Ras Michael is back… Remembering Hubert Nathaniel Critchlow –A true Man of the People

ras michael, guyana chronicle

HUBERT Nathaniel Critchlow was born in Georgetown on December 18, 1884. His father, James Nathaniel Critchlow, had emigrated from Barbados and was employed as a Wharf Foreman by the Booker Group of Companies, while his mother, Julia Elizabeth Critchlow née Daniels, was originally from the Essequibo Coast. The young Hubert Critchlow attended the Bedford Wesleyan Primary School, but left when he was 13 years old after his father died. He had reached up to Standard 4 (the equivalent of today’s Grade 6), but he felt that he had to find a job to help maintain his home. While attending school, he had excelled in sports; and he continued to do so as a young man. He soon became a popular sports figure, and during the period 1905-1914, he was the country’s middle-distance athletic champion. He was also a good footballer and cricketer. Soon after Critchlow left school, he worked as an apprentice at the Demerara Foundry; and at the turn of the century, he obtained employment as a dock labourer on the waterfront. Due to his active representation of his fellow workers during the 1905 strike in Georgetown, his popularity grew. He continued to champion workers’ rights, and was always called upon to represent their case to employers in the years that followed.

INTESTINAL FORTITUDE Why he is truly a Guyanese champion is not a matter of great conjecture. It was simply because Critchlow had the consciousness, the moral and intestinal fortitude to recognise and stand up for the rights of the Guyanese ‘working poor’. The time when Critchlow made his impact upon the society was a time when the colonial power of the British was most dominant; it was a time when the African labour force was being subjected to all the atrocities of colonialism. Wages were meager; taxes on food items purchased by Africans were exceedingly high. There was little or no economic or social mobility for the freed African, unless the tone of his skin colour was light rather than dark. These were some of the problems Critchlow struggled against in his fight to redress the ills that plagued the working poor from which he had evolved. And then there was more, for he was of humble origin himself, and not an acceptable representation of a middle-class anxious to inherit the power of the British.

1917 STRIKES During the strikes in 1917, he represented the interest of water-front workers in collective bargaining, and by then was regarded as the leader of all water-front workers. He became even more popular when he helped to secure increased wages for them. In the 1917-1918 period, Critchlow led a petition for an eight-hour day. He was pressured by the Chamber of Commerce to withdraw his name from the petition, after all the other petitioners were forced to do so. But he obstinately refused. He was immediately fired from his job and blacklisted from obtaining employment, and had to depend on assistance from close friends for sustenance. Being unemployed, he devoted all his time to the campaign for the eight-hour work day. In December 1918, he and a small delegation of workers met with the Governor, Sir Wilfred Colet. It was after this meeting that Critchlow developed the idea of forming a trade union, and he immediately began making the arrangements for its formation. The Union, the British Guiana Labour Union (BGLU), was eventually established on January 11, 1919.

TRADE UNIONISM The Union experienced numerous problems on its establishment. The employers saw it as a force aimed at fomenting industrial unrest, and issued open threats to workers who were union members. Despite this, membership grew, and by the end of its first year, it had more than 7,000 financial members, comprising water-front workers, tradesmen, sea defence and road workers, railroad workers, balata bleeders and miners, some Government employees, and hundreds of sugar estate labourers. Branches of the Union were also set up in various parts of the country. Critchlow was employed on a full-time basis by the Union, and he never stopped being a spokesman for the workers. He publicised their grievances and demanded improved working conditions and better wages for them. But he faced opposition from the more educated members of the Union who felt that his limited education should not allow him to hold such high office. These members, who were in the minority, wanted a doctor or a lawyer to lead the Union. In January 1920, at a meeting of the Union, a Motion was introduced, requesting Critchlow to hand over all the Union’s funds to Dr. T. T. Nichols, and two lawyers, J. S. Johnson and McClean Ogle. But the Motion was rejected by a huge majority, and a vote of confidence in Critchlow was passed. Today, only a few remember him, and mostly at the First of May celebrations that have little to do with his achievements. Youths are not taught about his magnificent accomplishments against even the power and authority of colonialism. They are not able to see him as a perfect role model, nor to recognise that to succeed at the highest level is not dependent on how many subjects you acquire, but on your moral strength and love for ‘equal rights and justice.’ But there were those who were motivated by his work; and all became prominent and positive examples for today’s youth. Cheddie Jagan, Forbes Burnham and Martin Carter, who today inspire multitudes, were first inspired by him. HE IS THE MAN OF THE PEOPLE.