Tubal Uriah Butler
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Tubal Uriah "Buzz" Butler (1897-1977), was a Grenadian-born preacher and labour leader in Trinidad and Tobago. He is best known for leading a series of labour roits between June 19 and July 6, 1937 and for forming a series of personalist political parties (the British Empire Citizens' and Workers' Home Rule Party, the Butler Home Rule Party and finally the Butler Party) that focused its platform on the improvement of the working class.
Butler first came to prominence in 1935 when he lead a "hunger march" from the oilfields to Port-of-Spain. In 1936 he was expelled from the Trinidad Labour Party for his "extremist tendancies". He then formed the British Empire Citizens' and Workers' Home Rule Party. The Labour riots of 1937 resulted in turmoil throughout the oilfields. When strikes spread to the sugar factories, the Colonial government responded by arresting Butler.
Butler was imprisoned from September 9, 1937 to May 1939. With the outbreak of World War II in September, 1939, Butler was re-arrested and detained for the duration of the war. After release from prison Butler formed the Butler Home Rule Party, which later became the Butler Party. The Butler Party which captured the largest block of seats in the Legislative Council, but the Governor chose to exclude Butler and instead Albert Gomes became the first Chief Minister.
In the 1956 General Elections the Butler Party only won two seats. Butler, hero of the Afro-Trinidadian working class was effectively dispossessed by Eric Williams and the People's National Movement.
Butler is looked upon as the founding father of the Oilfields Workers' Trade Union (OWTU) and is honoured with a statue in Fyzabad, the town in which the strikes began. He was awarded the Trinity Cross, the nation's highest honour, in 1970.
References
- Malik, Yogendra K. 1971. East Indians in Trinidad. Oxford University Press. ISBN 019218198X
- Meighoo, Kirk. 2003. Politics in a Half Made Society: Trinidad and Tobago, 1925-2002 ISBN 1558763066