GASCOIGNE, JOSEPH
Mr @ University of York
Bio
Following an undergraduate degree at the University of Oxford, Joseph Gascoigne completed a Masters by Research degree at the University of York, exploring partisanship and polarization in post-colonial Antigua and Barbuda. His PhD examines the relationship between partisanship and political corruption in Antigua since independence in 1981. Other interests focus on politics in small island developing states, postcolonialism, and development and environmental resilience in the global south. He is the postgraduate representative at York's Interdisciplinary Global Development Centre and is leading the Talking About Hope Project, part of the Horizons of Hope project led by Dr Indrajit Roy.
Geographical location : United Kingdom
Research Area and Interest : Colonialism, postcolonialism, SIDS, development in the global south, corruption, politics, partisanship.
Social Media
Panel
Governance: CLR James
Presentation
Fanning the Jamesian Flame: Tim Hector and the ideology of C.L.R. James in Antigua and Barbuda
In the mid-1960s, Tim Hector was one of Antigua and Barbuda's most promising young intellectuals, winning scholarships to study at two Canadian universities. There, Hector joined a community of African and Caribbean student activists, co-founding the Caribbean Conference Committee in 1965, and appeared set to pursue a successful career in academia. However, correspondence with C.L.R. James had a transformative impact on Hector's thought and ambition, and in 1967 he abandoned his education in favour of a life of political activism in his native Antigua. From 1967, Hector applied Jamesian political thought to colonial Antigua, developing James's vision to its most radically Marxist and pan-African incarnation. Hector became the ideological force behind the Antigua Workers Union and Antigua's Progressive Labour Movement, campaigning against both the governing Labour Party and British colonialism. He founded the Antigua Caribbean Liberation Movement (ACLM), a radical socialist political pressure group which cooperated with the Comunist Party of Cuba and Grenada's New Jewel Movement. Through his newspaper The Outlet, Hector argued for anti-colonialism, radical socialism, pan-Africanism, and advocated a Caribbean Union. Hector never gained political power but throughout the 1970s and 80s his column "Fan the Flame" maintained and even outstripped James's ideology, even when the failure of the Grenadian Revolution had dampened the flame in others' eyes. This article explores how Hector applied, developed, and advocated the thought of C.L.R. James in Antigua and the wider Caribbean.