Rienzi, Butler and Sinanan and the oilfield riots of 1937.

Next year is 70 years since the 1937 Labour Riots or the Butler Riots.

The year was 1937 and the man was Tubal Uriah "Buzz" Butler. While Gandhi was shaking the British Emprie on one end of the planet in the Caribbean Butler was doing his part. The oil industry in Trinidad and Tobago was in a state of infancy. Oil had been commercially produced since 1908 and in the first World War oil from Trinidad was integral to the British war effort. Side by side with Butler was a young Indian lawyer named Adrian Cola Rienzi. His named was originally Krishna Deonarine and he was from Palmyra in San Fernando. Together with Butler, Rienzi shook Trinidad. The result was Butler being charged with sedition a charge for which there was no bail. No lawyer in Trinidad would dare defend Butler for fear of loosing their precious "brief's from the Colonial Office". One young lawyer stood tall and took up Butler's case. His name was Mitra Sinanan.

The result of the riots was the appointment of the Moyne Commission in 1938 headed by Lord Moyne. However, in 1939 Hitler and Nazi Germany invaded Poland and plunged the word into the Second World War (1939-1945). After the war was over, the British published Lord Moyne's report. The report supported Universal Adult Suffarage. In 1946 the first election under universal adult auffarage was held in Trinidad. This event was seen as the first step towards Independence which was achieved in 1962.