LAST Tuesday, April 10, marked 50 years since the general election of 1962 which was won by the Jamaica Labour Party. As a result of that election, Sir Alexander Bustamante became the second and last premier on April 24, 1962, and the first prime minister of Independent Jamaica on August 6, 1962. Last Tuesday was also the 77th birthday of Jamaica’s fifth prime minister in Independence, Percival Noel James Patterson.

In 1962, PJ Patterson took a year off his law studies in England to campaign for the People’s National Party. The defeat of the PNP on his birthday in 1962, the day he turned 27, he has described as his worst birthday ever. Interestingly, it was the same PJ Patterson who had been called upon at 23 years old to rescue the PNP’s sagging fortunes after its poor showing in the federal elections of 1958. While the West Indies Federal Labour Party (aligned to the PNP) won the election in the Caribbean, the Democratic Labour Party (aligned to the JLP) won a majority of seats in Jamaica.

The superb organisational skills of PJ Patterson in western Jamaica gave Norman Manley the political opportunity to call a snap election in July 1959 and comfortably win a second term. But there were two things that the PNP organisers could not turn back in 1962. One was the impact of the referendum on September 19, 1961 to determine whether Jamaica should remain in the West Indies Federation. The other was the lie about the Russian ships coming to take over Jamaica, should the PNP win. A Russian boat had stopped in Jamaica to refuel and the JLP took it to their platforms and made a story about it.

The for-and-against referendum campaign in 1961 was similar to a general election. The JLP spoke to election issues like the cost of living, the building of the stadium and the then new Ministry of Education building, both of which were referred to as a waste of money. The Gleaner reported the late Morris Cargill, a columnist at the Gleaner and deputy leader of the Opposition in the Federal House, as telling the people at a JLP “No Federation” meeting that the PNP government was building the Sheraton Hotel (now Wyndham) and black people would not be able to go there.

The more objective campaign was in the press where readers wrote letters and gave their views for or against federation. One such was from PJ Patterson, then 26 years old and studying law in England. He wrote in his letter that Jamaicans living in England were very much in favour of federation. Interestingly, at least one other letter was from a Burchell Whiteman, then of Deanery Road, Kingston 3.

In 1948, the government of Great Britain opened up its country to people from the colony of Jamaica. Most of the male workforce in England was either injured or dead in the Second World War that took place between 1939 and 1945. Workers were needed in England to dig the coal mines, to drive the buses, to be mailmen and so on. Jamaica was one of the colonies of Great Britain from which people came to do this work in England. Indeed, more than half of them were Jamaicans.

While PJ Patterson was in England, not as an immigrant but as a student, he would naturally come into contact with the very large Jamaican community there. Many Caribbean Independence leaders knew each other from their student days in England and planned together the development of the Caribbean. Indeed, I believe that much of Patterson’s negotiation skills can be attributed to friendships from his student days in England. It also worked for Michael Manley who met students in England who would become leaders elsewhere in the Caribbean.

The Jamaican pioneer residents went through very hard living conditions, complete with racial prejudice meted out to them in England. It has been argued that the success of the West Indies Cricket team in those days was largely due to the collective adrenaline caused by a united urge to avenge the racism that West Indians ( immigrants from the English-speaking Caribbean) had to undergo in England. So other West Indians found common cause with Jamaicans to fight oppression.

And it was these Caribbean people in England, most of whom were Jamaicans, who wanted to see the federation of the West Indies continue far more than those left at home. But they would be bitterly disappointed by the results of the referendum of September 19, 1961 when Jamaicans voted to secede from the federation.

The fact is that people who have to struggle are usually forced to come together to fight for social justice. This is a large part of the history of the cooperative movement and certainly is the story of the Jews who went to Israel to form the new Republic of Israel in 1948. Out of that have come very strong co-operatives, especially the well-known Kibbutzim. The Co-operative Movement in Jamaica, of which credit unions play a major role, was also born out of deprivation.

ekrubm765@yahoo.com