|
Manley’s
Legacy
A Blemish on Our History
By Aduku Addae
I find myself ill-suited to the task of
writing a reflective piece on the legacy of Michael Manley. My
thoughts run in tortured convoluted arcs and emerge in the most
irrational patterns whenever I chance to think about the man. It
is not easy to speak about an individual whose socialism brought
him to accept capitalism and the "free market" as the
remedy for poverty and social exploitation. It is not easy
at all to speak about a man who is contradiction personified.
My father revered Manley in a manner
reminiscent of the Christian reverence for the divine soul.
In that special spot, high on the living room wall, from which
the white Christ holds dominion over Africa’s scattered flock
in households throughout the Diaspora, Michael Manley assumed
his place among the trinity (Haile Selassie, Norman Manley, and
Michael Manley). He was the Jesus in my father’s house, come
with the “rod of correction” issued to him by the King of
Ethiopia (and the God of Rasta nations) to “put them under
heavy manners” whilst he, Manley, “row the boat ashore.”
Manley was “Joshua” the “redeemer” and he held dominion
over my father’s household as Pharaoh did over Egypt.
My father was a “comrade” to the bone and
in his 70 years of life never wavered from that conviction up to
his passing in 1997. He was born, lived and died a “PNP man”
and an incorrigible Manley supporter.
Passion as strong as was my father’s belief
in the People’s National Party (PNP) touches everyone that
comes into contact with it. This passion affected us as children
without exception. To this day my siblings remain faithful to
the People’s National Party.
As intimated earlier, Manley was the Messiah,
the Christ redeemer in my father’s household. As such, he
exercised considerable influence over me during my formative
years. For about 5 years, between 12 and 17 years of age, I ran
around with the rest of the 'sheep' waving my fist in defiance
and shouting "Power!"
Later, after 1977, when I became
disillusioned with his week-kneed conduct, after he sold us out
to the IMF, I dismissed Manley as a fraud and disavowed any link
with the People’s National Party. Most of my contemporaries
were driven to this state of disenchantment and rejection. In
fact we rejected Jamaican party politics outright and joined the
radical Rasta rebellion. So I labor from a disposition of early
sentimental attachment and later deep political disaffection to
assess Manley's legacy.
I must mention that whereas my father was a
fanatical comrade, as I have previously discussed, my mother, on
the other hand, had a strange and wholesome immunity to
comrade-ism and PNP mania. She held fiercely to the view that
politics was a lot of foolishness and loyalty to a political
party, and a political leader, was just plain stupidity. To have
held such a view since as early as 1969, as clearly as I can
remember, made my mother a political heretic. Today it is the
view held by 67% of those of voting age in Jamaica. It turns out
it was a very advanced and latently revolutionary view.
My political vision oscillated between these
polarities of sentiment embraced by my parents. I grew up in the
hinterland of being supportive of the PNP and being disdainful
of stupid party politics. This appears to have had a telling
effect on the development of my political consciousness. And
here I stand, disdainful of tribalistic politics, proposing to
speak informatively about the “Manley Legacy.” My
proletarian consciousness and working class disposition
precludes any sympathy for this so-called legacy and I cannot
pretend objectivity in my assessment.
It is not my sentiment that Manley was a
“great” political leader as many tributary commentators have
maintained. It is indisputable, however, that this character was
a visible actor in 1980s World politics and that in Jamaica his
charisma has had a signal, if abortive, effect on the incessant
power struggle between the antagonistic elements in Jamaica
society, across the class and racial divide. Manley was a
politician with an aristocratic bearing who peddled a reformist
politics that landed him in hot water with the heavy-hitters in
Washington, and which, ultimately, served to retard the
proletarian struggle against five hundred years of brutal
domination.
In 1972 (at 12 years going on 13) I was swept
up in the frenzy of the political campaign that brought Manley
to power in a landslide victory. He was victorious over the
Jamaica Labor Party then under the discredited leadership of the
Hugh Lawson Shearer. (Shearer was Manley’s cousin, who gained
ill-repute for declaring Walter Rodney, the Pan African hero and
proletarian revolutionary, persona non grata.). Manley was
swept into power on the ground swell of a popular awakening that
manifested in every dimension of the peoples lives (cultural,
political, religious).
The years between 1972 and 1980 may have
proven a pivotal moment in our history. The youth of the nation
was caught up in the frenzy of Manley’s demagoguery and threw
their last iota of energy behind his populist programs. Free
Education, National Youth Service, Land Reform, Self Reliance,
and National Literacy were slogans that constituted a battle
cry. Youthful energy drove the expectations awakened by the
token reform programs to a crisis point.
