Barbados Labour Party

Barbados in 1938 was a colony in the British Empire. The system of enslavement had ended in 1838, but the masses of black and brown people remained in a state of persistent poverty. The white minority dominated politics and exploited the black majority. There was a clear need for mobilization of the people for collective action. Ethnic imbalances, class contradictions, and gender discrimination had to be challenged.

Throughout the English-speaking Caribbean workers were "on the march" in the 1930s. Disturbances took place in Barbados in July 1937. Many people agreed that significant change was urgently needed. Black politicians busied themselves with the formation of mass-based political parties and linked them to trade unions.

In Barbados on March 31, 1938, seven black progressive activists established the Barbados Labour Party (BLP). From the beginning, lawyers were prominent in the BLP. As a result, close attention was paid to constitutional forms within the party and also on the wider political scene. The political culture of Barbados was irreversibly transformed. Grantley Herbert Adams (later Sir Grantley Adams) was soon chosen as political leader. The movement established branches in all eleven parishes of the island. Its ideology was necessarily left of center, challenging the conservatism of the white planter-merchant oligarchy.

The BLP was a "historic necessity." The needs of the masses were great. In 1937 only 3.3 percent of the people had the right to vote—6,299 out of a population of 190,000. The extension of the franchise had to be a priority. The BLP became a voice for the voiceless. The party launched a campaign of political education in order to raise the political consciousness of the people and mobilize support. The weekly newspaper the Beacon was among the agencies used to spread the word.

Rival parties included the West Indian National Congress Party (1944–1956), the Barbados Electors Association (renamed the Progressive Conservative Party and later the Barbados National Party), and the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) from 1956.

The BLP manifesto for the 1944 general election, just four pages, was optimistically entitled Labour Looks Forward. This election produced the striking outcome that the BLP, the Congress Party, and the Electors Association each won eight seats. But support for the BLP steadily increased. In 1948 it won twelve of the twenty-four seats.

In 1943, for the first time, some women who were eligible had gained the right to vote. Eventually, in 1951 all adults gained the franchise. Ermie Bourne became the first woman to be elected to Parliament. Women have continued to advance in the party and in the society.

In preparation for the West Indies Federation, the BLP joined with other regional progressive parties to create the Federal Labour Party. In Barbados the BLP won four of the five federal seats. Grantley Adams, leader of the BLP, became the prime minister of the federation. While he was out of office, the BLP was in opposition as the minority party from 1961 to 1976.

Circumstances led the DLP government to seek political independence for Barbados alone. The Colonial Office agreed on November 30, 1966. There was to be a general election on November 3. The BLP manifesto solemnly declared: "This election is the most momentous election in the history of the Barbados Labour Party because it is the most important in the history of Barbados." But the Democratic Labour Party retained office. Barbados was no longer a colony but an independent, sovereign state. Coincidentally, the election of 1966 was the first one in which no white person was elected to the legislature.

It was not until September 1976 that the BLP returned to office. At the helm was John Michael Geoffrey Manningham ("Tom") Adams. The BLP won seventeen seats and the DLP seven. The pamphlet Achievements summed up the era as follows: "The B.L.P. Governments of 1976–86 were reformist, socialist and visionary. They transformed the social and economic landscape at great pace" (Simmons, 1998, p. 14). The inherited economy based on sugar monoculture was modernized. Economic diversification was pursued with tourism, manufacturing, offshore companies, and service industries.

The party published the booklet The Promises We Make, We Perform: Promises & Performance, 1981–1986. Nevertheless, at the general election of 1986 the BLP won only three seats. This was the low point in its fortunes. It at once embarked on a rebuilding process.

The fiftieth anniversary of the BLP was marked by a series of activities, and the Advocate newspaper published a sixteen-page supplement in the Sunday Advocate of October 30, 1988. The sixtieth anniversary saw the publication of the pamphlet Achievements of the Barbados Labour Party (1938–1998), compiled and edited by David A. C. Simmons and his team of writers.

In the 1991 general election the BLP improved its performance, winning ten seats. Then in 1994 the BLP succeeded in so challenging the DLP government that a general election was called, and the BLP won nineteen of twenty-eight seats, returning to office. Owen Seymour Arthur became prime minister.

Ten years later, the 66th Annual General Conference was held in October 2004. The brochure by this time had grown to 104 pages. By a process of nation building, the colony of 1938 has been transformed into a community that is approaching the status of "developed," as seen in the annual United Nations Human Development Index. The BLP is clearly dedicated to the economic and social development of Barbados as a community where social justice is pursued by all the social partners—government, trade unions, employers' associations, churches, and civil society.

See also Adams, Grantley; Politics and Politicians in the Caribbean; West Indies Federation

Bibliography

Barbados Labour Party. Labour Marches On: A Record of Achievements and a Statement of Future Policy of the Barbados Labour Party, 1951. Bridgetown, Barbados: Author, 1951.

Barbados Labour Party. 66th Annual Conference: Celebrating a Decade of Excellence. Bridgetown, Barbados: Author, 2004.

Beckles, Hilary McD. Chattel House Blues: Making of a Democratic Society in Barbados, from Clement Payne to Owen Arthur. Kingston, Jamaica: IRP, 2004.

Bolland, O. Nigel. On the March: Labour Rebellions in the British Caribbean, 1934–39. Kingston, Jamaica: IRP, 1999.

Hoyos, F. A. Grantley Adams and the Social Revolution: The Story of the Movement that Changed the Pattern of West Indian Society. London: Macmillan, 1974.

Hoyos, F. A. Tom Adams: A Biography. London: Macmillan, 1988.

Simmons, David A. C., ed. Achievements of the Barbados Labour Party (1938–1998). Bridgetown, Barbados: Barbados Labour Party, 1998.

anthony de vere phillips (2005)