State control over the labor process in the Commonwealth Caribbean

The main objective of this dissertation is to elucidate the nature of the relationship between the State in the Caribbean and the labor process. Moreover, the dissertation will investigate the extent of, and specific ways in which Commonwealth Caribbean States exercise control over, the labor process, and with what results. The labor process refers to the structure and organization of production. It is a process which revolves primarily around the social relationship of owners of the productive apparatuses and those whom they employ. The dissertation will explore the ways in which the State, as the condensation of powerful social relationships itself, manages to contribute to the maintenance and reproduction of conditions necessary for ensuring the integrity of the labor process. The importance of understanding the relationship between the State and the labor process is that it has implications for understanding the relations of power in society, how and why those relations are kept in place, and the impact which this organization at the point of production has on the wider society. Furthermore, it is hypothesized in this dissertation that the State's survival as an apparatus of power, as a regulatory mechanism, and as a principal social relationship among classes in society is contingent on the efficacy of labor process organization, and the ability of the dominant class to retain its dominance. Any serious examination of the literature germane to this topic would reveal an important lacuna in Caribbean scholarship. What little research has been done in this area has tended to treat the State and the labor process as separate and unrelated phenomena. This omission is all the more surprising considering that, in the Caribbean, working class struggles have historically been linked to demands for participation in the political decision making process. This study therefore attempts to fill this void in Caribbean scholarship and to provide a useful and critical theoretical paradigm within which this phenomenon could be studied in the region. It is also hoped that this research would stimulate academic dialogue about the subject, and perhaps influence policy makers in the process.