The Progressive Liberal Party [PLP] held an event commemorating its 69th anniversary. The political organization was started in 1953 by Sir Henry Taylor, Cyril Stevenson and William Cartwright.
Peter Cartwright, son of William Cartwright, spoke at the event. He told the audience, “the idea, as the Chairman would have said, party politics would have come from, as I recount, from him. He would have shared this idea with Sir Cyril Stevenson and Sir Henry Milton Taylor and they went on to London to the Queen’s coronation in June of 1953. Somewhere around that time they would have went over to Jamaica, where they would have studied the party politics system there under the PNP and the JLP.”
The current leader of the PLP and Prime Minister, the Hon. Philip Davis also brought remarks on the occasion. “My government is therefore moving ahead deliberately with financial grants to entrepreneurs and SMEs to facilitate this national objective. The conclusion of our first memorandum of understanding [MOU] with the labour movement provided for expanded freedoms, benefits and protections for our workers, chief of which was the establishment of agency shop. Today, the current MOU with labour must deliver a livable wage for our workers and the recent increase in the minimum wage will go a long way in achieving the goal as some 60,000 workers will benefit from this increase in their personal income.”
The PLP plans to hold a number of events in the coming months as the move toward the 70th anniversary of the Party.
