Workers Party of Jamaica

The Workers Party of Jamaica (WPJ) was a Marxist-Leninist political party in Jamaica. WPJ was founded on 17 December 1978, by Trevor Munroe, along with Elean Thomas and others.[1] Trevor Munroe, a Rhodes scholar from Oxford University, served as its general secretary. The forerunner of WPJ was the Workers Liberation League.[2]

WPJ was a "critical ally" of the People's National Party (PNP) of Michael Manley.[2] With WPJ backing, the PNP government developed closer relations to Cuba, which irritated the United States.[3] However, in the late 1970s, the WPJ participated in Jamaican popular resistance to fiscal controls imposed on the country by the International Monetary Fund and accepted by Manley.[4] The 1980 elections resulted in a victory of the rightist Jamaica Labour Party. Manley's association with the communist WPJ may have contributed to his defeat.[3]

The WPJ youth organization, Young Communist League of WPJ, was a member of the World Federation of Democratic Youth.

By 1992 the WPJ was defunct.[2]

References

1. Johnson, Buzz (31 July 2004). "Elean Thomas: Writer with a message of human rights". The Guardian. Retrieved 31 August 2011.
2. Alexander, Robert J.; Parker, Eldon M. (September 2004). A History of Organized Labor in the English-Speaking West Indies. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 56–57. ISBN 978-0-275-97743-6. Retrieved 31 August 2011.
3. Austin-Broos, Diane J. (1 January 1984). Urban Life in Kingston, Jamaica: The Culture and Class Ideology of Two Neighborhoods. Taylor & Francis US. ISBN 978-2-88124-006-5. Retrieved 31 August 2011.
4. Nash, June C.; Fernández-Kelly, María Patricia (1983). Women, Men, and the International Division of Labor. SUNY Press. p. 138. ISBN 978-0-87395-683-3. Retrieved 31 August 2011.

Further reading

• Gray, Obika (2004). Demeaned but Empowered: The Social Power of the Urban Poor in Jamaica. University of the West Indies Press. ISBN 978-976-640-153-5. Retrieved 31 August 2011.
• Meeks, Brian (2000). "The Political Moment in Jamaica: The Dimensions of Hegemonic Dissolution". In Manning Marable (ed.). Dispatches from the Ebony Tower: Intellectuals Confront the African American Experience. Columbia University Press. pp. 52–74. ISBN 978-0-231-11476-9. Retrieved 31 August 2011.
• Struggle (Kingston, Jamaica), official organ of the Workers Liberation League - openly and freely available in the Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC)