St. Lucia's Men of the Century

St. Lucias Men of The Century Sir George Charles William George Odlum Sir John Compton by Anderson Reynolds most propitious question to ask in outpouring of praise and affection. death, the Labor Government established this the 25th year of St. Lucia’s Newspaper articles eulogizing his death the George Charles Foundation with the Aindependence is: Who is the man carried titles like “A Man who Embodied a stated goal of institutionalizing the (or woman) of the century? Who above Movement and an Aspiration;” “A Secure education of generations to come on the anyone else has helped shape the history of Historical Legacy.” In his tribute to George life and contributions of George Charles. St. Lucia? Understandably, this is not an Charles the Prime Minister of St. Lucia, Dr. Clearly, from this national outpouring, Sir enviable task, because for a country that Kenny D. Anthony, said, “he was truly the George F.L. Charles would indeed be one has won two Nobel Prizes during its mere Father of Decolonization.” The radio of the nation’s candidates for man of the 25 years of independence (giving it the stations were inundated with citizens century. highest per capita of Nobel Laureates in calling in to talk about the goodness of The public life of George Charles the world), there is no shortage of George Charles, saying how he had taken began at the age of thirty, when, while candidates for this honor. Nonetheless, in money from his own pocket to help them working as a time keeper on the 1945 search of this St. Lucian man or woman of put roofs over their heads, in the process construction of Vigie Airport, and having the century, three names invariably labeling himTi Jezi , little Jesus; others who witnessed time and again the futile efforts surfaced—Sir George F.L. Charles, Sir called about how he had stood up to the then of unorganized workers to secure better John G.M. Compton, and William George mighty sugar plantation owners to secure wages and working conditions from the Odlum. Two of these men are no longer for them better wages and working administrators of the project, he joined with us, and the one remaining is partially conditions referred to him as theTi Hache , what was then the first and only labor retired from public live. Therefore, in this the little axe.As proof that the nation wasn’t union on the island, the St. Lucia Workers pause in our nation’s history, this moment simply being polite to the memory of a Cooperative Union. of reflection, it may be useful to dwell on departed man, long before George Charles’ George Charles’ entry into the labor the lives of these men to, if nothing else, death the nation had honored him by union was by no means special. The obtain a glimpse of what vision they had naming a community, a secondary school, decade before, in which he had come of for their country, what circumstances and the island’s busiest airport after him. age, had been almost as great a turning helped shape that vision, and what legacy And so as to ensure his presence was always point in the history of St. Lucia and the did they leave behind. with the nation, a statue of his likeness was other British West Indian islands as the erected at the airport that bore his name. 1838 emancipation proclamation. For it George Charles And The During the last two general elections was the events of this decade that sparked St. Lucia Labor Movement (which the Labor Party won by landslides), labor and political movements throughout capitalizing on the political capital or the West Indies. The sugar industry, then goodwill embodied in George Charles, the the mainstay of these economies, was in ir George F.L. Charles died in June Labor Party made sure that he was conspic- deep decline. Sugar prices (as well as the 2004 at the age of eighty-eight. uously present, in full party colors, at all prices of most other export crops) were in a SFollowing his death there was an party conventions. And not long before his downward spiral. Under these circum- 16 Winter 2005 hours of work, no rest on Sundays demands. In response, the Union launched and public holidays, employment of St. Lucia’s first ever Union strike that, after child labor, little or no health five days, forced the bakers to the negotiat- facilities, no vacation leave, no ing table where the Union won pay raises compensation for industrial and improved working conditions for its injuries and limited education members. Later that same year, the Union facilities, 90 percent of our people led a march to the Government house, were illiterate and disenfranchised. seeking pre Christmas season employment for its members. On the heels of the By the 1930s worker discontent had march, complying with the Union’s boiled over into spontaneous strikes and request, the government launched a public revolts, with sometimes disastrous work program that provided jobs for most consequences. In St. Kitts, in 1935, of Castries’ unemployed workers. Then in police shot and killed three workers and 1949, following a brief strike, the Union wounded eight when a crowd of sugar forced the Colonial Development workers marched onto a sugar planta- Corporation (in charge of rebuilding tion to demand higher wages. In that Castries after the 1948 fire) to the same year, three workers were killed negotiating table and won fringe benefits and another twenty-six injured when a and a more than 20 percent wage increase crowd of workers in St. Vincent came for workers. petitioning the Governor against Just as it did for the labor movement, recently increased custom duties. In George Charles’s St. Lucia Workers 1937, attempting to restore order during Cooperative Union would catapult the an island-wide protest against the political movement in St. Lucia. The first deportation of a Union organizer, police step in that process was taken when the in Barbados killed fourteen protestors, Union began setting its sights on the wounded forty-seven and arrested four Castries Town Board, then as now, the hundred. In Jamaica, worker upheavals second most important political organ in the island. But penetrating the Town Board stances, to keep wages as low as possible, during 1938 resulted in at least twelve deaths and one hundred and eighty would prove no walk on the beach. The plantation owners took to importing Board was controlled by the middle and indentured labor from India and to wounded. Growing up under these circumstances, upper classes, who saw the Union and the establishing laws and conditions that labor movement as a lower class engage- would keep workers tied to their planta- it was by no means surprising that an educated and socially conscious young man ment that needed to be kept out of the Town tions. Consequently, the masses were faced Board at all cost. However, unperturbed, with high levels of unemployment, would want to join the labor movement. However, what was remarkable about knowing time was on its side, the Union unliveable wages, detestable working contested the 1947 elections and won only conditions, deplorable housing, malnutri- George Charles’ involvement was that this mild mannered, slightly built, unassuming one of the four contested seats. tion, and low resistance to diseases. Worse, The following year the Union they had no legal avenue for voicing their man of humble beginnings, with only a secondary school education, would rise to received some help in its fight for the grievances. The government of the day Castries Town Board. On June 19, 1948, comprised a governor (or his representa- the forefront of not only the labor movement but also the political movement in St. fire destroyed four-fifths of Castries, tive, an Administrator) and an Executive rendering 809 families or 2293 persons and Legislative Council, both of which Lucia. Upon joining the St. Lucia Workers Cooperative Union, George Charles was homeless. The fire being no respector of were under the direct control of the income, class or race, placed everyone in Governor since it was the Governor who quickly elected secretary of the Castries branch, and made a member of the the same homeless boat. This reality (and appointed all members to the Executive also that the Union was directly involved Council and the majority of those in the Organizing Committee. A year later, in 1946, he was elected to the Executive in the relief effort) helped erode class Legislature. These Councils were invari- distinctions, if not permanently at least ably populated with white plantation Committee as the recording secretary, then in 1949 he was elevated to the post of temporarily, and engendered a feeling of owners or their surrogates. Therefore, the cooperation and togetherness. Thus, when government served mostly as an instru- General Secretary, and then in 1954 he rose to the Presidency of the Union. the annual Town Board elections came ment for safeguarding the interest of the around, the middle and upper classes lent a plantocracy even at the expense of the With George Charles in its leadership more sympathetic ear to the Union’s cause. masses. Furthermore, these privileged ranks the St. Lucia Workers Cooperative So, not too unsurprisingly, by the end of the whites were banded together in exclusive Union blazed a trail in the labor movement 1949 elections the Union for the first time white-only social clubs, and the best in St. Lucia. It took the island’s first ever in history gained full control of the Board. government and business jobs were Union action when in 1947 it sought and Once in control, George Charles promptly reserved for them.

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