labour movement

Question 1

Garinagu

Answer 1

They could be found in the towns engaging in domestic service,away in the woods cutting logwood or mahogany

Question 2

John Alexander Tom

Answer 2

He led workers in presenting the Petition of the Labourers to Governor Maloney in 1894.

Question 6

R. T. Meighan

Answer 6

Co-founder of the BHWTU who later became its President and who was added to the Legislative Council.

Question 10

Reginald Utter

Answer 10

He formed the Labour Association in 1899 and presented two petitions to the Governor who dismissed the workers’ demands and this led to a demonstration in May of that year.

Question 14

Sergeant Hubert Vernon

Answer 14

He led a section of the military contingent through the streets of Belize Town on July 22 1919

Question 20

Workers

Answer 20

those who gained income in the informal economy and those who gave unpaid labour. Refers to those who work for others for wages as well as the unemployed

Question 24

Advance and truck system

Answer 24

Employers gave workers three to six months’ advance payment upon employment usually at Christmas time. Then while in the logging camp the worker was forced to receive half his wages in goods from the employer’s commissary/store which was called the truck system.

Question 28

Labour laws

Answer 28

Resolutions passed to govern workers that included penalties of imprisonment and hard labour for three months being seized without warrant by an employer and forcibly taken to work or being fined or imprisoned for tardiness or being insolent to the employer.

Question 32

Creoles

Answer 32

They were seen as suited for mahogany cutting and were sometimes labourers in clearing land for agriculture. By the end of the 19th century they also took positions as clerks in commercial establishments or entry level civil servants. They were foremen

Question 35

Mayas

Answer 35

They were milpa farmers and were the majority in the labour force (chicleros) of the chicle industry.

Question 38

Mestizos

Answer 38

Moved out of farming to become bakers schoolteachers

Question 42

Antonio Soberanis Gomez

Answer 42

Founder of the LUA and major advocate for workers. He was a barber and dynamic public speaker. He is remembered for the profound statement "I prefer to be a dead hero than a living coward." He was also called the Moses of British Honduras.

Question 46

Clifford E. Betson

Answer 46

He became the president of the GWU in 1944 after a successful strike of stevedores. He was a shipbuilder a member of the Belize Town Board in 1934 and a leader of the Progressive Party.

Question 50

Elfreda Reyes

Answer 50

She was a domestic worker who later became a leading advocate for workers' rights as a voice for the voiceless. She was a founding member of the LUA and was active in the Women's League of the LUA.

Question 54

Eve Jeffreys

Answer 54

The only woman arrested and found guilty of pulling down fences smashing plate glasses

Question 58

Marcus Mosiah Garvey

Answer 58

He was from Jamaica and founded the UNIA in 1914. He later moved the headquarters of the UNIA to New York and also established several organizations under the UNIA including Black Star shipping line and the Black Cross Nurses.

Question 61

Nurse Vivian Seay

Answer 61

She led the BCN from its inception in 1920 until her death in 1971

Question 65

Samuel Haynes

Answer 65

He documented the discrimination faced by the black soldiers of the British West India Regiment by white British soldiers. He was also a major driving force in the establishment of the Belize branch of the UNIA in 1920 and wrote the words that became Belize's national anthem.

Question 69

1894 riots

Answer 69

A devaluation of the Guatemalan silver dollar/sol by 50% due to a change to the gold standard with no increase in workers' wages first led to a strike then a mutiny by members of the constabulary. Thereafter. a Petition of Labourers was presented by the workers to the Governor who called a meeting with employers but the employers refused to increase wages and so on December 11 the riots began.

Question 73

1919 riot

Answer 73

This was the next major workers' revolt also known as the Ex-Servicemen Riot. It was more explosive than the 1894 riots and it was triggered by discrimination faced by members of the British West India Regiment as well as delay in their pay upon arrival from the war.

Question 77

BCN

Answer 77

The Black Cross Nurses was an organization composed exclusively of women under the umbrella of the UNIA to administer to the sick and needy in Belize Town. The members were refused health training by the government but they hired their own tutors and qualified as nurses.

Question 81

BHWTU

Answer 81

British Honduras Workers and Tradesmen Union which was established in 1939 by Antonio Soberanis and R. T. Meighan even though trade unions were illegal at that time.

Question 85

GWU

Answer 85

The General Workers Union was established in 1941 after a law legalizing trade unions was passed and this new name replaced the BHWTU.

Question 89

LUA

Answer 89

Labourers and Unemployed Association which was established in 1934 by Antonio Soberanis Gomez.

Question 93

Unemployed Brigade

Answer 93

A group established in February 1934 to advocate on behalf of workers.

Question 97

UNIA

Answer 97

The Universal Negro Improvement Association was established in Jamaica in 1914 to promote Black pride and economic independence. The local branch of the UNIA was established in 1920.