Event

The Department of History presents its fifth Staff Seminar in their “Staff Seminar Series” by Prof. Emerita Bridget Brereton entitled “A Loyal Opposition: T&T’s Left-Wing Press and World War II.”  

This event takes place at 10am.

Abstract 

During WW2, TT’s established daily press—the Trinidad Guardian and the Port of Spain Gazette—took an unswervingly ‘patriotic’ line and supported, not only the colony’s efforts to aid Britain and the Allies, but also the actions of the local government and the business/planter elite. But the colony also had a lively pro-labour, left-wing weekly and monthly press during the war years. This paper examines the views of these newspapers and journals, with reference to the following themes: the nature of the war and how TT’s workers should respond to it; the American presence; issues related to political and union activities in wartime; the hardships faced by the working class as a result of the war; and what a post-war TT/BWI should be like.