Claudia Jones reminds us of the progressive potential of the failed West Indies Federation. But her analysis unwittingly anticipated the rise of its bourgeois descendant, CARICOM.
The West Indies Federation was a short-lived (3 January 1958 - 31 May 1962) political union of British-ruled West Indian colonies. Established by the British Caribbean Federation Act of 1956 and headed by an Executive Governor-General appointed by Britain, the goal of the Federation was to eventually attain independence as a single political unit. Though it tried to consolidate and expand cooperation - establishing a West Indies Shipping Service and the then University College of the West Indies - the Federation was undermined by internal division about the nature of the political unit and concerns over governance (especially since its governance structure was imposed by the British). It collapsed in 1962 soon after Jamaica withdrew, followed by Trinidad and Tobago.
As Claudia Jones argued in a 1958 essay in Political Affairs, the formation wasn’t perfect. It was caught between US imperialism and UK colonialism while its political engine was shifting from the working masses who carried the spirit of the labor rebellions and calls for sovereignty from the 1930s, to a more cerebral and bureaucratic force in an emerging class of bourgeois intellectuals. But for a moment, the potential for a new progressive formation was there – until it was not.
Who knows what the Caribbean might have looked like if the West Indies Federation had not collapsed?
We would argue that we actually do know: CARICOM. The Organization of Caribbean states, better known as CARICOM, is precisely the kind of Caribbean political organization that Jones unwittingly anticipated in 1958. Devoid of the political spirit and radicalism of the working masses, CARICOM is what we get when the state is taken over by a non-revolutionary neocolonial national bourgeoisie. These days, CARICOM acts like it is little more than a tool of imperialism. We need only look at its leaders’ role in pushing the U.S. and western imperial call for an illegal foreign military invasion of Haiti.
Though Haiti was reluctantly admitted as a member in 2002, CARICOM treats the proud Black country with its almost 12 million strong population, as an inferior subordinate rather than an equal. When U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris demand the suppression of Haitian sovereignty, CARICOM leaders shuck and jive, and run to take up Massa’s call.
It is a shame that the West Indies Federation did not survive long enough to become the potentially progressive and effective regional organization that Claudia Jones hoped for. At least we have a model for the struggle to come.
We reprint Claudia Jones’ essay below.
American Imperialism and the British West Indies
Claudia Jones
Claudia Jones, a beloved leader of the Communist Party of the United States, was jailed under the infamous Smith Act, and upon release forced into exile; she is now living in England. The article which follows—one in our series relating the impact of American imperialism in various parts of the world—is especially timely. It was written, as Miss Jones comments, just before the March 25 elections to the Assembly of the West Indian Federation, whose formal appearance as a new member of the community of nations will occur this April—the Editors.
The election on March 25th [1958] of the first Federal Assembly in the West Indies marks a new political stage in the history of the Caribbean. This period will also witness the advancing role of American capital investment in the forthcoming West Indian Federation. Increasing United States economic penetration is not, of course, unrelated to the struggle of the West Indian people for full political and economic independence.
Bearing in mind only highlights: there is the Texaco Oil purchase of Trinidad oil, the growing U.S. investments in Jamaican bauxite, and in British Guiana’s aluminum deposits. Clearly the West Indian Federation is already heavily mortgaged to U.S. export capital. Nor does it appear that this indebtedness to Uncle Sam worries John Bull unduly. Seemingly a sort of family arrangement has been worked out to prevent the burgeoning freedom struggle of the West Indian people from too rapid advancement or “getting out of hand.” While the outward political responsibility remains with Britain, increasingly Washington controls the economic basis of the Federation.
This crucial interconnection was clearly shown when a London Daily Express staff reporter wrote that in talks he had had last October in Washington, a State Department official had pointed out that while American trade is less than half the West Indian trade with Britain, it is growing at a faster rate. And he added:
The islands’ 3,000,000 people offer a reservoir of cheap labor to attract more American capital. A mighty American naval base mushrooming in Trinidad is encouraging the whole dollar flow to the West Indies. The U.S. Defense Department makes no bones about it—the Trinidad base is now regarded as the Caribbean keystone to the Panama Canal. American forces are going to be there for a long time to come and businessmen look on the Trinidad base as a guarantee of military and political stability for the future.
