MICHAEL MANLEY AND THE SMADDITISATION OF JAMAICA

In order to appreciate the value of Michael Manley’s contribution, one has to make that assessment in the context of where Jamaica sat geo-politically in the 1960- 1980s period. It must be remembered that he was a Jamaican from an elite family. His membership in the trade union movement helped him to maintain a close relationship with the country’s poor majority; fuelling not only his dynamism, but also his popularity.

He became prime minister of Jamaica after only its third national general election in 1972, and after a campaign that posited the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) as pro-imperialist and anti-masses.

The People’s National Party’s (PNP) campaign ran on the slogans “Better must come”, “Giving power to the people”, and leading “A government of truth”. What underlined the relevance of these slogans was the fact that domestic conditions for the vast majority of Jamaicans at the time were less than desirable and, despite the fact that the country’s economy was enjoying a positive phase of continued industrial growth with matching positive growth rates, this was not being felt by the Jamaican masses. The general feeling among the masses at the time was that the JLP Government took its instructions from Washington. And, at a time when social and political protests rocked most of the world, the JLP Administration was seen as suppressing expression in the country. To this end, the Government had openly persecuted Rastafarians and presented them as societal outcasts. This was interpreted as a basic persecution of the black majority members of the population, as the call of Rastafarians was for the recognition of the principles of “truths and rights” and the right to have a say in the affairs of the country. Manley genuinely embraced these principles and this further secured his endearment to the Jamaican population.

Within two years of the PNP’s electoral victory Manley instituted a raft of socio-economic reforms that were designed to redress the balance of social inequity among the nation’s majority black population, including the establishment of a minimum wage for all workers, including domestic workers. He proposed free education from primary school to university; a proposal that became a pivotal step in removing the institutional barriers to private sector and preferred government jobs that required secondary diplomas. The policy was augmented at the lower level with the creation of the Jamaica Movement for the Advancement of Literacy (JAMAL), which administered adult education programmes with the goal of involving 100,000 adults a year.
Land reform expanded under his Administration. Historically, land tenure in Jamaica has been rather inequitable. Project Land Lease (introduced in 1973) attempted an integrated rural development approach and provided tens of thousands of small farmers with land, technical advice, inputs such as fertilisers, and access to credit. It was estimated that approximately 14 per cent of idle land was redistributed through this programme, much of which had been abandoned during the post-war urban migration and/or purchased by large bauxite companies.

The minimum voting age was lowered to 18 years, while equal pay for women was introduced. The Government introduced legislation for Maternity Leave and at the same time passed the Bastard Act, which immediately outlawed the stigma of illegitimacy. The Masters and Servants Act was abolished, and a Labour Relations and Industrial Disputes Act provided workers and their trade unions with enhanced rights. Legislation was introduced, which created the National Housing Trust, established to provide the means for most employed people to own their own homes. This policy greatly stimulated housing construction, as more than 40,000 houses were built between 1974 and 1980.

It is easy for Jamaicans born after this period to overlook these social reforms, because today we take these programmes as given. Equally, it is easy to understand why his critics would castigate his approaches because it represented a dramatic shift in the status quo, especially for those whose sole purpose was the exploitation of the majority population. To the North of Jamaica, the United States of America became increasingly concerned about Manley’s pro-socialist direction. In the decades following the end of the World War II the USA had become loathing of populist movements and socio-economic ideologies that were non-capitalist. Communism’s growth throughout Eastern Europe and its developing relative, Socialism, were seen as threats to US expansionism and inimical to the spread of democracy.

Manley’s socialist policies were seen as a precursor to moving the country in a “leftist” direction, and this would definitely provide another blow directly to America’s Achilles heel. Only 15 years earlier Cuba had kicked out the pro-US Government dictator Fulgencio Batista Zalvidar and had suffered considerable political indignities in their failed attempts at getting rid of Fidel Castro. From a USA foreign policy standpoint, it was therefore imperative that no stones be left unturned in ensuring that communism’s march into the Caribbean be halted, regardless of the economic and or social costs to Jamaica.

What followed was the dismantling of the confidence of a people through the use of a combined economic, social and political deconstruction of the country by the CIA and its operatives. The provision of firearms to drive the conflict resulted in the internecine warfare commonly associated with the latter Manley years and from which we have still not recovered. The shootings may have subsided, but vestiges of that psychological war still remain. Most of it is driven by the ignorance of the history of the period and the fact that Jamaica was sacrificed by forces larger than the ability of the average person to appreciate.

It is easy to level criticism at Michael Manley for his political stewardship, especially when there is little or no grasp for what obtained as far as the geo-politics of the period was concerned. However, Manley has to be seen from the perspective of how his stewardship contributed to the “smadditisation” of the Jamaican population. It is for this reason that I give his memory “full props”.