Biography of hubert nathaniel chrichlow

In the early 20th century, the bustling port of Georgetown, British Guiana, was alive with labourers—barefoot dock workers toiling under the hot tropical sun, hauling cargo from steamships for pennies a day. By January 1918 he became the undisputed leader of waterfront workers.

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. It was a time when colonial powers ruled, and the working class, especially Afro- and Indo-Guyanese, had little protection against exploitation.

Education

He left primary school at the age of 14, one year before graduation.

Career

He worked at odd jobs before becoming a dockworker.

In 1941 Critchlow became the first secretary of the newly formed Trades Union Council, an umbrella organization of trade unions. Little is known of his earlychildhood but in his late teens, afterleaving school, he was a dock worker. It became affiliated with the International Federation of Trade Unions and the Socialist International. Through organising strikes, negotiating with employers, and challenging oppressive policies, Critchlow laid the foundation for a movement that would ripple through Guyana’s history.

As the years passed, the trade union movement grew stronger.

He founded the British Guiana Labour Union (BGLU), the first legally registered trade union in the British Caribbean. He had reached up to Standard 4 (equivalent to Grade 6 in American schools), but he felt that he had to find a job to help maintain his home. He was immediately fired from his job and blacklisted from obtaining employment, and he had to depend on assistance from close friends for sustenance.

The movement was not just about wages; it became a platform for national identity, racial unity, and political power.

By the 1950s and ’60s, as Guyana marched toward independence, trade unionists were at the forefront of political change. He continued to champion workers' rights, and was always called upon to represent their case to employers in the years that followed.

At the age of 20 he began his struggle for the interest of waterfront workers' wage negotiations and rights. The young Hubert Critchlow attended the Bedford Wesleyan Primary School but left when he was 13 years old after his father died. But Hubert believed that something better was possible.

In 1917, at a time when the mere idea of workers organising was seen as radical—if not dangerous—Critchlow took a bold step.

Many of them—like Forbes Burnham and Cheddi Jagan—began as union activists before becoming national leaders. Despite this, membership grew and by the end of its first year, it had more than 7,000 financial members comprising waterfront workers, tradesmen, sea defence and road workers, railroad workers, balata bleeders and miners, some Government employees and hundreds of sugar estate labourers.

Background

Hubert Nathaniel Critchlow was born in Georgetown on 18 December 1884. Workersparadethrough the streets of the townshipdressed in red and white.