Seeds of Caribbean co-operation

Jerome Teelucksingh

IF WE are asked to give illustrations of Caribbean unity or co-operation, some of us might say Carnival or cricket. There are other examples that are often overlooked.

Evidence of West Indian integration include professional organisations and institutions. One of the earliest professional organisations was the Associated Chambers of Commerce of the West Indies (1917), which promoted trade among the colonies and sought to develop inter-island transport.

There were others, such as the West Indies and British Guiana Teachers’ Union, which was formed in 1935. Its first president was TE Beckles of the Trinidad Teachers’ Union.

Similarly, the first West Indian press conference was held in January 1929 in Barbados. Among the representatives in attendance was TA Marryshow of the West Indian in Grenada, ARF Webber of the New Daily Chronicle in British Guiana, and one delegate from the Voice of St Lucia.

Few know of the Civil Service Federation, formed in 1944, which fought against the colour bar in the colonial service and encouraged the unification of the civil service in the English-speaking Caribbean.

Other institutions that serviced the Caribbean included the West Indies Agricultural College (established in 1921), later renamed the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture, and then UWI. Also promoting regional co-operation were the Caribbean Bar Association and the West Indian Meteorological Service.

Trade unions and working-class organisations also advanced the integration process with their initiatives to create a West Indian working class entity. The quest for a "confederation of labour" received expression through regional co-operation among working-class organisations aided by mutual visits of labour officials to the various colonies.

Labour groups in Trinidad and Grenada had established links. This was primarily through the valiant efforts of Capt Arthur Cipriani and the Trinidad Workingmen’s Association (TWA), later renamed the Trinidad Labour Party. Marryshow acknowledged that the Grenada Workingmen’s Association (GWA) was founded as a result of Cipriani’s initiative.

Fraternal relations among working-class leaders laid the foundations for an informal network of labour in the Caribbean.

In 1932, Marryshow and Cipriani, motivated by the urgency to mobilise labour in the Caribbean, visited St Kitts, where they encouraged workers to form organisations similar to the TWA and GWA. Subsequently, the St Kitts Workers’ League was formed as a working-class organisation, but also to function for the promotion of political and social reform.

On August 3, 1936, Marryshow visited St Vincent at the invitation of George McIntosh, president of the St Vincent Workingmen’s Association (SVWCA). In his address at a labour rally of 3,000-4,000 people, Marryshow encouraged the working class there to promote programmes for the advancement of labour, but also to actively support the efforts of labour leaders in the quest for self-government.

The need for a confederation of labour organisations in the West Indies was raised at the first British Labour Commonwealth Conference, held in England in 1925. The conference was hosted by the British Labour Party (BLP) and the Trades Union Congress (TUC), with participants from England, Ireland, Canada, South Africa and British Guiana (now Guyana).

Hubert Critchlow, president of the British Guiana Labour Union (BGLU), represented the Caribbean. Before his departure for England, Critchlow visited Trinidad, where he secured the support of the labour movement.

At that Commonwealth conference, he made an appeal for labour legislation in the West Indian colonies to address problems of low wages, long working hours and the high cost of living.

Indeed, one of the resolutions approved at the conference related to the need to establish a 48-hour week and workmen’s compensation law in all the colonies.

Critchlow invited the BLP and the TUC to visit British Guiana to attend the annual BGLU conference in January 1926. That conference, held at the Georgetown Public Buildings, was convened to initiate a campaign to foster closer collaboration among trade unions in the Caribbean.

A major resolution of the conference called for the formation of the Guianese and West Indian Federation of Trade Unions and Labour Parties with responsibility for the consolidation of efforts and the co-operation of the various labour organisations in the British West Indian colonies.

This could successfully be achieved through the formation of a common Caribbean labour agency to serve the region, particularly in producing solutions for common labour problems.

In the 21st century, civil, educational, legal and business organisations could learn from these past efforts and continue building multiple platforms of regional co-operation and unity.