ARISE YE STARVELINGS The Jamaican Labour Rebellion of 1938 and its Aftermath Arise! ye starvelings from your slumbers; Arise! ye criminals of want, For Reason in revolt now thunders, And at last ends the Age of Cant (The International) INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL STUDIES SERIES ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIETIES VOLUME III INTERNATIONAAL INSTITUUT VOOR SOCIALE STUDIEN - 'S GRAVENHAGE ARISE YE STARVELINGS The Jamaican Labour Rebellion of 1938 and its Mtermath by KEN POST m ~ 1978 MARTINUS NIJHOFF THEHAGUE/BOSTON/LONDON @ 1978 by Martinus NijhojJ, The Hague. Netherlands Softcover reprint oft he hardcover 1st edition 1978 All rights reserved, including the right to translate or to reproduce this book or parts thereof in any form ISBN-13: 978-1-4613-4103-1 ..I SBN-13: 978-1-4613-4101-7 001: 10.10071978-1-4613-4101-7 For Edgar Daley and the dead of 1938 Caleb Barrett Adolphus Clarke H.Dixon Archibald Franklyn Caleb Grinnon Kathleen Martin Felix McLeggan Edith Smith Thaddeus Smith Sarah Thomas Stanley Thomas and an unknown woman. FOREWORD AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS However it is received by critics and others, this book is important to me, because it represents the major intellectual expression of a process of re education which began in earnest with my stay in Jamaica in 1967-69. In that respect lowe thanks to what was then the Overseas Development Ministry of the United Kingdom which - ironically as it turned out - supplied the Uni versity of Manchester with the funds to finance my loan to the University of the West Indies as a sort of 'technical assistance'. Conversely, I do not owe thanks to the government of Jamaica which in March 1971 deported me in less than twenty-four hours when I returned to complete my research. On the other hand, again ironically considering my reservations about it, I must thank the government which succeeded it for giving me six weeks grace to revisit the island in October-November 1972. The Institute of Social Studies, which now employs me, was generous enough to ignore the loss of its investment in my first return trip and to make another in the second. It will soon be apparent to the reader that this work is intended to be an analysis in the Marxist theoretical tradition. Uttle reference will be found to the undoubtedly relevant but ultimately to be rejected speculations of bour geois scholars, despite the direct challenge of one of the most sympathetic of them, John Rex, that 'I would ask in all seriousness whether it helps our under standing of what is going on in Jamaica, South Africa, Bradford or Southall to use terms like "social formation", "conjuncture", "practice" and "contra diction".'1 Those who find the Marxist tradition unsympathetic, therefore, will probably not have their views changed, since only reality can do that, not theory. For those who find any sort of theorising uncomfortable, I have crammed in here a plenitude - some will say a surfeit - of data. This is per haps because I was (mis)educated in the British empiricist tradition, though I like to think it is because I feel that Marxists must meet empiricists on the latters' ground and prove that data can only be well-used if you have a correct theory. Fortunately there is good licence for this in the comment of Friedrich Engels that 'only a mass of critically-sifted, completely mastered historical material can enable one to accomplish such a task.'2 What I have attempted to 1. John Rex: RIlce. ColoniolilJm and the City (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. 1973). 177. 2. Friedrich Engels: 'Karl Marx, A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy', in Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Selected Works in Two Volumes (Moscow: Foreign Publishing House. 1951). Vol. I. 335. viii FOREWORD AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS do, therefore, is to take an episode of British colonial history which is, more importantly, an essential conjunction in the development of modem Jamaica, the events which I have termed the Jamaican labour rebellion of 1938, and to master the available historical material as far as I could by sifting it critically through a frame of Marxist theory. In working on my own more theoretical chapters I have benefitted from the comradely criticisms (in the rough order in which they were made over the years 1970·76) of Gavin Williams, Archie Mafeje, Richard K1einegris, Colin Leys, Iitendra Mohan, Anthony Arblaster, Juan Pablo Perez Sainz, the memo bers of my ISS seminar on 'Peasants, Workers and Development', Bertell Oilman, Aidan Foster·Carter and. above all. Peter Waterman. who by fre· quently confessing his lack of understanding all too often showed me the lack of clarity of my own exposition. Thanks for specific help on various points will also be found scattered through the footnotes. but one name. that of Robert A. Hill. should be brought forward for his special solicitude in bringing data to my notice. The collection of material was much helped by the staffs of the Library of the University of the West Indies (Mona campus). the Library of the Institute of Social and Economic Research at the same place. the West India Reference Library in Kingston. Jamaica, the Island Record Office in Spanish Town. the New York Public Library. the Public Record Office in London. the library of Rhodes House. Oxford. and the British Museum newspaper collection at Colindale. Parts of Chapter VI first appeared in my essay. 