“We no wan’ no white man yah!” echoed the voices of the waterfront strikers in 1938. Yet it was that same “white man,” now a national hero, who has left an indelible mark on Jamaica’s history as the unquestionable champion of the working class.
Alexander Bustamante (born Clarke) had an insightful view of the world. He was not content simply to observe, he was a change maker. By notions of race and colour, Bustamante would have appeared white. He was born to Robert Constantine Clarke, of ‘white’ origins, and Mary Wilson, a woman of mixed heritage. To Jamaicans then, who were predominantly of African and mixed-race descent, he was a member of European Jamaica. Nonetheless, he was able to win the hearts and minds of Jamaica’s working class because of his own poor, white upbringing as a member of the peasant class.
He spent a significant amount of time traveling before he returned to Jamaica in the 1930s. Perhaps inspired by what he saw and wanting better for Jamaica, he was deeply unsettled about the deplorable poverty, terrible pay and working conditions that oppressed working class Jamaicans. His advocacy began through several letters written to the Jamaica Gleaner and British newspapers bringing attention to the impoverished and underprivileged in Jamaica’s social and economic difficulties.
He wrote pointedly advocating sympathy for the poor and unemployed, sharply criticizing the rich and uncaring, and having a strong attachment to economic liberalism.
Bustamante wrote to the Gleaner in a rather scathing criticism of colonial leaders, “Hungry men … have a right to call attention to their condition and to ask of people fulfilment of promises made to them, so long as they do so without using violence.” He was known for his short and revealing sentences that got to the heart of the matter, as well as his incredible endurance, which drove him to labor ceaselessly all over the island, notably along the waterfront and on the sugar fields, where there was the need for most representation. However, his illustrious career of advocacy was not without challenges as he allegedly violated the Defense of the Realm Act, meant to govern communications and ports, and defer to military courts for the rule of civilians. He remained in custody for a year and five months.
Undeterred, Bustamante later became the treasurer of the Jamaica Workers Union (JWU) in 1937 and being the man of action he was, the JWU later transitioned to the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union with him at the head.
Born a natural leader, he formed the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and in Jamaica’s first general election of 1944, which the JLP won, Alexander Bustamante became the country’s first unofficial leader. He became Jamaica’s first prime minister after the country gained independence in 1962, serving until 1967.
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