Hiding unemployment

Jerome Teelucksingh

THE DICTATORIAL regimes of Adolf Hitler (of Germany), Benito Mussolini (of Italy), Joseph Stalin (of the then Soviet Union) and Francisco Franco (of Spain) under-reported and hid unemployment. In these four countries, millions were unemployed – proof of the failures of socialism, fascism, populism, communism and Marxism.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimated that the global unemployment rate in 2023 was five per cent. And earlier this year, there was a reported decline to 4.9 per cent.

What does this mean in terms of number of people?

In 2024 there is the high figure of approximately 402 million who are seeking jobs but cannot find any. Such alarming facts highlight the need to eliminate unemployment.

Racism, gender and religious discrimination are factors that often contribute to unemployment in both low- and high-income countries.

Furthermore, those involved in protests and people who are critics of governments either lose or are denied jobs.

We need to address the seriousness of unemployment.

Governments and non-governmental organisations must search for solutions to reduce and eventually eliminate unemployment. Maybe the month of July should be annually observed as unemployment month.

Interestingly, July is an important month in labour history in the US. For instance, the Minneapolis Teamsters’ strike in the US occurred in July 1934. In this strike, among those involved were truckers, building workers and taxi-drivers. City police carried out a murderous attack on the strikers on July 20, killing two and injuring more than 55 in a day known as "Bloody Friday.”

And July is also significant in the working-class history of TT. The agitation of sugar workers in 1934 was part of the overall climate of protest by the working class in the British West Indian colony during the Great Depression (1929-1930s).

The agony of the Great Depression added to the misery of the masses. Rampant poverty among labourers contributed to malnutrition, poor sanitation, illiteracy and unemployment. Housing provisions for workers in the oil and sugar industries were in a deplorable state.

From 1933-1935, unemployed Afro-Trinidadians in the city of Port of Spain were mobilised in hunger marches under the leadership of Elma Francois, Jim Headley, Jim Barrette and Dudley Mahon of the National Unemployed Movement (NUM). The name of this group was later changed to the Negro Welfare Cultural and Social Association (NWCSA). During 1934 the NUM played a role in spearheading and influencing demonstrations among discontented workers.

The NUM contacted the sugar workers and was informed by Poolbasie, an outspoken worker, of the problems facing them. These included high rents of barracks, high levels of unemployment, estate drivers who exploited young female sugar workers, increased tasks and a drought which left the land unworkable.

The protest by800 sugar workers on July 6, 1934, at Brechin Castle and Esperanza Estates, later joined by workers from the central and northern estates, set in motion a series of civil demonstrations.

The police sought to quell the outburst, but they were attacked. After the violence subsided 12 people were arrested.

The domino effect was evident, as almost 15,000 sugar workers in Tunapuna, Chaguanas, Couva and San Fernando staged similar protests.

Fortunately nobody was killed, even though many protesters were jailed or fined. The spontaneity of the disturbances and the fact that no leaders emerged could be a reason why these working-class disturbances tend to be forgotten.

Undoubtedly, this development in 1934 introduced a new factor in the challenge of the working class against capitalist domination. Although thwarted by police, the proposed hunger march of hundreds of unemployed people and sugar workers on July 20, 1934 from Caroni to Port of Spain was planned to unite East Indian sugar workers and African hunger marchers (of the NUM), in a massive city demonstration. On July 23 a similar demonstration, by approximately 2,000 people, occurred at Tunapuna. A day later, on July 24, there was a protest at the Caroni sugar estates, where four policemen were beaten.

In 2015 the UN proudly proclaimed its list of 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The eighth goal is "Decent work and economic growth," but it is yet to materialise. The reality is that there are still millions of unemployed people. Nobody who is physically and mentally competent should be denied a job.

The global inequalities in the labour market and the shortcomings of institutions and policies cannot be ignored. They reflect a failure of capitalism.

Now our challenge should be to seek an alternative economic system.