Fueling Development: How Black Radical Trade Unionism Transformed Trinidad and Tobago

Despite Trinidad and Tobago’s economic dependence on oil and gas production and its history of colonial exploitation of labor and resources, it enjoys relatively high democratic and redistributive development compared to other nations in the global South. In Fueling Development, Zophia Edwards draws on archival data, historical analysis, and Black radical political economic thought to trace Trinidad and Tobago’s success to a specific form of working-class mobilization she calls “liberation unionism.” A Black radical labor tradition, liberation unionism was multiracial, multisectoral, and gender inclusive; and Pan-African, anti-imperial, anticolonial, and diasporic; it advocated not only for workplace issues, but for economic, political, and social transformation. Emerging during the colonial period, liberation unionism forced the colonial state to increase its institutional capacity to promote equitable development. The movement persisted into the post-independence period and further compelled the independent state to channel oil windfalls toward increasing its ability to better serve the needs of the people. By uncovering liberation unionism’s power to create robust social and economic change, Edwards expands understandings of the relationship between development, race, labor, and political economy.

Zophia Edwards is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Johns Hopkins University and author of Race, Capitalism, and the COVID-19 Pandemic.