For those of us who were there in those days, whether young or old, involved in the major events of the time or just touched by their atmosphere or influence, there was no escaping the engulfing mood of expectancy and hope that pervaded the entire society.

As on other moments of historical importance, once you were alive on August 31, 1962, you remember where you were at one minute past midnight that night of August 30 past the ringing of the midnight bell at the Anglican cathedral just across the road from the Red House when the Union Jack was lowered for the last time and the Red, White and Black of our newly Independent nation was hoisted.

“With all the symbols of a newly-independent country – national flag, coat of arms and anthem, the streets of Port of Spain adorned with decorations and bunting and the singing of ‘nation-building’ songs, ‘our nation was born’. [1]

This was the culmination of a journey and conflagration of circumstances, global and local.

We were part of the phenomenon of the dismantling of Empires and the massive decolonisation movement of the peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean.

This was all largely influenced by ‘ten days that shook the world’ with the Russian Revolution.
​
“The successes of Indian Independence (1947), the Chinese Revolution (1949), defeat of the French at Dien Bien Phu in Viet Nam (1955), the convening of the Bandung Conference (1955) involving 29 newly independent Asian and African countries, the Cuban Revolution (1959), establishment of the Non-Aligned Movement (1961) – all of these provided more encouragement for countries seeking Independence and accelerated the demise of the British and other European Empires.

The emergence of Cold War and superpower rivalry for world hegemony was also a factor in the context of the situation as August 31, 1962 approached.

It was a complex historical moment, with both positive and negative aspects. [2]

Internally, there was a period we may call the Struggle For Independence – 1937-1962. This period began with the anti-colonial uprising popularly known as the Butler Riots.

“It was both an economic and political battle which challenged the very foundations of the colonial imposition of the British Empire. Inscribed on its banner were 2 vital slogans – Let Those Who Labour Hold the Reins and the demand for Home Rule (the call for self-determination)[3].

Here are some of the mileposts:

• 1937 – 1939 – the Butler Riots and the legalisation of modern trade unions
• 1939 – 1945 – devastating World War, defeat of the Axis powers, strengthening of US global power, expansion of the Soviet Union and emergence of the Decolonisation Period
• The major boom in the local oil industry based on the importance of supply to the British US war efforts
• 1946 – first elections under universal suffrage and emergence of political groupings claiming to represent labour with 46% of the population registered to vote
• 1947 – Constitution Reform recommendations for an elected majority in the Colonial structures of Governance; the emergence of even more political parties and independent candidates
• 1946 onward – the resumption of trade union organisation and industrial action starting with the release of union leaders from detention after the War
• 1950 Elections with 18 seats contested. Although Butler’s party became the largest single group in the legislature, they were excluded from the Executive Council and the colonial authorities put Albert Gomes in charge
• 1955 – 62 the rise of the PNM with its first election victory with 39% of the vote in 1956, forming government with the First Chief Minister; the PDP (later DLP) won 20% of the vote
• 1958 – the Federal Elections in which the new DLP won 6 of the 10 seats was a coalition of 3 parties. The DLP.
• 1961 – Elections involve open racial tension and violence and a State of Emergency. The outcome – PNM won 20 seats and DLP 10 – marking the establishment of the two-party system
• 1955 – 61 Economic growth of 8-10% per annum in the 6 years leading to 1961 declined to 1% in 1962 as world oil prices plunged.
•  1960 – major strike in the oil industry and demand for nationalization of the industry.

 
On a wider scale, there was a popular literary and debating resurgence building upon the literary advances of the 1930s and 40s from the 1950s and into Independence in 1962 “with writers like Ralph de Boissiere, Samuel Selvon, V.S. Naipaul, Michael Anthony and Earl Lovelace.

Errol Hill campaigned for a national theatre and Beryl McBurnie opened the Little Carib Theatre.

The literary and debating clubs also enjoyed a revival and resurgence in this period.

As Roy Mitchell put it, “There were literary and debating clubs. They were used by young people with ambition to debate serious issues. Youth went all over the country by bus to debates”
“In 1962-64, they operated as debating clubs and youth movements”.

Among the debating clubs were Molton Hall Literary and Debating Club in Port of Spain. In San Juan/Barataria, there were clubs like Barawan, Arawaks and Saturn, led by Hugh Eastman and John Scott. 

