By Tota C. Mangar 
FEBRUARY 2022 marks the 83rd Anniversary of the 1939 Leonora Strike and Riots. At that juncture of our country’s history (1939), Plantation Leonora on the West Coast of Demerara was one of the 27 functioning sugar estates in colonial British Guiana.

During the first half of the 19th Century, ownership of Plantation Leonora was in the hands of McInroy, Sandbach and Company.  Following the dissolution of that conglomerate in 1854, Plantation Leonora was transferred to Sandbach, Tinne and Company, the London and Liverpool-based parent company of Sandbatch Parker, and this situation was to persist for some time.

Subsequently, in 1891, all of Sandbach’s plantation holdings in the then British Guiana came under direct control of the Demerara Company.
In addition to Plantation Leonora, the company also owned and controlled Plantations Diamond, Farm, Providence, Ruimveldt and Cornelia Ida. Of the remaining 21 sugar plantations in the late 1930s, 15 were under the control of Booker Brothers, McConnell and Company Limited, while three each were in the hands of Curtis Campbell and S. Davson, respectively.

The strike and riot of 1939 at Plantation Leonora emerged against the background of the Great Depression of the 1930s, which was particularly due to the impact of World War I.  By the 1920s and 1930s, workers’ wages were depressingly low in the face of an alarmingly high cost of living; there was acute poverty, the unemployment rate was high, and diseases and malnutrition were rife. It was not surprising, therefore, that the Caribbean region, including colonial British Guiana, was swept by a wave of unprecedented labour unrests, including strikes and disturbances, in the 1930s.

This period of upheaval against social and economic distress had also witnessed the emergence of several trade unions in the Caribbean, and more particularly, British Guiana. The British Guiana Labour Union, our oldest trade union, had by this time emerged under the dynamism and influence of Hubert Nathaniel Critchlow, and it had begun to make an impact on the Working Class. Moreover, it influenced the formation of other trade unions in the country at this crucial period of our history.

In the sugar belt, the ManPower Citizens’ Association (MPCA) was formed under the leadership of Ayube Edun, a goldsmith and publisher of The Guiana Review newspaper, and Mr. C. R. Jacobs, a successful merchant and member of the Legislative Council.  The MPCA was officially registered on November 5, 1937, and it concentrated its energies on organising primarily among workers in the sugar industry.

WELL-KNOWN
At the same time, The British Guiana Workers’ League also solicited members in the industry, with emphasis on factory and clerical workers. By 1939, labourers at Plantation Leonora were already well-known for their militancy. For example, Leonora workers were among the earliest to resist the indentured system when they protested in August 1869 against an arbitrary reduction in wage rates.  Furthermore, in 1909, Leonora workers demonstrated over a wage rate dispute, and, as recently as 1938, many of them downed tools over the low level of pay for loading punts.

It is against this background of workers’ struggle in the sugar industry that the strike and subsequent riot at Plantation Leonora in February 1939 has to be considered.
The protest in February 1939 at Leonora has variously been labelled by interest groups and scholars to connote the view in which it was held; as a strike, a riot, a disturbance, or even an uprising. Regardless of whatever description is involved, one fact is inescapable, that is, the protest or unrest possessed almost all the elements one would normally associate with a struggle between the forces of capital and labour; hence, a conflict between two contending classes in society.

INADEQUATE
Leonora sugar workers, like workers in other sectors of the economy, were prepared to vent their feelings against the acute social and economic hardships they were experiencing.  Commenting on the Leonora crisis, The Daily Argosy, in February 1939, acknowledged, “The general complaint is that earnings are inadequate and not commensurate with the work done.”

The first sign of discontent at Plantation Leonora was evidenced on Monday, February 13, 1939 when 10 estate firemen staged a half-day strike protesting the rather lengthy working day of eleven-and-a-half hours, and requested an extra hour’s pay.  The firemen were employees retained to stoke the wood-burning furnaces.

Their grievance was lodged with Mr. Prentice, the overseer, who promised to refer the matter to Mr. Leonard Lywood, the then Estate Administrative Manager. Lywood subsequently deferred taking a decision on the matter in order to consult with the manager of the neighbouring Uitvlugt Estate.  Referring to the issue, the Administrative Manager, himself, admitted, “That was the first indication we had that trouble was brewing.” A representative group of concerned firemen met Mr. Lywood and repeated their demands on Thursday, February 14.  They resumed work following a promise by the manager to review the issue. Nonetheless, the protest action by the firemen apparently led other groups on the estate to seek redress for either outstanding or current issues. For example, the same morning, about 80 to 90 members of Shovel Gang No.2 refused an offer of eight and nine cents per bed for work on a field at Groenveldt, some distance from their homes.

DEMAND
A small delegation of these field workers met manager Lywood and demanded 12 cents per bed, instead of the original offer. Lywood promised to inspect the field the following day, but he withheld the prospect of upping the pay rate, claiming that he considered nine cents a sufficiently good price. This merely served to infuriate the members of shovel gang, who then conveyed their displeasure to the District Superintendent of Police, Mr. Webber.

Eventually, a meeting was arranged among Lywood, the District Commissioner of Labour, Mr. Gray, and a workers’ delegation. Unfortunately, the intervening discussion did very little to resolve the issue. Lywood stuck to the original price offer, and Gray openly acknowledged his effectiveness at the negotiations.

The workers, for their part, restated their dissatisfaction, and requested that the MPCA boss, Mr. Ayube Edun, be involved in the discussions. This latter request found favour with the Commissioner of Labour, but not with the Administrative Manager of Leonora Estate.
Perhaps, it is worthwhile to point out that the MPCA, as a union, was still not yet officially recognised by the Sugar Producers Association (SPA) as the bargaining agent for sugar workers.  Such a situation, undoubtedly, contributed to the unrelenting attitude of the Estate Management. Clearly, an explosive situation was at hand at Plantation Leonora in February 1939.

With a stalemate in talks in relation to the pay-rate controversy, workers took a bold decision to travel to the City of Georgetown to air their grievances before the then visiting West Indian Royal Commission in an apparent belief that the Commissioners would be sympathetic to their cause. According to Dwarka Nath, “They were, no doubt, influenced by some strong remarks made by Sir Walter Citrine against some employees in the course of evidence given before the Commission.”