British colonial authorities armed white militias to suppress Caribbean labor unrest

Evidence

“[M]ention was made of an interview between the Governor of Trinidad and Tobago and the manager of the General Asphalt Company [where a strike was expected and Baker had in place ‘a trusted coloured employee’] in the course of which the Governor allegedly stated that the Colonial Government had no confidence in the local police force which was predominantly black and advised the asphalt and oil companies to establish a white militia. As if to show that he meant business, the Governor provided 25 rifles and 11 rounds of ammunition for use by the militia. That by itself, is a remarkable index of the racist reaction of the authorities, backed by the expatriate and local white interests, to what was clearly perceived as a ‘black power’ movement.” Baptiste, op. cit., p. 12. Baker recommended to Washington: “intervention, preferably at the invitation of the British authorities, but, ‘in the threatened massacre of white people,’ to use his own words in a separate message, without it.” — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 2352

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to patterns of settler-colonial militarization and the ‘protect white lives’ rhetoric found throughout the reader’s decolonization sources.
• SHARE: The specific detail — Governor issuing 25 rifles and 11 rounds to a white militia amid a 1919 Trinidad strike — is precisely the kind of concrete nugget a historian of Caribbean labor would want.