ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to analyze the impact of the twofold economic and institutional crisis on the politics and social organization of Caribbean society. It discusses the special attention to the organization of women, who over the past decade have become increasingly active social actors. The implementation of structural adjustment policies by the majority of governments in the region has also produced its own economic and social crisis. A further consequence of the implementation of structural and adjustment policies has been the relative marginalization of trade union organizations within the political process. Trade unions with strong ties to the Caribbean Congress of Labour have tended to give critical support to governments pursuing structural adjustment policies in the Caribbean. A number of independent unions in the Caribbean, however, have been most outspoken in their criticisms of structural adjustment policies and of conservative Caribbean governments' pro-capital policies.
