Adrian Cola Rienzi

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Adrian Cola Rienzi (born January 19, 1905 in Palmyra, Princes Town region , † July 21, 1972 ), maiden name Krishna Deonarine , was a Trinidadian politician , lawyer and trade unionist.

Early years

Adrian Cola Rienzi was born as Krishna Deonarine in 1905 in the village of Palmyra, a few kilometers east of San Fernando . His grandfather fled Bihar , an economically disadvantaged region of India, after the failed sepoy uprising , and worked as a contract worker in Trinidad. With his father Deonarine Tiwari squandering the family fortune, the family was forced to move to San Fernando. There Krishna attended the renowned Naparima College, which he had to leave after three years due to the family's financial situation.

He found a job in a law firm. The lawyer JC Hobson awakened Deonarine's interest in books, and Deonarine became friends with the Justice of the Peace Adrian Clarke, who became another source of inspiration for him. In 1927 Deonarine changed its name to Adrian Cola Rienzi; "Adrian" stood for Adrian Clarke and "Cola Rienzi" for the Roman politician Cola di Rienzo , of whom he had read in Hobson's books. In 1930 he moved to Dublin to at the local Trinity College to study law. In late 1931 he moved to London and joined the Middle Temple ; In 1934 he was appointed a barrister and returned to Trinidad, where he had to fight for three months because of his image as a communist agitator to be admitted as a barrister.

Political activity

Former commander of the British West Indies Regiment Arthur Cipriani was elected chairman of the Trinidad Workingmen's Association (TWA) in 1923. Cipriani significantly increased the membership of the TWA and recruited more members of Indian descent and the like. a. Rienzi for the union, who was elected President of the South Section of the union in 1925. In the following years Rienzi founded branches of the TWA in the newly created workers' settlements around the oil fields; this work at the grassroots level established its later popularity in the south of the island. He also wrote for the East Indian Weekly , a 1928 founded weekly newspaper aimed at Indo-Trinidadians.

In 1934, Cipriani founded the political arm of the TWA, the Trinidad Labor Party (TLP). Rienzi was together with Uriah Butler , with whom Rienzi had a very warm relationship at the time, a supporter of Cipriani and one of the first members of the TLP. However, because of Butler and Rienzi's radical views, depending on their point of view, or Cipriani's lack of support for the interests of the workers, the three of them fell apart in 1935. Butler was kicked out of the TLP and founded the British Empire Workers 'and Citizens' Home Rule Party (BEWCHRP, popularly "Butler Party"), which was based in the predominantly black oil belt in southern Trinidad and whose lawyer was Rienzi. Rienzi was reviled as a communist by Cipriani and then left the TLP to form the Trinidad Citizens League (TCL), which relied on the Indian workers of the sugar cane plantations in central and northern Trinidad.

In June 1937, strikes began in the Trinidadian oil fields in the south of the island, which escalated quickly and culminated in the Butler Riots , violent riots that spread across the island. At that time, Rienzi showed solidarity with Butler, who was wanted by the police and had gone into hiding. He tried in vain to mediate between Butler and the government, and founded two unions, each of which he was elected chairman: the Oilfield Workers Trade Union of the oil workers in the south and the All-Trinidad Sugar Estates and Factory Workers Trade Union of the plantations and workers Factory workers in the north. After Butler surrendered to the authorities in September 1937, Rienzi represented him in court and tried to keep Butler's reputation high among his followers during Butler's detention until 1945. In 1937 he was a member of the Forster Commission, which reported to the British government on the social conditions of the colony of Trinidad and Tobago.

In 1938 he was a delegate from the West Indies to the World Youth Congress in New York. From 1938 to 1944 he was chairman of the Trinidad and Tobago Trades Union Council, the association of Trinidadian trade unions. In 1938 Rienzi won a seat on the legislative council for the Trinidad Citizens League for the constituency of San Fernando. In 1939 he became mayor of San Fernando and held this post until 1942. In 1944 he retired from politics and focused on his career as a lawyer.

Act as a lawyer

Rienzi had already practiced as a lawyer during his time as a union leader, campaigning for the rights of the Indo-Trinidadians; His successes include the recognition of marriages concluded according to the Hindu rite, the right of Indo-Trinidadian people to cremate their dead, and the introduction of non-Christian denominational schools. As a licensed barrister , Rienzi was able to pursue a career in civil service. At the age of 39, he was appointed Deputy Crown Attorney in 1944 ; after a few more positions in the colonial legal system, he became attorney general of Trinidad in 1959 and remained so until 1961. In 1964 he retired from professional life.

classification

Like all other Caribbean islands and bordering states, the British colony of Trinidad was significantly affected by the global economic crisis. As a result, labor unrest broke out in the British Caribbean colonies, first in February 1934 in British Honduras, now Belize . In Trinidad, the interests of workers were represented by Arthur Cipriani, the former commander of Butlers in World War I and mayor of Port of Spain, who in 1934 became its president of the Trinidad Workingmen's Association (TWA) in the first political party in Trinidad, the Trinidad Labor Party, converted. In the early 1930s, the influence of Cipriani and other moderate trade unionists on the labor force waned, which became increasingly radical in the face of high unemployment and falling wages. In 1934, central Trinidad, which is characterized by decentralized agriculture, was also plagued by a drought that temporarily made rice cultivation impossible. The government under Governor Murchison Fletcher initially recognized that the "Butler Riots" started in June 1937 were a result of the difficult working conditions and low wages in the oil industry, and entered into negotiations with the workers, but swerved in October 1937 under pressure London to a repressive policy.

