“No Race Question”

Abstract

In the past, authors have emphasized the importance of Marcus Garvey’s ideas and organization, the Universal Negro Improvement Association, in the development of the labor movement in Trinidad after 1919. In so doing, they have often overlooked a more complex reality on the ground. This chapter examines the ways in which the Trinidad Workingmen’s Association (TWA) combined Garveyism and labor politics, and how they navigated the potential contradictions between class-based and race-based organizing more broadly. It adds to the existing literature on Garveyism and race consciousness in Trinidad, a perspective that situates the TWA’s ideas on race and class as a local dialogue interacting with global discussions among black radicals about labor organizing, socialism, communism, black internationalism, and pan-Africanism.