Everywhere the energy was bubbling and
building to a revolutionary pitch. By 1976 Jamaican youth were
ready for a reconfiguration of the island society into a new
social “paradise” based in no uncertain terms on the
unabashed institution of socialist production and distribution.
They were ready to the extent of taking up arms and giving their
lifeblood in the struggle to build an egalitarian society.
Manley sensed that this swelling tide of
youthful revolutionary energy was threatening to overwhelm the
Jamaican Oligarchy (of 21 families) and at the very quantum
limit of this political “Armageddon,” which he perceived as
impending historic disaster, Manley began to back-pedal and
sought refuge in the stranglehold of IMF agreements. Thus was
the ignominious retreat begun, which has doomed the laboring
masses of people to material and spiritual degradation.
Manley's actions were consistent with his
political philosophy. He believed in the power of ideas,
personal charm, and in his ability to drive men to a compromise
in all situations. Manley, as a brinkman who aroused the passion
of the crowds with his empty rhetoric, sapped the energy of the
people in meaningless melodramatic squabbles, and traded on the
threat of the latent violence of the aroused masses to work out
compromises.
He spent his life working out compromises in
the interest of the 21 families who rule Jamaica and against the
laboring Africans who have done the building for 500 years.
Manley was not our hero! Ultimately he compromised our struggle
for social emancipation.
To gain a vision of Manley’s legacy one
must take a closer look at what Jamaica has become. It is
the Prime Minister, P. J. Patterson, who sums it up best. Here
is how he sums it up: " 'Mr. Patterson told supporters at
the People's National Party's 65th Annual Conference at the
National Arena, that "More people have running water, more
people stop use kerosene, more people have electricity and more
man have gal dan anything else” (The main news – “Nuff gal
inna bungle!” Phyllis Thomas, News Editor, Jamaica Gleaner,
September 28, 2003).
Patterson was hand-picked and groomed by
Michael Manley as his replacement.
Phyllis Thomas’ incensed remarks put into
keen perspective the nature of this legacy. According to
her:
" [The remarks] objectifies women. We
are no longer seen as persons, but a thing and we are
categorised among the things that men should have, or which they
claim as their possession" (ibid).
Under Manley’s hand-picked steward African
flesh is still a commodity, sold to the highest bidder. And it
is no secret - it is in the news. "There were allegations
of "illegal exploitation of young girls in 'go-go clubs,'
and in particular a special 'trade fair' for girls at certain
locations in western Jamaica and other entertainment centers in
the tourism resort areas” (“Thriving rural trade in
girls,” Jamaica Gleaner, July 6, 2003).
The picture gets even bleaker as one examines
the social fallout. Veteran columnist John Maxwell draws
attention to the prevailing social decline in a June 2003
publication of his weekly column, “Common Sense,” in the Sunday
Observer. He wrote: "Children have been driven to
prostitution by hunger and by their own parents. The result is
that we have a galloping epidemic of HIV/AIDS and juvenile
delinquency" (“Twilight of the dinosaurs,” John
Maxwell, Jamaica Observer, June 22, 2003).
It is an awful picture of social and economic
decay, human degradation, and hopelessness that one must
contemplate if one would assess Manley’s legacy. The half is
yet to be told.
Marcus Garvey isn't coming back. But then
neither is Jesus! Looks like we are on our own. Is that great or
what!
* * *
* *
Vijay Prashad—The Darker Nations, Part 2
* * *
* *
Response
I find the piece here, on Manley,
interesting, particularly Aduku Addae's impressions of him and
influences on his family. Yes, Manley was charismatic and he did mesh
with Jamaican Peasants and workers who do appreciate charm, character
and... spirit in their leaders. That was not all the found in Manley
however, he was able to effectively articulate the demands of the masses
in both domestic and international politics.
Addae, in his skepticism about some of Manley's polices and limited
success in the practical area of implementation, has overlooked some
important political and economic forces that impeded Manley's overall
success in political reform. Among these forces or factors are:
1. While the masses were developing a "socialist" consciousness they
were poorly organized and insufficiently educated, politically, to
provide the kind of revolutionary vanguard necessary to bring about the
social and economic transformation that they aspired for and expected by
Addae of Manley. Manley himself or his party at the time did not claim
to be revolutionary socialists and had no such platform.
A good leader can raise the awareness of his optimistic followers and
show them the way which allows them to cover some ground, but it takes
an exceptional leader and a highly motivated population (or vanguard) to
find the right direction and go the whole way. Manley was a good leader
with optimistic followers during his first term as Prime Minister and
only a part of his second term.
Addae also failed to provide the international political context in
which Manley was operating at that time. Sure, there were the
Non-Aligned Movement, the Group of 77 (?) and the USSR acting as a
counter-weight to the influence and power of the West. The cold war was
still hot, though losing some of its steam. Neither Manley nor the power
brokers of the West at the time had any clue regarding the rate of decay
of the Stalinist East European states from which 3rd world nations such
as Jamaica had gained some confidence in questioning the influence of
global corporations and international capital on their politics and
economy.
