How did Marcus Garvey's Black nationalist movement influence political change in Barbados?

By the 1930s, the spread of the Black nationalist movement led by the Jamaican leader Marcus Garvey was a significant factor in creating the conditions for political change in Barbados.21

Along with the economic pressures of the Great Depression, population growth, and the rise of socialist ideology, Garvey’s movement helped catalyze a labour revolt against the existing plantocracy—a system where a white planter and merchant elite held consolidated political and economic power.21

These social and political pressures culminated in the labour disturbances of 1937, which posed a direct challenge to the colonial order. This unrest prompted the British government to dispatch the West Indies Royal Commission in 1938. The commission’s subsequent recommendations for social and political reform, including the legalization of trade unions and the expansion of the right to vote, provided the foundation for mass political organizations. These organizations were instrumental in curtailing the elite's power, leading to the ascendancy of Black political leaders by 1944, the adoption of universal adult suffrage in 1950, and eventually full internal self-government in 1961.21