Excerpt from the Jamaica Observer column published on Monday, March 14, 2022
By Jean Lowrie-Chin
The JAMP presentation took place on International Women’s Day and Calder reminded us of the heroine of the Kingston dockworkers strike of 1938, Aggie Bernard.
The leader of the strike, Alexander Bustamante, had been imprisoned and the protestors were running out of resources to continue. Twenty-eight-year-old Aggie Bernard, a laundress, used her small savings of five shillings and sixpence to start a soup kitchen to feed them, and inspired others to join in her activism. This kept the strike going until Norman Manley secured the release of Bustamante.
Aggie Bernard remained a dedicated activist all her life, first joining the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union and later the People’s National Party. The African American registry noted, “As late as 1964 Ms Aggie helped to feed striking workers of the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation.”
She was a devout Catholic and faithful congregant at the Holy Trinity Cathedral in downtown Kingston, who married dockworker David McLaughlin, but kept her maiden name; they adopted two children. She died in 1980 and is buried at National Heroes’ Park.
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