The Struggle Continues

Abstract

On 9 December 1938 Governor Richards reported on the demonstrations by the unemployed that ‘no riots or looting has [sic] taken place. The unemployment position is acute but not out of hand and is being gradually met. The crucial period will be the next three weeks.’¹ On 16 December the members of the Moyne Commission took the trouble to cable their own warning from San Juan, Puerto Rico, where they were making comparative observations.² There was clearly an awareness, therefore, among both observers and participants, that the class contradictions of capitalism were making themselves felt again. Major Orde Browne, writing on the day Richards sent his cable, gave a deeper perspective in his first report on Jamaica, where he had spent the second half of October. The Governor’s relief works, the Labour Adviser felt, should hold the present situation, but leaf spot was ravaging the banana industry and the current tourist season was unpromising.