Caribbean Labour Solidarity (CLS), founded in 1974, is a group that "sets itself the task of informing the concerned about labour issues in the (Caribbean) region as a whole",[1] and "continues to support the national and anti-imperialist fight in the West Indies",[2] as well as being an international campaigning organisation. A 1980 CLS publication states: "Caribbean Labour Solidarity takes as its central concern the need for increased cohesion between the British labour movement and all components of the anti-imperialist and national democratic struggles in the Caribbean."[3]
History
Caribbean Labour Solidarity (CLS) was established in 1974 in north London, England. It developed out of what was originally the Jamaica Trade Union Solidarity Campaign (JTUSC), formed in response to an appeal from trade unionists in Jamaica to mobilise protests against the Labour Relations and Industrial Disputes Bill that attempted to restrict Jamaican trade unionists’ right to strike. The JTUSC comprised activists from the Caribbean community and the wider labour and trade union movement in the United Kingdom. After the Bill became law that year, JTUSC members decided there was a need for a permanent organisation to support the mounting democratic movement within the Caribbean.[4]
Drawing attention to the links between modern racism and Britain's involvement in the enslavement of Africans in the sugar colonies, CLS continued as an international campaigning organisation.[5] Its key founding members were Guyanese activist Lionel Jeffrey (9 January 1926 – 31 October 1993),[6] Jamaican historian Richard Hart (who until his death in December 2013 was the organisation's Honorary President)[7][8] and exiled Jamaican trade unionist Cleston Taylor (1926–2010).[2][9][10]
CLS has also over the years produced publications, which include: Richard Hart's The Cuban Way (1978),[17]Labour Rebellions of the 1930s in the British Caribbean Region Colonies (CLS and Socialist History Society, 2002), The Grenada Revolution: Setting the Record Straight (CLS and Socialist History Society, 2005), Michael Manley: An Assessment and Tribute (1997, 20 pp.),[18] and The Ouster of the 4Hs from the People's National Party in Jamaica in 1952 (2000);[19] Ken Fuller, Puerto Rico Libre!: for a free Caribbean (1980, 40 pp.);[20] Leon Cornwall, The Grenada "Elections": An Analysis from Behind Prison Bars (Caribbean Labour Solidarity with New Jewel Movement (UK) Support Group, 1984, 15 pp.);[21]Bernard Coard, Village and Workers, Women, Farmers and Youth Assemblies during the Grenada Revolution: Their Genesis, Evolution, and Significance (CLS and the New Jewel Movement/Karia Press, 1989, 14 pp.);[22] and Steve Cushion and Dennis Bartholomew, Our Own Hands – A People's History of the Grenadian Revolution (2017).[23]
The CLS journal Cutlass – first published in 1976 (originally from the north London home of Cleston Taylor and his wife Feli)[24] and over the years edited by, among others, Richard Hart, Lionel Jeffrey and Ed Spring – is produced online, available for download, and in print form.[25]
References
^Harry Goulbourne, Black Politics in Britain, Avebury, 1990, p. 105.
^Winston James, calling Hart and Taylor "two very special and unsung heroes of the Jamaican working-class movement", dedicates to them his book A Fierce Hatred of Injustice: Claude McKay's Jamaica and His Poetry of Rebellion (Verso Books, 2000, pp. xv–xvi): "Dick and Cleston have never forsaken the Caribbean working class and, even in exile and old age, they have worked tirelessly and selflessly to promote its cause. Veterans of the Jamaican labor movement stretching back to the 1930s, in exile they founded together Caribbean Labour Solidarity in London some thirty years ago and, through thick and mainly thin, have remained steadfast in supporting the struggle of the poor and exploited in the Caribbean. Dick and Cleston deserve to be better known, appreciated and celebrated."