During the Second World War , when Butler was imprisoned, the US built several military bases in Trinidad with the consent of the colonial power Great Britain as part of the destroyer-for-base agreement . The consequences for the situation of the workers were positive: Thousands of jobs were created, which were also better paid and offered better working conditions than the jobs in the sugar and oil industry. At the same time, their position as second-class citizens was made clear to the non-white residents of Trinidad in particular. In his 1940s New Year's message in the union newspaper Vanguard , Rienzi succinctly summed up the situation of the Trinidadian workers:

“Then as now people were called upon to give their lives for King and Country, then as now they were told it was a war to make the world safe for Democracy. Yet these great exponents of Democracy have a colonial empire in which millions of their subjects are denied the elementary principles of Democracy ”

“Then (during the First World War) as now people were called to give their lives for king and country, then as now they were told that the war served to defend democracy. However, these great representatives of democracy lead a colonial empire in which millions of subjects are denied the most essential foundations of democracy. "

- Adrian Cola Rienzi

After the end of the war, in 1946, the USA withdrew from Trinidad. The sudden onset of lack of work was accompanied by high inflation; both prepared the breeding ground for further social unrest.

Posthumous Effect and Evaluation

Rienzi Kirton Highway

As in many British colonies, Trinidad's aspirations for independence stemmed from working class dissatisfaction with working conditions in industrial plants and in industrial agriculture. The Trinidadian historian Michael Anthony judged that Trinidad's independence "without the devotion of people like Adrian Cola Rienzi" might never have existed. The British historian Bridget Brereton sees Rienzi as a “brilliant organizer of the labor movement” who would have cleverly interwoven the national pride of the Indian-born Trinidadians and the interests of the working class. The US sociologist and historian O. Nigel Bolland admits that Rienzi played a leading role in the emergence of the Trinidadian trade union system. The Trinidadian journalist Hamid Ghany sees Butler and Rienzi in the Trinidad Guardian as an “impressive team” and describes Rienzi as the “ intelligentsia ” behind the labor movement of the 1930s, while Butler is the militant part.

Honors were only awarded to Rienzi posthumously. In 1972 he received the Public Service Medal of Merit in gold. In 2012 he was awarded the Order of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the highest honor in Trinidad. In 2013, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the country's independence, the Trinidadian government published a list of 50 “national icons”, including Rienzi. The Rienzi Kirton Highway and Rienzi Street in San Fernando are named after Rienzi, as is the Rienzi Complex in Couva , a building complex that, among other things, houses the headquarters of the largest opposition party, the United National Congress (UNC), and where the annual semifinals of the national music competition are located Trinidad Chutney-Soca Monarch take place.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b UWI.tt: The Public Career of Adrian Cola Rienzi ( Memento from May 24, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Bridget Brereton: A History of Modern Trinidad 1783--1962 . 4th edition. Terra Verde Resource Center, Champs Fleurs 2009, ISBN 0-435-98116-1 , pp. 168 .
  3. ↑ Michael Anthony: Historical Dictionary of Trinidad and Tobago . Scarecrow Press, London 1997, ISBN 0-8108-3173-2 , pp. 480 .
  4. ↑ Caribbean History Archives: Cola Rienzi. Retrieved August 11, 2016 .
  5. ↑ a b Trinidad Guardian of June 20, 2011: Legendary labor Leaders. Retrieved August 11, 2016 .
  6. ↑ Bridget Brereton: A History of Modern Trinidad 1783–1962, p. 171.
  7. ↑ Bridget Brereton: A History of Modern Trinidad 1783–1962, p. 182.
  8. ↑ Michael Anthony: Builders of the Nation . Circle Press, Port of Spain 2012, ISBN 978-976-8068-07-1 , pp. 120 .
  9. ↑ Bridget Brereton: A History of Modern Trinidad 1783–1962, p. 189.
  10. ↑ Michael Anthony: Builders of the Nation . 2012, ISBN 978-976-8068-07-1 , pp. 122 .
  11. ↑ PC Emmer, Bridget Brereton, BW Higman: General History of the Caribbean: The Caribbean in the Twentieth Century . UNESCO, 2004, ISBN 978-92-3103359-9 , pp. 71 .
  12. ↑ Trinidad Guardian, June 26, 2016: Remembering Rienzi. Retrieved August 12, 2016 .
  13. ↑ NALIS.gov.tt: National Awards Recipients 1969 - 1979. Retrieved on 12 August 2016 .
  14. ^ CaribbeanMuslims.com: National Icons of Trinidad and Tobago. (PDF) Retrieved August 22, 2018 . (PDF, 8.6 MB)
personal data
SURNAME Rienzi, Adrian Cola
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Krishna Deonarine (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Trinidadian politician and trade unionist
DATE OF BIRTH January 19, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Palmyra, Princes Town (Region)
DATE OF DEATH July 1, 1972