Consequently the American ruling elites having brought China into their
camp were rejuvenated sufficiently to aggressively pursue the Cold War
and challenged the USSR wherever they perceived a threat, including in
the Americas. Hence Manley at the time lacked the power to pursue a more
assertive policy of Democratic Socialism in Jamaica as his party had
conceived of it. So when Addae speaks of Manley's "compromise" with
Jamaica's big capitalists he failed to consider the international
context in which Manley was operating.
Several other points are made in the article without reference to their
economic and historical context—such problems as existing today in
states such as China and Cuba which have undergone much more
revolutionary transformation than Jamaica has achieved up to date.
To be brief, I ask the question, were there no successes for the
Jamaican masses under Manley's administration? I believe that there are,
some of which are addressed in books listed on the website (the source
of the above article). Again, Addae failed to mention any of these
successes.—Yao
Lloyd D. McCarthy
* * *
* *
I cannot conceive of Manley as anything but a
showman and demagogue. Manley's unionism, for
example, was corporate in nature, it’s been aptly
described as 'trade union advocacy" and as such was
specifically geared towards undermining and
demoralizing the workers. The tribalism engendered
by this trade union advocacy was reflected in and
served as the foundation for the divide and rule
strategies of the anti-working class, nationalist
politics carried on by the two halves of the Manley
family enterprise called Jamaica's Party Politics.
Manley's legacy is tribal politics, plain and simply
put! To gain a good measure of his legacy then, one
need only look at what tribal politics has made
Jamaica today. . . .
Prashad is simply re-articulating the long
discredited notion of "the Third Way." There is no
third way! Capitalism is global! Capital and labor
confront each other without any significant buffers.
The choices are clear - reaction or revolution - in
every facet of human endeavor.
From the article: "The years
between 1972 and 1980 may have proven a pivotal moment in our history.
The youth of the nation was caught up in the frenzy of Manley’s
demagoguery and threw their last iota of energy behind his populist
programs. Free Education, National Youth Service, Land Reform, Self
Reliance, and National Literacy were slogans that constituted a battle
cry. Youthful energy drove the expectations awakened by the token reform
programs to a crisis point.
"Everywhere the energy was bubbling and building to a revolutionary
pitch. By 1976 Jamaican youth were ready for a reconfiguration of the
island society into a new social ‘paradise’ based in no uncertain terms
on the unabashed institution of socialist production and distribution.
They were ready to the extent of taking up arms and giving their
lifeblood in the struggle to build an egalitarian society.
"Manley sensed that this swelling tide of youthful revolutionary energy
was threatening to overwhelm the Jamaican Oligarchy (of 21 families) and
at the very quantum limit of this political ‘Armageddon’, which he
perceived as impending historic disaster, Manley began to back-pedal and
sought refuge in the stranglehold of IMF agreements. Thus was the
ignominious retreat begun, which has doomed the laboring masses of
people to material and spiritual degradation.
"Manley's actions were consistent with his political philosophy. He
believed in the power of ideas, personal charm, and in his ability to
drive men to a compromise in all situations. Manley, as a brinkman who
aroused the passion of the crowds with his empty rhetoric, sapped the
energy of the people in meaningless melodramatic squabbles, and traded
on the threat of the latent violence of the aroused masses to work out
compromises."—Aduku
Addae
* * *
* *
* * * * *
Ancient African Nations
* * *
* *
 |
The Slave Ship
By Marcus Rediker
In this
groundbreaking work, historian and scholar
Rediker considers the relationships between
the slave ship captain and his crew, between
the sailors and the slaves, and among the
captives themselves as they endured the
violent, terror-filled and often deadly
journey between the coasts of Africa and
America. While he makes fresh use of those
who left their mark in written records (Olaudah
Equiano, James Field Stanfield, John
Newton), Rediker is remarkably attentive to
the experiences of the enslaved women, from
whom we have no written accounts, and of the
common seaman, who he says was a victim of
the slave trade . . . and a victimizer.