There were the San Juan Youth Movement and the Progressive Youth Movement, also in San Juan. They were led by Ramesh Deosaran and Kissoon Birsingh.

Politics was organised at the level of the youth arms of various political movements.

The Trinidad Labour Party had its youth arm and Nello Mitchell was its president for several years.
The POPPG, the Caribbean Socialist Party (CSP), and Liberal Party also had their youth arms.

New newspapers and pamphlets published by individuals like George Bowrin and Walter Annamuntudo, provide a further avenue for popular literature and expression among the population.

The 1950’s also saw the emergence of public political education in the form of public lectures by Dr. Eric Williams, CLR James and others. Public debating among leading figures on national issues also commanded public attention, like the famous Eric Williams-Dom Basil Mathews debate on education.

It is out of this wave of literary endeavour in all its breadth and as its continuation, that being connected with the Literary and Cultural Club coincidentally named Beacon, established by Geddes Granger, yet another form of organisation emerged.

It was founded in 1962, the year of Independence. Its name was Pegasus.[4] “

“In an interesting column in the Sunday Express, Selwyn Ryan suggested that Geddes Granger  (Makandal Daaga) was the real “father” of our system of national awards, because his organisation, Pegasus, took the initiative in honouring outstanding citizens in the 1960’s”.[5]

In 1962, Pegasus began honouring cultural and literary and artistic contributors at Independence Day activities which evolved  into its Parade of National Heroes and National Hero Awards in 1967. The first awardees were Arthur McShine, founder of the ‘Penny Bank’ and Captain Arthur Cipriani, Leader of the Trinidad Workingman’s Association and the Trinidad Labour Party.

From the start celebrating our Independence has been a celebration of the struggles that we have waged, as a people, for our freedom from the clutches of colonial Crown Colony domination and those who have contributed in various fields of activity to the achievements of our country’s embarking on the road of self-determination and the flourishing of a new cultural identity and the possibility of forging the national personality.

Clyde Weatherhead
Citizen and Advocate for
Democratic Renewal of our Society and Governance
18 August 2022
 
[1] “Weatherhead, Clyde, Project Independence: After 56 Years, 2019 ISBN9781094638041, p. 33
[2] Ibid, pp 15-16
[3] Ibid, pp 12-13
[4] Weatherhead, Clyde, Pegasus and the Making of Project Independence, 2020, ISBN9798647268457, pp 8-10
[5] Brereton, Bridget,  History Matters – Selected Newspaper Columns, 2011-2021, 2022, ISBN9789768244475, p 5

Trinidad and Tobago is completing six decades of its Independence experience.

This is the anniversary of transition from crown colony of a European power to an independent small island state seeking to advance its nation-building project.

Marking 60 years “affords the opportunity to look back on and evaluate six decades of its journey towards the aspirations that filled the hearts of its citizens that night when the Union Jack was lowered for the last time and a sovereign people took up the challenge of charting their own course”[1].

This is also the 60th anniversary of a non-governmental, non-partisan organisation called PEGASUS which was founded in the very year of Independence with the goal of infusing the ‘inner spirit’ in our Independence.

1962 marked the beginning of two very different approaches to the defining of the nation-building project as well as its implementation.
One, exemplified by the method of Government-decided Five-year Development Plans spanning either side of Independence, (1958-62, 1964-68 and 1969-73).

The First and Third Plans were authored by the solo effort of the Head of Government. While the Second did include a process of consultation, “the overall direction of policy remained with the Prime Minister”[2].

After the abandonment of this 5-year planning approach, in the much later Vision 2020 plan, there was widespread involvement in the initial analysis and planning phases, but implementation remained the province of the Prime Minister and his Cabinet.

The other, exemplified in the work, over 5 years, of Pegasus and the development of its Project Independence - a People’s blueprint for the nation-building project.

The Pegasus method was of citizen initiative and participation at all points of the planning, implementation and evaluation processes.
In 1962, PEGASUS was created and built by Geddes Granger (later Makandal Daaga) with the assistance of Barbara Blenman (Secretary at Queen’s Hall), Winslow Johnson and Donald Mark.

As told by Roy Mitchell who played a leading role in the organisation, “One day after a meeting Granger told me, we all going in different directions. There is a wealth of views and perspectives, etc then nothing. It is time we lift our own thinking beyond this. We are not following up with works. Let us form an organisation doing things to benefit the whole society...”
”Granger came up with the name.”