This rather bald face analysis likewise underscores the scandal of Chaguaramas, the Federation’s capital site chosen after examination of other locations by a West Indies Commission. The United States blandly refused to cede Chaguaramas—site of the U.S. Trinidad base—despite questions in Commons as to the original legality of the Churchill-Roosevelt 99-year lease (no legal authority exists for this and the other U.S. military bases in Antigua, St. Lucia and the Bahamas); despite special talks in London last summer between West Indian leaders and British and United States representatives; despite angry criticism of West Indian leaders that not even a by-your-leave request was ever made to the people of Trinidad as to the use of their land; despite an uproarious clamor of protest by important sections of the West Indian and British press criticizing the usual U.S. high-handedness.
The growth of American economic and political influence in the West Indies was facilitated by the establishment in 1942 of an Anglo-American Caribbean Commission, renamed the Caribbean Commission in 1946. Presumably its function was “to advise and consult” the governments concerned on matters pertaining to “labor, agriculture, health, education, social welfare, finance, economics, etc.” But with the help of this Commission, American monopolists have been seizing possession of the natural resources of the West Indies. For example, in 1955, they received the right to exploit the resources of Jamaica. Dominion Oil, a subsidiary of Standard Oil of California, operates in Trinidad. In 1955, Reynolds Metals started mining bauxite in St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica. These projects are financed by the United States government which, in 1951, advanced $1,500,000 for this purpose through the Economic Cooperation Administration. Some idea of the inroads made by American monopolies into the British position may be gleaned from the fact that while British Union Oil spent one million pounds since 1950, prospecting for oil in Barbados, when oil was found, the concession was obtained by Gulf Oil of Pittsburgh.
For Britain, the West Indies is not only a source of cheap food and raw material, it is also a market for her manufactured products. Britain holds a predominant position in West Indian trade. Between 1948-51, she took 43.8 per cent of the total exports of the area and supplied 37.2 percent of her imports. British trade superiority is facilitated by the imperial preference system. But despite all obstacles, American business has penetrated this market. The United States, as of 1955, was taking 7.1 percent of the exports and supplying 17.5 per cent of the imports of the West Indies.
American capital has also penetrated West Indian agriculture. The notorious United Fruit Company owns extensive plantations—in Jamaica alone, 15,000 acres. Through the Royal Bank of Canada and the Canadian Bank of Commerce, which have branches on all the big West Indian islands, American capital exercises its influence on the economic affairs of all the British colonies.
ANGLO-AMERICAN RIVALRY
Anglo-American antagonisms have particularly been reflected around the Federation issue—with Washington distinctly pooh-poohing it. Washington opposes any idea of strengthening Britain’s position in the Caribbean. The U.S., moreover, has systematically encouraged opposition to the British Federation plan by neighbor states in the Latin and Central American Republics and by encouraging the opposition of certain sections of the West Indian bourgeoisie.
The danger of the new West Indies Federation falling into the pit of U.S. imperialist domination cannot be sounded too often. For, faced with the immense task of solving the economic problems of the West Indies (the problem aptly termed by Labor Minister Bradshaw as the “lame foot” of the Federation) many of the present national leaders in the West Indies look increasingly to the U.S. for salvation, based on a one-sided estimate of the relative progress of Puerto Rico and on the hope of a growth of tourism from Americans. A third factor explaining why the dangers of U.S. imperialism are not fully grasped is the leaning among the West Indian masses towards the more prosperous United States—masses in revolt against British imperialism which they see as their ever-present and age-old enemy.
Still a fourth factor is the view of many bourgeois-nationalist West Indian leaders that they can thus tactically bargain between the two imperialisms for greater benefits for the West Indies. Thus, as recently reported in the London Times, the Chief Minister of Jamaica, Norman Manley, publicly denounced the “parsimonious” handouts of the British Government to the Federation. He also criticized the saddling on the Federation of the military contribution of 325,000 West Indian dollars for the West Indian Regiment. Dr. Eric Williams, of Trinidad, has spoken in similar terms. A 200-million pound loan requested as a minimum for a 5-year period to launch the Federation, has not yet been agreed to or satisfactorily settled by the British Government. Yet a recent issue of Trumpet, official organ of the People’s National Party, the government party in Jamaica, revealed that Jamaica received from the U.S.A, a loan of $34 millions—more than the total granted by the Colonial Development Corporation to all the West Indian islands.
