The rich history of Trinidad and Tobago tells many stories in a vast pool of knowledge of its development. In the British Caribbean during the 1900s the oil industry in Trinidad and Tobago was in its infancy. Oil was being produced during the First World War (World War I) was an integral part of the British war effort. During this time, there was an increase in the migration to Trinidad from the smaller Caribbean islands, particularly Grenada, as they were in search of employment within the flourishing oil industry. This was the era that incited awareness of labour workers’ rights being infringed upon in Trinidad and Tobago. In this paper, it will focus on the causes and consequences leading to the Labour Riot or otherwise known to us as the Butler Riots of 1937.
History dates back to 1923 when the Petroleum Association of Trinidad and Tobago was formed by various oil companies. At that time, labour wages were at its lowest due to the great depression in which Trinidad and Tobago’s economy was severely affected. During that turbulent period, the standard of living deteriorated while the cost of living increased and the shareholders dividends in London rose. As a result the working class believed that the Oil companies were trying to suppress them with their unjust labour practices. This led the workers of the industry to openly voice their concerns. The labourers indicated that because of these issues it presently affect their daily lives as they identified that due to
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911 was the deadliest workplace accident in New York history. Most of the workers in the factory were immigrants who came to America for a better future. Their dream was economic security, which they saw in America. Getting a job in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory was a desired position, even if the job consisted of fourteen hour work days, six days a week. At most, the workers would take home $2 a day.
By examining the conditions at the factory, one can see that the fire stirred the need for labour reform in factories, making Americans aware of the problems of industrial capitalism; this is important because it changed the face of labour and rights of workers for generations to come. In Conditions at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company, historians have compiled five separate accounts that detail the working conditions and give look into the lives of those who survived the fire. These accounts provide the reader with a glimpse into the abuses that workers endured day in and day out, painting a visual snapshot of a worker in the factory. The need for reform in workplaces was
The Tulsa Race Riot was the destruction of Black Wall Street in 1921, which was caused by an allegation of a white woman accusing a black man of rape. It lasted from May 31st to June 1st. The Tulsa Race Riot caused plenty of damage from “dozens of deaths [and] hundreds of injuries” to the destruction of Black Wall Street leading to unemployment of the black community (Hoberock n. pag.). An estimated property loss was over $2.3 million. This was an important event in our Nation’s history because “it teaches how far hatred [and violence] can go” (Hoberock n. pag.).
When the crowd refused to disperse, Neville fired on the crowd, injuring several and killing one of the protestors. About a month later angry citizens assembled in arms at Braddock’s Field near Pittsburgh, declaring their willingness to oppose the government policy by force of arms. What had begun as a tax protest had escalated into an armed rebellion” (Cornell
These time in American history was well-known by frequent strikes for workers nationwide. Moreover, police tried to controlling lower society levels, in special workers who went on strike against large corporations. It was a corruption triangle among politicians, police and big business owners.
On May 11, 1894 a widespread strike lead by railroad workers brought business to a complete cessation; only willing to discontinue until the federal government took unprecedented action to end the strike. The Pullman Strike began “as a peaceful labor protest against a single Chicago employer (54)”, and later ended up “into a national labor boycott of more than twenty railroads and then into a violent confrontation between the federal government, the railroad companies, and American workers (55.)” With the “mix of employer resistance, government aggression, worker bitterness, and general economic desperation (54)”, the Pullman Strike presented questions towards the “rights of employers and workers in an industrialized democracy and about the role
Coal miners will always continue to fight for their rights to fair wages and health benefits. However, its apparent from the readings in class and this documentary that because coal miners were of a low social class often called hillbilly’s the mining corporations thought they could use them without giving them their full rights to fair wages and health compensation. In conclusion, the documentary film: Blood on the Mountain brought me to some new perspective on what coal miners had to go through, but I was also able to relate to this film because I had prior knowledge of these hardships. It was interesting on what these coal miners went through and I am glad I got to be able to hear from two different informative
The riot was demonized in ways no Cincinnati riot was before, and the reputation of the city was in ruins. The newspaper The Democracy ran an article calling the riots “-the most dastardly and villainous acts ever perpetrated in any community.” This juxtaposes the riot of 1841 as the black community is forced to justify the defense of their community to the city of Cincinnati as German immigrants are praised for their resilience and ability to stand against the unjust violence that occurred in 1855. Even the London News found the riot appalling by and published a depiction of the destruction that occurred. Few other than
Once the workers started to organize at this scale the police started to panicked on what to do. In their minds they couldn’t find a harmless solution to this problem. The police
This essay, "Cry 'Havoc '" described the relationship between riots that occured in ancient Rome and the ones that happen today. The narratives in which these riots were told were successfully mentioned as well. Simmilaries and differences were distinguished for the causes of the riots from ancient Rome and today. Riots that occured in Rome, London, and Baltimore are the ones mentioned the most. Simmilarities consisited of rising prices of homes, political tensions, or the damage of public and private property.
The work was also dangerous with not much supervising by the government. Workers, on the other hand, had little or even no bargaining power to leave the unsafe conditions. Nowadays, When Americans only pay attention when extreme work strike, levels of abuse are the norm hidden in the factories around the globe. Although the condition seems much improved, consumers don’t know the true fact- “Today, American citizens simply cannot know the working conditions of the factories that make the products they buy.
The Detroit Race Riot of June-July 1943 always had the question mark as to what the cause was for the riots. It has also been known as the “biggest and bloodiest race riots in the history of the United States” of America. A review that was completed by Welfred Holmes reveals some information from the book with the title: The Detroit Race Riot: A Study in Violence by Robert Shogan, and Tom Craig. The information that came to the fore was that the book explained the build-up to the riots as it occurred at least one year before the event. It was revealed that the morale of the Black people (Negroes as the book calls them) was very low.
During the 1900’s, two riots came about that each took place in Los Angeles and both dealt with social, economic, and political issues. One incident was the Watts Riots of 1965 and the other was the Rodney Kings Riots of 1992 in which both had similarities and differences that were related to the beatings of black citizens by white police officers. We can see how this triggered the caused an outrage and a national debate on police brutality. These riots erupted the social causes burning of buildings and the killings Caucasians even when they had nothing to do with the beating of either black men. A social cause that came from this is that the negroes ended up looting stores, setting fires, beating up Caucasian people who walked by in which they would pull from cars, the burning, stoning and shooting of police officers.
In Mark Bauerlein’s, Negrophobia: A Race Riot in Atlanta, 1906, the political and social events leading to the riot are analyzed. The center of events took place around and inside Atlanta in the early 1900’s. The riot broke out on the evening of September 22, 1906. Prior to the riot in 1906, elections were being held for a new Georgia governor. Bauerlein organizes his book in chronological order to effectively recount the events that led to the riot.
Introduction In the Caribbean, each territory has a unique social stratification systems which have been developed over the past centuries. This encouraged the people of these many cultures within the region to advance their social status - or his/her ‘social well-being,’ and the status of their family through the movement of social mobility. In this paper, it is my contention that social mobility is possible in the Caribbean since it allows persons to move in the social stratification system; secondly – to briefly address the current situation of social mobility within the Caribbean region, specifically in the countries of Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and Guyana. And finally, that social mobility has shaped better opportunities in the Caribbean.