All Roads Led to Montreal: Black Power, the Caribbean, and the Black Radical Tradition in Canada

Roots, rhizomes and resistance: remembering the Sir George Williams student uprising

“…The movement, which was most active from February to April of 1970, however, was not a struggle that was allowed to be carried through to its fruition. 35 The postcolonial state cracked down upon the dissidents, ultimately maintaining power and suppressing the syndicate's fundamental aims. 36 Nevertheless, on 26 February 1970 in Trinidad and Tobago, a host of university students, civil society organisations and affinity groups led by the National Joint Action Committee (NJAC) gathered together for a show of solidarity in the capital of Port of Spain.…”

Conventional politics or revolution: Black Power and the radical challenge to the Westminster model in the Caribbean

“…The Jamesian strand of the NBM was represented by co-founders Franklyn Harvey and Bukka Rennie, who had been part of the C.L.R. James Study Circle in Montreal during the critical period of student and Black Power activism centred around McGill and the Sir George Williams universities (Austin, 2007). Another Jamesian, Walton Look Lai, was closely associated with the OWTU, whose radical newspaper, the Vanguard, he edited on his return to Trinidad in 1969.…”

Towards a More Critical Consciousness: Race-Making, Affect, and Counter-Knowledges

“…During the 1950s and 1960s, when Black immigration began to grow again, it was predominantly through the movement of female migrants. During this time, the Canadian government invited numerous Caribbean domestic workers and nurses to acquire temporary visas to work in Canada (Calliste 2001;Livingstone and Weinfeld 2015), after which they were allowed to stay as temporary or permanent residents (Austin 2007). The government eventually discontinued the program, without ever extending it to Black Caribbean men (ibid).…”

“…19 17 However, as with much of Black history in Canada, these events are not often discussed at camp (nor within the public schools that my participants attended). 18 In Montreal, a group of Caribbean students ran the New World Quarterly, a newspaper dedicated to researching social, political, and economic issues, particularly those concerned with Caribbean struggles for liberation (Austin 2007). In 1968 another Black student group, comprised mostly of students from McGill, called the "Congress of Black Writers: Towards the Second Emancipation, The Dynamics of Black Liberation", struggled for Black rights in Canada, primarily arguing that Black peoples in Canada should be afforded the same rights as their white counterparts (Austin 2007).…”

“…18 In Montreal, a group of Caribbean students ran the New World Quarterly, a newspaper dedicated to researching social, political, and economic issues, particularly those concerned with Caribbean struggles for liberation (Austin 2007). In 1968 another Black student group, comprised mostly of students from McGill, called the "Congress of Black Writers: Towards the Second Emancipation, The Dynamics of Black Liberation", struggled for Black rights in Canada, primarily arguing that Black peoples in Canada should be afforded the same rights as their white counterparts (Austin 2007). In 1969, a student group from what is now called Concordia University protested against a racist professor who taught at their university; their occupations took over spaces throughout the school.…”