1. Introduction

There were local, regional, and international forces which guided and influenced the ideology and political behaviour of the educated and radical Afro-Caribbean in the twentieth century. Additionally, the role of the working-class organizations coupled with political newspapers as educational tools should not be underscored. In Trinidad and Tobago, the apathy of the élite was visible in newspapers as the Trinidad Guardian and Port-of-Spain Gazette, especially in their refusal to publish positive articles on labour. The limited coverage of the colony’s labour movement meant that working-class organs such as the Labour Leader and The People performed the role of educating the masses. These newspapers would be replaced by The Clarion, The Vanguard, and The Nation which emerged during the post-World War Two era. Articles from The Vanguard, organ of the Oilfield Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU), during the 1940s, were helpful in understanding the input of Padmore in the education of the working class in Trinidad and Tobago. This medium was useful in assessing the reaction of trade unions to Williams and the People’s National Movement (PNM). Likewise, the PNM’s The Nation, of the 1960s and 1970s, provided insight into the love–hate relationship between Eric Williams and trade unions.