Institute of Commonwealth Studies

Jamaican politics, like those of many nations in the region emerging from British rule, has been dominated by parties with close trade union links. The founder of the Jamaican Labour Party (JLP) gave his name to its main affiliated union, the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU), while its leading rival, the People's National Party (PNP), is supported by the National Workers' Union (NWU). The JLP won the first elections conducted under full universal adult suffrage in 1944 and later the 1962 elections to determine which party would lead Jamaica to independence (following four years in which the country was part of the Federation of the West Indies). In 1972 the PNP's Michael Manley (son of the party's founder Norman Manley) was elected on a programme of social reform whose attempted implementation led to conflict with vested interests on the island (now increasingly represented by the JLP and Edward Seaga) and with the United States. The PLP won the following elections but were defeated at the polls in 1980, both campaigns being marked by violence between the supporters of the two parties. Following a decade of JLP rule Manley and the PLP, having essentially abandoned their previous political stance, returned to power in 1989 and have remained the governing party since.