Mitchell describes PEGASUS as “an attempt to give direction to nation-building” and “an inspiration, a movement, a spirit from which great things would have been expected for Trinidad and Tobago”.
The vision was that just as the Greeks drew courage, inspiration and strength from the winged horse, Trinbagonians would also be inspired and emboldened by this broad-based organisation bearing its name.

At the same time, another force, claiming the Right to Rule and occupying positions of power vacated by the colonial operators of Crown Colony governance was pursuing its own version of the future of Independence as “responsible” government.

The contest between these two opposing tendencies persisted throughout the entire life of PEGASUS[3].

This contest between these different approaches, described by some as top-down vs bottom-up , continues today as we seek to advance our nation-building project in the conditions of the 21st century and beyond this 60th anniversary.

In the difficult circumstances of all manner of challenge to our nation-building project, the words of Pegasus in the introduction of Project Independence remind us of truths and values that are vital if we are to meet the present challenges and guarantee our very future.
 “…there must be a deeper understanding by the entire population of the present state of the nation, and a greater interest in its possible future course. No less essential is the inculcation of a sense of urgency, of duty, of service and of sacrifice.

“The welfare of all must never be sacrificed on the altar of individualism and sectionalism. But this is bound to continue as a national problem if the absence of National Purpose in the life of the nation is not immediately corrected.

“National purpose must precede and influence sectional interests and this alone will lead to resolute endeavour on the part of all individuals and groups to work for the general welfare, development and happiness of the whole nation of Trinidad and Tobago.”[4]
​
Perhaps, a new citizens initiative, the Pegasus of this time, is once again needed to infuse the ‘inner spirit’ in our Independence which the patriots envisioned in the efforts of Pegasus begun in 1962.

Clyde Weatherhead
Citizen and Advocate for
Democratic Renewal of our Society and Governance
11 August 2022


[1] Weatherhead, Clyde, Pegasus and the Making of Project Independence (2020), p.76

[2] Williams, Eric, Forged From the Love of Liberty (1981), p.xxxvii

[3] Weatherhead, Pegasus and the Making of Project Independence pp 12-13

[4] From the preamble of the document Project Independence by Pegasus.

85 Years of Modern Trade Unionism in TT:
JUNE 19 – ANNIVERSARY OF
THE ANTI-COLONIAL UPRISING OF 1937

Yesterday, workers took to the streets of Fyzabad and Scarborough to celebrate the 85th Anniversary of the 1937 Anti-colonial Uprising in Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean sparked strike which began on the 19th of June.
​
The Significance Of 1937
The striking workers of the oilfields were joined by the sugar workers, dockworkers and other labouring people across the country in a powerful struggle for improvements in their working and living conditions, for trade union rights and against the colonial order.
The struggle of 1937 smashed across the lines of divide-and-rule among the workers in oil and sugar symbolising the unity of the working class and poor across the lines of racial division sowed by the colonial power.
This mighty uprising of the workers and poor was led by Butler and Rienzi and the Butlerites in the South and by Elma Francois, Jim Barrette and Christina King and the Negro Welfare Cultural and Social Association (NWCSA) in the North.
The colonial authorities responded with ‘Smiles and Blood’[1], calling in the warships, the Ajax and Exeter and unleashing military and police in a fierce onslaught that left 17 workers dead and 66 wounded, arrests and charges of sedition under the 1920 Sedition Act (enacted in the wake of the dockworkers and general strike of 1919) against Butler, Francois, Barrette and Bertie Percival, Royal Commissions – Foster and Moyne – to investigate the causes and propose solutions.
The colonial power and the employers were forced to the negotiating table by the power of the workers’ militant actions resulting in wage increases and other economic and social demands being addressed and in the passage of legislation that recognised the Right to Organise Trade Unions.
Within one year, the OWTU[2], ATSEFWU[3], SWWTU[4], FTU, NUGW[5], CSA[6], RWTU[7] and TWU[8]and a few other unions were legally registered.
The unions also built a single trade union federation, the Trinidad and Tobago Trades Union Council (TTTUC) in 1938.
COLA, Workmen’s Compensation for workplace diseases and injuries and Old Age Pension also became part of the workers’ and poor people’s basic conditions of work and life.
The demand for the end of colonial rule and for power to the working class and poor were inscribed on the banners of  ‘Home Rule!’ and ‘Let Those Who Labour Hold the Reins!.”
This led to Adult Franchise (1946), expansion of Elected Representatives and eventually Independence (1962).

