Language : English

The present book collects four essays around the common theme of Caribbean radicalism. It deals with three modern Marxists and a religious visionary who was active during the early twentieth century. The first essay is about the classic chronicle of the Haitian revolution by C.L.R James: The Black Jacobins, specifically about the role and ideology of Toussaint Louverture. The second chapter outlines the views of Clive Thomas about the economic problems of the West Indies and his ideas for change from what he perceived as a position of dependence. The third essay examines the analysis by Gérard Pierre-Charles of the predatory régimes of François and Jean-Claude Duvalier in Haiti: the rise, characteristics and effects of ‘Papadocracy’, and presents his own solution of the crisis in Haiti which had gradually built up during the 1960s. Finally, the chapter on Olivorio Mateo relates how he founded a religious movement in the Dominican Republic, how this was suppressed by the US Marines in 1922, how the movement resurfaced at the beginning of the 1960s and how it was massacred by the Dominican military. It stresses the importance of economic factors for the success of the movement. Mats Lundahl is Professor Emeritus of Development Economics at the Stockholm School of Economics.