On 21 June 1937, strikes and unrest spread from the southern oilfields to Point Fortin, San Fernando, Penal, Ste Madeleine, Waterloo, Woodford Lodge, Port of Spain, Rio Claro and other districts. Colonial reporting described events as riots and emphasized order; a decolonial account also asks what drove workers to withdraw labour and confront authorities: low wages, rising living costs, unsafe conditions, and lack of effective union representation. The scale of the action made a localized workplace dispute into a colony-wide political crisis.
On 19 June 1933, the National Unemployed Movement (NUM) organized a hunger march in Port of Spain. Demonstrators demanded relief work for unemployed people and restoration of rent controls. The action...
The Trade Unions Act, 1932 (Act No. 20) came into force on 1 July 1933. It provided legal recognition for trade unions, but did not by itself give workers equal power against employers or the colonial...
On 6 July 1934, about 800 workers from Brechin Castle and Esperanza estates demonstrated outside the warden’s office at Couva, protesting lack of work. Contemporary grievances included unemployment,...
A hunger march planned for 20 July 1934 was intended to bring sugar workers from Caroni to Port of Spain, joining Indo-Trinidadian sugar workers with Afro-Trinidadian unemployed people organized by...
Oilfield workers assembled at Bhola’s Junction in Fyzabad to hear labour organizer Tubal Uriah “Buzz” Butler. Police attempted to arrest him; the confrontation widened into strikes and unrest across...
👉 Oilfield strikes spread across Trinidad
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21 June 1937
On 21 June 1937, strikes and unrest spread from the southern oilfields to Point Fortin, San Fernando, Penal, Ste Madeleine, Waterloo, Woodford Lodge, Port of Spain, Rio Claro and other districts....
The British Secretary of State for the Colonies told Parliament on 28 June that strikes spread northward to the sugar areas and Port of Spain on 22 June 1937, after unrest began in the oilfields....
A 28 June 1937 statement in the British House of Commons reported that on 23 June the Governor had informed officials of unrest in Rio Claro: police fired back at a crowd and four people were...
On 21 July 1937, the British House of Commons discussed a commission to investigate the Trinidad and Tobago disturbances. The stated terms included examining their causes and the government’s...
The Oilfield Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU) was formed on 25 July 1937 in the aftermath of the labour uprising. With Butler in hiding, he designated Adrian “Cola” Rienzi to lead in his stead. The union...
On 9 September 1937, Tubal Uriah Butler surrendered after remaining in hiding following the June uprising. The National Trust records that he faced sedition charges and was jailed for two years for...
