Another excellent book indexed by Southwest Humanities is Zophia Edwards’s Fueling Development: How Black Radical Trade Unionism Transformed Trinidad and Tobago (Duke University Press, 2025). In this detailed and crucial study, Edwards offers a compelling reinterpretation of Trinidad and Tobago’s path to social and economic progress—especially surprising given its reliance on oil and gas and its colonial legacy. Through extensive archival research and a Black radical political economy perspective, she uncovers the vital role of what she terms “liberation unionism”—a working-class, multiracial, and inclusive labor movement deeply rooted in Pan-African, anti-imperial, and diasporic principles. This tradition didn’t just advocate for workplace equity; it demanded broader political and social transformation. Emerging under colonial rule and extending into post-independence governance, liberation unionism compelled the state to build institutional capacity and redirect oil revenues towards public welfare and development goals. Through this lens, Edwards connects grassroots organizing to enduring democratic and redistributive practices in Trinidad and Tobago’s modern history. Fueling Development reframes our understanding of how labor activism and radical politics intersect with state-building and economic equity. It makes an important intervention in debates about democracy, development, and the power of working-class politics in the Caribbean and beyond. For more information, please see the publisher’s website here.
SOUTHWEST HUMANITIES 