(excerpted from an article by Peter Ashdown in the Second Edition of Readings in Belizean History, published by BELIZEAN STUDIES {St. John’s College}, May 1987)

The anti-colonial struggle in Belize began not with the devaluation of the Belizean dollar on 31st December, 1949, or even the day after when the People’s Committee was formed, but on an October day in 1934 when, for the first time, the working class masses of the Colony went into open revolt against the Colonial government. The disorders and strikes of 1934-35 were at heart labor disturbances – the result of poverty, unemployment and imperial neglect, but the leaders of these disturbances not only attacked the economic policy of the Colonial Office (if it can be said to have had one with regard to Belize), but also the political relevance of Crown Colony government. In as much as they questioned the actions of the Governor and his colonial officials the protest was partly political and in this light Antonio Soberanis, the leader of the Labor and Unemployed Association, can be regarded as the father of Belizean nationalism.

C. H. Grant has stated that the disorders of 1934-35 “were not prolonged and never spread beyond Belize City” while Sir Alan Burns in a letter to the author said he had “no knowledge” of any disturbances in Belize in this period. These views are not borne out by the Colonial Office records or the newspapers of the time and the implication that these “troubles” were unimportant and non-political is both erroneous and misleading. They were in fact the culmination of months of labor unrest which itself had been brought about by the appalling living conditions of the laboring classes – the result of the decline of mahogany, the Great Depression, natural disaster and the underdevelopment of the Colony. Work had been hard to find and food expensive since the terrible hurricane of September 1931, and the Hurricane Reconstruction Loan of 1932, while enabling the middle classes to reconstruct, did little to mitigate suffering among the Colony’s work force. Insult was added to injury by the investigation and subsequent report of Sir Alan Pim, the Colonial Office’s financial “wizard” which only advocated partial retrenchment in the public service and did little to encourage the creation of a public works programme or industrial development which would have benefited the Colony’s labor force.

On Wednesday 14th February, 1934, an unparalleled demonstration of the unemployed was organized by some of the leading lights of the old Progressive Party which collectively called themselves the “Unemployed Brigade.” The silent and orderly procession, carrying placards with the slogan “Look into our ranks and see our wants,” marched through the streets of Belize City to the office of the Governor where their leaders were granted an audience with Sir Harold Kittermaster who, the Clarion later reported, was visibly jolted by the size of the support for the Unemployed Brigade. Later in the week the Unemployed Brigade leaders saw Kittermaster again and he promised relief measures, gave an assurance that the Loan Board would not foreclose on debtors, and told all the unemployed to register at the Belize Town Board offices.