{"id":12238,"date":"2022-03-21T10:29:21","date_gmt":"2022-03-21T10:29:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/anquetil-deported-to-rodrigues"},"modified":"2022-03-21T11:29:56","modified_gmt":"2022-03-21T11:29:56","slug":"anquetil-deported-to-rodrigues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/anquetil-deported-to-rodrigues","title":{"rendered":"Anquetil Deported to Rodrigues"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Mauritius. <\/strong><\/span>It is quite probable that many of those who are today playing a leading part in the dockers\u2019 strike were directly or indirectly concerned in stirkes of the same nature occurring exactly eighteen years ago.<\/p>\n

The events which led to the deportation to Rodrigues of Anquetil, the father of the trade union movement in Mauritius, and the then Secretary of the Labour Party, must be still green in the memory of many people of our own day.<\/p>\n

On the 1st of September 1938, nearly 2500 to 3000 dockers went on strike. They demanded an increase of wages and a reduction of working hours. Le Mauricien of the same day was describing the strike as being without precedent in our history.<\/p>\n

It informed its readers that there occurred a strike of dockers in the previous year but not on such a grand scale. Next day newspaper headlines announced that a ship of the KPM had to put to sea without disembarking its cargo and that other ships were deeply affected by the strike.<\/p>\n

Another boat, the \u201cTegelberg\u201d was forced to go to Reunion to disembark 150 tons of merchandise. Mr Oswell, Director of Labour and Mr Maurice Ramsancar, his assistant, and Messrs Gerard and Sandivi, President and secretary of the Docks, Wharves and Harbour Workers\u2019 Association failed in their attempt to induce the workers to resume work.<\/p>\n

The workers were being paid Rs 33 for a band of 11 men who had to load 2,200 bags of sugar. They demanded that their task be reduced to the loading of 1,500 bags.<\/p>\n

Twelve dockers were arresed. They were tried on the 5th September for having taken part in an illegal strike. The Procureur G\u00e9n\u00e9ral in person represented the Crown against the accused. He said that article 4 of Ord.<\/p>\n

No 7 of 1938 upheld the law of the colony, prohibiting the formation of associations and striking, but workers could go on strike only thirty days after they had submitted their demands to a Board of Conciliation and only if that Board failed to satisfy them. In the circumstances, he contended, the strike was illegal.<\/p>\n

The Procureur G\u00e9n\u00e9ral concluded his pleading in the following words: \u201cA strike of docks\u2019 labourers, therefore, is a matter of the utmost seriousness, not merely because it affects the interests of the dock company and its shareholders, not that, that is to be minimised \u2014 but because if strikes occur while the sugar is being loaded, it is bound to paralyse the whole industry of the island, during the time the strike continues; and it inflicts immense loss upon persons in no way connected with the dispute.<\/p>\n

\u201d Then the Magistrate Legras gave his verdict.<\/p>\n

As it was the first time that the accused had infringed the Ordinance No. 7 of 1938, he would not inflict any punishment on them but on condition that they would return to work.<\/p>\n

The workers said that they were prepared to do so but they formed part of a gang that might refuse to act as themselves and for whose action they could in no way be held responsible.<\/p>\n

The magistrate then accompanied by Mr Ramsancar went outside the Court where he exhorted the dockers to resume work. Mr Ramsancar too spoke in the same strain but all in vain.<\/p>\n

The dockers only cried: \u201cA nous all\u00e9. Quand nous gagne prix nous va travaille. \u201d The dockers\u2019 strike fired the imagination of the labourers on the sugar plantations.<\/p>\n

It brought vividly before them a realization of their own sufferings. The labourers of Britannia Sugar State in Savanne, of Beau Champ and Trois Bras and of Mon Loisir went on strike.<\/p>\n

But matters took a more serious turn at the Sugar Estate of Trianon where strikers were arrested for lawlessness and for having attacked the police. The strikers were brought on trial on the 13th September of the same year.<\/p>\n

