Workers Party of Barbados

The Workers Party of Barbados was a Marxist political party in Barbados. The party was established on 1 May 1985 by Dr. George Belle, who served as the general secretary of the party.<ref name=pol>Политические партии: справочник Изд-во полит. лит-ры, 1986. p. 286</ref> The party had a pro-Soviet orientation and grew out of MONALI, an earlier Marxist movement based at the Cave Hill University of the West Indies campus which had gained national notoriety during the 1983 Grenada invasion.<ref>Perry Mars. Ideology and Change: The Transformation of the Caribbean Left. Wayne State University Press, 1998. pp. 58-59</ref><ref>Latin American Regional Reports: Caribbean report. Latin American Newsletters, Limited, 1984. p. 8</ref><ref name=ant/><ref name=pol/> When announcing the transformation of MONALI into the Workers Party of Barbados, Belle affirmed the party would be organized along the lines of democratic centralism and would work on a basis of a programme of "progressive reforms and revolutionary democratic demands".<ref>Quarterly Economic Review of Trinidad & Tobago, Guyana, Barbados, Windward & Leeward Islands, Vol. 1. Economist Intelligence Unit Limited, 1985. pp. 16, 19</ref> The founders of the party included trade unionist Ricky Parry.<ref name=ant>Antilla, Issues 157-177. Imprimerie Absalon, 1985. p. 28</ref>

The party contested the 1986 elections, when it presented two candidates.<ref>Barbados General Election Results - 28 May 1986 Template:Webarchive Caribbean Elections</ref> The party received just 40 votes, failed to win a seat, and did not run in any further elections.<ref name=DN>Dieter Nohlen (2005) Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume I, p91 Template:ISBN</ref>

WPB called for a boycott of the 1986 Commonwealth Games, in protest against Margaret Thatcher's support for participation of South African athletes.<ref>Heather L. Dichter, Andrew L. Johns. Diplomatic Games: Sport, Statecraft, and International Relations since 1945. University Press of Kentucky, 2014</ref> Barbados later joined the boycott of the event.<ref name="losangelestimes1986">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>