“Along The
Color Line”, written by Manning Marable, PhD and distributed
by www.BlackCommentator.com, is a public educational and information
service dedicated to fostering political dialogue and discussion,
inspired by the great tradition for political event columns
written by W. E. B. Du Bois nearly a century ago. I recently visited the Caribbean island of
Jamaica to deliver the fifth annual Michael Manley Memorial Lecture,
in Kingston.
It was, for me, a wonderful “homecoming.” I first visited Jamaica
back in 1983, when I spoke as the “International Speaker” at Manley’s
People’s National Party annual conference. I became friends with
Manley, who served as Jamaica’s Prime Minister from 1972 to 1980,
and again from 1989 to 1992. After combating prostate cancer, Manley
died in 1997.
Through our friendship, I came to understand why Michael Manley
became beloved by so many millions of people throughout the world.
As a champion of the poor and disposed, as a visionary spokesman
for the politics of social justice, Michael Manley continues to
inspire all who struggle for a more democratic, egalitarian social
order.
Although Manley’s commitment to democratic socialism began in
the years after the Second World War, when he studied with Harold
Laski at the London School of Economics, his real passion for the
disposed and the disadvantaged really took root during the years
he spent as a union organizer of Jamaica’s National Workers Union
(NWU). During the 1950s and 1960s, Manley learned first-hand the
trials and tribulations of ordinary working people, and he deeply
identified with their plight. An important turning point in his
development occurred in 1964, when Manley led NWU workers in a
famous, 97-day strike against the state television company. Through
the many marches and public protests Manley personally led, he
rallied workers with the cry to “bring down the walls of Jericho,” and
workers responded by calling Michael “Joshua.” Less than a decade
later, as leader of the People’s National Party, “Joshua” would
lead his party to victory.
During the 1970s, few Third World leaders personified
the aspirations of nonaligned nations better than Michael Manley.
Along with Tanzania’s
Julius Nyerere, Manley preached “self reliance” and “self sufficiency”,
themes that resonated favorably with Jamaica’s rural peasantry.
Manley called for both a “South-South” dialogue building practical
coalitions between and among Third World nations in Asia, Africa,
Latin America, and the Caribbean, as well as a new “North-South” dialogue
between Europe and North America with the developing world. Manley
identified “democratic socialism” with “love,” and envisioned a
Jamaican society where all members could become meaningful participants.
Since Manley’s retirement from national politics in 1992, the
People’s National Party has won three successive parliamentary
elections. Manley’s immediate successor, Prime Minister P.J. Patterson,
was a capable technocrat and administrator, but he lacked Manley’s
charisma, or commitment to Jamaica’s oppressed. Under Patterson,
the PNP’s political and ideological focus degenerated. The PNP
adopted the economic model of “neoliberalism” required by the World
Bank, leading to a sharp devaluation of Jamaica’s currency, severe
economic shortages, and spiraling unemployment. By the early 21st century,
the PNP was widely viewed as being incapable of managing, much
less resolving, Jamaica’s crisis. Unfortunately, the opposition
Jamaica Labor Party (JLP), led for decades by conservative demagogue
Edward Seaga, was even more unpopular and distrusted than the PNP.
After Patterson’s retirement, a power struggle for leadership
erupted within the PNP. The current PNP Prime Minister, Portia
Simpson, previously served as Patterson’s Minister of Labour. Nearly
all of the PNP’s parliamentary members, and the party’s middle-class,
brown-skinned elite base, opposed and distrusted Simpson’s populist-style
appeals to rural voters and the working poor. She has been criticized
for her lack of professionalism, habitual lateness at important
governmental and public functions, and lack of consultation with
members of her own cabinet on vital decisions. Yet Simpson also
possesses the charisma and gift of oratorical style reminiscent
of Manley. Her grassroots, poor working class appeal may be sufficient
to save a number of PNP parliamentary seats in next year’s elections.
In 1976, at the age of 26, Manning Marable began
a syndicated public affairs series “Along The Color Line”,
focusing on political issues and public events that had special
significance to African Americans and to other people of color
internationally. For more than 25 years, the column was distributed
regularly free-of-charge to over 400 newspapers worldwide. Medical
problems forced the temporary halt to the distribution of “Along
The Color Line”. BC and Dr. Marable are
pleased to announce the return of the “Along The Color
Line” public affairs series, beginning in 2007. The series
is still absolutely without charge to all black-owned, black-oriented,
and independent/progressive publications and internet websites
for distribution worldwide. You are completely free to reproduce
any one column, or all of them, that you see published on BlackCommentator.com
so long as credit is given to Dr. Marable and www.BlackCommentator.com.
BC Editorial
Board member Manning Marable, PhD is one of America’s most
influential and widely read scholars. Since 1993, Dr. Marable
has been Professor of Public Affairs, Political Science, History
and African-American Studies at Columbia University in New York
City. For ten years, Dr. Marable was founding director of the
Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia
University, from 1993 to 2003. Dr. Marable is an author or editor
of over 20 books, including Living Black History (2006); The
Autobiography of Medgar Evers (2005); Freedom (2002); Black
Leadership (1998); Beyond Black and White (1995);
and How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America (1983).
His current project is a major biography of Malcolm X, entitled Malcolm
X: A Life of Reinvention, to be published by Viking Press
in 2009. Click
here to contact Dr. Marable. |