[1] Trevor Munroe, a Rhodes scholar from Oxford University, served as its general secretary.
[2] WPJ was a "critical ally" of the People's National Party (PNP) of Michael Manley.
[2] With WPJ backing, the PNP government developed closer relations to Cuba, which irritated the United States.
[3] However, in the late 1970s, the WPJ participated in Jamaican popular resistance to fiscal controls imposed on the country by the International Monetary Fund and accepted by Manley.
[4] The 1980 elections resulted in a victory of the rightist Jamaica Labour Party.