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Quick facts for kids The Most Honourable Michael Manley ON OM OCC PC
Manley c. 1970s

4th Prime Minister of Jamaica
In office 10 February 1989 – 30 March 1992
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Governor General	Sir Florizel Glasspole Sir Edward Zacca (acting) Sir Howard Cooke
Preceded by	Edward Seaga
Succeeded by	P. J. Patterson
In office 2 March 1972 – 1 November 1980
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Governor General	Sir Clifford Campbell Sir Herbert Duffus (acting) Sir Florizel Glasspole
Preceded by	Hugh Shearer
Succeeded by	Edward Seaga
Leader of the Opposition
In office 1 November 1980 – 10 February 1989
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Prime Minister	Edward Seaga
Preceded by	Edward Seaga
Succeeded by	Edward Seaga
In office 1969 – 2 March 1972
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Prime Minister	Hugh Shearer
Preceded by	Norman Manley
Succeeded by	Hugh Shearer
MP for Kingston East and Port Royal
In office 1989–1993
Preceded by	Eric Anthony Abrahams
Succeeded by	Marjorie Taylor

Personal details
Born	Michael Norman Manley (1924-12-10)10 December 1924 Saint Andrew Parish, Jamaica
Died	6 March 1997(1997-03-06) (aged 72) Kingston, Jamaica
Resting place	National Heroes Park
Political party	People's National Party
Spouses	Jacqueline Kamellard (m. 1946; div. 1951) Thelma Verity (m. 1955; div. 1960) Barbara Lewars (m. 1966; died 1968) Beverley Anderson (m. 1972; div. 1990) Glynne Ewart (m. 1992)
Children	5, including Rachel
Parents	Norman Manley Edna Manley
Alma mater	London School of Economics
Military service
Allegiance	Canada
Branch/service	Royal Canadian Air Force
Years of service	1943–1945
Rank	Pilot officer
Battles/wars	World War II

Michael Norman Manley ON OM OCC PC (10 December 1924 – 6 March 1997) was a Jamaican politician who served as the fourth Prime Minister of Jamaica from 1972 to 1980 and from 1989 to 1992. Manley championed a democratic socialist program, and has been described as a populist. He remains one of Jamaica's most popular prime ministers.

Early life
Entry into politics
Domestic reforms
Diplomacy
Opposition
Re-election
Family
Retirement and death
Honours
See also

Early life

Michael Manley was the second son of premier Norman Washington Manley and artist Edna Manley. He studied at Jamaica College between 1935 and 1943. He attended the Antigua State College and then served in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II. In 1945, he enrolled at the London School of Economics. At the LSE, he was influenced by Fabian socialism and the writings of Harold Laski. He graduated in 1949, and returned to Jamaica to serve as an editor and columnist for the newspaper Public Opinion. At about the same time, he became involved in the trade union movement, becoming a negotiator for the National Workers Union. In August 1953, he became a full-time official of that union.

Entry into politics

When his father was elected premier of Jamaica in 1955, Manley resisted entering politics, not wanting to be seen as capitalizing on his family name. However, in 1962, he accepted an appointment to the Senate of the Parliament of Jamaica. He won election to the Jamaican House of Representatives for the Central Kingston constituency in 1967.

After his father's retirement in 1969, Manley was elected leader of the People's National Party, defeating Vivian Blake. He then served as leader of the Opposition, until his party won in the general elections of 1972.

Domestic reforms

In the 1972 Jamaican general election, Manley defeated the unpopular incumbent Prime Minister, Hugh Shearer of the Jamaica Labour Party, as his People's National Party swept to a landslide victory with 37 of 53 seats.

He instituted a series of socio-economic reforms that produced mixed results. Although he was a Jamaican from an elite family, Manley's successful trade union background helped him to maintain a close relationship with the country's poor 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 suit, a type of formal bush-jacket suit with trousers and worn without a shirt and tie.

Under Manley, Jamaica established a minimum wage for all workers, including domestic workers. In 1974, the PNP under Manley adopted a political philosophy of Democratic Socialism.

In 1974, Manley proposed free education from primary school to university. The introduction of universally free secondary education was a major step in removing the institutional barriers to private sector and preferred government jobs that required secondary diplomas. The PNP government in 1974 also formed the Jamaica Movement for the Advancement of Literacy (JAMAL), which administered adult education programs 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, providing tens of thousands of small farmers with land, technical advice, inputs such as fertilizers, and access to credit.

The minimum voting age was lowered to 18 years, while equal pay for women was introduced. Maternity leave was also introduced, while the government 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. The National Housing Trust was established, providing "the means for most employed people to own their own homes," and greatly stimulated housing construction, with more than 40,000 houses built between 1974 and 1980.

