Seminar on George Padmore and West Indian labour revolts

You are warmly invited to the following seminar on WEDNESDAY 18 JANUARY jointly hosted by the Institute for the Study of the Americas and the Institute of Commonwealth Studies:

Leslie James, LSE '“The most completely political Negro": The convergence of George Padmore’s pan-Africanism and Marxism in the West Indian Labour Revolts, 1935-1939'

DATE: 18 January 2012
TIME: 17:30 - 19:30
VENUE: ROOM 349, THIRD FLOOR, SENATE HOUSE, MALET ST, LONDON WC1E 7HU

ABSTRACT Born in Trinidad in 1903, George Padmore is best known either as one of the 'fathers of Pan-Africanism', or as the Communist International's most important 'Negro communist.' These categories have diminished his interest in, and support for, resistance in the West Indies. The Caribbean labour revolts, which began in British Honduras in early 1935 and culminated in the strikes, marches and demonstrations across Jamaica in 1938, became a major subject of George Padmore’s journalism and a key action point for his London-based International African Service Bureau (IASB). The IASB became heavily involved in West Indian affairs and although many see this period as Padmore’s stronger identification as an ‘African,’ it was also the period in which he was most involved in West Indian politics. This paper will show that Padmore's continued Marxism and his persistent encouragement of pan-African unity came together in his support for Caribbean workers.
BIO Leslie James is a PhD candidate in the International History Dept, London School of Economics and Political Science. She is working on a biography of George Padmore.