Violence and Colonial Order

Abstract

This is a pioneering, multi-empire account of the relationship between the politics of imperial repression and the economic structures of European colonies between the two World Wars. Ranging across colonial Africa, Southeast Asia and the Caribbean, Martin Thomas explores the structure of local police forces, their involvement in colonial labour control and the containment of uprisings and dissent. His work sheds new light on broader trends in the direction and intent of colonial state repression. It shows that the management of colonial economies, particularly in crisis conditions, took precedence over individual imperial powers' particular methods of rule in determining the forms and functions of colonial police actions. The politics of colonial labour thus became central to police work, with the depression years marking a watershed not only in local economic conditions but also in the breakdown of the European colonial order more generally.

Labor, Agency, and State‐building in Trinidad and Tobago: Toward a Postcolonial Sociological Approach to Development

“…Urban workers, such as those in public works and on the docks, were mostly Black (Bolland, :250–251). Prior to the early 1900s, workers resisted colonial domination but disruption was isolated and sporadic (Magid, :70; Thomas, :238). However, once oil workers started mobilizing, the landscape of protest and trade union activity in the colony was fundamentally altered.…”

“…As in other resource extraction zones in the global periphery (Bergquist, ), enclaves where oil workers were most concentrated were crucibles for the flourishing of working class consciousness, networks, and mobilization strategies to challenge capital and the state. Towns near the oilfields became nuclei of Trinidad and Tobago labor activity, including strikes, protests, and labor unrest (Abraham, ; Thomas, :241). Influential labor leaders, most notably Tubal Uriah “Buzz” Butler, an oil worker and a charismatic Baptist preacher, emerged from these towns.…”

“…The colonial state contemplated two options for dealing with the labor unrest: repression and concession. The white settler elite insisted that the movement be crushed by force and called for more white troops and a permanent British naval station to be established in the colony (Johnson, :35–36; Samaroo & Girvan, :215; Thomas, :239–245). The colonial government, anxious to restore order and secure the oil enacted a number of repressive measures, such as arrests, fines, deportations, anti‐strike legislation, raids, arms seizures, intimidation, police brutality, in addition to calling in British troops from Barbados (Abraham, :27–28; Jacobs, :27–31, 45; Kiely, :67; MacDonald, :60; Thomas, :240).…”

“…Furthermore, police and reinforcements found it difficult to reach the oilfields, which were not easily accessible. Strikers, knowing this, further frustrated police efforts by disrupting communications, such as cutting telephone and telegraph lines, and building roadblocks by felling large trees, digging large ditches, and strewing coconuts along the roadway (Jacobs, :41; Thomas, :244). Protesters even took to beating and even burning officers in the “chronically outnumbered” police force (Thomas, :244).…”

“…Strikers, knowing this, further frustrated police efforts by disrupting communications, such as cutting telephone and telegraph lines, and building roadblocks by felling large trees, digging large ditches, and strewing coconuts along the roadway (Jacobs, :41; Thomas, :244). Protesters even took to beating and even burning officers in the “chronically outnumbered” police force (Thomas, :244). The weak repressive state capacity that was not commensurate with the force of labor helped the labor movement to take hold.…”