Uriah Butler

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tubal Uriah Butler (born January 21, 1897 in St. George’s ; † February 20, 1977 ) was a Trinidadian politician, labor leader and preacher.

Life

Butler was born in Grenada . Since his father was sexton of the Anglican Church of St. George's, he was exempted from elementary school fees so that he had a basic education. As a young man he took part in the First World War for the colonial power Great Britain and served in the British West Indian Regiment under Arthur Cipriani . After the war he returned to Grenada, but migrated to Trinidad in 1921 to work as a plumber in the oil belt in the south of the island. In 1929, in an accident at work, he suffered a permanent handicap that made him unable to work and for which he received no compensation. As a result, he turned to the Baptist Church and worked there as a preacher. As a result, he sharpened his rhetorical talent, and as part of this activity he began to campaign for workers' rights.

Political activity

Butler was a member of Trinidad's first political party, the Trinidad Labor Party, founded in 1934. He first appeared in 1935 when he led a “ hunger march, ” a riot-accompanied march of protest by workers from the Trinidadian oil company Apex from Fyzabad to Port of Spain . The protest march took place against the express will of the union and TLP leadership, but resulted in a two percent wage increase for Apex workers and established Butler's reputation as the leader of the oil belt. At the end of 1935 he was expelled from the TLP because of “extremist tendencies”, whereupon he and other labor leaders founded the short-lived Trinidad Citizens League (TCL) and later the British Empire Workers and Citizen Home Rule Party (BEW & CHRP). In June 1937 strikes began in the southern Trinidadian oil fields. Police attempted to arrest Butler during a workers' meeting in Fyzabad on June 19, 1937, but were prevented by the angry crowd, one policeman was shot dead and another was burned alive. This day is considered to be the beginning of the "Butler Riots", violent riots primarily by workers in the oil industry in southern Trinidad, during which twelve demonstrators were killed by the police. Since Butler was on the police wanted list, he went into hiding, but surrendered to the authorities in September 1937 and was sentenced to two years' imprisonment in December for inciting unrest. He was released in May 1939. Due to old relationships, he was appointed head of the operational business of the Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU), founded in 1937, but was quickly removed from this post because of his radical views. In November 1939 he was arrested by the authorities as a "security risk" against the background of the Second World War, which was possible under the emergency legislation of the time. He spent six years on one of the two prison islands off the coast of Chaguaramas - depending on the source on Caledonia or Nelson Island - and was released in 1945 after the end of the war.

Butler immediately resumed his political activity. In the elections of 1946 he was personally unsuccessful, since he did not run in the oil belt in the south of Trinidad, but fought for the constituency of Port of Spain North, where he lost to the then popular Albert Maria Gomes. His party, now known in the press and popularly as the "Butler Party", became the second largest party in Trinidad. In the following years Butler continued to agitate for workers' rights, triggering strikes and unrest in Port of Spain and in the south of the island. After Butler supporters set fire to two oil wells out of frustration over an unfavorable strike, he was expelled from what was then County St. Patrick, where most of the oil wells were located. In January 1947, his supporters stormed the Red House, the seat of parliament in Port of Spain. From 1948 to 1950 Butler stayed in Great Britain to promote his agenda there. For the 1950 elections, Butler allied himself with a number of influential Indian politicians. In addition, the ruling party coalition United Front did not run in the elections. The Butler Party became the strongest force, but since the elected politicians in the colonial administrative system only made up 70% of the electoral committee for the executive council of the colony, Governor Hubert Rance was able to pass over the election winner Butler when forming a government - Albert Gomes was appointed Chief Minister . Butler was able to defend his mandate in the 1956 election, while his party could only win one more seat nationwide - the People's National Movement (PNM) had been founded a year earlier, won the 1956 election and ruled Trinidad for the next 30 years. In the 1961 election, in which Butler contested the La Brea constituency, he lost significantly and his party did not win a single seat.

After Trinidad gained independence in 1962, Butler's commitment to the working class was interpreted as a fight against colonialism, and he was considered a popular hero. In 1970 he was awarded the then highest order of Trinidad, the Trinity Cross .

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 Andrew Cipriani, the former commander of Butlers in World War I and mayor of Port of Spain, who in 1934 as its president formed 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. 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

While Labor Day is celebrated on May 1st in most western countries , in Trinidad and Tobago it has been on June 19th since 1973, the start of the Butler Riots. The main north-south traffic axis of Trinidad, the Princess Margaret Highway, was renamed in 1973 in Uriah Butler Highway . A statue was erected in Fyzabad in 1971 in memory of Butler.

The British historian Bridget Brereton analyzed that Butler was "a sincere and power-conscious workers leader, but neither an ideologist nor politically radical". Like Cipriani, whom he initially admired and later fought, he did not question Britain's rule over Trinidad in his struggle for workers' rights. The historian and first prime minister of the independent Trinidad, Eric Williams , ruled that Butler had "failed to mobilize a mass movement (for himself) that he himself had made possible." The Trinidadian historian Gerard Besson assessed in the Caribbean History Archives that Butler, along with Adrian Cola Rienzi and Cipriani, was one of the three pillars of the labor movement in Trinidad. "They fought not only against the colonial power that exploited the workers and the fertile land, but also to free the workers from their inherited 'mental slavery'."

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Biography on GrenadaRevolution. Retrieved September 17, 2015 .
  2. ↑ a b Guardian article, June 20, 2011. Retrieved September 12, 2015 .
  3. ↑ Bridget Brereton: A History of Modern Trinidad 1783--1962, p. 172. Terra Verde Resource Center 2009.
  4. ↑ a b Michael Anthony: Historical Dictionary of Trinidad and Tobago, p. 82.Scarecrow Press 1997.
  5. ^ "Independence of Trinidad and Tobago - The Way It Began", article in the Caribbean History Archives. Retrieved September 18, 2015 .
  6. ↑ a b Michael Anthony: Historical Dictionary of Trinidad and Tobago, p. 83.
  7. ↑ Daurius Figueira: Tubal Uriah Butler of Trinidad and Tobago Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana: The Road to Independence 6th March 1957 31st August 1962, p. 1950. iUniverse 2007.
  8. ↑ Biography on the NALIS website. Retrieved September 17, 2015 .
  9. ↑ Bridget Brereton: A History of Modern Trinidad 1783--1962, p. 171.
  10. ↑ Bridget Brereton: A History of Modern Trinidad 1783--1962, p. 182.
  11. ↑ Bridget Brereton: A History of Modern Trinidad 1783--1962, p. 189.
  12. ↑ Newsday article, June 19, 2008. Retrieved September 1, 2015 .
  13. ↑ Newsday article, June 19, 2014. Retrieved September 18, 2015 .
  14. ↑ Bridget Brereton: A History of Modern Trinidad 1783--1962, p. 180.
  15. ↑ Bridget Brereton: A History of Modern Trinidad 1783--1962, p. 198.
  16. ^ "Cola Rienzi", article in the Caribbean Historical Archives. Retrieved September 18, 2015 .
personal data
SURNAME Butler, Uriah
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Butler, Tubal Uriah (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Trinidadian politician, labor leader and preacher
DATE OF BIRTH January 21, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH St. George's
DATE OF DEATH February 20, 1977