'The Bible as Ideol· ogy: Ethiopianism in Jamaica. 1930-38'. published in African Perspectives. edited by C.H. Allen and R.W. Johnson (London: Cambridge University Press. 1970). and 1 am grateful for permission to reproduce them. Very special thanks are due to Richard Hart, who put not only his collection of documents but his time and memory at my disposal; I await with trepidation his verdict on what I have done with them. Nevertheless, he is only one of the many J arnaicans and other West Indians ~ too many to mention individually ~ who helped me towards what little understanding I have of their history. Lastly. my thanks to Koos van Wieringen for drawing the map, to Jean Sanders, an indefatigable editor, to Jorge Lafitte. who did the Index. and to Els Mulder and all the other heroines of secretarial labour, some ofthem even unknown to me because of the depersonalisation of work under capitalism, who have made a readable text out of the cobbled·together horror that I gave them. Ken Post, Institute of Social Studies. The Hague A NOTE ON ABBREVIATIONS Throughout this book certain abbreviations are used in the footnotes for the sake of brevity. Thus, in citing newspapers, The Daily Gleaner becomes D. G., The Jamaica Standard J.S. • Plain Talk P.T.. Public Opinion P.O. and The Ja maica Labour Weekly J-L. W. Newspapers less frequently referred to are named in full. Similarly, the collections of papers in the Rhodes House Library, the Creech Jones Papers (MSS. Brit. Emp. s.332), Papers of Charles Wilton Wood Greenidge (MSS. Brit. Emp. s.285) and Fabian Colonial Bureau Papers (MSS. Brit. Emp. s.365) are referred to as c.JP_. G.P_ and F.C.B.P. The papers of Richard Hart become H.P. In the Public Record Office are the Admiralty papers (Adm.), Foreign Office papers (F.O.) and Cabinet papers (Cab.), of which some use has been made, but especially the papers from the Colonial Office (e.O.). The relevant series from the last are C.O. 137 (Jamaica), e.O. 318 (general West Indies) and C.O. 950 (the papers of the West Indian Royal Commission of 1938-39). Up to 1923 C.O. 137 papers are bound into volumes; after this date they are still in the original fIles in boxes. References are there fore either item descriptions and volume numbers or item descriptions and numbers for box and fIle; in the latter case, the title of the fIle as well as its number is given when first cited, only the number subsequently. For the Rhodes House collections item descriptions with box and fIle numbers are given. Folio numbers are not given for the C.O. fIles. where the foliation is somewhat erratic, but are for the Rhodes House collections. Because of their frequent occurrence. 'Governor' (of Jamaica, unless otherwise stated) has been abbreviated to 'G.' and 'Secretary of State' (for the Colonies) to'S. of S.'. CONTENTS Foreword and Acknowledgements vii A Note on Abbreviations ix I. The Problematic Part I: SOME QUESTIONS OF THEORY II. The Social Formation and its Contradictions 15 III. The Process of Determination 51 Part II: SOCIAL CLASSES: THE MAKERS OF HISTORY IV. 'Intelligent and Respectable People': the Capitalist and Intermediate Classes 77 V. ' ... That Oldest and Ablest of Agitators .. .': the Peasants and Workers 114 VI. Ethiopia Stretches Forth Her Hands 159 Part Ill: MAKING HISTORY VII. The Revolt of the Respectable 205 VIII. Quashee and Anancy 238 IX. Quashee Stands Up 266 x. '. .. A Disgrace to the British Empire Sir': Reactions to the Rebellion 307 XI. Trade Unionists, Marxists and Nationalists 350 XII. The Struggle Continues 394 XIII. Insurance Against Disorder 438 XIV. A Recapitulation 466 Bibliography 475 Index 487 TABLES I. Number of Sugar Estates, 1836·1930 30 2. Agricultural Exports, 1832·1930 as percentage of total 31 3. Landholdings less than 50 Acres, 1866·1930 37 4. Population of Jamaica, 1834·1943, with Racial Breakdown 41 5. Annual Population Growth between Censuses 43 6. Jamaica's Trade Relations, 1832·1930 66 7. Jamaican Sugar Prices, 1927·37 (£ per ton) 88 8. Decline in UFo Co. Landholdings, 1929·37 (acres) 90 9. Jamaica Government Borrowing for All Purposes 1860·1934 92 10. School Enrolment and Attendance, 1861·1921 (as % of children aged 5·14) 93 II. Composition of the Labour Force, 1844·1921 106 12. Distribution of Landholdings, 1938 115 13. Gross Payments to Banana Agents on Commission 118 14. Agricultural Wage Labour, 1938 119 15. Breakdown of Expenditure by Two Sugar Estates for the Financial Year 1937·38 (%) 121 16. Employment in Sugar, 1935·36 122 17. Banana Contractors, 1929 and 1935 126 18. Growth of the Jamaica Agricultural Society, 1897·1935 127 19. Contracts for Banana Deliveries, 1929·35 130 20. Percentage Deliveries by JBPA Contractors, 1929·35 130 21. Population of Kingston and St Andrew, 1844·1943 (in '000) 132 22. Emigration, 1881·1934 133 23. Non·agricultural Wage Labour, 1938 134 24. Changes in Relief Work Rates and Registration, May·July 1939 429 25. Post·Rebellion Pay Rates 440