Michael Manley

**The Rt. Hon. Michael Manley**

First Term:	March 2, 1972 - November 1, 1980
Second Term:	February 10, 1989 - March 30, 1992
Predecessors:	Hugh Shearer, Edward Seaga
Successors:	Edward Seaga, Percival Patterson
Date of Birth:	December 10, 1924
Date of Death:	March 6, 1997
Place of Birth:	Jamaica
Place of Death:	Jamaica
Political Party:	People's National Party

Michael Norman Manley (December 10, 1924 – March 6, 1997) was the fifth Prime Minister of Jamaica (1972 - 1980, 1989 - 1992).

The second son of Jamaica's Premier Norman Manley, Michael Manley was a charismatic figure who became the leader of the Jamaican People's National Party a few months before his father's death in 1969.

Reforms

Manley soundly beat the unpopular incumbent Prime Minister Hugh Shearer (his cousin) in the election of 1972 after running on a platform of "better must come," giving "power to the people" and leading "a government of truth."

Manley instituted a series of socio-economic reforms that yielded mixed success. Though he was a biracial Jamaican from an elite family, Manley's successful trade union background helped him to maintain a close relationship with the country's poor, black majority, and he was a dynamic, popular leader. Unlike his father, who had a reputation for being formal and businesslike, the younger Manley moved easily among people of all strata and made Parliament accessible to the people by abolishing the requirement for men to wear jackets and ties to its sittings. In this regard he started a fashion revolution, often preferring the kariba shirt or bush jacket over a formal suit.

Diplomacy

Manley developed close friendships with several foreign leaders foremost of whom were Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Olof Palme of Sweden, Pierre Trudeau of Canada and Fidel Castro of Cuba. With Cuba just 145 km (90 miles) north of Jamaica, he strengthened diplomatic relations between the two island nations, much to the dismay of United States policymakers.

At the 1979 meeting of the non-aligned movement, Manley strongly pressed for the development of what was called a natural alliance between the Non-aligned movement and the Soviet Union to battle imperialism. In his speech he said, "All anti-imperialists know that the balance of forces in the world shifted irrevocably in 1917 when there was a movement and a man in the October Revolution, and Lenin was the man." Manley saw the Cuba and the Cuban model as having much to offer both Jamaica and the world.

In diplomatic affairs, Manley believed in respecting the different systems of government of other countries and not interfering in their internal affairs. He felt that the struggle against Imperialism and Colonialism was far more important to the future of the world than human rights.

Violence

Manley was Prime Minister when Jamaica experienced a significant escalation of its political culture of violence. Supporters of his opponent Edward Seaga and the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and Manley's People's National Party (PNP) engaged in a bloody struggle which began before the 1976 election and ended when Seaga was installed as Prime Minister in 1980. Seaga's Jamaica Labour Party has been accused of complicity in the shooting of reggae star Bob Marley who was felt to be a Manley sympathiser. While the violent political culture was not invented by Seaga or Manley, and had its roots in conflicts between the parties from as early as the beginning of the two-party system in the 1940s, political violence reached unprecedented levels in the 1970s. Indeed, the two elections accompanied by the greatest violence were those (1976 and 1980) in which Seaga was trying to unseat Manley.

Violence flared in January 1976 in anticipation of elections. A State of Emergency was declared by Manley's party the PNP in June and 500 people, including some prominent members of the JLP, were accused of trying to overthrow the government and were detained, without charges, in a specially created prison at the Up-Park Camp military headquarters The Daily Gleaner, Monday July 6, 1986, Page 14. Elections were held on 15 December that year, while the state of emergency was still in effect. The PNP was returned to office. The State of Emergency continued into the next year. Extraordinary powers granted the police by the Suppression of Crime Act of 1974 continued to the end of the 1980s.

Violence continued to blight political life in the 1970s. Rival gangs armed by the two parties fought for control of urban constituencies. In the election year of 1980 around 800 Jamaicans were killed. While the murder rate in Jamaica has long been high, meaning that all these deaths cannot be linked exclusively to political violence, Jamaicans were particularly shocked by the violence at that time.

Seaga's JLP won and he became Prime Minister.

Opposition

As Leader of the Opposition Manley became an outspoken critic of the new conservative administration. He strongly opposed intervention in Grenada after Prime Minister Maurice Bishop was overthrown and executed. Immediately after committing Jamaican troops to Ronald Reagan's invasion of Grenada in 1983, Seaga called a snap election – two years early – on the pretext that Dr Paul Robertson, General Secretary of the PNP, had called for his resignation. Manley, who may have been taken by surprise by the maneuver, led his party in a boycott of the elections, and so the Jamaica Labour Party won all seats in parliament against only marginal opposition in six of the sixty electoral constituencies.

During his period of opposition in the 1980s, Manley, a compelling speaker, travelled extensively, speaking to audiences around the world. He taught a graduate seminar, and gave a series of public lectures at Columbia University in New York.

In the 1980s a Judicial Enquiry, the Smith Commission, was held on the 1976 State of Emergency. Manley admitted that he declared it on evidence that was manufactured to help him win the forthcoming election.

In 1986 Manley travelled to Britain and visited Birmingham. He attended a number of venues including the Afro Caribbean Resource Centre in Winson Green and Digbeth Civic Hall, the mainly black audiences turned out en masse to hear Manley speak.

Re-election

By 1989 Manley had softened his socialist rhetoric, explicitly advocating a role for private enterprise. With the fall of the Soviet Union, he also ceased his support for a variety of international causes. In the election of that year he campaigned on a very moderate platform. Seaga's administration had fallen out of favor – both with the electorate and the US – and the PNP was re-elected handily.

Manley's second term was short and largely uneventful. In 1992, citing health reasons he stepped down as Prime Minister and PNP leader. His Deputy Prime Minister, Percival Patterson, assumed both offices.

Retirement and death

Manley wrote seven books, including the award-winning A History of West Indies Cricket, in which he discussed the links between cricket and West Indian nationalism.

Michael Manley died on March 6, 1997, the same day as another Caribbean politician, Cheddi Jagan of Guyana.

Sources

Henke, Holger 2000. "Between Self-Determination and Dependency. Jamaica's Foreign Relations, 1972-1989." Kingston: University of the West Indies Press.

Levi, Darrell E. 1990. Michael Manley: The Making of A Leader. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press.

Notes

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