ABSTRACT
The cultivation of cane and its processing into sugar was introduced in Jamaica around the beginning of the eighteenth century. Sugar received a new lease on life during the first half of the twentieth century when the reorganization, modernization and growth of the sugar industry dominated the landscape of Jamaica. The main factor contributing to the revival and transformation of the sugar industry in the twentieth century was the reorganization and strengthening of the capitalist element within the industry. The rapid growth of cane and sugar production was manifest as well at the grass roots. The substantial post-war growth of the Jamaican sugar industry camouflaged a number of serious contradictions or problems. By the early 1960s, sugar factories in Jamaica were technologically backward, by international standards. The contradictions and conflicts permeating the sugar sector reflected those affecting the society as a whole.