The Situation 85 Years Later
In 1937, the strike of the oil workers that began in Fyzabad evoked the most vicious response of the colonial authorities, the media, business groups and defenders  of the status quo largely because of the importance of oil to the wealth and military machinery of the colonial power
Conditions for the workers and poor were also worsened by the effects of the Great Depression and the looming threat of World War
In 2022, it seems like déjà vu.
Eight years of economic depression due to the collapse of oil and gas (the modern ‘monocrops’ of the economy) prices, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and of Russia’s annexationist war with Ukraine, NATO and the US and the general chronic economic crisis have plunged the national economy into a devastating plunge.
The economic pie has shrunken and the various sections of the finance capital modern 1 percent who appropriate economic and political power by force are scrapping among themselves for their share of profits extracted more viciously from the labour of the workers and poor.
For the workers, plant and business closures and ‘restructuring’ means retrenchment of entire workforces like at AccelorMittal and Petrotrin, or the retrenchment of workers by the hundreds like at TSTT and scores of smaller businesses.
Wage levels are being driven down by growing inflation and the tactics of employers, private and public, by refusals to engage in collective bargaining and wage freezes imposed for as many as 8 years, deep wage cuts, criminal seizure of workers’ money ($565M in 2017 and $437M in 2018) by illegal refusal of employers to pay NIS deductions from wages to the NIB, job security is savaged with fixed-term and short-term contracts replacing permanent and pensionable employment in the public sector and private companies with illegal denials of vacation and sick leave to workers on contracts of 3 or 6 months even in Government Ministries and Agencies; relentless privatisation and monopoly mergers of business in the private sector and expansion of local conglomerates and concentration of multinational exploitation of depleting oil and gas resources.
For the working class, unionised or not, the attempt to increase the compulsory retirement age to 65 and cut NIS pensions by 6% per year if a worker retires before age 65 and cap minimum pensions at 80% of the minimum wage. This is the most savage attack on the social benefit of pensions of the workers.
Workers and their families are denied justice from employer and occupier alike following the worst industrial accident in which 4 workers lost their lives trapped in a pipeline and a fifth was injured approaching 4 months ago.
In 2022, 85 years later, the conditions of the workers, not just in the oil or sugar industries but across all sectors of the economy are as Butler described them in 1937 – cat piss and pepper – the most brutal savagery.