MASS STRUGGLE
The struggle of the West Indian people for the right to live and work and for national independence has taken on greater intensity in recent years with the spread of the national liberation movement in the colonial world. It is also one of the evidences of the deepening crisis of the British Empire under the growing influence of the liberation movement in the colonies. Six times since the end of the war the British found it necessary to send punitive expeditions to “restore law and order” in the West Indies. In 1951, when Negro strikers in Grenada (pop. 80,000) demanded that their wages be increased—from 36 to 54 cents a day!—two cruisers, a gunboat, marine and police units went into action. In 1955, following the victory of the Peoples Progressive Party in British Guiana, British Tommies and gunboats invaded British Guiana, deposing its legally elected legislators headed by Dr. Jagan, and revoking its progressive Constitution as a “Communist-inspired coup.” But four years later the people of Guiana, in a victorious mandate despite a party split, re-elected Jagan, and the PPP now holds important elected ministerial posts.Only a few weeks ago, as witnessed in Nassau, Bahamas, the same step was taken when a general strike exposed the shocking conditions under which the 90 per cent colored population live.
The West Indian people have not taken lightly the extensive exploitation of their resources and human labor. Record profits have been declared by domestic and foreign capital interests in the sugar, oil and bauxite industries.
But there have been many instances of working-class resistance: strikes among port workers in Jamaica, the workers of St. Vincent have been heroically struggling to win concessions from arrogant landlords in sugar. Throughout the West Indies, teachers, match workers, waterfront workers were aroused to defend their interests. In Barbados printers and port workers were locked in struggle with the powerful Advocate Printers. In British Guiana the PPP victory forced revocation of reactionary laws which restricted the movement of their leaders. In Trinidad, store clerks, sugar, oil and educational workers have similarly displayed commendable class consciousness in defending their interests in the face of menacing threats from employers and government.
These and other examples make it necessary to be mindful of the astute observation of Mao Tse-tung—namely, that imperialism is not prepared to permit the independent development of any new capitalist state, is out to stultify it, make it impossible for the native capitalist to carry out the bourgeois-democratic revolution. We know, of course, that as its foundations totter, imperialism seeks more flexible methods of governing the colonies and seeks to devise new means to camouflage its rule. Central then to Britain’s desire to revise the status of her West Indian possessions is the spread of the national colonial liberation movement and the deepening crisis she finds herself in.
THE NEW FEDERATION
Exactly what will the Federation mean to the West Indies? To begin with, except for British Guiana, British Honduras and the Bahamas, the remaining 10 British colonial units, composing approximately 3 million people will be federated into a new national structure. This national structure will be comprised of an appointed or nominated Council of State. A bi-cameral legislature will consist of a nominated Senate of 19 members, and a House of Representatives of 45 members. The House is to be elected based on population with Jamaica, representing one-half of the Federation’s population, having 17 members; Trinidad 10; Barbados 6; and 2 each from Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Antigua, St. Kitts, Dominica and one from Montserrat.
A Supreme Court of the Federation is to be established, having original jurisdiction in specified federal or inter-unit matters. It will also have jurisdiction to hear appeals from unit Courts of Appeal and recourse may be had to this court by British Caribbean territories not members of the Federation.
This new federal structure will in no wise substitute for self-government in each unit, where territorial constitutions, already hobbled and proscribed by colonial administrative restrictions, must constantly be improved by the increasing struggles of the people and their political representatives.
Indicative of the measure of this struggle are the constitutional changes in Barbados where since October 1957, a Cabinet Committee excluding the Governor is the main instrument of Government. Similar changes have taken place in Jamaica, where, since November 1957, the Peoples National Party has been successful in its fight to put power in the hands of its Chief Minister, and to exclude the Governor from the Council of Ministers. But responsibility for criminal affairs will still remain within the control of the appointed Attorney-General. Although the Governor will not normally appear in the Council of Ministers, he will still have the right to summon Special Meetings, to preside at them and he will still retain his wide Reserved Powers.
The impact of these advances on other islands was recently summed up when the Bahamas Federation of Labor in the recent general strike demanded: “We want to be governed like our brothers in Trinidad, Barbados and Jamaica.” Still another example of the fight for broader party representation was the sweeping election victory of the Peoples National Movement, headed by Dr. Eric Williams in Trinidad, when the PNM was allowed to name two of the nominated members, thus creating a constitutional precedent.
But these examples are the exceptions rather than the rule. At present in most of the units there exists Legislative Councils of both Nominated and Elected Members and Officials. All the Governor-Generals hold wide Reserved Powers, as will Lord Hailes, new Governor-General of the W. I. Federation, who took office January 3, 1958.
It is no accident in face of this undemocratic system that for years the chief demand of the West Indian political movement and particularly its advanced sectors has been for greater internal self-government for each unit based on wholly elected legislatures.
