Political Unionism and Autonomy in Economies of British Colonial Origin: The Cases of Jamaica and Trinidad

. This investigation has shown that in developing countries an inconsistency arises between the need for more equitable distribution of income and wealth between classes and groups and the goals of an industrial relations system in which the trade unions are committed to ‘political unionism.’ While the unions helped to achieve independence and thus economic growth, in Jamaica the country moved into independence with a legacy of hardship and conflict, and of bad labor‐management relations. Legitimate union demands were suppressed, producing a situation in which latent conflict became manifest. This became a permanent feature; the unions are encouraged to become militant political organizations which in Trinidad were alienated from the formal political structure. The type of unions and industrial relations systems that emerged after independence proved unsuitable and undesirable for achieving sustained rapid rates of economic growth, making reform of the labor relations system and the electoral process mandatory.