How Nonviolent Movements in the Caribbean Influenced Pan-Africanism

C.L.R. James and George Padmore said that it was their study of the oil workers’ strike in Trinidad (1937) and the dockworkers’ strike in Jamaica (1938) that convinced them that their Pan-African movement could embrace nonviolent strategies for winning the liberation of Africa from colonial powers. This paper looks at advocacy and activism of Uriah Butler in Trinidad. Butler led an Afro-Trinidadian workers' movement that led to the oil workers' strike in 1937. Hunger marches, led by Indian agricultural laborers as well as Elma Francois’ NUM were important immediate precursors (with Butler playing a role here as well) and significant examples of multi-racial worker solidarity. Multiple influences on Butler include Trinidadian George Padmore’s Negro Worker, as well as nonviolence promoted by John Ruskin. Ruskin also happened to influence Mohandas Gandhi, whose friend C.F. Andrews, an Episcopal Minister, spent months spreading Gandhi's ideas in Trinidad in 1929-30. Trinidadian intellectual and activist C.L.R. James first wrote about Gandhi and his tactics for liberation in the early 30's by responding to Andrews' book. And so, nonviolent programs of action to end injustices under colonialism were many and were influential throughout the colonies -- with Trinidad being an often overlooked example. It’s important to note that as a British colony, Trinidad had both a large African-descended population (due to the enslaved labor trade) and a South Asian population (due to the subsequent indentured labor trade). Both communities participated in the 1937 strike, thereby being an important example of cross-racial solidarity. British colonial authorities especially wanted to stop this kind of united protest movement, fearing its success. Butler was put on trial by the British colonial powers in Trinidad for sedition, at which time he clarified at length his stance regarding the use of violence, and yet those who note the parallels between his courtroom speeches and Gandhi's during his trials for sedition are few. Butler also shows in these speeches his commitment to ensuring justice for the marginalized in Trinidad. This paper looks at how ideas and practices circulating in Trinidad ended up influencing a global movement like Pan-Africanism. While Pan-Africanism is not widely incorporated in the narratives of the history of nonviolence, I argue that Butler, James, Padmore, Francois and others encouraged use of nonviolent strategies. Padmore and James continued this conviction about Gandhian nonviolence throughout their lives, but many scholars who study the two downplay their statements about Gandhi as if they are not central to their position as radicals. Butler as well is remembered more for a few words about violent actions reported at his sedition trial by police, when Butler himself denied such words or said they were taken out of context. While some of Butler's followers engaged in violence, Butler himself did not advocate violence. Gandhi himself had been in similar situations. There is a need to revisit this overlooked chapter in the history of nonviolent action, recognizing the important role that the movement and activists in Trinidad played, reincorporating it into the history of nonviolence.