Vere Bird - Criticism and Praise

Criticism and Praise

The biggest criticism from the public of Antigua is the corruption and cronyism within the Labour Party and many claim the government is essentially a "family business" with the continuance of the Bird dynasty in control of political power as unquestioned. Bird's supporters reject these accusations and say that his actions were justified in order to throw off the institution of colonial sugar planters and the British colonial overlords. The Antiguan author Jamaica Kincaid compared the Bird government to the François Duvalier dictatorship in Haiti in her politically charged narrative A Small Place.

Former Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Vere Cornwall Bird was a member of an elite group of militant trade unionists who blazed a trail through colonial times up to or near political independence of the Caribbean countries.

The group included Alexander Bustamante and Norman Manley of Jamaica, Robert Bradshaw of St Kitts and Nevis, Grantley Adams of Barbados, Cheddi Jagan of Guyana, Ebenezer Joshua of St Vincent and the Grenadines and Eric Gairy of Grenada. Bird was among the early organizers of labour in colonial Antigua and Barbuda of the 1930s and 1940s. His biggest battles were fought in the sugar industry, where he achieved better wages for workers and recognition of the right of workers to have annual holidays with pay.

Bird, a tall, imposing figure (standing at 7 feet) even in his last years, was astute enough to recognize that those benefits would be limited as long as the big landowners held control of the government. Therefore, he actively encouraged the top executive of his union - the Antigua Trades and Labour Union - to run for legislative office. He agitated for a change in the qualification of candidates for the parliamentary elections since up to that time, only property owners could run for election.

Bird won a seat to parliament in the late 1940s and his party went on to dominate electoral politics in Antigua and Barbuda for several years. He was eventually to lead the islands into political independence from Britain. Bird left his mark on the labour movement, education and the Caribbean integration movement. One of Bird's dreams was a Caribbean that was united politically and economically. Bird ardently supported the West Indies Federation and when that collapsed in 1962, negotiated hard for a federation of the "Little Eight" countries.

In 1965, together with premiers Errol Barrow of Barbados and Forbes Burnham of Guyana, he brought the Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA) into being. That Association later led to the Caribbean Community and Common Market (Caricom), comprising 12 of the English-speaking Caribbean countries, two more than were members of the West Indies Federation. On 1 November 1981, he became the first Prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda. Since then, in a rare case in modern day Caribbean politics, he led his party to an election victory in 1984 in which the Antigua Labour Party (ALP) won all the Antiguan seats in the Legislature.