June 19 – Labour Day in Trinidad and Tobago

Posted on June 19, 2018

Today is the anniversary of an uprising on the Caribbean Islands of Trinidad and Tobago.

But not a political-overthrow-the-government uprising. More like a workers-striking-for-their-rights uprising. That's why this is seen as an important date in the T&T union movement - and why today is the islands' Labour Day (people in the US would spell it "Labor" Day).


The police tried to arrest the leader of the strike at an oilfield on this date in 1937. That leader, "Buzz" Butler, spent months on the run from the police and eventually spent two years in prison. But then he ended up forming his own political party, he won the nation's highest honor, the Trinity Cross, a statue of him was placed on the very spot where the police tried to arrest him, and a major highway is named for him.

Plus, a holiday!


Check out some of the stuff that makes Trinidad and Tobago special:

Super gorgeous beaches and rivers, of course...
The limbo dance was invented in Trinidad and Tobago.

This is considered a natural "swimming pool" in the middle of the ocean.
It has a sandy bottom, and it's shallow enough for these sorts of wedding photos:


This is a pitch lake.
It is full of black ooey-gooey tar, or pitch:





Also on this date:

1 comment:

  1. I gotta bookmark this website it seems very useful very helpful webpage

    ReplyDelete