On 22 April 1948, about 1,200 sugar workers from seven East Coast Demerara estates began strike action against the cut-and-load harvesting system and unfair measurement of work. The method required cane cutters to cut and load the punts themselves, increasing their workload. Workers also protested poor wages, treatment by overseers and inadequate living conditions. The workers wanted the Guyana Industrial Workers Union (GIWU) to represent them; the Sugar Producers Association insisted on dealing only with the Man Power Citizens’ Association (MPCA), the authorized union. The strike made workers’ demands and their choice of representation central to the dispute.
On 12 March 1917, the Government of India prohibited further recruitment and shipment of indentured workers to overseas colonies. The measure followed years of criticism and organizing in India and...
On 18 April 1917, the SS Ganges arrived in Georgetown carrying 437 men, women and children, the last ship to bring Indian indentured migrants to British Guiana. The group was distributed among 24...
On 1 January 1920, outstanding indenture contracts in British Guiana were officially brought to an end, according to Guyanese historical accounts. This legal closure followed India’s 1917 ban on...
On 3 April 1924, colonial police opened fire at Ruimveldt on a large march of sugar workers from East Bank Demerara estates. The marchers were traveling toward Georgetown in support of the striking...
On 16 February 1939, police opened fire during a strike at Plantation Leonora on the West Coast Demerara, killing four workers, including a woman, and seriously injuring four others. Workers were...
👉 Sugar workers begin a colony-wide strike against the cut-and-load system
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22 April 1948
On 22 April 1948, about 1,200 sugar workers from seven East Coast Demerara estates began strike action against the cut-and-load harvesting system and unfair measurement of work. The method required...
On 5 June 1948, striking sugar workers staged a mass protest in Georgetown after weeks of unresolved labor conflict on the estates. The march brought rural plantation workers’ demands into the...
On 15 June 1948, workers and estate representatives met at Plantation Non Pareil, but the discussions did not resolve the strike. The workers had rejected the cut-and-load system and the estate’s...
On 16 June 1948, British Guiana police opened fire on striking workers gathered outside the factory at Plantation Enmore. Five workers were killed: Rambarran, Pooran, Lallabagee, Surajballi and Harry....
On 17 June 1948, workers and mourners marched from Plantation Enmore toward Le Repentir cemetery in Georgetown with the funeral hearses of the five workers killed by police. The march transformed a...
On 27 April 1953, British Guiana held its first general election under universal adult suffrage, with 24 House of Assembly seats contested. The People’s Progressive Party (PPP), an anti-colonial...