CONFLICTING VIEWS
So tenacious has been this key demand that it has now extended to the Federation itself. Some West Indian ideologists however, have counterposed self-government to Federation—as though the two concepts are mutually exclusive. Such, for example, is the view of W. A. Domingo, outstanding student of West Indian affairs. In his pamphlet, British West Indian Federation—A Critique, Domingo urges Jamaicans to reject Federation outright—primarily on the grounds that as the largest and most populous of the West Indian islands, she can easily achieve self-government without being hampered by the underdeveloped economies of the Leeward and Windward islands, dependent as they still are on grants-in-aid which are to be curtailed after the first five years of the Federal Government. He further holds that “to equate federation with self-government obscures the real issue—the right of every colonial people to seek and win control of their political life.”
But no one who advocates a federated progressive West Indies equates these concepts. In fact, those who have consistently fought for a progressive federation structure have always accompanied this demand with one for autonomy of the island units as well. Besides, how can the unity of a people who have similar cultural and historical experiences be held to be violative of “a right” of self-determination if in seeking to control their political life, they strengthen their ties with others similarly situated? We can assume that Domingo’s arguments, like other pre-Federation critics, had as their aim that of modifying the present federation structure. But to base one’s arguments largely on the pragmatic grounds that Britain considers the West Indian colonies as “financial liabilities” and that they are of “no strategic value to England today,” that Britain will “grant self government” to the West Indian colonies, because of the “proclaimed official British policy to grant independence to the colonies” flies in the face of a fundamental, scientific assessment of imperialism today.
Still other political ideologists, including some progressives and even some adherents of Marxism, have denounced the current Federation proposals as a “fraud” and appear to be resisting its arrival.
Such approaches appear to be utterly unrealistic politically. For while serious limitations hedge the new federal structure, can it be denied that it is a political advance over the previous colonial status of 300 years?
Basically, the struggle for the free West Indian market by both the foreign and local bourgeoisie is what has given the movement for Federation its urgency. John La Rose, leading Marxist of Trinidad’s West Indian Independence Party, in his Report to the Second Congress of that Party, in July, 1956, places it this way:
The basic economic law of West Indian life which gives this movement such urgency is the struggle for the free West Indian market by both the local and foreign bourgeoisie (interlocked and not interlocked) caused by the inability of the markets of the local territories to satisfy the capacity for expansion and exploitation engendered by capital accumulation in their hands.
Both the foreign and native commercial bourgeoisie have expanded their interests beyond the confines of territories, . . .Both local and foreign banking and insurance institutions of finance capital (like Bookers Trading concerns, Barbados Mutual, etc.) have expanded their interests beyond the confines of a single territory . . . besides the activities of foreign banking and insurance institutions. Both the local and foreign industrial bourgeoisie have expanded beyond the confines of a single territory, e.g., shirt manufacturers, biscuit manufacturers, gin and rum manufacturers, edible oil manufacturers, citrus juices, time clocks, cement manufacturers exporting to British Guiana, Barbados, Grenada, etc., and vice versa. Even at the level of small agricultural producers, e.g., Grenada, St. Vincent, this need is felt and exists as a powerful urge to Federation.
While not all political forces in the West Indies are prepared to formulate immediate demands they are nevertheless broadly united on the aim of Dominion Status. Thus it seems that here once again is reflected the inevitable process of development which cannot be halted—the quest for full national independence.
Consequently, the chief programmatic demand to overcome the limitations advanced by progressive and socialist minded forces in the West Indies include:
1. Internal self-government for the Federation entailing a wholly elected Parliament (a nominated Senate is a retrograde step), full cabinet status based on the Party principle with the elected Prime Minister wholly responsible, and restriction of the Governor-General’s powers to representation of the Sovereign as is the case of Ghana, or a republican form of government, as in India, with the Crown as the head of the Commonwealth.
2. Civil liberties embracing the entire Federation including freedom to travel, freedom to organize and to discuss.
3. Protection of rights of minorities for cultural and other forms of development.
4. For full national independence for the West Indies.
* * *
Despite the serious limitations it would be fundamentally wrong to assess the forthcoming Federation as being simply the brain-child of the Colonial Office. To understand the significance of this development it must be realized that what is taking place in the West Indies is the unfolding of the classical bourgeois-democratic revolution, with, of course, its own special features. Leadership of the national political movement is today in the hands of middle class intellectuals who either come from the class of the national bourgeoisie, or are representative of their interests. Because federation of the West Indies occurs at a time when the local capitalist class is developing, every nuance of the federal structure is, naturally, tempered by their influence. Motivated firstly by their own desire for improved status, and a desire to be free of their inferior colonial status, essentially this influence is anti-imperialist and anti-colonial.
