Rennie’s new edition probes T&T’s working-class history

Bukka Rennie’s History of the Working Class of Trinidad and Tobago in the 20th Century (1919—1956) will be launched on Tuesday evening at Nalis as yet another contribution marking the 75th anniversary of the birth of the Labour Movement in 1937. The book, published by Majority Press 2012, cuts a broad swathe across the rise of the workers’ movement in Trinidad and Tobago which led to creation of mass political movements and the birth of party politics. Detailed in the book is the story of how, at the turn of the century, the working masses of T&T organised themselves to better their conditions of work, changed the nature of the relationships within production and challenged the socio-political structures of the Crown Colony to champion the cause of Home Rule, Independence and self-determination. Rennie’s book examines the various stages of the workers’ ongoing struggle for democratic institutions at all levels. Said the author: “It pinpoints how each new stage of development co-opted and corrupted the leaderships and demands of the previous stage; it examines the alliances with middle-class and professional elements that were forged along the way precisely because of the limitations inherent in the self-organisations thrown up by the working-masses themselves, until this very middle-class strata achieved critical mass, found their own voice, established their own distinct political platform with their own distinct objectives, and how in that process the salient demands of the working-masses ie mass democracy in context of a Caribbean Nation was betrayed and abandoned leading us to the present morass in which we find ourselves. This book is most relevant today.” 

 

Bukka Rennie is an activist, historian, columnist and writer who was among the 41 Caribbean students to be jailed and expelled following the 1969 student protest against racism at Sir George Williams University (now Concordia) in Montreal, Canada. Rennie had completed two years’ study in History & Political Science when the students staged a lock-in that ended dramatically when fire broke out in the computer lab they had occupied. Forty-nine white Canadian students who had joined the protest were also jailed and expelled. Since then, Rennie has refused to attend any university, including the University of the West Indies (UWI), even after the option to transfer credits was offered and accepted by others. He co-founded and edited “UHURU,” a black community-based newspaper in Montreal. He returned to Trinidad &Tobago in November of 1970 and co-founded and led the New Beginning Movement (NBM) that published the newspaper, New Beginning which he edited until its cessation in 1978. From 1978 to 1983 he was invited by the leadership of the OWTU (Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union) to edit their organ, Vanguard. From then on he has managed a number of family-oriented businesses while working as a freelance columnist with both the Trinidad Express and the Trinidad Guardian newspapers. (See columns at www.trinicenter.com/ /BukkaRennie.) 

 

Through the years Rennie has continued to write. His major works to date are: History of the Working-Class in T&T (1919-1956) published in 1974 by NBM; scheduled to be re-published in 2012; Revolution and Social Development published in 1975 by NBM; Conflicting Tendencies in the Caribbean Revolution published by the Pan-African Journal Vol V111, No2, Summer 1975; Unemployeds and the Special Works Programme published in Susan Craig’s Contemporary Caribbean: A Sociological Reader, Vol 2; Who is Basil Davis? –Essay, UNESCO 1972 International Book Year 1st Prize Award; Theme to Complement another Theme Play, UNESCO 1972 Book Year 3rd Prize Award; All Stars – Poem, 1978 National Literary Award; Throw out the lifeline– Play, 1980 National Literary Award; Sunships –a collection of Poems – Ren-Ro Publications, 1980; A Strategy for State Power and Social Transformation (unpublished); The Thunder of My Name —a Novel (unpublished); Remembering and Understanding CLR (unpublished). At present working on: 1970—the Other Story; The Birth of Steel-Drum Music and the History of the Trinidad All Stars Steel Orchestra and History of the Public Services Association (PSA)—1938-2006. Copies of the book will be available at the launch at Nalis, Port of Spain at a price of $160. It can be pre-ordered from The Blue Edition by emailing [email protected] or calling (868) 223-6921.