Belize's Turbulent Times: 1934

In 1934, Belize was still a British colony, known as British Honduras. The country was suffering from a deep economic crisis, with high unemployment and poverty. On 10 September, Antonio Soberanis Gomez and several volunteers fed hundreds of hungry Belizeans for free, marking the beginning of a wider campaign of labour agitation against British colonial rule. This was also the date of the colony's birthday, and three years earlier, a hurricane and tidal wave had killed at least 2,500 people in Belize City. The governor, John Burdon, had known about the hurricane in advance but allowed celebrations to go ahead, and was later criticised for his mismanagement of the disaster. In 1934, Gomez led a group of struggling workers in a movement called the Labourers and Unemployed Association (LUA) to fight for more jobs and better pay. This led people to question the benefits of being colonised by Britain, and the nationalist movement seeking independence for Belize began to take shape.

The hurricane of 1931

On the 10th of September 1931, Belize (then known as British Honduras) was hit by a hurricane and a tidal wave that killed at least 2,500 people, or more than 1,000 according to some sources, out of a population of 15,000 in the colony's capital, Belize City. The hurricane caused the greatest devastation in the Yarborough neighbourhood, where Antonio Soberanis Gomez would later set up a free kitchen in 1934. The hurricane's impact was worsened by a lack of generational memory of hurricanes in Belize, with the last hurricane hitting the colony over a century prior.

The British colonial government had received advance warning of the hurricane on the 8th of September, and the harbourmaster and other colonial officials were informed. However, the people of Belize City had very little time to prepare, and telephone coverage was limited. Many residents of Belize City who did receive the warning laughed it off, and the celebrations planned for the 10th went ahead, albeit with some early morning parades cancelled due to ongoing rain. The intensity of the rain and wind increased throughout the day, peaking at around 132mph at 2:45 pm, before the weather suddenly became calm at 3:05 pm. This lull drew many residents, especially children, out onto the streets and down to the coast, where they were intrigued by the fact that the sea had completely retreated. However, this was a warning sign of the impending tidal wave, which soon hit the low-lying Belize City, decimating the area.

In the aftermath of the hurricane, the colonial government was criticised for its inadequate response, which was perceived as tardy and insufficient. The British government seized the opportunity to impose tighter control on the colony and endowed the governor with the power to enact laws in emergency situations. The hurricane also catalysed the emergence of a broad labour movement in the colony, with Gomez coming to be regarded as the grandfather of Belizean nationalism.

The rise of the Labourers and Unemployed Association (LUA)

The Labourers and Unemployed Association (LUA) was founded in 1934 by activist Antonio Soberanis Gómez to demand poverty relief work and a minimum wage. The LUA organised boycotts, demonstrations and pickets against large merchants such as the Belize Estate and Produce Company. On 1 October 1934, Soberanis organised the first labour strike at the Belize Estate and Produce Company's sawmill, which turned into a riot. Soberanis was jailed under a new sedition law in 1935, but the LUA's efforts still yielded some positive results: the wages of grapefruit dock workers in Dangriga were raised from 8 cents to 25 cents an hour, and more men were employed to work on the Northern Highway. The LUA also operated their own food program and a medical wing called the Red and Green Nurses. The LUA movement was short-lived due to infighting, and in 1942 Soberanis left Belize to serve the British military in Panama. In 1950, the LUA handed over their political followers to the newly formed People's Committee, now the People's United Party.

The creation of relief work

In the 1930s, Belize (then called British Honduras) was suffering from a deep economic crisis. The country's economy was mainly based on forestry, an industry that was in decline at the time. In 1934, Antonio Soberanis Gómez led a group of struggling workers in a movement called the Labourers and Unemployed Association (LUA) to fight for more jobs and better pay. This made the people begin to question what being colonized by England had done for Belize. The people then thought how a country with many resources, wealthy landowners and merchants, had so much poverty.

The labour agitation's most immediate success was the creation of relief work by a governor who saw it as a way to avoid civil disturbances. Workers built more than 300 kilometres of roads. The governor also pressed for a semi-representative government. However, when the new constitution was passed in April 1935, it included a restrictive franchise demanded by the appointed majority of the Legislative Council, which had no interest in furthering democracy.

The greatest achievements of the agitation of the 1930s, and the ensuing Report of West India Royal Commission, were the labour reforms passed between 1941 and 1943. Trade unions were legalised in 1941, but the laws did not require employers to recognise these unions. The Employers and Workers Bill, passed on 27 April 1943, finally removed breach-of-labour-contract from the criminal code and enabled British Honduras's infant trade unions to pursue the struggle for improving labour conditions. The General Worker's Union (GWU), was registered in 1943, and quickly expanded into a nationwide organisation.

The legalisation of trade unions

The governor, Sir John Burdon, had rejected proposals to legalise trade unions in 1931, but the labour agitation's most immediate success was the creation of relief work by a governor who saw it as a way to avoid civil disturbances. The movement's greatest achievements, however, were the labour reforms passed between 1941 and 1943. Trade unions were finally legalised in 1941, and a 1943 law removed breach-of-labour-contract from the criminal code.

The General Workers' Union (GWU), registered in 1943, quickly expanded into a nationwide organisation and provided crucial support for The Nationalist Movement (Belize) that took off with the formation of the People's United Party (PUP) in 1950. The 1930s were a turning point in Belizean politics, marking the beginning of new labour and political processes and institutions.

The formation of the People's United Party (PUP)

The People's United Party (PUP) was founded in 1950 by a group of college-educated students, including John Smith, George Price, Herbert Fuller and Herman Jex, who were elected to positions on the Belize Town Board (now City Council). The PUP was formed as an anti-colonial party while the country was ruled by the United Kingdom as British Honduras. The party was born out of a committee formed in January 1950, called the People's Committee (PC), which was created in response to the Governor's decision to devalue the British Honduras dollar. The PC was formed to speak out against this unwelcome act and colonialism in general.

The PC gained popularity among Belizeans, who rapidly accepted the new party's statements against colonialism and exploitation of the masses. On February 12, 1950, a crowd of 10,000 marched to Government House in Belize City and proceeded to stone the houses of supposed pro-British elements. A meeting at the Battlefield Park in central Belize City was teargassed by police, and a state of emergency was imposed until July. It was the first time that Belizeans had spoken so forcefully against British colonial policy and on a national level, featuring men and women. By April, the PC/PUP had infiltrated the General Workers Union (GWU) and sought to turn it toward a nationalist, socialist perspective. By September 1950, the PC was forced to admit that it had overreached itself and that the work of enlightening British Hondurans was the vein of a political party. Its members agreed unanimously to the dissolving of the PC and the birth of the PUP on September 29, 1950.

The PUP was led by George Cadle Price, who played a major role in negotiating Belize's self-government in 1964 and eventual independence in 1981. The PUP dominated local British Honduran and later Belizean politics from the mid-1950s until 1984, when it lost to the centre-right opposition United Democratic Party (UDP). The UDP has been the party's main opposition since the early 1970s. Under Price's leadership, the PUP returned to power in 1989 but was defeated by the UDP again in 1993.

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