Danny Roberts Reflect's - Labour Then And Now

Danny Roberts, CD

The coronavirus pandemic has exposed the vulnerability that economies like Jamaica face and the structural weaknesses that must be overcome if we are to make good on our pledge that Jamaica should be a place of “beauty, fellowship and prosperity”, shaped by “the courage of our mind, and the strength and vigour of our body” in our desire to achieve “justice, brotherhood and peace”.

 It is that ‘courage and conviction’ to stand up against injustice, oppression and discrimination that led to the May 1938 workers’ uprising at Frome, and catapulted our people in defining the contours of modern Jamaica. It was a crisis - a pandemic of sorts - that 83 years after, we have good reason to memoralise under Labour Day and Workers’ Week activities. 

There are parallels between 1938 and 2021 we should bear in mind once we remain focused on the ideals of human existence. Context and circumstance have, over time, helped to define and re-define some of these values, but by and large the struggles of 1938 as it is in 2021, remains one of social justice, equality, dignity, respect and freedom; or, as our national pledge says, the desire to achieve “fellowship and prosperity”. 

How, therefore, we commemorate Labour Day and Workers’ Week becomes significant in the shaping of our society and the building of our nation. If we focus simply on the strikes, demonstrations and protests of 1938, and narrowly celebrate them as part of an anti-colonial rhetoric, the significance of the workers’ cause would have been lost. In fact, if we think about it, modern Jamaica, and by extension Jamaica’s development, is intertwined with the workers’ struggle, and therefore has relevance well beyond this week’s celebration of Workers’ Week and Labour Day. 

Michael Manley
Former Prime Minister of
Jamaica

We should recall, for example, that the celebration of Labour Day up until 1973 was, in Michael Manley’s words, “an occasion for political rhetoric backed by shows of force in which the two major political parties strove to out-do each other as repositories of popular faith and expectation.” In the end, that neither advanced the cause of nation- building, and perhaps most importantly, did nothing to provide the psychological tenacity, that Marcus Garvey spoke about, to emancipate the workers from the mental anguish associated with slavery and colonialism. 

The ‘pandemic’ of 1938 has returned in 2021 by way of a public health virus with the attendant social, economic and psychological consequences. We must bear in mind that like all crises, it is the labour market that bears the brunt of the fall-out, even in the global economic melt-down of 2007 which was the result of financial greed among Wall Street banks. Just to remind as well, it was the world economic crisis resulting from the fall out in Wall Street in 1929, that fuelled the upheavals of 1938. 

Marcus Garvey
National Hero
Of Jamaica

The ‘vulnerability’ and ‘structural weaknesses’ mentioned in the opening paragraph, refer primarily to labour market conditions, and have been recognised as both a cause and a consequence in relation to the pandemic. The same weaknesses were undoubtedly evident in the labour market of the 1930s, in which Patrick Bryan and Karl Watson’s account of the social history of the period, indicated that it was ‘Not for Wages Alone’. 

So, what are the parallels between 1938 and 2021? And how should we commemorate the events of 1938 to shift the development paradigm so that ‘fellowship and prosperity’ is underpinned by social justice, equality, brotherhood and peace’? 

The answer lies partly in the way we represent the struggles of 1938, as well as drawing on the experiences of other countries through research work done on managing crises. The International Labour Organisation, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the Economic Commission on Latin America and the Caribbean, all share the view that labour market weaknesses which expose the absence of employment protective legislations will hamper post-covid recovery. Active and passive labour market policies which provide income protection, safeguard workers’ jobs, protect their health and safety and the most vulnerable in society, will strength the capabilities of countries to quickly overcome the present pandemic and provide a sound platform to deal with future crisis. 

This was, in similar but different language, precisely what the struggles of 1938 was about. It is what the ILO calls the Decent Work Agenda, simply meaning the need for us to show “respect for the fundamental rights of the human person as well as the rights of workers in terms of conditions of work safety and remuneration,” as well as respect for “the physical and mental integrity of the worker in the exercise of his or her employment.” 

The commemoration of the struggles of 1938 was about these fundamental rights, denied under the repressive system of Colonialism. It was compounded by a system of Government known as “Crown Colony”, which further denied the other fundamental rights of self-government and supported by tyrannical laws. This is not so in 2021; we are a free society with the right to choose government, make laws and influence political outcomes. There are no parallels in that regard between 1938 and 2011. The context and circumstance are vastly different. However, the ‘courage of our mind’ and the ‘strength and vigour of our body’, must be used today – as it was in 1938 - to further labour market reforms that include the kind of ‘structural adjustments’ to our labour laws and industrial relations praxis that leads to the efficiency and profitability of companies through equity and providing workers with a voice through communication and consultation. 

There is also another lesson from the commemoration of Workers’ Week that we must not lose sight of, and that is the ‘mental integrity’ we referenced in defining the ILO’s Decent Work, Garvey’s call for emancipation from mental slavery, Manley’s effort to reverse the workers’ psychology in appreciating the significance of work and the dignity which must be accorded it, by redefining Labour Day, and Rex Nettleford’s assertion that we should ‘be liberated from the obscurities of ourselves’. All these represent the real meaning and significance of 1938 which begin with a re-education of our children and citizens about the evidence, motivations and factors that influenced and shaped the historical events of 1938. 

 Danny Roberts, CD, JP, 

Head, Hugh Shearer Labour Studies Institute, UWI Open Campus and former Vice President, Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions and Vice President of the National Workers Union

Editors note: Every worker should read articles like this, during this week. Kavan Gayle the President of the BITU has also written an excellent article on this blog. I encourage parents to expose your children to these articles and discuss them. Civics can be shared with the young ones even at home!