Labour resistance to conditions of abject poverty found in rural Jamaica 100 years after Emancipation.
by Liz Millman
Successful strike action in 1938 by local rural workers in the community of Pennants, in Clarendon Parish, Jamaica caused the sale of the plantations, that were still owned by the wealthy Pennant family – one hundred years after Emancipation. It was no co-incidence that the successful strike and campaigns by local workers in Pennants happened at the time when Labour Strikes were sweeping the Caribbean.
By focusing on one of the small but significant stories of successful labour resistance, this illustrated talk will showcase the reality and impact of the hundreds of years of imperial domination that created much of the wealth still evident in Britain today, and may spark interest in the local links there are between the wealth generated by the workers of the Black Country and the many countries around the world where the goods they produced were used. [see https://wolvestuc.org.uk/researcher/]
Liz Millman is an adult literacy specialist who lived in Wolverhampton for many years, working at Bilston Community College, when she and colleagues developed links with organisations in Jamaica.
Now living most of the time with her family in Australia, Liz has developed her interests as a Community Researcher, using Zoom as a way to engage in the exploration of Black History and she and friends runs informal ‘Black History Conversations’ every week online: www.blackhistoryconversations.com
further reading:
also: http://www.spanglefish.com/pennantshistory/index.asp?pageid=714736
meeting organised by Wolverhampton, Bilston and District Trades Union Council