On this day, 22 October 1935, British colonial authorities declared a state of emergency on the Caribbean island of St Vincent to repress a rebellion against high prices to benefit sugar interests. At midnight that morning a British warship arrived to reinforce local police. Though disorder in the capital, Kingstown, had subsided, the uprising continued for two days in rural areas, and police met strong resistance in Byera’s Hill, Campden Park and Stubbs, where demands for land and for higher wages were heard. The state of emergency was continued for three weeks.
We have begun an occasional podcast series about the British Empire. Check out our first episodes about the Hong Kong riots of 1967 here: https://workingclasshistory.com/2019/07/15/e26-27-the-hong-kong-riots-1967/https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1242306115954536/?type=3
People with very little actual historical background often say of anarchy that it would never work - without realizing that not only has it worked for much of the history of the human race, but it is in fact working right now. For the time being, let’s set aside the Paris Commune, Republican Spain, Woodstock, open-source computer programming, and all the other famed instances of successful revolutionary anarchism. Anarchy is simply cooperative self-determination - it is a part of everyday life, not something that will only happen “after the revolution.” Anarchy works today for circles of friends everywhere - so how can we make more of our economic relations anarchist? Anarchy is in action when people cooperate on a camping trip or to arrange free meals for hungry people - so how can we apply those lessons to our interactions at school, at work, in our neighborhoods?
