Caribbean Liberators: Bold and Black Personalities and Organizations 1900-1989

This ambitious research monograph discusses key individuals (George Padmore, Eric Williams, C.L.R.James among others) and organizations (particularly Labor and liberation movements) in the Anglophone Caribbean world from the perspective of contemporary political and economic Caribbean realities. Particular attention is paid to the Pan-African Movement and its linking of Black Africa and the diasporic Black world of the British West Indies. Colonial Office policies of the period are discussed along with attempts by local and international economic interests during and after both World Wars to control events and thwart labor and independence movements. New research ground is broken regarding the small fierce Communist Party in the islands and Comintern efforts to develop media and labor control of specific islands. Afro-American influence in popular political culture and its political and social effect on organizations in the islands is also discussed along with the many organizational links with key Afro-American newspapers such as The Crisis, Chicago Defender, The Negro Worker, and the Baltimore Afro-American. Widespread migration to the US by islanders in investigated as part of the evolving reappraisal of West Indians as potential free citizens of independent entities under democratic (as opposed elite) institutions.