Adrian Cola Rienzi : the life and times of an Indo-Caribbean progressive / Brinsley Samaroo.

Format:

Book

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

Samaroo, Brinsley, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Rienzi, Adrian Cola, 1905-1972.

Rienzi, Adrian Cola.

Political activists--Trinidad and Tobago--Biography.

Political activists.

Public officers--Biography.

Public officers.

Labor union members--Trinidad and Tobago--Biography.

Labor union members.

Labor union members--Trinidad and Tobago--Leadership.

Labor unions--Trinidad and Tobago--Officials and employees--Biography.

Labor unions.

Sugar workers--Labor unions--Trinidad and Tobago.

Sugar workers.

Labor unions--Officials and employees.

Sugar workers--Labor unions.

Trinidad and Tobago.

Genre:

Biographies

Physical Description:

vi, 152 pages : illustrations, color map ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Macoya, Trinidad W.I. : Royards Publishing Company Limited, [2021]

Summary:

"The trade union movement in the Caribbean has, since the Nineteen Thirties, played a major role in the development of the region. Faced by the suppressive efforts of an entrenched colonial elite, determined to squelch all workers' movements, trade unionists fought a long and hard struggle for recognition. In this struggle, Adrian Cola Rienzi, formerly Krishna Deonarine, was a pioneer who abandoned a promising legal career to create Trinbago's first trade unions, the Oilfield Workers' Trade Union and the All Trinidad Sugar Estates and Factory Workers Trade Union. He was the first President of both. Working together with the charismatic oil-worker, Uriah Butler, Rienzi provided the legal enablement and patient negotiating skill which sustained both the unions and secured recognition by the state and the employers. His emphasis on seeing the struggle in class terms rather than in a race context, earned him the 'Communist' label which was used to block his struggle at every point in his life. At the same time, he was proud of his Indian ancestry which he re-enforced through the study of history and his two visits to India to promote commercial contracts and to successfully facilitate the entry of Caribbean students, Afro and Indo, to Indian universities. That system has continued into our own time. Perhaps his major contribution to national development was his persistent campaign to undo the colonial policy of Divide and Rule by constantly stressing the urgency of common struggle by Afro and Indo workers for the betterment of their condition. The Rienzi / Butler combination of the Thirties was the first successful effort to unite the major ethnic groups and lay the foundations of the trade union movement. This narrative recounts the trials and the triumphs which laid the foundations of our modern state"--Page 4 of cover.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9789768303929 (hardcover)

9789768303936 (paperback)

976830393X (paperback)

9768303921

OCLC:

1354345887