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CENTENARY CELEBRATION

FOR

ROBERT W. GRIFFITH

August 6^th 2004

(Speech presented by Hylroy Bramble MAWU General Secretary)

As a child I could remember Montserrat being characterised by several great names. Growing into adolescence and ultimately into adulthood the significance of these names became even more real and some of these are names that have made it into the annals of history. Amongst them, Willy Bramble, Dr Margetson, Frank Delisle, Jen Osborne, Chris Fenton, Dr Edwards, Reggie Osborne, and the mystical Robert Griffith. Somehow the name Robert Griffith or Maas Bob as he was commonly called always seems to come out a notch above the others. I remember having heard of him been referred to as trade unionist, politician, Methodist lay preacher and there were even those who referred to him as a soothsayer among other things. Today however I will look at Robert Griffith the Trade Unionist and politician and I include politician not only because he was a legislator but because of the very fine nexus that exists between politics and trade unionism, the politician and the trade unionist.

Robert “Maas Bob” Griffith was an illustrious trade unionist. He was, and still is known throughout the Caribbean as the father of the Montserrat Trade Union movement. Dr Howard Fergus in his book Gallery Montserrat, Some Prominent People In Our History, wrote: “The poor workers of Montserrat like others in the region suffered the privations associated with low wages and servile conditions, but lacked someone to champion their cause and mobilise them for action against unconscionable land lords”. The workers found that champion in Robert Griffith who founded and registered the Montserrat Trades and Labour Union in 1946, a union that proved to be the vehicle that would help in freeing workers from a servile system and secure better living and working conditions for them. In the quest to secure better living and working conditions for workers like many trade unionists past and present, Bob Griffith faced many challenges. Challenges that were meant to break the back of the union and its leaders and trample workers back into subservience. Brothers and sisters from all accounts, it is apparent that in Griffith’s heyday, in order to rise to these challenges, aggressive confrontation had to be the order of the day if the union was to meet its objectives of providing better living and working conditions for the oppressed and downtrodden. With the support of well over one thousand workers who rallied together for the common good, making the union of the day militant and effective, Griffith met these challenges head-on and had some measure of success in overcoming them.

Maas Bob was a man with not only a vision but also a mission. A vision of the direction in which he thought the workers and the people of this country must go and a mission to help take them to that plateau where other people in the region were reaching for and even attaining at that time. Given the fact that during this period he wore two crowns, he used his positions of Union leader and legislator to his advantage and fought imperialism, colonialism and the plantocracy. He took a stand against, poverty, injustice and other social ills that plagued the workers and people of the day and which made life difficult and unbearable.

Robert Griffith laid a foundation in Montserrat for the working class movement. A foundation that has been built upon and strengthened over the years. Therefore, I will contend that the strong base that he had laid gave rise to what I would term modern day trade unionism. I say that because the trade union movement is as relevant today as it was in 1946 when Griffith and others saw the need for change to bring about a better way of life and economic transformation in Montserrat. Dr J A. George Irish in his book Life In A Colonial Crucible alludes to this when he stated: “when the Montserrat Trades and Labour union was founded on May 28, 1946 it was against the back ground of a depressed local economy”. But my brothers and sisters not only that but today because of the foundation laid by Maas Bob, workers are still enjoying the fruits of his struggle which are cited in Dr Fergus’s Montserrat In The Twenty First Century, Trials and Tribulations, as, “just and proper wage rates, hours of work and other conditions of labour and generally to protect the interest of members”, albeit these have been improved upon as time and need have dictated.

Let me say here that Bob Griffith was a man of valour, a man of steel and a man of integrity. He had no frightened blood running through his veins. What pulsed through Bob Griffith in his glory days were nerves of steel and guts. He dared to tread without fear where others feared to or did subserviently. He was not afraid to brave the den of the lions (our colonial Masters), to fight for the rights of the poor and downtrodden workers and people of this country. He was not afraid to lead his people through the fire if necessary to fight for what he believed was their rights, their just rewards. He was not afraid to stand at the helm and steer his ship through the turbulent waters of oppression and servitude. Dr Fergus in Montserrat In The 21^st Century Trials and Tribulations alludes to this when he stated that Griffith drew the hostility of both the commissioner and the Governor and when he made mention of the arrival of the HMS Bigbury and Maas Bob nearly being sent to jail. Dr Irish in Life In A Colonial Crucible also noted: “Griffith led the 1950 strike in demand of 1 ½ pence instead of 1 pence for picking four pounds of cotton, but his first real attempt to show some muscle brought him into conflict with the law and he was fined and convicted”. Brothers and sisters, I only wish that today in this country we had more men of integrity and guts like Bob Griffith. Men who are not afraid to stand and be counted when they are most needed, who are not shrouded in the dark cloak of self and greed, who are not afraid to stand with and fight for the common man and who are not afraid of ridicule and the adverse things people may say to or about them. If we had men and women of Griffith’s ilk in this country today, Montserrat may very well be a better Montserrat.

Comrades from the Bob Griffith’s era to today the face of trade unions and trade unionism has changed and will continue to change in order to maintain its relevancy within the society that we live. What has not change is the role of the trade union movement in securing better living and working conditions for workers and their families.

Life have become more complexed with the coming of new technology and the challenges of globalization, trade liberalization, integration and other such issues and these are the added realities which today’s trade unionists and trade unions must face. Bob Griffith faced the realities of his day and today trade unions and trade unionists must emulate Robert Griffith and his organisation. Griffith did not sit back and allow the colonial masters to further marginalise and push our people into further privation. In today’s era we have to be militant like Robert Griffith. Today we have some things that Griffith never had or which was slow in coming. We have the added advantage of technology and information at our fingertips to assist us in gaining much needed momentum and militancy. Therefore, we cannot sit back and allow employers, governments and or politicians to create bedlam with the well being of people. If we allow this to happen we would be defeating what Griffith fought so hard to accomplish, what he was hauled before the court and fined for and that is equality and justice.

I cannot end without saying that what I had hoped to see coming from the present government for this centenary celebration in memoriam of Robert Griffith was some improvements to employment ordinance no. 19 of 1979 which they implemented some twenty five years ago and is in dire need of revision. So too I had hoped the minister of Labour who is a direct descendant of Maas Bob would have pushed to see some improvements to labour legislation at this time in honour of her father’s struggle for the working class and added to that looked pragmatically at the labour department which falls under her portfolio and strengthened that department so that it can better carry out its mandate of serving the working class. A class her father defended with all his being. I sincerely believe that these would have been fitting tributes from any government to a great labour activist.

So my brothers and sisters as we celebrate the Robert W. Griffith centenary let us continue to remember that his exploits and contributions to the trade union movement and society were wide and varied and that mere words would never be enough to laud the works of this great man, this fearless Montserratian leader. However, let us always remember that the feats of Maas Bob could only have been achieved through vision, hard work, dedication, and perseverance. May the name Robert William (Maas Bob) Griffith, be forever etched in the minds of the workers and people of Montserrat and in the annals of our history.

Hylroy L. Bramble

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