Raffique Shah (born 1946) [1] [2] is a Trinidad and Tobago trade union leader and political commentator. He is also a former Member of Parliament and mutineer, having led a mutiny of Trinidad and Tobago Regiment in 1970.
Raffique Shah (born 1946) [1] [2] is a Trinidad and Tobago trade union leader and political commentator. He is also a former Member of Parliament and mutineer, having led a mutiny of Trinidad and Tobago Regiment in 1970.
Shah was born the son of a sugarcane worker and housewife in March 1946. His early education was at Presentation College, Chaguanas, where he gained a Grade I Cambridge School Certificate. He later won a cadetship to the prestigious British Royal Military Academy Sandhurst between 1964 and 1966.[ citation needed ]
As a lieutenant in the Trinidad and Tobago Regiment, he led an army mutiny in 1970. In the midst of Black Power riots, the People's National Movement government led by Eric Williams proclaimed a State of Emergency in April 1970 and arrested several Black Power leaders and Trade Unionists. In a move to prevent Williams from using the military against the masses, a portion of the Regiment stationed at Teteron (on the Chaguaramas Peninsula), led by Lieutenants Shah and Rex Lassalle mutinied. In response, the Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard fired on the mutineers who returned to Teteron Barracks, abandoning their foray into Port of Spain. After 10 days, the mutineers surrendered. The leaders were court-martialed and Shah and Lasalle were jailed. They both went on to win their appeals at the local Court of Appeal, and judges at the Privy Council in London, England, ruled against the State's appeal in July 1972. Shah, Lassalle and all the other mutineers were freed within 24 hours of that ruling.[ citation needed ]
After being released from prison Shah joined the Trade Union movement leading the ICFTU, a body of cane farmers who sought to displace the government-recognised organisation, TICFA (Trinidad Islandwide Cane Farmers' Association). Shah, George Weekes and Basdeo Panday went on to found the United Labour Front (ULF) in 1975 as a labour confederation and transformed it into a political party in 1976. During general election later that year, the ULF secured 10 of the 36 seats in Parliament and became the official Opposition. Basdeo Panday was appointed Leader of the Opposition, but following a bitter row in the party, Shah was able to displace him, and served as Leader of the Opposition between August 9, 1977 and March 31, 1978 when Panday regained control of the party.
Shah went on to lead the cane farmers and won an election to head the Trinidad Island-wide Cane Farmers' Association (TICFA), in 1998. He has been chairman of that organisation to date. Shah also served as editor of the Trinidad and Tobago Mirror newspaper for 17 years and went on to serve as an op-ed columnist in the Trinidad and Tobago Express newspaper. He is also known as the man who founded the prestigious annual Clico Trinidad & Tobago International Marathon, an event that spawned road-running throughout the Caribbean. He remained chairman of the organising committee until he stepped down in 2005. He served, too, as secretary of the local National Amateur Athletics Association and still holds a strong interest in sports in general and athletics in particular.
The history of Trinidad and Tobago begins with the settlements of the islands by Indigenous First Peoples. Trinidad was visited by Christopher Columbus on his third voyage in 1498,, and claimed in the name of Spain. Trinidad was administered by Spanish hands until 1797, but it was largely settled by French colonists. Tobago changed hands between the British, French, Dutch, and Courlanders, but eventually ended up in British hands following the second Treaty of Paris (1814). In 1889, the two islands were incorporated into a single political entity. Trinidad and Tobago obtained its independence from the British Empire in 1962 and became a republic in 1976.
Eric Eustace Williams was a Trinidad and Tobago politician. He has been described as the "Father of the Nation", having led the then British Colony of Trinidad and Tobago to majority rule on 28 October 1956, to independence on 31 August 1962, and republic status on 1 August 1976, leading an unbroken string of general elections victories with his political party, the People's National Movement, until his death in 1981. He was the first Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago and also a Caribbean historian, especially for his book entitled Capitalism and Slavery.
Patrick Augustus Mervyn Manning was a Trinidad and Tobago politician who was the fourth prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago; his terms ran from 17 December 1991 to 9 November 1995 and from 24 December 2001 to 26 May 2010. He was also the political leader of the People's National Movement (PNM) from 1987 to 2010. A geologist by training, Manning served as Member of Parliament for the San Fernando East constituency from 1971 until 2015 when he was replaced by Randall Mitchell, but with the seat in 2020 being won by his son Brian Manning. Patrick Manning was the longest-serving member of the House of Representatives. He was the Leader of the Opposition from 1986 to 1990 and again from 1995 to 2001.
The United National Congress is one of two major political parties in Trinidad and Tobago and the current parliamentary opposition. The UNC is a centre-left party. It was founded in 1989 by Basdeo Panday, a Trinidadian lawyer, economist, trade unionist, and actor after a split in the ruling National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR). After spending six years in opposition, the UNC won control of the government in 1995, initially in coalition with the NAR and later on its own. In the 2000 general election, the UNC won an absolute majority in the Parliament. In 2001, a split in the party caused the UNC to lose its parliamentary majority and control of the government. From 2001 to 2010, the UNC was once again Parliamentary Opposition party. In May 2010, the UNC returned to government as the majority party in the People's Partnership. The UNC's Political Leader, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, was sworn in as the first female Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago. Kamla Persad-Bissessar was Prime Minister from 2010 until 2015.
