Caribbean Labour Solidarity

Caribbean Labour Solidarity (CLS) was established in 1974 in north London, England. It developed out of what was originally the Jamaica Trade Union Solidarity Campaign (JTUSC), formed in response to an appeal from trade unionists in Jamaica to mobilise protests against the Labour Relations and Industrial Disputes Bill that attempted to restrict Jamaican trade unionists’ right to strike. The JTUSC comprised activists from the Caribbean community and the wider labour and trade union movement in the United Kingdom. After the Bill became law that year, JTUSC members decided there was a need for a permanent organisation to support the mounting democratic movement within the Caribbean.{{Cite web |url=http://cls-uk.org.uk/?page_id=168 |title=About us|website= CLS}}

Drawing attention to the links between modern racism and Britain's involvement in the enslavement of Africans in the sugar colonies, CLS continued as an international campaigning organisation.{{Cite web |url=http://www.understandingslavery.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=511:caribbean-labour-solidarity-newsletter-1983-&catid=151&Itemid=261 |title=Caribbean Labour Solidarity newsletter, 1983|publisher= USI (Understanding Slavery Initiative) |access-date=26 March 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130626220544/http://www.understandingslavery.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=511:caribbean-labour-solidarity-newsletter-1983-&catid=151&Itemid=261 |archive-date=26 June 2013 |url-status=dead }} Its key founding members were Guyanese activist Lionel Jeffrey (9 January 1926 – 31 October 1993),[http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/vcdf/detail?coll_id=14689&inst_id=118&nv1=search&nv2= Jeffrey, Lionel and Pansy (donated papers)] at London Metropolitan Archives. AIM25. Jamaican historian Richard Hart (who until his death in December 2013 was the organisation's Honorary President)Jacqueline McKenzie and Ken Fuller, [https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-2feb-Richard-Hart-Caribbean-activist-and-writer "Richard Hart: Caribbean Activist And Writer"], Morning Star, 3 January 2014.Luke Daniels, [http://www.pambazuka.net/en/category.php/obituary/90263/print "Richard Hart: A Tribute"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150527004605/http://www.pambazuka.net/en/category.php/obituary/90263/print |date=27 May 2015 }}, Pambazuka News, Issue 661, 16 January 2014. and exiled Jamaican trade unionist Cleston Taylor (1926–2010).Winston James, calling Hart and Taylor "two very special and unsung heroes of the Jamaican working-class movement", dedicates to them his book A Fierce Hatred of Injustice: Claude McKay's Jamaica and His Poetry of Rebellion (Verso Books, 2000, pp. xv–xvi): "Dick and Cleston have never forsaken the Caribbean working class and, even in exile and old age, they have worked tirelessly and selflessly to promote its cause. Veterans of the Jamaican labor movement stretching back to the 1930s, in exile they founded together Caribbean Labour Solidarity in London some thirty years ago and, through thick and mainly thin, have remained steadfast in supporting the struggle of the poor and exploited in the Caribbean. Dick and Cleston deserve to be better known, appreciated and celebrated."{{cite news|first=Harold A. |last=Drayton|author-link=Harold Drayton|url=http://www.stabroeknews.com/2014/features/in-the-diaspora/01/20/personal-tribute-mentor-friend-comrade-richard-hart-1917-2013-part-2/ |title=A personal tribute to my mentor, friend, and comrade Richard Hart (1917–2013), Part 2|newspaper=Stabroek News|date= 20 January 2014}}

The current CLS president is Luke Daniels.[http://cls-uk.org.uk/hart-obit.html "Richard Hart (1917–2013)"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170403111404/http://cls-uk.org.uk/hart-obit.html |date=3 April 2017 }}, Caribbean Labour Solidarity.

