Trade Union Development

Trade Union Development in Jamaica & Trinidad & Tobago

Trade Unionism: Hugh W. Springer
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Trade Unionism is an instrument of social change and progress. It had to be invented because it is a necessary part of the apparatus of democratic government in modern industrial society. In the West Indies the Trade Union Movement came into existence as part of the larger movement for the freedom and independent nationhood.

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Economic Conditions that contributed to Discontentment in the Region
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1st Great Depression late 19th Century Low Wages / Increased mechanisation of processes (affected mostly women) Rising Prices / Rising Cost of Living Increasing Unemployment & Underemployment Reduction in Working Hours 1929 Financial Crisis in the USA Other:
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No Machinery to air grievances Lack of political and legal rights Unsanitary working conditions

Role of the Media
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Dissemination of information that reached the masses (Newspapers) but National Newspaper promoted capitalist interests Audio and Visual information through Radio broadcast and news reels at cinemas Case: A group of intellectuals developed a radical critique that help to shape a new political culture in Trinidad, they did so through
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A literary journal called Trinidad The beacon magazine There was also a similar type of vehicle used in Jamaica called the Plain Talk, a Garveyite weekly newspaper edited by Alfred Mendez & Public Opinion used by local intellectuals to write letters and articles

World Events as well as Social Factors that Contributed to Greater Levels of Consciousness at a Regional Level attacks on the Abyssinians – aroused anti-white feelings among the blacks
Italian The

repatriation of Labourers who had gone to Latin America

Marcus

Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association - which increased class solidarity and the advocacy of Trade Unionism as well as it contributed to the spread of Marxist ideas –

References:       On the March: Labour rebellion in the British Caribbean, 1934-1939 – O. Nigel Bolland The Politics of Labour in the British Caribbean: The Social Origins of Authoritarianism and Democracy in the Labour Movement – O. Nigel Bolland Rise and Organise: The Birth of the Workers and National Movement in Jamaica – Richard Hart Report of the West India Commission – The Moyne Commission Labour Education in the British Caribbean ed. Rawle Farley – education for Trade Unionist Trade Unionism and Industrial Relations in the Commonwealth Caribbean: History, Contemporary Practice and Prospect – Lawrence Nurse