A Vital Link: Colonial Seamen and the Black Radical Tradition

• In Event: Entanglements of Empire: Blackness, Indigeneity, and the (Un)making of Carceral-Colonial Space

Abstract

In the early twentieth century, networks of radical sailors and longshoremen were at the center of anti-imperial movements across the Black Atlantic. Sailors circulated revolutionary literature--covertly disguised as religious tracts--across national and colonial borders, coordinated mass strikes and boycotts, and served as ‘a vital link connecting liberation struggles throughout the Black world.’ This paper focuses on the London-based Colonial Seamen’s Association. I draw on British colonial archives, shipping records, and social movement publications to trace the transnational circuits and solidarity practices through which sailors and longshoremen challenged structures of global racial capitalism and forged alternative freedom dreams.

Presenter

• Mae Miller, CUNY Graduate Center