CLS holds monthly public meetings,{{Cite web |url=http://cls-uk.org.uk/meetings.html |title=CLS website. |access-date=26 March 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131224213659/http://www.cls-uk.org.uk/meetings.html |archive-date=24 December 2013 |url-status=dead }} and has been active in support of many campaigns and issues affecting the Caribbean region and labour affairs elsewhere in the world. CLS has led or participated in campaigns on issues that include: protesting the US invasion of Grenada; supporting the struggle of the Grenada 17; the problems faced by the Caribbean agriculture industries, including banana production; combating judicial executions in the Caribbean; the murder of Stephen Lawrence; marking the 50th anniversary of the arrival of the Empire Windrush; commemorating Claudia Jones; immigration legislation; deaths in UK police custody; the role of black lawyers in the US; the effect of the World Trade Organization’s policies on Caribbean peoples; and the struggles of the Venezuelan peoples to control their resources and direct their destiny. Recent concerns have included campaigns about the "Tivoli Gardens Massacre" in Jamaica,[http://www.cls-uk.org.uk/tivoli2.html "Tivoli Gardens Massacre"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923204755/http://www.cls-uk.org.uk/tivoli2.html |date=23 September 2015 }}, CLS. about injustices against people of Haitian origin in the Dominican Republic,[http://www.cls-uk.org.uk/haiti-DR.html "Restore their Citizenship – No Apartheid in the Caribbean"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150526234337/http://www.cls-uk.org.uk/haiti-DR.html |date=26 May 2015 }}, CLS. on the Windrush scandal,{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WhsdwcESNY&t=1055s|title=CLS Windrush update|via=YouTube|date=18 March 2021|access-date=17 April 2021}} and reparations for slavery.{{cite web|url=http://cls-uk.org.uk/?p=934|title=In Defence of UWI, its Vice Chancellor, and its Reparations Campaign – CLS Statement|website=Caribbean Labour Solidarity|access-date=17 April 2021}}

CLS has also over the years produced publications, which include: Richard Hart's The Cuban Way (1978),Richard Hart, [https://www.amazon.com/Cuban-Caribbean-Labour-Solidarity-publication/dp/0950614009 "The Cuban way (Caribbean Labour Solidarity publication)"] at Amazon. Labour Rebellions of the 1930s in the British Caribbean Region Colonies (CLS and Socialist History Society, 2002), The Grenada Revolution: Setting the Record Straight (CLS and Socialist History Society, 2005), Michael Manley: An Assessment and Tribute (1997, 20 pp.),Robert Jackson Alexander, Eldon M. Parker, [https://books.google.com/books?id=fCmTbz1XdMwC&dq=%22caribbean+labour+solidarity%22&pg=PA448 A History of Organized Labor in the English-Speaking West Indies], Westport, CT: Praeger, 2004, p. 448. and The Ouster of the 4Hs from the People's National Party in Jamaica in 1952 (2000);[https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/46778217 WorldCat.] Ken Fuller, Puerto Rico Libre!: for a free Caribbean (1980, 40 pp.);[https://books.google.com/books?id=bR8ENQAACAAJ Bibliographic information.] Leon Cornwall, The Grenada "Elections": An Analysis from Behind Prison Bars (Caribbean Labour Solidarity with New Jewel Movement (UK) Support Group, 1984, 15 pp.);Leon Cornwall, [https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/034135126 The Grenada "Elections": an analysis from behind prison bars], Caribbean Labour Solidarity with New Jewel Movement (UK) Support Group, 1984. WorldCat. Bernard Coard, Village and Workers, Women, Farmers and Youth Assemblies during the Grenada Revolution: Their Genesis, Evolution, and Significance (CLS and the New Jewel Movement/Karia Press, 1989, 14 pp.);[https://openlibrary.org/books/OL15383247M/Village_and_workers_women_farmers_and_youth_assemblies_during_the_Grenada_revolution Open Library.] and Steve Cushion and Dennis Bartholomew, Our Own Hands – A People's History of the Grenadian Revolution (2017).Steve Cushion and Dennis Bartholomew, [http://www.socialisthistorysociety.co.uk/?p=445 "'By Our Own Hands' – A People’s History of the Grenadian Revolution"], Socialist History Society, 22 January 2018.

The CLS journal Cutlass – first published in 1976 (originally from the north London home of Cleston Taylor and his wife Feli)Everton Pryce, [http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/In-tribute-to-Richard-Hart_15757850 "In tribute to Richard Hart"], Jamaica Observer, 12 January 2014. and over the years edited by, among others, Richard Hart, Lionel Jeffrey and Ed Spring – is produced online, available for download, and in print form.[http://cls-uk.org.uk/archives.html "Archives | Cutlass - Back issues"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131224234807/http://www.cls-uk.org.uk/archives.html |date=24 December 2013 }}, Caribbean Labour Solidarity.

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• [http://cls-uk.org.uk/ Caribbean Labour Solidarity website.]

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Category:1974 establishments in England

Category:Caribbean political history

Category:Labor in the Caribbean

Category:Political organisations based in the United Kingdom

Category:Politics of the Caribbean