It is important to look at some of the antecedents that contributed to the growth and development of the political thought of now-deceased former Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley. Of significance is his family background — mother a leading Jamaican artist and father a legal scholar — his time at Jamaica College and later experience in the Canadian Royal Air Force (1940).

He returned home at the end of World War 11 and soon travelled to England where he enrolled in the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). This institution has produced many transformative leaders globally and regionally. The Public Opinion offered him a space to introduce aspects of his political thinking to the 1950s Jamaica. Of major importance to his development is his experience in trade union activities and the negotiations with the multinational corporations (MNCs) in the bauxite and sugar industries and how these understandings helped to mould his practical approach to the social and political realities of the Jamaican society and by extension to the global space.

 

JUSTICE IS EQUALITY

In his 1972 maiden address to the United Nations General Assembly, he told the gathering that he was from a small country with a simple philosophy: “We believe that the idea of equality is the only enduring principle by which mankind may be guided in the conduct of domestic and international affairs.”

This approach, he argued, will lead to the idea of international morality, “because if there is the absence of this international morality and equality is absent within nations, and also within the global society, then generations will rise and destroy us”. He suggests that “if the international community fail to build an order founded on equitable distribution of the world’s wealth, generations will arise and wash us away”. He proclaims that “justice is equality”.

 

POOR COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD UNITE

It is interesting to note his application of “justice as equality” in both the domestic and global sphere. He argued that the rich nations exist with conspicuous wealth alongside poor nations; and likewise in Jamaica “A minority in the country live in conditions of conspicuous wealth, in stark contrast of the persistent poverty and degradation which characterised the lives of the vast majority (of black) people.” It is against this background that he advanced the notion that the struggles to decolonise the Third World must be committed to transform societies “politically and racially”.

He called on the developing countries to band together and form the “trade union of the poor” to challenge the dominance of the West, politically, economically, and culturally. It was not about working class of the world unite, but “poor countries” of the world to unite. He paid keen attention to the rise of “non-Caucasian nationalism”.

 

MANIFESTATIONS IN THE DOMESTIC AND GLOBAL SPHERES

It was like a second emancipation in 1972 when Manley and the People’s National Party (PNP) won the general elections. He was the first and only political leader that gave black people prominence in the politics. It was 10 years after independence and the country was in a state described by Kwame Nkrumah as neocolonialism. Manley’s critical and radical political policies unleashed fundamental changes in the domestic and global spheres. In his effort to decolonise the economy, Manley resurrected the transformative politics of democratic socialism — reversing the Western concept of social, political, and economic organisation.

The State played a critical role in the control of the commanding heights of the economy as opposed to the private sector-led approach. From 1972 to 1979 he introduced unprecedented and transformational social reforms. He spoke about the negative impact of colonial philosophy in education, called for a new philosophy and declared free education to university level. He challenged the West at home and abroad.

In terms of foreign policy, the country, even after Independence, was aligned with the West. In the article ‘Overcoming insularity in Jamaica’ Manley writes, “…the ability (of Jamaica and) the Caribbean to achieve progress goes beyond regionalism to the necessity of the developing countries as a whole to evolve a common strategy with regards to economics dealing with metropolitan nations. The imperative of the future must be in search for a common economic diplomacy”.

Jamaica became a most active member of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and entered into new foreign policy agreements with Cuba, Russia, China, and a most strident advocate for the New International Econiomic Order (NIEO) and African liberation. In speaking at the 6th Summit of the NAM (1979) in Havana, Cuba, Manley said that it is more than a possibility that NAM can contribute “a new dimension in the dynamics of world politics” and that the “movement is irreversible because our cause is just”.

The emergence of the NIEO was proposed as a route to liberating the people of the Caribbean and the Third World from “the shackles of domination” and oppression — the barriers to real growth and development. This theme was clearly expressed in his speech to the 1975 World Council of Churches 5th Assembly conference held in Nairobi, Kenya. At this conference, Manley, in justifying the NIEO, gave a comprehensive discussion on the strategies in international relations that provided meaning and the basis for the development of the NIEO.

According to Manley, this approach was aimed at ensuring economic development for stability, and for the first time taking the living standards for the developing world to levels equivalent to the developed world. Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and former US President George Bush Sr met in Aspen, Colorado, in1990 to celebrate the “new world order”.

In her speech ‘Reshaping a new global order’ she admonished some Third World countries for taking the wrong directions in embarking on nationalisation and advocating NAM and the NIEO. It is my opinion that she highlighted the radical revolt against the West by Manley.

His unwavering support for African liberation was tested in November 1975 when South African troops invaded the newly independent Angola. The Government of Angola requested Cuban troops to defend its independence. Manley was confronted by American Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to withdraw Jamaica’s support to Cuba’s mission. The price paid was heavy, but Manley gave his solid commitment in support of the African liberation struggles at the 1973 Conference at Algiers in support of the liberation struggles in Southern Africa.

As a politician, Manley was a man of philosophical proportion.

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