ESSAY: British Imperialism in the West Indies, George Padmore, 1938

Editors, The Black Agenda Review

10 May 2023

In 1938, Pan-Africanist George Padmore called for the West Indian toiling masses to fight against British imperialism and for self-determination. Almost a century later, the Caribbean still suffers, self-determination is still a dream, and the Crown still reigns – now with Charles in charge.

The grotesque medieval spectacle that was the coronation of “King” Charles is an egregious, bare-fisted insult to all those African people around the world who suffered, and continue to suffer, from the crimes of slavery and colonialism under the British Crown. The celebration of the coronation of Charles by some African people around the world is a nasty reminder that mental slavery still continues and the Negro mind has yet to be decolonized. What is there to celebrate? A sallow, curdled, amoral, and imbred family of ne’er-do-wells who live off the public purse and reap the benefits of centuries of slavery and savagery, genocide and degeneracy?

Of Charles’ namesakes – Charles I and Charles II – the first Charles authorized the trade in African people to the Americas, the second Charles expanded that trade. While Charles I was knocked off the absolute monarchical perch and publicly beheaded, ending once and for all the belief in the Divine Right of Kings, the latest Charlie continues to inherit the African dividends of his predecessors. (Yo, Chuck: The South Africans want their stolen diamond, “The Great Star of Africa,” back immediately!)

Even Harry and Meghan, the family’s California exiles, have been infected by the royal pox: they are narcissistic blood leeches who have confessed to the mass slaughter of Brown folk while complaining to Oprah Winfrey and anyone else who will listen about a litany of racist regal microaggressions. Boo fucking hoo. If they were really progressive, they would renounce their name, their fortunes, and their embarrassing Netflix series. Good luck with that.

In any case, the whole majestical lot of them represent an outmoded and anachronistic social form. Their sole functions are, on one hand, to create Brand Britain for gullible American tourists who would otherwise have no reason to visit that cold and dreary northern Atlantic island. And on the other, to serve as the gold-lacquered consorts for the super-charged finance capitalism of the global super-elite and of their wealthier royal counterparts around the world. Yet while the British royals are mere stooges – court jesters in their own court – we are the ones who get duped, never seeing a red penny of reparations money and, in some cases, still subject to their mephitic and gangrenous rule.

In 1938, a century after the end of slavery, Black and Brown people in the British West Indies had become sick and tired of colonial rule and the local lackeys who enforced it. As George Padmore wrote in an incisive essay in the Workers Age: “the people of Trinidad and other West-Indian colonies are still smarting under a number of economic and social grievances which are becoming aggravated by the autocratic methods of administrators. It is high time for a fundamental change along the road of self-determination. This is the task which history has placed on the toiling masses of the West Indies, Indians as well as Negroes, for the West Indian bourgeoisie is one of the most reactionary colonial ruling classes and will never make any concessions unless forced to.”

And yet. Almost a century later, the Caribbean still suffers, self-determination is still a dream, and the Crown still reigns – now with Charles in charge, with that insufferable marionette shaped from beaver pelts and blood diamonds, dandruff and stank-breath, surveying his ill-gotten wealth from his golden throne, scratching his Crown Jewels, and waving his royal scepter at his family’s sanguinary past and our collective misfortune. It is high time for him to go. In the meantime, you can read George Padmore’s essay below.

British Imperialism in the West Indies

George Padmore

Despite the appointment of a Royal Commission to inquire into labor conditions in Trinidad, the general political situation in that colony is going from bad to worse. The authorities have proposed the enactment of a new Sedition Bill; public open-air meetings are being prohibited; newspaper editors are threatened with prosecution; British troops have been landed to garrison the industrial centers of the island; a sum of money has been voted for the purpose of arming a special middle-class volunteer force in order to protect vested interests; while several trade union leaders, including Uriah Butler, president of the British Empire Workers and Citizens Home Rule Party, have been arraigned before he Criminal Assizes on charges of murder, sedition and incitement to riot. A wave of official terrorism and intimidation is sweeping over the country.

West Indian workers, Negroes as well as East Indians, are among the worst paid laborers in the world and, in consequence, their standard of living is extremely low. In recent years, their conditions have become almost intolerable, due to unemployment and the rising cost of living. Unorganized and without any political rights, they have been unable to obtain any form of social relief.

Last May, Captain Cipriani, president of the Trinidad Labor Party and an elected member of the Legislative Council was appointed by the government as one of the two representatives of the colony to the Coronation. During his absence, the employers, especially those on the oilfields, started to rationalize industry and the workers, goaded into desperation, declared a strike on June 19th. Immediately the strike was declared, the managers of the companies called upon the government to assist them in crushing the strike. Police were dispatched from Port of Spain to the center of the oil industry. On arrival there they began to beat up the strikers and to drive them off the oilfields. In a class, ten workers were killed and sixteen wounded.

