Chris Braithwaite

Chris Braithwaite, also known as Chris Jones (1885 - 9 September 1944) was a black Barbadian who was leader of the Colonial Seamen's Association in the 1930s.

Life

Born in Barbados, Braithwaite went to sea with the British merchant navy as a teenager and travelled the world as a sailor. After World War I he lived in New York for a while, before moving to settle in London, working for the Shipping Federation. He married a white woman, Edna, from Stepney, and they lived in Stepney.

Braithwaite became a member of the National Union of Seamen, and in 1930 joined the Seamen's Minority Movement, a rank-and-file group organised by the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB). Taking the pseudonym 'Chris Jones' to avoid victimisation by his employer, Braithwaite had joined the CPGB by 1931. He helped distribute the Negro Worker, and with Arnold Ward helped launch the Negro Welfare Association, publicising the case of the Scottsboro Boys. In 1933 he followed George Padmore in resigning from the CPGB in protest at the implicit shift away from anti-imperialism involved with the emerging 'Popular Front' strategy.

In 1935, opposing the new British Shipping Subsidy Act, Braithwaite founded the Colonial Seamen's Association - which included Asian seamen alongside other black colonial seamen. He became organising secretary of the International African Service Bureau (IASB), established in May 1937. He wrote a monthly column, 'Seamen's Notes', for the IASB journal, International African Opinion. Braithwaite, George Padmore and C. L. R. James continued to oppose the CPGB, turning up together to heckle at CPGB meetings. Braithwaite and Padmore worked with the Independent Labour Party (ILP) and with ILP intellectuals like Reginald Reynolds and Ethel Mannin.

He died 9 September 1944, survived by his wife and six children.

Further Reading

• Christian Høgsbjerg, Chris Braithwaite: Mariner Renegade and Castaway (London: Socialist History Society / Redwords, 2014)