Black Caribbean Labor Radicalism in Panama, 1914-1921

Abstract

While the role of Caribbean immigrants in the “New Negro” movement in the United States is now well established, the concurrent militancy of black Caribbean workers in Panama is much less understood. The present article examines the rise and fall of Afro-Antillano militancy in both the U.S.-controlled Canal Zone and the Republic of Panama from 1914–1921. The presence of black people in the Panamanian isthmus went back centuries; West Indian migrants were especially discriminated against because they were English-speaking and Protestant. The Canal Zone authorities instituted Jim Crow style segregation (under the “Gold” and “Silver” system) to divide the work force, leaving black Caribbean workers paid less, discriminated against, and oppressed. In the face of this, these workers were not so passive or pro-British as they are often depicted. Instead, there was an outpouring of labor militancy in this period, including two massive strikes. However, the defeat of these strikes undercut the development of a united-working-class movement in Panama, caused many black Caribbean migrants to leave Panama, and made many of those remaining wary of labor radicalism. The Universal Negro Improvement Association of Marcus Garvey—the most prominent black Caribbean organization in Panama at the time—had originally sympathized with the labor militancy, but in the wake of working-class defeats, became increasingly anti-labor.