Throughout the 19th century, political migration within the Caribbean coincided with large-scale labor migration. This essay reconstructs the long-overlooked experience of political refugees who fled from Cuba to Jamaica during the Wars for Independence, focusing on their early reception and their eventual assimilation. Despite the official position of neutrality, white and brown elites, anxious to increase the number of Europeans, welcomed the Cubans who were mainly white.
Looks at the attempts of the Communist international to organise amongst African and Caribbean workers in Europe, and particularly in France and Britain during the inter-war period. It locates these attempts within the overall objectives of the Comintern to organise all workers, to organise in the colonies and to address what was referred to at that time as the 'Negro Question' - that is the liberation of all those of African descent. The paper particularly highlights the role of communists of African and Caribbean origin and the organisations they formed.
