High time Trinidad and Tobago recognises Rienzi

THE EDITOR: The recent publication of a book on the life and times of Adrian Cola Rienzi by Dr Brinsley Samaroo throws a spotlight on the meagre and inconsequential recognition accorded to this towering personage in the evolution and consolidation of the labour movement.

Rienzi was indisputably a pivotal figure in the formation of the major trade unions in both the oil and sugar industries. He was a founding member and first president general of both the Oilfield Workers Trade Union and the All Trinidad Sugar Estates and Factory Workers Trade Union.

As a lawyer, he defended gratis in the courts trade-union activists, mobilisers and leading figures in the labour movement such as Uriah Butler.

As a member of the Legislative Council, he opposed unjust and oppressive laws and championed the fundamental rights of workers and citizens generally.

He served with distinction as a judicial officer.

The question is, why was Rienzi not given commensurate national recognition by the administrations which held political office after Independence?

Butler had a somewhat longer and more colourful history as a labour leader and a little more active engagement in politics, but Rienzi’s contributions were only marginally less significant.

A major highway was renamed after Butler and the OWTU erected a statue of him, while Government erected one for Capt AA Cipriani. For Rienzi, there was little national or even local recognition.

As a historically outstanding figure from the then borough of San Fernando, to whose development he contributed as a mayor and a committed and leading resident, he was rewarded with a minor roadway named after him, which was a dubious honour, as he had to share it with an obscure PNM councillor. The road sign even spelt his name incorrectly as Renzi instead of Rienzi.

Basdeo Panday named the headquarters of the All Trinidad Sugar Union in McBean, Couva after Rienzi but this was a non-governmental, private initiative.

In government, Panday was not moved to institute any form of national and enduring public recognition of the contributions of Rienzi, for example by renaming the Butler Highway the Butler-Rienzi Highway or by identifying a public office, institution or award in Rienzi’s name.

This is a sad commentary on the failure to give deserved honour to someone who was undoubtedly a national hero.

TREVOR SUDAMA

San Fernando