What unites the all-class struggle of the West Indian peoples is opposition to foreign imperialism. This stage of political development in general coincides with the historic aim and dream of the West Indian working class, its militant industrial and agricultural workers, who in the 30’s hoisted the banner of Federation, with Dominion status and self-government for the units, to their standard. These and other demands have today been incorporated into the political platforms of the present national political parties and movements in the islands.
It is important to stress that leadership of the national political movement has passed relatively recently into the hands of the national bourgeoisie.
Prior to World War II, leadership of the national movement was in the hands of the working class, arising from the upheavals during the mass strikes of 1937-38. The working class spearheaded the mass struggle; their leaders won their confidence through their selfless and courageous actions. This was the period in which trade unionism rapidly developed in the Caribbean and a new sense of power was felt by the workers.
There then emerged the Caribbean Labor Congress, a united West Indian people’s anti-colonial movement for Federation with Dominion status and self-government for the units. It comprised an all-class coalition in which the working class shared leadership with other anti-imperialist classes including important sections of the national bourgeoisie.
But this movement was split and declined.
Basic to the answer as to how this decline and split arose was the “divide and rule” tactic of imperialism, which, fearful of this forward development, facilitated the separation of the Right-wing from the Left-wing in accommodation with some of the bourgeois national leaders.
True, imperialism, faced with the mounting pressure of the national liberation movement is seeking to develop the national bourgeoisie as a reliable bulwark to protect its interests for as long as possible even after national independence is won. But India’s experience proves that that does not always work.
The working class was also handicapped in that it lacked a scientific approach to the national and class struggle, in many instances pursued sectarian policies, and consequently lost leadership to the developing middle class intellectuals.
It is this background, given briefly, which largely accounts for the hesitations which have marked sections of the working class and socialist-oriented groupings in the West Indies in definitely committing themselves to the present Federation.
Here, a distinction is made between the justified reservations shared by all sections of West Indian opinion and the imperative task of the working class and its advanced sector to play its indispensable role in carrying forward the movement for West Indian national independence.
To sit it out, instead of entering fully as leading partners in the national struggle for independence is to abdicate a contribution they alone can make. The working class and the Left in such a role can encourage the progressive tendencies of the national bourgeoisie. It can steady the middle class intellectuals towards firmer anti-imperialist stands (criticizing where necessary but not from outside this development).
TRADE-UNION ACTIVITY
A most imperative conclusion appears to be the need to coordinate and strengthen trade union activity. In recent months support for the idea of a united militant trade-union movement on a federal scale has been underway in the West Indies. Such a trade-union movement would not only help to facilitate independence and national unity but would be the instrument for achieving improved living standards, higher wages and in general defense of the workers’ rights against pressure by US. and British capital. Such a united trade-union movement would have a decisive effect on the policies of the two main federal parties—the West Indian Federal Labor Party, and the Democratic Labor Party, who will contest seats for the Federal Assembly.
Together with improved living standards and economic advancement is the need for expanded educational development. Educational standards in the West Indies are today frightfully low—too low to fulfill the needs of a country aiming at nationhood.
A prime necessity is the development from the working class itself of a class-conscious cadre and leadership. This is especially important because of the mistaken conception current among West Indian intellectuals that political parties in the West Indies do not represent social classes. Buttressing this false theory is the fact that all mass parties in the West Indies have to rely on support of the working class.
Political pressure and leadership by the Left has already vitally affected the affected the national political movement in the West Indies. One such contribution has been their pointing up the contrast between Soviet economic aid with no strings attached, and the historic significance of Bandung. Advocacy of such policies can help change the pace with which the national bourgeoisie and middle-class intellectuals press for full national independence in the West Indies.
While at this juncture the bourgeois national struggle is directed against foreign imperialism, without doubt as the development of the national bourgeoisie takes place the internal class struggle will grow in importance and scope.
All political observers would do well to follow the course of West Indian development; in Britain this course has been forced on all political forces anew with the presence of 80,000 West Indian immigrants now resident in Britain—the largest immigration of colonial people in recent years. Faced with impoverishment and unbearable conditions and barred by the infamous racially biased Walter-McCarran immigration laws which retards West Indian immigration to 100 persons a year from all the West Indies to the U.S.A., they have trecked in thousands to Britain, where they are confronted with an extension of their problems as colonials in a metropolitan country in the form of color prejudice, joblessness, housing shortages, etc.
Progressive and Communist forces in Britain, mindful of their own responsibilities and of the greed of the U.S. imperialist colossus, are advocating economic assistance to the
West Indies; solidarity with their trade-union and other struggles and full national independence for the West Indian people.
Claudia Jones, “American Imperialism and the British West Indies,” Political Affairs, April 1958, pages 9-18.
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