Caribbean Labor and Politics: Legacies of Cheddi Jagan and Michael Manley

310 Pages·2004·12.605 MB·English

by  Perry Mars, Alma H. Young

McK
HD 15.
8193.5 3 m3D □SDfi7SEb 1
.C36
-.Sr
I
CARIBBEAN
LABOR AND POLITICS
legacies of
cheddi jagan and
michael manley
e dite d by
perry mars
e3
alma h. young
I# «
(
i
I
■*
(
. - ,.
fr-
/
4
M, . .
. hfimM i m
J n
^ *«\
il
‘U C ' '.
Caribbean Labor and Politics
Dedicated to the memory of Alma Harrington Young
Caribbean Labor and Politics
Legacies of Cheddi Jagan
and Michael Manley
EDITED BY
Perry Mars
AND
Alma H. Young
Wayne State University Press Detroit
African American Life Series
For a complete listing of the books in this series please visit our website at
http://wsupress.watjne. edu
Series Editors:
Melba Joyce Boyd
Department of Africana Studies, Wayne State University
Ron Brown
Department of Political Science, Wayne State University
Copyright © 2004 by Wayne State University Press,
Detroit, Michigan 48201. All rights are reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced without formal permission.
Manufactured in the United States of America.
08 07 06 05 04 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Caribbean labor and politics : legacies of Cheddi Jagan and
Michael Manley / edited by Perry Mars and Alma H. Young,
p. cm.
“This edited volume grows out of a conference held at Wayne
State University in April 1998 that analyzed the lives and
politics of two great leaders of the Caribbean, Cheddi Jagan
of Guyana and Michael Manley of Jamaica”—Acknowledgements.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8143-3211-0 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Labor movement—Caribbean Area—Congresses. 2. Caribbean
Area—Politics and government—1945—Congresses. 3. Labor
unions—Guyana—History—Congresses. 4. Labor unions—
Jamaica—History—Congresses. 5. Jagan, Cheddi—Congresses.
6. Manley, Michael, 1924—Congresses. 7. Guyana—Politics
and government—1966—Congresses. 8. Jamaica—Politics and
government—1962—Congresses. I. Mars, Perry. II. Young,
Alma H.
HD8193.5.C36 2004
331.88'09729—dc22 2003028063
CO The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for
Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction ix
PERRY MARS AND ALMA H. YOUNG
PART I
Life and Times of the Men
1 Michael Manley: A Personal Perspective 3
NORMAN GIRVAN
2 Legacies of Cheddi Jagan 10
BRINDLEY H. BENN
3 Dr. Cheddi Jagan: The Making of a Movement Intellectual 18
MAURICE ST. PIERRE
4 Michael Manley, Trade Unionism, and the Politics of Equality 40
ANTHONY BOGUES
5 Colonialism, Political Policing, and the Jagan Years 64
JOAN MARS
PART II
Labor-Politics Nexus
6 Guyana, Jamaica, and the Cold War Project: The Transformation
of Caribbean Labor 89
HILBOURNE WATSON
7 Globahzation, Economic Fallout, and the Crisis of Organized
Labor in the Caribbean 126
CLIVE THOMAS
V
vi CONTENTS
8 Ethno-Politics and the Caribbean Working-Class Project:
Contributions of Cheddi Jagan and Michael Manley 143
PERRY MARS
9 Women Trade Union Leaders in the Anglophone Caribbean 166
A. LYNN BOLLES
PART III
Critical Current Challenges
10 Global Economic Crisis and Caribbean Women s Survival
Strategies 183
ALMA H. YOUNG AND KRISTINE B. MIRANNE
11 The Caribbean and Drugs: Challenges in Local-Global
Context 200
IVELAW L. GRIFFITH
12 The Role of Emigration in the Caribbean Development
Process 225
MONICA H. GORDON
\
Selected Bibliography 243
ELLA DAVIS
Contributors 251
Index 255
Acknowledgments
This edited volume grows out of a conference held at Wayne State Uni¬
versity in April 1998 that analyzed the lives and politics of two great leaders
of the Caribbean, Cheddi Jagan of Guyana and Michael Manley of Jamaica.
We are grateful to those who made presentations at the conference, many of
whom are contributors to this volume. The conference would not have been
possible without the able assistance of Sabrina Williams, at that time a doc¬
toral student at Wayne State, and Debbie Hardie-Simpson of the Africana
Studies Department.
We would like to thank Monita Hollis Mungo for her professionalism in
preparing the final draft of the manuscript. I [Alma Young] also appreciate
her efforts in managing my schedule so that there was time to complete this
project. Thanks also go to Treena Dundas for her research and bibliograph¬
ical assistance, and to Doug Towns, cartographer in the Wayne State Center
for Urban Studies, for the map that appears at the beginning of the volume.
We appreciate the permission to publish the photographs that appear in
this volume. Photographs of Cheddi Jagan are from the Guyana Chronicle,
and those of Michael Manley are from the Daily Gleaner and the Jamaica
Information Service. We also thank Dudley Kishore of the Cheddi Jagan
Research Institute in Georgetown and Opal Mars of Arawak Publications in
Kingston for their kind assistance.
Again, the cooperation and patience of the contributors to this volume
have been invaluable, as have been the suggestions of the anonymous read¬
ers of the manuscript. We appreciate the excellent working relationship with
members of the Wayne State University Press, and the support of the edi¬
tors of the African American Life Series, Melba Boyd and Ronald Brown.
We are honored by the support of the Coleman A. Young endowment in
Wayne States College of Urban, Labor and Metropolitan Affairs, an endow¬
ment named in recognition of another great political and labor leader.
Our inspiration comes of course from the lives of the two great men we
honor with this volume, Cheddi Jagan and Michael Manley. Their contributions
vii
Vlll ACKNOWLDEGMENTS
to the Caribbean and beyond remind us that much can be accomplished
when individuals decide that the time has come for change.
Many thanks to Dennis Young and Alden Young, and to Joan Mars and
Jason Mars, for their encouragement and support.
Alma H. Young
Perry Mars
August 2003
Alma Young passed away in March 2004 as this book was going to press.