The WIFLP was organised by Norman Manley, Grantley Adams, V. C. Bird, Robert Llewellyn Bradshaw, Joseph Nathaniel France, Eric Gairy, Carl La Corbinière and William Henry Bramble in June 1956 as the Federation of Labour Parties of the British Caribbean.
Since neither Manley nor Eric Williams contested the Federal elections, Sir Grantley Adams became the Prime Minister.
After the successful election, the party suffered from the awkward situation of the two most influential leaders (Manley and Williams) absent from the federal government, and holding a minority of seats from their respective territories Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago.
The WIFLP's political manifesto (which formed its election platform) advocated a democratic socialist society, maintenance of close contacts with countries with which the islands had strong cultural and economic links, encouragement of agriculture and tourism, establishment of a central bank to expand credit resources throughout the area, dominion status within five years, full internal self-government in all the unit territories, encouragement of British Guiana, British Honduras and the Bahamas to join the union and an international project for technical and financial aid to the Caribbean.
When Sir Alexander Bustamante won a referendum in Jamaica to leave the Federation, Eric Williams decided that the remaining burden was too great for Trinidad and Tobago to bear alone.