BUSTAMANTE Alexander (Bustamante Alexander)

(1884-1977)
Born February 24, 1884. He graduated from the Royal Academy in Madrid. At age 21, he emigrated to Cuba, then in 1934 he returned to Jamaica and took usury, and buying real estate.
In 1938 on a wave of riots and strikes, Bustamante lobbied for reform, was arrested twice, spent time in prison. A union of industrial workers, named after him (Industrial Union Bustamante - PSB). Despite the fact that its leader from September 1940 to February 1942 was detained in PSB by 1944 was 37 thousand. members and managed to achieve the revision of labor legislation.

The first successes of PSB to some extent been obliged cousin Bustamante, Norman Manley, who organized in 1938, the moderate wing Socialist Party (People's National Party - NNP). In 1943, Bustamante created Jamaica Labor Party (JLP), which included many members of the PSB. Manley as a counterweight to organized Congress of Trade Unions Jamaican based PNP. Soon Bustamante became the leading political leader of the Labor. In the elections of 1944 JLP won 22 seats in parliament to 5, obtained NNP. In 1949 the PNP won 13 seats (JLP - 17), in 1955 and 1959 NNP won more votes than the JLP. However, dissatisfaction with the West Indies Federation, of which Jamaica was in 1958, turned the sympathy of voters to the party Bustamante. Manley announced the holding of a referendum, which resulted in Jamaica withdrew from the West Indies Federation in 1962. In the elections of that year, conducted after the referendum, the party Bustamante won, and the Bustamante became prime minister. August 6, 1962, Jamaica gained dominion status within the Commonwealth, in 1963 joined the IMF, and in 1966 earned the country's parliament. In 1969 Jamaica joined the Organization of American States (OAS). Bustamante resigned in 1967, shortly before the election. Died in the Bustamante Airish Town, Saint Andrew (Jamaica), Aug. 6, 1977.