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
