Sir Alexander became the first Prime Minister of Jamaica in 1962

PEOPLE
Bustamante, Sir Alexander (1884-1977)

Sir Alexander Bustamante showing his party sign [date unknown]

Further information – biography

Sir Alexander Bustamante (1884-1977)

Founder of the Jamaica Labour Party, becoming Jamaica’s first Prime Minister after Independence in 1962, and the founder of the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union.

Bustamante was born in Blenheim, Hanover, Jamaica on 24 February 1884. He was christened William Alexander Clarke but was known by everyone as Busta, after a change of name from to Alejandro Bustamante, later anglicised by deed poll to Alexander Bustamante. Bustamante attended elementary school at Cacoon and Dalmalley, and also did private studies. In 1904, he was employed as a Store Clerk for C. E. Johnson Company on the north coast. Shortly after this, he became a junior overseer at Belmont. For thirty years, beginning in 1905, Bustamante travelled about the hemisphere, particularly to Cuba, Panama, the United States and his native Jamaica, trying his hand at a wide variety of occupations, including security work, dairy farming, beekeeping and transportation.

Back in Jamaica in the mid-thirties his money-lending business prospered and also opened his eyes to the appalling plight of the poor. This exposure was reflected in his Gleaner letters and in his early union work, which served as an apprenticeship for his future as a champion of the poor. In April 1938, when attacked by the Jamaica Standard newspaper, Bustamante told a crowd of 2,000 at North Parade: – I want the Standard to know that I represent the lower and middle class people in Jamaica. They have confidence in me – . He went to Frome in the aftermath of the disturbances that had left six dead, fifty wounded and 89 charged with rioting. Frome was the breaking point in the seething unrest islandwide over pay and conditions of work and massive unemployment. It was also the start of a series of strikes, demonstrations and disturbances in which Bustamante stamped his name indelibly as the people’s champion. Wherever there were labour problems throughout Jamaica, he was with the workers.

Bustamante worked closely with Norman Manley, Noel Nethersole and others to organize the labour movement in a legal way. They also wanted to lead a new political movement, the People’s National Party (PNP). Bustamante gave his full support to the party, founded in September 1938, and the party gave its support to his Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU), founded in May of that year. But his involvement with the PNP did not last long. It seems that he was dissatisfied with his role in the party as he felt he was playing second fiddle to its intellectuals. He drifted away from the party and concentrated on the labour front. The creation of a Trades Union Council that required the submission of BITU resulted in Bustamante resigning his membership of the PNP, claiming the party was too radical. Further clashes between PNP and striking workers resulted in Bustamante’s detention at Up Park Camp on September 8, 1940, for alleged violation of the Defence of the Realm Act, after announcing that he would be calling for a general strike. He was released from detention by Governor Richards on February 8, 1942. Bustamante felt betrayed by the PNP and the political movement was irretrievably split. He founded the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) in 1943 to prepare for Jamaica’s first general election under universal adult suffrage.
When the election came, in December 1944, the JLP won 22 seats in the 32-member House of Representatives, the PNP 4 seats and Independent candidates 6 seats. Subsequently the independents declared themselves or consistently voted in such a way that the JLP enjoyed an effective 27 – 5 majority in the House.

Bustamante was appointed Minister of Communications and Works. He was however the de facto leader of the elected element in a semi-representative Executive Council headed by the Governor, and was the principal Government spokesman in the House.

The JLP lost power to the PNP in the general election of January 1955 and with his great rival and cousin Norman Manley now Chief Minister (later Premier), Bustamante became Leader of the Opposition. That year he was also granted the title Knight Bachelor by Queen Elizabeth II.
In a general election on April 10, 1962, the JLP was returned to power with 26 of 45 seats in the House. Bustamante was appointed Premier.
When Jamaica became independent on August 6, 1962, he was named the new nation’s first Prime Minister. One month later, he married his private secretary, Miss Gladys Longbridge, on the day of his departure for his first Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ Conference.
Two years after taking office, Bustamante, now 80 years old, became ill. Donald Sangster was appointed Acting Prime Minister. Bustamante never returned to active involvement in affairs of state. He officially retired in 1967.

He was declared a National Hero of Jamaica during his lifetime – the only living National Hero Jamaica has had.

Sources:
Hamilton, B.L. St. John. Bustamante: Anthology of a Hero. Kingston: produced for B.L. St. J. Hamilton by Publications and Productions Ltd., [1978]
Jamaica Information Service accessed July 2008
www.jis.gov.jm
Senior, Olive, Encyclopedia of Jamaican heritage. St. Andrew: Twin Guinep Publishers, 2003
Shearer, Hugh Lawson. Alexander Bustamante: Portrait of a Hero. Kingston: published for the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union by Kingston Publishers, 1978

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