Subsidised meals, transportation and uniforms for schoolchildren from disadvantaged backgrounds were introduced, together with free education at primary, secondary, and tertiary levels. Special employment programmes were also launched, together with programmes designed to combat illiteracy. Increases in pensions and poor relief were carried out, along with a reform of local government taxation, an increase in youth training, an expansion of day care centres. and an upgrading of hospitals.

A worker's participation programme was introduced, together with a new mental health law and the family court. Free health care for all Jamaicans was introduced, while health clinics and a paramedical system in rural areas were established. Spending on education was significantly increased, while the number of doctors and dentists in the country rose. Project Lend Lease, an agricultural programme designed to provide rural labourers and smallholders with more land through tenancy, was introduced, together with a National Youth Service Programme for high school graduates to teach in schools, vocational training, and the literacy programme, comprehensive rent and price controls, protection for workers against unfair dismissal, subsidies (in 1973) on basic food items, and the automatic recognition of unions in the workplace.

Manley was the first Jamaican prime minister to support Jamaican republicanism (the replacement of the constitutional monarchy with a republic). In 1975, his government established a commission into constitutional reform, which recommended that Jamaica become a republic. In July 1977, after a march to commemorate the Morant Bay rebellion, Manley announced that Jamaica would become a republic by 1981. This did not occur, however.

Diplomacy

Manley and his fourth wife Beverley with US president Jimmy Carter in 1977

Manley developed close friendships with several communist and socialist leaders, foremost of whom were Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Olof Palme of Sweden, and Fidel Castro of Cuba. Manley's support for Cuba sending troops to Angola during the Angolan Civil War (where the ruling regime was supported by apartheid South Africa) was criticized by Henry Kissinger and others, and led to a worsening of relations between the US and Jamaica.

In December 1977, Manley visited President Jimmy Carter at the White House to remedy the situation, and relations improved somewhat. Details of the meeting, however, were never disclosed.

In a speech given at the 1979 meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement, Manley strongly pressed for the development of an alliance between the Non-Aligned movement and the Soviet Union to battle imperialism: "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." Despite some international opposition, Manley deepened and strengthened Jamaica's ties with Cuba.

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 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.

In 1980, Manley gave a series of public lectures at Columbia University in New York.

Seaga's failure to deliver on his promises to the US and foreign investors, as well as complaints of governmental incompetence in the wake Hurricane Gilbert's devastation in 1988, contributed to his defeat in the 1989 elections. The PNP won 45 seats to the JLP's 15.

Re-election

By 1989, some right-wing critics had begun to assert that Manley had softened his socialist rhetoric, explicitly advocating a role for private enterprise.

Manley's second term focused on liberalizing Jamaica's economy, with the pursuit of a programme that stood in marked contrast to the more social democratic economic policies pursued by Manley's first government. Various measures were, however, undertaken to cushion the negative effects of austerity and structural adjustment. A Social Support Programme was introduced to provide welfare assistance for poor Jamaicans. In addition, the programme focused on creating direct employment, training, and credit for much of the population.

The government also announced a 50% increase in the amount of nutritional assistance for the most vulnerable groups (including pregnant women, nursing mothers, and children). A small number of community councils were also created. In addition, a limited land reform programme was carried out that leased and sold land to small farmers, and land plots were granted to hundreds of farmers. The government had an admirable record in housing provision, while measures were also taken to protect consumers from illegal and unfair business practices.

In 1992, citing health reasons, Manley stepped down as Prime Minister and PNP leader. His former Deputy Prime Minister, P. J. Patterson, assumed both offices.

Family

Manley was married five times. In 1946, he married Jacqueline Kamellard, but the marriage was dissolved in 1951. In 1955 he married Thelma Verity the adopted daughter of Sir Philip Sherlock OM and his wife Grace Verity; in 1960, this marriage was also dissolved. In 1966, Manley married Barbara Lewars (died in 1968); in 1972, he married Beverley Anderson, but the marriage was dissolved in 1990. Beverley wrote The Manley Memoirs in June 2008. Michael Manley's final marriage was to Glynne Ewart in 1992.

Manley had five children from his five marriages: Rachel Manley, Joseph Manley, Sarah Manley, Natasha Manley, and David Manley.

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. The other books he wrote include The Politics of Change (1974), A Voice in the Workplace (1975), The Search for Solutions, The Poverty of Nations, Up the Down Escalator, and Jamaica: Struggle in the Periphery.

On 6 March 1997, Michael Manley died of prostate cancer, the same day as another Caribbean politician, Cheddi Jagan of Guyana. He is interred at the National Heroes Park, where his father Norman Manley is also interred. Photographer Maria LaYacona's portrait of Manley appears on the Jamaican $1,000 note.