“So, comrades, let us not pay tribute to Europe by creating states, institutions and societies that draw their inspiration from her. Humanity is waiting for something other from us than such an imitation, which would be almost an obscene caricature. If we want to turn Africa into a new Europe, and America into a new Europe, then let us leave the destiny of our countries to Europeans. They will know how to do it better than the most gifted among us. But if we want humanity to advance a step further if we want to bring it up to a different level than that which Europe has shown it, then we must invent and we must make discoveries. If we wish to live up to our peoples’ expectations, we must seek the response elsewhere than in Europe.” – Frantz Fanon
Weaving our Worlds has monthly study in struggle conversations and this month we focused on Neocolonialism in the Caribbean.
Since the world-changing Haitian Revolution, colonial forces have pillaged and punished the Caribbean. Post-independence did not alter empire’s monopoly over the resources of the region; it simply reoriented it to the interests of transnational capital. From IMF and structural adjustment debt, to tourism, to sweatshop labour, to unfree migrant labour, the interests of a privileged colonial and capitalist minority are still being violently prioritized.
“Colonialism and neocolonialism; the interests of a privileged minority are widely put forward; laws are flouted; the people’s human and democratic rights are dismissed” – Pierre Gottiniaux
For example, Haiti’s enforced debt crisis was used by the neoliberal International Monetary Fund to increase Haiti’s dependency and to asphyxiate Haiti’s sovereignty. (Yanis Iqbal, 2021). And due to neocolonial tourism, less than one percent of Jamaica’s coastline is accessible to the public (AJ+,2023).
But wherever there is repression, there is also rebellion and resistance, and we also studied and discussed movements like the New Jewel Movement in Grenada.
“The NJM was founded in 1973… Although this party would later call itself “Marxist-Leninist”, organisationally it had a loose structure. The party atmosphere was more like a discussion group and for the majority of its existence there was no central committee. Most party structures were created in the process of struggle rather than in accordance” – Luke Boulby
Thanks to a WOW network member and youth for compiling these study in struggle resources on Neocolonialism in the Caribbean!
Full list of resources:
1. Video: Why Can’t Jamaicans Access Their Own Beaches: The Tourist Industry and Neocolonialism in Jamaica, AJ+ 2023
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoXJqjiRmEg
2. Haiti: From Neo-Colonialism to Neoliberal Brutality, Yanis Iqbal 2021
https://socialistproject.ca/2021/07/haiti-neo-colonialism-to-neoliberal-brutality/
3. Puerto Rico’s Neocolonial Debt, Pierre Gottiniaux 2016
https://www.cadtm.org/Puerto-Rico-s-Neocolonial-Debt
4. “Forward ever, backward never”: the tragedy of the Grenadian Revolution, Luke Boulby 2020
https://marxist.com/forward-ever-backward-never-the-tragedy-of-the-grenadian-revolution.htm
5. Troubling “Project Canada”: the Caribbean and the making of “unfree migrant labor,” Adrian A. Smith 2016
6. Martinique Masses Continue Rebellion Against French Colonial System, Abayomi Azikiwe 2024
7. Map of the Caribbean islands
https://www.mappr.co/thematic-maps/caribbean-islands-map/
8. Jamaica Kincaid’s A Small Place 1988
http://seas3.elte.hu/coursematerial/FedermayerEva/Jamaica_Kincaid_A_Small_Place.pdf
9. Frantz Fanon’s essay West Indians and Africans from the book Towards The African Revolution
/https://monoskop.org/images/0/05/Fanon_Frantz_Toward_the_African_Revolution_1967.pdf
10. Barbuda: A case study in disaster capitalism and resistance (2025)
https://ichrgalway.org/2025/04/02/barbuda-a-case-study-in-disaster-capitalism-and-resistance/