Profiles: Heroes, Role Models and Pioneers of Trinidad and Tobago - by Nasser Khan

173 the political arena via his political parties, culminating in The Butler Party, his focus and platform was always for the improvement of the working class. He served on the Legislative Council from 1950-1961 and ran unsuccessfully for the Elections in 1958 and in 1961. In 1969 he was officially brought back into the fold of the OWTU, made a life member and awarded the honour, The Labour Star. In 1970, he was honoured with the Trinity Cross, T&T’s highest honour. By the time T&T gained independence in 1962, Butler’s contribution as a labour leader and his reputation as a fighter for and a hero of the working class was being widely recognised. He was regarded as a hero of the people, and in fact, he was seen as one of the first men, if not the first, who landed the first dismantling blow against colonialism, giving courage to the fighters for independence. The greatest tribute came in 1973, when the anniversary of the oilfield riots, June 19, was declared an annual national holiday and celebrated as Labour Day. Also the former Princess Margaret Highway was renamed in his honor. In 1971, a life- size statue in his honour was erected in Fyzabad. • 1988 Humming Bird Medal Silver. NOTE: Elbert Redvers Blades, the first general secretary of the Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU) is one of those credited for helping save the struggle from collapse in 1937 when Tubal Uriah “Buzz” Butler went into hiding to avoid arrest. Blades, a resident of Cumuto, Wallerfield, contributed significantly to the benefits now enjoyed by workers. ARTHUR ANDREW CIPRIANI (1875-1945) P ort of Spain-born, he came from a family of cocoa planters. A soldier at first, who loved horse racing, later achieving the rank of Captain in the British West India Regiment in World War 1, he became a leader not just to the ex-soldiers but to labourers also, becoming well known throughout Trinidad and Tobago as the champion of the ordinary workers, friend of the “barefoot man”. In November 1919, during a labour dispute on the Port of Spain wharves, Cipriani called on the workers to strike, resulting in their first