Editing Eric Williams (section)

==Shift to public life==
In 1944, Williams was appointed to the [[Anglo-American Caribbean Commission]]. In 1948 he returned to Trinidad as the Commission's deputy chairman of the Caribbean Research Council. In Trinidad, he delivered an acclaimed series of educational lectures. In 1955, after disagreements between Williams and the Commission, the Commission elected not to renew his contract. In a speech at Woodford Square in Port of Spain, he declared that he had decided to "put down his bucket" in the land of his birth. He rechristened that enclosed park, which stood in front of the Trinidad courts and legislature, "The University of Woodford Square", and proceeded to give a series of public lectures on world history, Greek democracy and philosophy, the history of slavery, and the history of the Caribbean to large audiences drawn from every social class.{{fact|date=July 2024}}

===Entry into nationalist politics in Trinidad and Tobago===
From that public platform on 15 January 1956, Williams inaugurated his own political party, the [[People's National Movement]] (PNM), which would take Trinidad and Tobago into independence in 1962, and dominate its post-colonial politics. Until this time his lectures had been carried out under the auspices of the Political Movement, a branch of the Teachers Education and Cultural Association, a group that had been founded in the 1940s as an alternative to the official teachers' union. The PNM's first document was its [[constitution]]. Unlike the other political parties of the time, the PNM was a highly organized, hierarchical body. Its second document was The People's Charter, in which the party strove to separate itself from the transitory political assemblages which had thus far been the norm in Trinidadian politics.

In elections held eight months later, on 24 September the Peoples National Movement won 13 of the 24 elected seats in the [[Legislative Council]], defeating 6 of the 16 incumbents running for re-election. Although the PNM did not secure a majority in the 31-member Legislative Council, he was able to convince the Secretary of State for the Colonies to allow him to name the five appointed members of the council (despite the opposition of the [[Governor of Trinidad and Tobago|Governor]], [[Edward Beetham|Sir Edward Betham Beetham]]). This gave him a clear majority in the Legislative Council. Williams was thus elected Chief Minister and was also able to get all seven of his ministers elected.

===Federation and independence===
After the [[World War II|Second World War]], the [[Colonial Office]] had preferred that British colonies move towards political independence in the kind of federal systems which had appeared to succeed since the [[Confederation of Canada|Canadian confederation]], which created [[Canada]], in the 19th century. In the [[British West Indies]], this goal coincided with the political aims of the nationalist movements which had emerged in all the colonies of the region during the 1930s. The Montego Bay conference of 1948 had declared the common aim to be the achievement by the West Indies of "Dominion Status" (which meant constitutional independence from the British government) as a Federation. In 1958, a [[West Indies Federation]] emerged from the [[British West Indies|British Caribbean]], which with [[British Guiana]] (now [[Guyana]]) and [[British Honduras]] (now [[Belize]]) choosing to opt out of the Federation, leaving [[Colony of Jamaica|Jamaica]] and [[Trinidad and Tobago]] as the dominant players. Most political parties in the various territories aligned themselves into one of two Federal political parties – the [[West Indies Federal Labour Party]] (led by [[Grantley Adams]] of Barbados and [[Norman Manley]] of Jamaica) and the [[Democratic Labour Party (West Indies Federation)|Democratic Labour Party]] (DLP) led by Manley's cousin, [[Alexander Bustamante|Sir Alexander Bustamante]]. The PNM affiliated with the former, while several opposition parties (the People's Democratic Party, the [[Trinidad Labour Party]] and the Party of Political Progress Groups) aligned themselves with the DLP, and soon merged to form the [[Democratic Labour Party (Trinidad and Tobago)|Democratic Labour Party of Trinidad and Tobago]].

The DLP victory in the [[Elections in Trinidad and Tobago#1958 Federal Elections|1958 Federal Elections]] and subsequent poor showing by the PNM in the [[Elections in Trinidad and Tobago#1959 County Council Elections|1959 County Council Elections]] soured Williams on the Federation. [[Patrick Buchan-Hepburn, 1st Baron Hailes|Lord Hailes]] ([[Governor-General]] of the Federation) also overruled two PNM nominations to the Federal Senate in order to balance a disproportionately WIFLP-dominated Senate. When Bustamante withdrew [[Jamaica]] from the Federation, this left Trinidad and Tobago in the untenable position of having to provide 75% of the Federal budget while having less than half the seats in the Federal government. In a speech, Williams declared that "one from ten leaves nought". Following the adoption of a resolution to that effect by the PNM General Council on 15 January 1962, Williams withdrew Trinidad and Tobago from the West Indies Federation. This action led the British government to dissolve the Federation.

In 1961 the PNM had introduced the ''Representation of the People Bill''. This Bill was designed to modernise the electoral system by instituting permanent registration of voters, identification cards, [[voting machines]] and revised electoral boundaries. These changes were seen by the DLP as an attempt to disenfranchise illiterate rural voters through intimidation, to rig the elections through the use of voting machines, to allow [[Afro-Caribbean]] immigrants from other islands to vote, and to [[gerrymander]] the boundaries to ensure victory by the PNM. Opponents of the PNM saw "proof" of these allegations when [[A. N. R. Robinson]] was declared winner of the [[Tobago]] seat in 1961 with more votes than there were registered voters, and in the fact that the PNM was able to win every subsequent election until the [[Elections in Trinidad and Tobago#1980 Tobago House of Assembly Elections|1980 Tobago House of Assembly Elections]].

The [[Elections in Trinidad and Tobago#1961 General Elections|1961 elections]] gave the PNM 57% of the votes and 20 of the 30 seats. This two-thirds majority allowed them to draft the Independence [[Constitution]] without input from the DLP. Although supported by the Colonial Office, independence was blocked by the DLP, until Williams was able to make a deal with DLP leader [[Rudranath Capildeo]] that strengthened the rights of the minority party and expanded the number of Opposition [[Senate of Trinidad and Tobago|Senators]]. With Capildeo's assent, Trinidad and Tobago became independent on 31 August 1962, 25 days after Jamaica. In addition to primeministership, Williams was also [[Ministry of Finance (Trinidad and Tobago)|Minister of Finance]] from 1957 to 1961 and from 1966 to 1971.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.finance.gov.tt/about_us.php?mid=31|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140221094134/http://www.finance.gov.tt/about_us.php?mid=31|url-status=dead|archive-date=21 February 2014|title=Former Ministers of Finance − Ministry of Finance, Republic of Trinidad and Tobago|date=21 February 2014}}</ref>