Vere Bird

Sir Vere Cornwall Bird Sr. ( born December 7, 1910 in Saint John's (Antigua and Barbuda), † June 28, 1999 ) was an Antiguan politician and Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda.

Biography

Union official and founder of the Antigua Labour Party

Bird, who came from a poor family and up to the primary school had no school education and two years employee of the Salvation Army was, belonged in 1939 to the founding members of the Federation of Trade Unions (Antigua Trades and Labour Union), which he was president between 1943 and 1969.

His real political career began in 1945 when he successfully ran for Member of Parliament for the Legislative Council ( Legislative Council ). As such, he held in January 1951 under a tamarind tree near the village Bethesda a historic speech in which he threatened a strike in the event, if the sugar cane workers receive no wage increase. On the mocking question of the powerful director of the sugar plantations (Antigua Sugar Estates ), Alexander Moody - Stuart, what the striking workers would then eat, he replied that the has become a household word saying:

"We will eat cockles and the widdy widdy bush. We will drink Pond water. "

After there was no wage increase, he actually organized a strike, which meant that there was no sugar crop in 1951. The much-quoted dictum is still regarded as confession of Antiguans, can supply themselves from their small island nation out for yourself and verzuziehen a modest but free life.

In the aftermath Bird encouraged members of the Federation of Trade Unions to candidacy for public office and at the same time created by the foundation, which was founded shortly thereafter future Antigua Labour Party, which he chaired from 1951 to 1971. When universal suffrage was introduced even for adults in the same year, won his Labour party seats in the Legislative Council. This remarkable electoral success could repeat the Labour Party until 1967.

Chief Minister, Premier and Prime Minister

On January 1, 1960, he was Chief Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, which belonged at that time in addition to Trinidad and Tobago to the West Indies, and held that office initially to 27 February 1967. During this period he belonged in 1965 to the signatories of the CPA establishing the CARIFTA, the forerunner of today's Caribbean Community ( CARICOM).

By achieving the status of an Associated State, he was then on 27 February 1967, the title Premier again head of the government. A split within the Labour Party, however, led him to be lost as a deputy mandate in the parliamentary elections in 1971 and for this reason, the Office of the Premier had passed on February 14, 1971, to George Herbert Walter.

However, in the election of February 1976 he achieved an electoral victory over Walters Progressive Labour Movement ( Progressive Workers Movement), so it was back in February 1976 still Premier of Antigua and Barbuda. In this role he led in London in 1980, the last constitutional negotiations with the colonial power, which meant that the two islands of Antigua and Barbuda on November 1, 1981 received its independence from Great Britain and Northern Ireland as a sovereign Member State ( Commonwealth Realm ) within the Commonwealth of Nations.

From 1 November 1981 to 9 March 1994, he was after the first Prime Minister after independence. As such, he was re-elected in the 1984 elections. In the parliamentary elections of March 9, 1989 his conservative Antigua Labour Party received 63.8 percent of the vote 15 out of 17 seats. One seat went to the United National Democratic Party, another seat to a non-partisan representatives of Barbuda. Because of irregularities in the election of some MEPs, however, were subsequently elections necessary.

Bird also took over from 1981 to 1982, the offices of the foreign minister and the defense minister. He also worked from 1982 to 1984 and 1991 Finance. Finally, he had in 1991 for a short time again held the office of Foreign Minister. During this tenure, he introduced the free education at secondary schools, an island-wide power and construction projects, such as the international airport, the deepwater port, but also of urban roads. Furthermore, he drove to the promotion of tourism that made Antigua and Barbuda one of the leading destinations in the Caribbean.

On March 9, 1994 Bird, who had the history of Antigua and Barbuda coined more than fifty years occurred, for health reasons but also from internal criticism of its governance and handed the premiership to his son, Lester Bird.

Honors and criticism

For his services to Antigua and Barbuda and the Commonwealth he was in 1999 defeated by Queen Elizabeth II knighted and thereby raised to the peerage. Even he himself was declared in 1994 after retiring as a national hero, Sir -Vere Cornwall Bird Day celebrated as an official holiday on December 9 .. In addition, in July 1998, the Order of the Caribbean Community, he was ( Order Of The Caribbean Community ) awarded. In 1985, the VC Bird International Airport '' named after him.

On the other hand, there have been criticisms of his governance and the increasing formation of a family rule dynasty (his son Lester Bird was followed as head of government after ), by the Antiguan writer Jamaica Kincaid in her work, A Small Place with the dictatorship of François and Jean -Claude Duvalier was compared to Haiti. The Bird family also gained a leading role in the economy of the country, but also of television and radio stations through their political influence. In addition, allegations of corruption, but also illegal arms deals was loud again and again, which led, among other things, that had another son, Vere Bird Jr., to resign in 1990 as a minister. The close contacts with the Antigua big investing, convicted for fraud in the U.S. in 2009 businessman R. Allen Stanford were viewed critically.

Nevertheless applies V.C. Bird as the "father " of the independent nation of Antigua and Barbuda.

801049
de