The strikers want an increase in the minimum wage; many also resent the fact that a lot of businesses are whiteowned in a mainly Afro-Caribbean island.

Much of the subsequent civil disobedience was directed against London's Metropolitan Police, which in recent years has experienced prickly relations with the city's Afro-Caribbean community.

There is strong evidence that the various communities are beginning to mix. Almost half of all Afro-Caribbean men in relationships have a white partner.