Regarding these vessels as a strange and
potent combination of war machine, mobile
prison, and factory, Rediker expands the
scholarship on how the ships not only
delivered millions of people to slavery,
[but] prepared them for it. He engages
readers in maritime detail (how ships were
made, how crews were fed) and renders the
archival (letters, logs and legal hearings)
accessible. Painful as this powerful book
often is, Rediker does not lose sight of the
humanity of even the most egregious
participants, from African traders to
English merchants.—
Publishers
Weekly |
Marcus Rediker
is professor of maritime history at the University of
Pittsburgh and the author of
Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea (1987),
The Many-Headed Hydra (2000), and
Villains of All Nations (2005), books that
explore seafaring, piracy, and the origins of
globalization. In The Slave Ship, Rediker
combines exhaustive research with an astute and highly
readable synthesis of the material, balancing
documentary snapshots with an ear for gripping
narrative. Critics compare the impact of Rediker’s
history, unique for its ship-deck perspective, to
similarly compelling fictional accounts of slavery in
Toni Morrison’s
Beloved and Charles Johnson’s
Middle Passage. Even scholars who have written
on the subject defer to Rediker’s vast knowledge of the
subject. Bottom line:
The Slave Ship is sure to become a
classic of its subject.— Bookmarks
Magazine
* * *
* *
Guarding the Flame of Life
/
Strange Fruit Lynching Report
* * *
* *
The State of African Education
(April 200)
Attack On Africans Writing Their Own
History Part 1 of 7
Dr Asa Hilliard III speaks on the assault of academia on
Africans writing and accounting for their own history.
Dr Hilliard is A
teacher, psychologist, and historian.
Part 2 of 7
/
Part
3 of 7 /
Part 4 of 7
/
Part 5 of 7 /
Part 6 of 7 /
Part 7 of 7
*
* * * *
 |
John Henrik Clarke—A Great and Mighty Walk
This
video chronicles the life and times of the
noted African-American historian, scholar
and Pan-African activist
John Henrik Clarke
(1915-1998). Both a biography of Clarke
himself and an overview of 5,000 years of
African history, the film offers a
provocative look at the past through the
eyes of a leading proponent of an Afrocentric view of history. From ancient
Egypt and Africa’s other great empires,
Clarke moves through Mediterranean
borrowings, the Atlantic slave trade,
European colonization, the development of
the Pan-African movement, and present-day
African-American history. |
 |
* *
* * *
Hunger for a Black President /
Introduction I Write What I Like Biko
Biosketch Biko
Speaks on Africans
* * *
* *
|
The Warmth of Other Suns
The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
By Isabel Wilkerson
Ida Mae Brandon Gladney, a sharecropper's
wife, left Mississippi for Milwaukee in
1937, after her cousin was falsely accused
of stealing a white man's turkeys and was
almost beaten to death. In 1945, George
Swanson Starling, a citrus picker, fled
Florida for Harlem after learning of the
grove owners' plans to give him a "necktie
party" (a lynching). Robert Joseph Pershing
Foster made his trek from Louisiana to
California in 1953, embittered by "the
absurdity that he was doing surgery for the
United States Army and couldn't operate in
his own home town." Anchored to these three
stories is Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist
Wilkerson's magnificent, extensively
researched study of the "great migration,"
the exodus of six million black Southerners
out of the terror of Jim Crow to an
"uncertain existence" in the North and
Midwest. Wilkerson deftly incorporates
sociological and historical studies into the
novelistic narratives of Gladney, Starling,
and Pershing settling in new lands, building
anew, and often finding that they have not
left racism behind. The drama, poignancy,
and romance of a classic immigrant saga
pervade this book, hold the reader in its
grasp, and resonate long after the reading
is done. |
 |
* * * * *
 |
Panther Baby
A Life of Rebellion and Reinvention
By Jamal Joseph
In the 1960s he exhorted students at Columbia University to burn their college to the ground. Today he’s chair of their School of the Arts film division. Jamal Joseph’s personal odyssey—from the streets of Harlem to Riker’s Island and Leavenworth to the halls of Columbia—is as gripping as it is inspiring. Eddie Joseph was a high school honor student, slated to graduate early and begin college. But this was the late 1960s in Bronx’s black ghetto, and fifteen-year-old Eddie was introduced to the tenets of the Black Panther Party, which was just gaining a national foothold. By sixteen, his devotion to the cause landed him in prison on the infamous Rikers Island—charged with conspiracy as one of the Panther 21 in one of the most emblematic criminal cases of the sixties. When exonerated, Eddie—now called Jamal—became the youngest spokesperson and leader of the Panthers’ New York chapter. |
He joined the “revolutionary underground,” later landing back in
prison. Sentenced to more than twelve years in Leavenworth, he
earned three degrees there and found a new calling. He is now
chair of Columbia University’s School of the Arts film
division—the very school he exhorted students to burn down
during one of his most famous speeches as a Panther.
* *
* * *
The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
* *
* * *
Ancient African Nations
* * * * *
If you like this page consider making a donation
* * * * *
Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
1950
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
____ 2005
Enjoy!
* * * * *
The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
/
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
/
Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery
* *
* * *
The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
* * * * *
* *
* * *
ChickenBones Store
(Books, DVDs, Music, and more)
update 17 May 2012
|
