered politics and ran for election to
legislature in 1946. This was the first time general
election was held in Trinidad. Butler was defeated
but eventually won a seat in 1950, yet it is not as a
member of the legislature that Uriah Butler was
remembered, but as a trade union agitator who led
the workers of Trinidad.
Jamaica had always been a restless colony
(recalling the slave revolts of the eighteenth century
and the Morant bay rebellion). In 1937 the
Jamaicans shared the same problems as their fellow
West Indians to the south. Besides the drop in sugar
prices, Jamaica’s valuable banana industry suffered
from Panama Disease during the 1930s. There were
even greater numbers of unemployed labourers in
Kingston and the villages.
In January 1938, news spread that workers were
needed at a large new sugar factory at Frome
Plantation, owned by the British company of Tate &
Lyle. The unemployed from all over the island went
to the factory hoping for jobs, but there was only
work for a few of the thousands who came asking
for it. Angry men attacked some estate overseers and
the police opened fire killing four persons and
wounding nine. Rioting spread to the Kingston
waterfront and the dock workers went on strike.
Workers on a housing scheme were attacked by
jobless men who felt there should be work for all,
and everywhere people came out in angry bands
attacking shops and cars. Once again the police used
force and eight persons were killed, 171 wounded
and over 700 arrested. Jamaica was caught in a grip
of a general strike, but workers were leaderless.
In the midst of this unrest a leader emerged. He
was William Alexander Bustamante, born in 1884
of an Irish father and a Jamaican mother. He lived
abroad for many years and had worked in Spain,
Cuba, Latin America, Canada and the United States.
On returning home, he set himself up in a business
as a money lender. When the militia and police were
called to quell the rioters in 1938, Bustamante left
his office in Kingston and put himself at the head of
the demonstrators. He toured the country holding
meetings and soon became the accepted leader of the
workers. He formed a trade union of which he
became life president: the Bustamante Industrial
Trade Union. That same year ‘Busta’, as he was
popularly called, was arrested on a charge of
sedition, which means inciting unlawful acts.
Thanks to his cousin, Norman Washington
Manley, ‘Busta’ was not brought to trial. Manley,
like Bustamante, was born or mixed parentage in
1893. As a student min college he was an
outstanding scholar and athlete. Like Grantley
Adams, he studied law at oxford. He saw active
service during the First World War and was called to
the bar in 1921. Together they worked together in
Jamaica helping to restore order and promising
conditions would be improved. But things were not
quite back to normal. Early in the Second World
War Bustamante, like Butler in Trinidad, was
interned as a danger to the state and was held in
custody in 1942, when he was released.
 As else where, the unrest in Jamaica gave rise to
greater political awareness and the formation of
political parties and workers’ movements. In
September 1938, Bustamante and Manley founded
the Peoples National Party. Unfortunately there were
differences between the two founders, and after his
release from custody in 1942 Bustamante formed the
Jamaica Labour Party. This was in fact the political
wing of this trade union. The PNP and the JLP still
dominate Jamaican political life today.

The immediate results

Growth of Trade Unionism
 An important result of the unrest was the rapid growth of trade
unionism. One of the greatest handicaps of the strikers had been the
absence of organizations for the effective collective bargaining, although
there were unions of a sort, for instance the Working Men’s Association
in Antigua and Trinidad. In the latter island, though a trade union
ordinance was passed in1932, trade unions as such did not come into
existence until after the Fyzabad riots five years later; the well-being of
the labourers depended almost entirely on the goodwill of employers
rather than on machinery for negotiations and other conditions of
employment. The riot unions and the membership rapidly increased;
between 1938 and 1945 over sixty unions were formed in the British
West Indies.

New Political Parties Formed

A second important result in many of the colonies was an equally
rapid growth of political parties out of trade unionism. In Jamaica, from
Bustamante’s Industrial Trade Union Council; in 1938 Manley launched
the socialist People’s National Party that was later closely associated
with the Trade Union Council. (In Trinidad there was no such alliance
between trade unions and political parties.) Political parties demanded
social and economic improvements the abolition of crown colony
government, and the granting of new constitutions and responsible
government.

Lord Moyne’s Commission.

£35million Grant Made
The unrest in the British West Indies led to the dispatch of a Royal
Commission in august 1938 under Lord Moyne, to study socio-
economic conditions and make recommendations. As a result the British
government gave over thirty-five million pounds to be spent on Colonial
development and welfare in these parts.

Conclusion
There were many causes to the unrest
experienced