Arthur Napoleon Raymond Robinson, was a Trinidadian politician who was the third president of the country, serving from 19 March 1997 to 17 March 2003. He was also Trinidad and Tobago's third prime minister, serving in that capacity from 18 December 1986 to 17 December 1991. He is recognized for his proposal that eventually led to the founding of the International Criminal Court.
Afro-Trinidadians and Tobagonians are people from Trinidad and Tobago who are of Sub-Saharan African descent, mostly from West Africa. Social interpretations of race in Trinidad and Tobago are often used to dictate who is of West African descent. Mulatto-Creole, Dougla, Blasian, Zambo, Maroon, Pardo, Quadroon, Octoroon or Hexadecaroon (Quintroon) were all racial terms used to measure the amount of West African ancestry someone possessed in Trinidad and Tobago and throughout North American, Latin American and Caribbean history.
The National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) was the governing party in Trinidad and Tobago between 1986 and 1991. The party has been inactive since 2005.
The United Labour Front (ULF) was a labourist political party in Trinidad and Tobago and the main opposition party between 1976 and 1986. It was a successor to the Democratic Labour Party and the Workers and Farmers Party.
The Democratic Labour Party was the main opposition party in Trinidad and Tobago from 1957 till 1976. That party was the party which opposed the People's National Movement (PNM) at the time of Independence. After several splits brought about by leadership struggles, the party lost its hold on the Indo-Trinidadian community in the 1976 General Elections and was displaced in parliament by the United Labour Front under the leadership of Basdeo Panday, a former DLP senator. The party was the representative of the ethnic Indian community in the country; however Indian Muslims and Christians were said to be less loyal to the party than Indian Hindus.
The Trinidad and Tobago Regiment is the main ground force element of the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force. It has approximately 10,000 men and women organized into a Regiment Headquarters and four battalions. There is also a Volunteer Defence Force that has been renamed the Defence Force Reserves. The regiment has two primary roles: maintaining the internal security of Trinidad and Tobago, and the assistance of local law enforcement.
The Black Power Revolution, also known as the Black Power Movement, 1970 Revolution, Black Power Uprising or February Revolution, was a period of political unrest in Trinidad and Tobago as a result of a series of actions spearheaded by Black power and left-wing political groups in the country aiming to achieve radical socio-political changes.
All Trinidad Sugar Estates and Factory Workers Union, founded by Adrian Cola Rienzi was the major sugar workers' trade union and the predominant Indo-Trinidadian voice in organised labour in Trinidad and Tobago between the 1930s and 1970s. Leadership of the trade union passed from Rienzi to the Vice President, McDonald Moses, then Bhadase Sagan Maraj, and later to Krishna Gowandan.
The Workers and Farmers Party was a Marxist political party in Trinidad and Tobago. The party was organised by former Democratic Labour Party leader Stephen Maharaj, C.L.R. James, George Weekes and included the then little-known Basdeo Panday among its slate of candidates. It was succeeded by the United Labour Front led by Basdeo Panday.
The National Union of Freedom Fighters (NUFF) was an armed Marxist revolutionary group in Trinidad and Tobago. Active in the aftermath of the 1970 Black Power Revolution, the group fought a guerrilla warfare campaign to overthrow the government of Prime Minister Eric Williams following the failed Black Power uprising and an unsuccessful mutiny in the Trinidad and Tobago Regiment.
Winston Chandarbhan Dookeran is a Trinidadian and Tobagonian politician and economist as well as international public official. Dookeran is the current secretary-general of EUCLID, an intergovernmental institution of higher learning. He previously served as political leader of the Congress of the People, central bank governor, minister of finance, and minister of foreign affairs.
Reginald Andrew Lassalle, better known as Rex Lassalle, is an alternative medicine practitioner and former lieutenant in the Trinidad and Tobago Regiment who was a leader of an army mutiny in April 1970 as part of the Black Power Revolution.
Basdeo Panday was a Trinidadian and Tobagonian statesman, lawyer, politician, trade unionist, economist, and actor who served as the fifth Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago from 1995 to 2001. He was the first person of Indian descent along with being the first Hindu to hold the office of Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago. He was first elected to Parliament in 1976 as the Member for Couva North, Panday served as Leader of the Opposition four times between 1976 and 2010 and was a founding member of the United Labour Front (ULF), the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR), and the United National Congress (UNC). He served as leader of the ULF and UNC, and was President General of the All Trinidad Sugar and General Workers' Trade Union from 1973 to 1995.
The All Trinidad Sugar and General Workers' Trade Union (ATSGWTU) is a trade union in Trinidad and Tobago. It was founded in 1937 to represent workers in the sugar industry, but expanded its scope in 1978 to include workers in a variety of sectors.
The 2020United National Congress leadership election was held on Sunday, 6 December 2020, after Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar, the current leader of the UNC, faced losses commencing in January 2013 with the wipeout of her People's Partnership-led administration from the Tobago House of Assembly at the 2013 election, loss in the 2015 Trinidad and Tobago general election and loss in the 2020 Trinidad and Tobago general election. The candidates for political leader were incumbent Kamla Persad-Bissessar on Team Star against former member of parliament for St. Augustine and former Minister of Trade, Industry and Investment in the People's Partnership's government, Vasant Bharath, on Team Lotus. Former senator and Minister of Transport in the People's Partnership's government, Devant Maharaj, was an early candidate for political leader, but was never formally nominated as he dropped out on nomination day on the 15th of November 2020, citing irregularities in the voting process. He endorsed Vasant Bharath and Team Lotus. Kamla Persad-Bissessar won with of 87.15% of the votes, while Vasant Bharath got 12.85% of the votes.