Messrs Vaghjee (at present Hon. Vaghjee) and Stephen defended them. They asked the magistrate to postpone the case of their clients. The magistrate refused to do so upon the advice of the Procureur G\u00e9n\u00e9ral who pleaded the serious nature of the case.<\/p>\n

Thereupon, the defendants of the accused retired from Court, the case was taken in spite of their departure. The Procureur G\u00e9n\u00e9ral, Mr Hooper, while establishing the case against the accused said inter alia: \u201cYour Honour heard a story of intimidation of workers and a brutal assault on the police in the execution of their duties.<\/p>\n

From one point of view, I feel that the accused have been the victims of the underground propaganda and the insidious suggestions of certain person whose activities, conducted according to a systematic and well-organised plan, have misled and deceived them, rather than they are themselves persons normally inclined towards lawlessless.<\/p>\n

From this point of view I am sorry for them. Nevertheless, the propaganda of these persons has the only result which systematic and organised propaganda of this type can have upon ignorant and simple minded agricultural labourers, namely to create discontent where it did not already exist and to increase it where it existed already.<\/p>\n

We now see lawlessness as the undoubted result. From the point of view, the matter is one which calls for firmness. \u201d The nineteen strikes who were accused were sentenced to 9 months hard labour.<\/p>\n

Three of them were sentenced to an additional 12 months hard labour for having assaulted the police. The details of the Anquetil case was reported lengthily in Le Mauricien of the 9th September 1938, in which we read among other things: \u201cNous avous dit hier que M.<\/p>\n

Jean Emmanuel Anquetil, secretaire du Parti Travailliste, avait \u00e9t\u00e9 arr\u00eat\u00e9 dans la nuit d\u2019avant-hier avec son fils. C\u2019est M. Anquetil seul qui fut arr\u00eat\u00e9.<\/p>\n

Son fils n\u2019a que 15 ans et il ne pouvait \u00eatre question de l\u2019arr\u00eater en de telles circonstances. Mais M. Anquetil ne voulut pas se s\u00e9parer de son fils et le jeune gar\u00e7on suivit son p\u00e8re.<\/p>\n

Le p\u00e8re et le fils furent d\u00e9tenus ensemble dans la salle de garde de la police. \u201d At about 1.30 p. m. on the same day it was officially announced that Anquetil would be deported to Rodrigues.<\/p>\n

He set sail for that island together with his son John, aged fifteen, on board of the Bontokoe. Today history is repeating itself. The round of years has again brought about dockers\u2019 strikes, which come to prove in an undeniable way that the relation between employers and employees is still faulty.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Mauritius<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Mauritius. It is quite probable that many of those who are today playing a leading part in the dockers\u2019 strike were directly or indirectly concerned in stirkes of the same nature occurring exactly eighteen years ago. The events which led to the deportation to Rodrigues of Anquetil, the father of the trade union […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":12237,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,12,16],"tags":[233,245,241],"class_list":["post-12238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-policy","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-mauritius","tag-mauritius"],"yoast_head":"\nAnquetil Deported to Rodrigues - Mauritius<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It is quite probable that many of those who are today playing a leading part in the dockers\u2019 strike were directly or ind ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/anquetil-deported-to-rodrigues\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Anquetil Deported to Rodrigues\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It is quite probable that many of those who are today playing a leading part in the dockers\u2019 strike were directly or ind ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/anquetil-deported-to-rodrigues\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mauritius\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-03-21T10:29:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-03-21T11:29:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2022\/03\/img-6238619f0a391.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"508\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"287\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/anquetil-deported-to-rodrigues#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/anquetil-deported-to-rodrigues\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Anquetil Deported to Rodrigues\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-03-21T10:29:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-03-21T11:29:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/anquetil-deported-to-rodrigues\"},\"wordCount\":1092,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/anquetil-deported-to-rodrigues#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2022\/03\/img-6238619f0a391.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Mauritius\",\"Mauritius\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"policy\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/anquetil-deported-to-rodrigues#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/anquetil-deported-to-rodrigues\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/anquetil-deported-to-rodrigues\",\"name\":\"Anquetil Deported to Rodrigues - 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