Guyana Labour Union

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The Guyana Labour Union is a trade union centre in Guyana, previously known as the British Guiana Labour Union. [1]

History

The BGLU was founded in 1919, emerging as a labour union amongst black dockworkers. Led by Hubert Critchlow. It soon expanded into a colony-wide labour movement. [2] BGLU was not the first trade union in the Caribbean, but was the first to be legally registered. [3]

By 1928 the organization claimed to have 1,073 members, of whom 341 were women. [4] It was linked to the British Labour Party, and affiliated to the International Federation of Trade Unions and the Labour and Socialist International (1924–1940). [5] [6] The organization did not struggle for national independence, but concentrated its campaigning on social matters and suffrage rights. [5]

BGLU was joined by A. R. F. Webber. [7]

BGLU took the initiative for cooperation between trade unions in the Caribbean. At the 1926 BGLU convention, the British Guiana and West Indian Trade Union Confederation was founded. In 1945, BG&WITUC became the Caribbean Labour Congress. [8]

Forbes Burnham (later the president of Guyana) became president of GLU in 1952, and served until 1956. [9] Burnham again became GLU president 1963–1965. [9] Desmond Hoyte, who also became president of the country, served as GLU honorary president in the 1980s. [10]

The Guyana Labour Union later became associated with the People's National Congress. [11] Robert Williams is the general secretary of GLU. [12]

Related Research Articles

The history of Guyana begins about 35,000 years ago with the arrival of humans coming from Eurasia. These migrants became the Carib and Arawak tribes, who met Alonso de Ojeda's first expedition from Spain in 1499 at the Essequibo River. In the ensuing colonial era, Guyana's government was defined by the successive policies of Spanish, French, Dutch, and British settlers. During the colonial period, Guyana's economy was focused on plantation agriculture, which initially depended on slave labor. Guyana saw major slave rebellions in 1763 and 1823. Following the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, 800,000 enslaved Africans in the Caribbean and South Africa were freed, resulting in plantations contracting indentured workers, mainly from India. Eventually, these Indians joined forces with Afro-Guyanese descendants of slaves to demand equal rights in government and society. After the Second World War, the British Empire pursued policy decolonization of its overseas territories, with independence granted to British Guiana on May 26, 1966. Following independence, Forbes Burnham of the rose to power, quickly becoming an authoritarian leader, pledging to bring socialism to Guyana. His power began to weaken following international attention brought to Guyana in wake of the Jonestown mass murder suicide in 1978.

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References

  1. Alexander, Robert J., and Eldon M. Parker. A History of Organized Labor in the English-Speaking West Indies . Westport, CT [u.a.]: Praeger, 2004. 406
  2. Whitten, Norman E., and Arlene Torres. Blackness in Latin America and the Caribbean: Social Dynamics and Cultural Transformations. Blacks in the Diaspora . Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998, p. 148.
  3. Honychurch, Lennox. The Caribbean People . Surrey: Nelson Caribbean, 1995, p. 118.
  4. Labour and Socialist International. Kongress-Protokolle der Sozialistischen Arbeiter-Internationale - B. 3.1 Brüssel 1928 . Glashütten im Taunus: D. Auvermann, 1974, p. IV. 17.
  5. 1 2 Kowalski, Werner. Geschichte der sozialistischen arbeiter-internationale: 1923 - 19 . Berlin: Dt. Verl. d. Wissenschaften, 1985, p. 288.
  6. Cudjoe, Selwyn Reginald. Caribbean Visionary: A.R.F. Webber and the Making of the Guyanese Nation . Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2009, p. 179.
  7. Cudjoe, Caribbean Visionary, 2009, p. 5.
  8. Mars, Perry. Ideology and Change: The Transformation of the Caribbean Left . Kingston, Jam: The Press Univ. of the West Indies, 1998, p. 41.
  9. 1 2 Jain, Prakash C. Racial Discrimination Against Overseas Indians: a class analysis . New Delhi (India): Concept Publ. Co., 1990, p. 90.
  10. "Guyana Table of Contents", Guyana, Country Studies,
  11. Mars, Perry. Ideology and Change: The Transformation of the Caribbean Left . Kingston, Jam: The Press Univ. of the West Indies, 1998, p. 99.
  12. "President Jagdeo joins hundreds at May Day activities". opnew.op.gov.gy. Archived from the original on 2011-07-21.