Despite all the military display which the government mobilized to intimate the people, the strikers refused to return to work until their grievances were redressed. By that time, the strike was island-wide. Thousands of East Indian agricultural laborers on the great sugar plantations refused to work. Motor transport in many parts of the country had to stop for want of petrol; ships arriving in the harbor of Port of Spain were unable to discharge their cargoes. The entire economic life of the country was at a standstill.

Alarmed at the tremendous wastage of petroleum on the oilfields, the companies decided to negotiate with the strike leaders. The government, however, obstructed negotiations by threatening to arrest Butler, the strike leader, who had gone into hiding. The police, bent upon getting their man, went to the extent of offering £100 to any worker who would betray their leader. The strikers, however, spurned this offer and appointed a delegation to confer with the employers. After much haggling, the companies agreed to certain of their demands and the men went back to work.

The government departments, especially the public works, also increased the pay of their workers and institute and eight-hour day. Even the scavengers employed by the City Council of Port of Spain received an increase in wages.

Reactionary Drive

Inspired by their success, the workers began to organize trade unions for the first time in the history of the island in order to safeguard their gains and to press for the right of collective bargaining. But, as was to be expected, the employers, who are organized into a powerful Chamber of Commerce, bitterly opposed trade unionism, denouncing the unions as unlawful bodies, hot-beds of sedition and Bolshevism, and would have no dealings with them. On the other hand, the government, while recognizing the unions, has adopted a policy which, if continued , will reduce their effectiveness and usefulness in defending the economic interests of the workers.

In order to stifle all criticism, the first thing the governor did was to impose a censorship upon the press during the strike and to threaten native editors with summary imprisonment if they dared to comment upon the military measures he had adopted, and especially the hunt which the police, aided by marines and volunteers, had started for British and other strike leaders. Entire villages were rounded up and house-to-house searches carried out.

Since then, a more direct move to curb the activity of the unions by denying them the possibility of public assembly has been made. Then, at a meeting of the Legislative Council on November 13, a body whose majority are government officials and nominees of the governor, representing vast interests, such as oil, agriculture, commerce, etc., a new sedition ordinance received its first reading. Three days later, to coincide with the opening of the trial of Butler and other trade-union leaders before the Criminal Assizes, the governor ordered H.M.S. York to Port of Spain and brought a company of Sherwood Foresters from Bermuda by Canadian government steamer, as a “salutary gesture” to the populace. And, to add insult to injury, the maintenance of these troops will be borne by the taxpayers.

Struggle Against British Imperialism

Intimidation has reached such a stage that even members of the Legislative Council cannot open their mouths without running the risk of being jailed. For example, at a recent meeting of the Legislative Council the governor, in addition to the maintenance of the British garrison, voted the sum of $51,000 for rearming the volunteer and local focus, on the excuse that it is necessary for the colony to prepare itself against foreign invasion. Captain Cipriani, however, objected to the expenditure of such a large sum up military purposes at a time when the workers are suffering from economic depression. He described the measure as class legislation, arming the forces to quell labor unrest in the interests of the employers. The governor took objection to Cipriani’s statement and said he would refer the matter to the Attorney-General, adding the warning that there was no privilege to members of the Legislative Council.

Mr. Lloyd Smith, a native journalist and editor of the Sunday Chronicle, is being charged with sedition for publishing a letter signed by an ex-civil servant, alleged to be derogatory to the service. Mr. Smith will appear before the next Criminal Assizes.

A similar wave of repression is sweeping over the island of Barbados, near Trinidad, also recently the scene of labor disturbances. A number of workers’ leaders are now being charged before the Criminal Assizes with sedition and rebellion. The trial of all the accused has not been completed, but one man by the name of Ulric Grant has been sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment for taking part in a demonstration of unemployed in Bridgetown, during which six workers were shot and several wounded. Marines were also landed on the island.

After 140 years of Crown Colony rule, the people of Trinidad and other West-Indian colonies are still smarting under a number of economic and social grievances which are becoming aggravated by the autocratic methods of administrators. It is high time for a fundamental change along the road of self-determination. This is the task which history has placed on the toiling masses of the West Indies, Indians as well as Negroes, for the West Indian bourgeoisie is one of the most reactionary colonial ruling classes and will never make any concessions unless forced to.

It is the duty of British socialists and trade unionists to help these colonial workers.

George Padmore, “British Imperialism in the West Indies,” Workers Age 7 no. 10 (March 5, 1938)

British empire

Caribbean

West Indies

Charles III

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