I Speak for the People

Wynter Algernon Crawford (1910-1993) was undisputedly one of the giants of the movement for political and social enfranchisement that culminated in the independence of Barbados in 1966. Publisher and editor of the Barbados Observer (a radical weekly newspaper), founder and leader of the West Indies National Congress Party, parliament for a continuous period of 26 years, he can be readily compared with his eminent contemporaries and occasional allies, Grantley Herbert Adams and Errol Walton Barrow. He at least equaled them in intelligence, vision, campaigning skills, and commitment to social justice and to a vigorous anti-colonial stance but, unlike them, he never secured the highest political office, nor a persisting hold on the popular imagination. These memoirs, in the absence of a biography, partially redress the balance by offering glimpses of the author's personality and pertinent information on his career. Revealed are the vigour and range of Crawford's mind - his grasp of international issues, his practice of active regionalism and his occasionally blunt candour about events and personalities. Crawford's accounts of incidents and developments in his political career make I Speak for the People a vital source for research in recent social and political history. Equally important, they are a timely reminder of the author's major contribution to the making of modern Barbados.