Striking sugar workers take their demands to Georgetown

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...

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 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...

On 9 October 1953, the British government suspended British Guiana’s recently introduced constitution, dismissed the elected ministers and sent troops to the colony. The action followed the PPP’s...