- NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 02/Jul 03:17

Rienzi – a forgotten hero

THE EDITOR: A few years ago, the late historian Dr Brinsley Samaroo did some extensive research on the life of Adrian Cola Rienzi (formerly Krishna Deonarine) and presented his findings in a book launched at the Physical Education Centre of Naparima College. He outlined Rienzi’s outstanding role in the 1930s in the advocacy for workers’ rights and welfare especially in the oil and sugar industries, his free defence of workers before the courts of the land, his collaboration with and support for Tubal Uriah Butler (the most vocal and persecuted leader of the workers), his instrumental role in the early years of the trade union movement, and his service as the first president general of both the Oilfields Workers Trade Union and the All Trinidad Sugar Workers Union in 1937. Rienzi was credited with leading the initial attempt to bring solidarity between Afro-Trinidadian and Indo-Trinidadian workers. He was also involved in the politics of the period, proposing self-government and universal suffrage and forming a political party as a vehicle to propagate his views. In a recent column (June 19) in Newsday, headlined “Godfather of trade unionism,” historian Jerome Teelucksingh would recount the outstanding contribution made by Rienzi in the leadership of the trade union movement and the advocacy for political advancement. There is no doubt that Adrian Cola Rienzi was a towering figure in the nascent trade union movement and provided sterling leadership. Yet the name of this “Godfather of trade unionism” is hardly recognised by the post-colonial state. The Sugar Workers Trade Union building at Mc Bean, Couva, carries his name but this is a non-governmental building. The San Fernando City Corporation attached his name to a half a kilometre of roadway on the outskirts of San Fernando which also carries the name of an obscure city councillor. Even Rienzi’s name was misspelt. However, other major highways in the east and south are named after people who made minor contributions to national development. The current government has the opportunity to correct this slight to the memory of Rienzi. One suggestion is to add Rienzi’s name to the Butler Highway, to be known thereafter as the Butler-Rienzi Highway. Another is to place a bust of Rienzi in a prominent location in San Fernando with suitable notation. TREVOR SUDAMA San Fernando The post Rienzi – a forgotten hero appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.