Arnold Bertram, Contributor
Arnold Bertram
MAY 17, 2006 marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Jamaica Workers and Transport Union (JWTU), the first labour organisation to build a decentralised network islandwide. The founders of this historic institution were Hugh Clifford Buchanan, a mason by trade, who became the General Secretary of the union, and A.G.S. Coombs, the union's first president and the man to whom this essay is dedicated.
Coombs, who was born in St. Ann in 1901, described himself as "a peasant of low birth, very limited education and a very poor man." He served first in the Jamaica Constabulary Force and later in The West India Regiment where he rose to the rank of Lance Corporal before he left in 1927. However, it was as a contractor in the Public Works Department that this powerfully built and charismatic figure became involved in the early national movement and the organisation of labour.
The year 1936 was a decisive year for Jamaica's emerging nationalism. Between 1927, when Marcus Garvey returned to Jamaica and 1935 when he left for his self-imposed exile in London, Garvey had laid the foundations for the national movement which emerged after his departure by his consistent articulation of a programme of political and economic reform within a framework of 'black nationalism.'
A MILITANT GARVEYITE
Another returning émigré was the colourful St. William Grant, a militant Garveyite who attracted public attention as a street corner orator along with his choice of costumes which included the full regalia of the Universal Negro Improvement Association's African Legion. In 1936, Grant would be among the Black Nationalists for whom Coombs and his labour union had a special appeal.
And of course there was Alec Clarke, born in 1884 to Robert Clarke, an Irish overseer and Maude Wilson, a peasant woman, who after thirty years abroad returned home in 1934 as Alexander Bustamante. He quickly established himself as a money lender, but more importantly began to take a deep interest in the social and economic conditions of the masses of the people. By 1936, his frequent letters to the press had begun to attract attention while his support of popular causes enhanced his status as an emerging public figure and champion of the poor.
Finally on September 1st 1936, Jamaica's first nationalist organisation was launched in New York, when immigrant organisations in that city came together under the leadership of W. Adolph Roberts, Wilfred Domingo, Jaime O'Meally and the Reverend Ethelred Brown. It was Roberts who expressed the strong national sentiments of the new organisation when he stated, "I set the ideal of nationalism before all Jamaicans. There is a definite sustaining and guiding strength in a national consciousness."
This was the political and social milieu which created the environment in which the unemployed and the working poor assumed a new militancy and demanded a new kind of leadership.
THE FOUNDING OF THE JWTU
Coombs, who was also a product of this environment, described the very modest circumstances in which he and Buchanan started the JWTU. "On the 17th day of May, 1936, I contracted six labourers in the Kingston Race Course and they pledged themselves to be members of the society, which they asked me to find a suitable name for." He could hardly have known that within a year this organisation would attract islandwide support and lay the foundations for what would emerge from the labour rebellion of 1938.
The first phase of organisational effort climaxed in October with the JWTU participating in a labour conference at Liberty Hall along with members of the UNIA, the ex-servicemen and the Masons' Co-operative Union. Finally, on December 30, Coombs and his union felt confident enough to challenge the colonial administration by staging a march of the unemployed. After disregarding the advice of the Deputy Mayor to turn back, the marchers were charged by the police. A description of this event was provided by Coombs in his memorandum to the Moyne Commission:
"The people, all unarmed, were only carrying flags and banners bearing the words 'Starvation, Nakedness, Shelterless'. The Union Jack was torn in pieces ? while the poor and unfortunate people received their floggings which necessitated many going to the hospital for treatment."
Coombs responded by threatening a larger demonstration, and, more importantly, called on progressive persons island-wide to become representatives of his organisation.
COOMBS AND BUSTAMANTE
It was at this point in the development of the union that Coombs set out to enlist the support of men of "education and intelligence." Alexander Bustamante was one of the very few to respond and, after attending his first meeting, he became the union's treasurer. Both men now moved more decisively to organise dock workers, railway men and employees of the KSAC in the city, as well as workers in Spanish Town and the banana ports of Pt. Maria and Oracabessa. In return for his financial support, Bustamante quickly became the dominant personality with his energy, flamboyance and the status which automatically accompanied a near-white man of affluence.
This was the platform which facilitated Bustamante's direct access to the masses and provided him with the opportunity to parade his genius for demagogy and to demonstrate his genuine empathy for the poor, his absolute fearlessness of the colonial authority and his love of country. By October, Bustamante made Coombs an offer that he could hardly refuse - continued financing of the union in exchange for the presidency. Coombs accepted and in handing over the presidency declared, "It gives me sincere and heart felt pleasure to voluntarily relinquish my position as president ... to our esteemed and devoted friend Mr. Alexander Bustamante."
THE DISINTEGRATION
OF THE JWTU
Buchanan, who had emerged as Jamaica's premier Marxist, was firmly opposed to the idea of a money lender becoming president of a labour union in which he was a secretary and Coombs himself began having second thoughts as to the wisdom of demoting himself in his own union.
The rivalry between himself and Bustamante which ensued gathered momentum plunging the union into a protracted crisis. Even as Coombs cited Bustamante's love of power as the fundamental factor contributing to the increasing disintegration of the union, Bustamante in a letter to Coombs dated October 5th 1937, tendered his resignation as treasurer citing his dissatisfaction with how union funds were being spent and demanding that the workers were entitled to "more progressive thinking, less selfishness, jealousy and narrow-mindedness." For the record, Bustamante kept the union's bank book until his personal loan was repaid.
The union leadership in Kingston and Spanish Town sided with Bustamante and Buchanan resigned his position as secretary after strongly criticising Coombs' leadership, who then retreated to Montego Bay where he had a popular following. By January 1938, the JWTU had reached the end of the road.
AN ASSESSMENT
Coombs went on to become a member of the PNP, won a seat to the House of Representatives in 1949, and became Minister of Communications and Works in Norman Manley's first administration. After falling out with Manley, Coombs ran as an Independent in the 1962 elections and lost. The last seven years of his life were personally difficult and, in desperation, he turned to Bustamante who, to his credit, transcended all feelings of recrimination, and assisted Coombs to re-establish himself in the trucking business. He died in 1969 and has since been virtually relegated to the dustbin of history.
We have a tendency to judge our leaders by their weakest moments. Coombs was by no means a paragon of virtue, but it would be good for the labour movement and indeed the country as a whole to remember that it was this man, at a critical moment in the nation's history, who raised labour to a consciousness of its organisational possibilities. It was the JWTU which provided the militants of 1938 with a crucial period of apprenticeship and prepared Bustamante for leadership of the rebellion which laid the foundations of modern Jamaica.
Arnold Bertram, a historian and former parliamentarian, is the current chairman of Research and Product Development Ltd. Email redev@cwjamaica.com.
