A Time Travel Visit with H.N. Critchlow

Jan 17, 2016 Countryman, Features / Columnists

---

By Dennis Nichols
As the scenario of our independence golden jubilee unfurls, Countryman will attempt to take readers on a brief

trip down Memory Avenue by recalling, and honouring, a few of the stalwarts who helped shape our country’s future and destiny prior to May 26, 1966. (Not necessarily as a prelude to independence) I think it is an apt reminiscence.
British Guiana 1905 – the good old days, right! So many in our older generations, mellowed with age and yearning to relive the bygone years, delude ourselves with memories of a near utopia. Take a brief time-machine trip back to the early 20th century and tell that utopian notion to a young, black dock worker trundling a Water Street wharf, his face and arms dripping sweat under the enervating midday sun. He is not amused or consoled by your delusion. Neither are his fellow workers.
The young man’s name is Hubert Critchlow. He carries the middle name of his father, Nathaniel, an émigré from Barbados, and the fortitude of his mother, Julia, a native Essequibian. Of average height, physically imposing and obviously quick-witted, he stands out from among the others. You are further impressed when a colleague tells you that he was a champion athlete and a better-than-average cricketer and footballer.
You quickly glean additional information. Hubert is 21 years old, but started working at the Demerara Foundry when he was 13 or 14, after his father died. By then, he would’ve already had a comprehensive primary education at Bedford Wesleyan School. He is also street-smart and understands firsthand the indignity meted out to waterfront workers, among others, in the colony.
Fast forward to 1945, London, hoping to hear Critchlow deliver a speech as the accredited representative of the British Guiana Trades Union Council, to the World Trade Union Conference. You are disappointed because Critchlow is at another session, and unable to deliver his address. But you get a copy of it and you’re surprised at the scholarship and cogency of the points he made championing workers’ rights, and denouncing oppression and fascist labour policies.
Still not content with what you have seen and heard so far, you engage in some time-hopping between 1905 and 1945, trying to figure out how this lowly labourer came to represent his country at such an international forum. You don’t have much time, so you have to be selective in your sojourning.
Back on the waterfront in 1905, Critchlow is rallying workers to do something previously unheard of in the colony – unite in strike action, and in solidarity, with other stevedores in Georgetown. In awe, you realize that this is the beginning of organized protest against unfair labour practices which would lead to the formation of trade unions not only in B.G. but also in other Caribbean nations. During the strike and ensuing riots, several persons are killed or badly injured, but of course you’re aware that Critchlow isn’t one of them.
You want to skip the war years (1914 – 1918) but must acknowledge the establishment in 1919 of the British Guiana Labour Union, (BGLU) the first legally-registered union in B.G. and the Caribbean, of which Critchlow is the Secretary-Treasurer. This is preceded by two strikes in 1917 which yield two 10% wage increases and a reduction in working hours from ten and a half to nine hours. He petitions for a further reduction to eight hours, refuses to remove his name from the petition at the Chamber of Commerce’s request, and in March 1918 is fired, and blacklisted from employment.
By 1922, he is leading a union campaign to reduce rents paid by impoverished workers mostly, in Georgetown. After a rent reduction is won later that year, a committee of tenants designates the day of victory, July 3rd, ‘Critchlow Day’. You nod in wry appreciation of the man’s tenacity.
During the mid-twenties, more labour unrest, strikes, and riots ensue, testing Critchlow’s mettle, including his ability to be both a leader of the common folk and a negotiator with management and government officials. You observe that there is some opposition to his call to desist from violence as the police arrest and charge workers. In the end, however, his common-sense appeal to end the strikes, is heeded. Your admiration grows.
Time is running out, so you do some leapfrogging. Still in 1924 – Critchlow is a workers’ representative on a government-appointed commission to examine wages aimed at an award that would be acceptable to workers and employers. Not much success there. That same year, 13 mostly East Indian striking sugar workers, marching from East Bank Demerara to Georgetown to meet with him, among other things, are shot and killed by the police at Ruimveldt. You imagine his distressed state of mind.
You mentally note that employers view the BGLU with suspicion. Union workers are threatened, but membership grows. Waterfront labourers, sugar workers, tradesmen, sea defence, road and railroad crews, miners, balata bleeders and even some government workers benefit from union strength. More than 13,000 members and union savings of almost $10,000 tell a powerful tale.
Between 1924 and 1930, Critchlow represents the BGLU at three British Commonwealth Labour Conferences. In the latter year, he calls on workers to fight against employers’ capitalistic practices, and for the establishment of socialist ones. He visits Germany and Russia for trade union workers’ conferences in 1931 and 1932, after which he speaks of the benefits Russian workers were receiving, prompting the local press to label him communist. You take note of these developments, and what they may mean to Mr. Jagan and Mr. Burnham two decades later.
In 1941 the British Guiana Trades Union Council (TUC) is formed, and Critchlow is its first General Secretary. Two years later there are 14 affiliated member unions, and the TUC joins the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU). The WFTU splits in 1948 and Critchlow’s council links up with a break-away group called the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) He represents the TUC at an ICFTU conference in London that year, and later an International Conference of Workers meeting in Havana, Cuba.
Meanwhile, Critchlow grows more political. He agitates for the right of all workers to vote and participate in national elections, and is subsequently named by the colonial governor to represent workers in the Legislative Council. He is later appointed to the Executive Council, and also serves as the government nominee on the Georgetown City Council.
Critchlow contests the 1947 elections and wins the South Georgetown constituency, but is barred from taking a seat on the Legislative Council due to an electoral petition alleging false statements made against his opponent. You smell something fishy here, but you have no time to investigate. Incidentally you spot a young, bow-tied Cheddi Jagan in the Legislative Council, and chuckle appreciatively.
Your time is almost up. It’s 1950, and Critchlow is a member of a government advisory committee examining cost-of-living issues and making recommendations. A year later he is awarded the Order of the British Empire medal by King George VI. In 1952 he resigns as General Secretary of the BGLU and TUC. He however serves on an arbitration panel examining a waterfront workers’ wage dispute in Grenada.
Just before heading back to the future, you spot the 1957 May Day parade with Cheddi Jagan leading workers to a rally. Jagan sees Critchlow watching from his gate and enjoins him to march with his group. Later, Critchlow is allowed to address the rally.  You sense that it may be his last public appearance, because he will die in 1958, just eight years short of Guyana’s independence. You also know that his desire to have May Day decreed a national holiday will finally be achieved.
Come this May, it wouldn’t be all about independence. On May 1st, the ghost of Hubert Nathaniel Critchlow will march in spirit with Guyana’s workers. Three weeks later it will hover, and watch as the Golden Arrowhead is hoisted in a watershed Independence Day commemoration – the 50th, in as many years.

---

---