Adding Insult to Injury
During the economic crisis of the early 1980s, the private employers took the lead with the imposition of their 6 or 9% limit on wage negotiations.
As the crisis turned into depression, the Government, largest employer, took over the lead with the illegal imposition of a 10% wage cut and freeze on Increments in the Public Service and Fixed COLA generally. This resulted in a debt of more than $2B to the public sector workers.
Government continued the assault with a 5% wage cap policy in the 1990s, following a $4,000 buy-out for no-negotiations for almost 2 bargaining periods.
Today, after refusing to engage in collective bargaining for almost 3 full periods, Government has made proposals with more zeros than a binary code and 2 or 4% increases over 8 or 6 years and the threat of Special Tribunal-imposed 5-year awards if the public sector workers do not submit.
T&TTEC workers in all its bargaining units have had zero awards imposed by the Industrial Court accepting the company’s ‘inability to pay’ based on evidence provided by the employer alone.
The State, the public power is now leading the assault on the incomes of the working people.
With more than the usual mamagism, Government repeats its false claim of ‘safeguarding jobs as its priority’ and the fake ‘choice’ of salary increase or your job sounding like a Carnival devil mas, telling public employees, ‘yuh money or yuh life.’
This is the same Government that has 75% plus of the workforce in Ministries and Departments, in the RHAs and other agencies on fixed-term contracts rather than permanent and pensionable employment in what the PM likes to call Gazetted public service jobs.
This is the same Government that retrenched all, all, All the Petrotrin workers after their union proposed a 15% wage cut to ‘save the company’ and that retrenched 700+ and now another 400+ TSTT workers after their union accepted 5% over 5 years.
Wage freeze or wage cut OR keep your job that is not secure is Hobson’s Choice for the workers.
The President, the Prime Minister and his Labour Minister, have joined in a chorus on the eve of this June 19 to repeat the message of ‘cool it’ and ‘return to the bargaining table’ which no one has left in these negotiations.
Her Excellency said unions “would do well to also ensure that members understand the harsh economic realities of the labour market....”
The PM said, “I will admit that the strong language, which is being repeated in the public space, has left me a bit puzzled, because it does not reflect, either normal industrial relations practice, or the economic realities facing T&T”.
The Labour Minister said, “In order to uphold the principles of decent work, industrial peace and opportunity for all, we need to persevere in unison” and “I wish to reiterate to the Union representatives of the NTAC that returning to the table would be a significant step in the right direction so that as a collective we can re-engage in fruitful discourse in the spirit of tripartism, for the ultimate benefits of the citizens of this country”.
Where is the ‘spirit of tripartism’ when the Government has refused to engage the labour federations and has gone to the individual unions to push its 65-retirement age and other attacks on NIS pensions?
Why has your Ministry or Government not charged a single employer for the offence of not paying the money deducted from workers’ pay as NIS to the NIB?
Why is your Government pushing Bill No 8 of 2022 to “the waiver of penalties and interest” for these criminal employers?
Where, Minister, is the ‘fruitful discourse…for the ultimate benefits of the citizens…’ when the OSH Agency of your Ministry has failed miserably in its statutory duty to investigate the most serious fatal industrial accident while you talk of ‘safety and health... as Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.”
Where is the understanding of the ‘economic realities, Madame President and Mr PM, when the employers have already been given $1.3B of the $4B ‘temporary windfall’ that the PM spoke of a couple weeks ago and Government offers, or the Industrial Court imposes zeroes for the workers?
Where is the ‘normal industrial relations practice,’ Mr PM, when workers make wage concessions and are still retrenched in Government owned companies and enterprises?
Why should the public employees accept your talk of ‘jobs first’ when the reality is that their job security and minimum labour standards of leave etc are undermined by short-term contract employment in the Public Service and public sector generally?

Passing Motions is Not Enough
June 19, 2022, comes in the heat of a round of collective bargaining that involves a brutal assault on the working conditions of the workers.
What percentage of the ‘temporary windfall’ will go to the workers to compensate for the absence of collective bargaining and salary negotiations  and wage freeze for 8 years, the employer’s already collecting $1.3B+?
What wage increase will apply to the workers’ earnings up to 2022, the current bargaining period that gives the workers some income value and considers the economic state of the country, Government already stating that it will have to borrow to pay even the paltry 2% increase they offered?
Will Collective Agreements be brought current to 2022 or will the unions return to negotiating history in the next round of negotiations?
Addressing these issues, and addressing the assault on NIS pensions and the criminal theft of workers’ money by failure of employers to pay NIS contributions into the NIS Fund, addressing the continuing assault on jobs and job security with mass retrenchments and restructuring and the expanding use of 3- and 6-month oppressive and illegal contract, addressing all these and other issues facing the workers now, what is the trade union movement doing?
Passing a No-confidence Vote in the Government on June 19 alone will be as useless as the Opposition moving a similar motion in Parliament when the Government has a built-in majority and will defeat the motion.
What is needed is a detailed programme of Unity in Action, a set of detailed demands to protect and advance the economic and social Rights of the Workers and Poor, to safeguard Trade Union Rights and the Right to Basic Necessities as part of a platform To Make the Rich, Not the Workers, Pay for the Crisis of the Economy and Society!
The Trade Union Movement must learn from the experience of 1937 and Unite the All the Trade Unions and the Entire Working Class to Defend and Advance Their Interests!
Decent Incomes for Public Sector and All Workers!
Workers Must Have a Fair Share of the Oil and Gas Windfall !
Job Security for All Workers!
Social Security Rights for All Workers!
Build A Single Trade Union Centre!
Fight for the Rights of All!

Clyde Weatherhead
A Citizen and Worker Fighting for
The Interests of the Workers and People
In the Spirit of the Anti-colonial Uprising
Of 1937
20 June 2022
 
 
[1] Smiles and Blood: Ruling Class Response to the Workers Rebellion in Trinidad and Tobago, by Susan Craig
 [2] Oil workers,
[3] Sugar workers
[4] Dockworkers
[5] Government workers
[6] Public Officers
[7] Railway workers
[8] Tobago Industrial workers