Friday, February 23, 2007

Joshua-Added Note

Assuming that Eric was right and the strike ocurred in 1962, it was a bad time to get government's attention.

"Representatives of Barbados and the seven Leeward and Windward Island colonies met in Barbados from 27 Feb-5 March, 1962. They requested that the British Government approve a new federation, known as the Little Eight, in the event of the collapse of the West Indies Federation. The UK dissolved the West Indies Federation in May 1962." [From: A Political Chronology of the Americas, David Lea, Collete Minard, Annamarie Rowe (Routledge, 2001, UK)]

Since the primary motivation of local politics in the Caribbean was anti-colonialism, this would have been Joshua's primary consideration. There were more talks in 1966 after a disputed election that kept Joshua in power but they failed to produce a federation. He was replaced by Milton Cato as Chief Minister in 1967 after the SVLP won a general election. Joshua had no furthur role in government though he remained in politics.