Garth Rattray | Democratic socialism then and now – Part 1

On July 4, the United States president pulled the communist rabbit out of his hat of political tricks. With democratic socialist politicians succeeding at the polls, he did his best to conflate communism with democratic socialism.

The reaction to the controversial Michael Manley era is reminiscent of that erroneous fusion. Even now, some still celebrate Manley’s failure, and some mourn it.

We were a bourgeoning nation, coming out of the transition from a colonised people and exploring what it meant to be independent. We were riding high on the prosperity from the bauxite industry, and the favourable trade agreements with our recently former overlords. For a while we retained the smell and taste of a subservient colony, imbued with a willingness to please and play second fiddle to the large world powers, while being naïve to our real potential for growth and self-actualisation as a nation.

Our currency was stronger than the United States dollar (from its introduction in September 1969 until early 1978). We were a proud people, but we still retained so many of the colonial vestiges that it was belittling to a large portion of our citizens.

Classism, colourism, racism, politicism, favouritism, nepotism, and capitalism were making the rich richer, and the poor poorer. Certain jobs, positions, appointments, homes, and educational levels were nigh impossible for the people from disenfranchised communities or for the regular middle-class citizen.

Foreign investors were reaping large profits from our fair land. The trajectory of their greed showed no signs of abating. We were being bled by overseas investors who had enlightened self-interest. Prime Minister Michael Manley sensed the societal schism, the abandonment of the working-class Jamaican, and the leaving behind of a significant subset of our society.

Enter the experiment of democratic socialism, a political ideology that advocated for a democratically elected government to manage its own economy. It would strictly maintain political and civil liberties while eliminating perceived exploitation of capitalism in favour of social (collective) ownership of critical industries.

At its core, democratic socialism uses economic democracy to shift control away from private corporate owners, and place it directly in the hands of workers, consumers, and the public. Unlike the policies of Soviet-style communism, democratic socialism strictly prohibits top-down autocracy and prioritises decentralised, participatory decision-making. Public ownership of key economic drivers like utilities, transportation, and healthcare was seen as necessary. The emphasis was on the public good and not on a narrow profit motive.

Seeing the obscene dichotomy of a concentrated, relatively small segment of wealthy citizens while a large percentage lived in poverty, Manley insisted that the state should have a greater role in the distribution of wealth and empowering the poor.

He instituted a raft of ambitious sociopolitical reforms. His government introduced a national minimum wage, improved workers’ rights, pursued land reform, and expanded access to education at every level. Access to free education at the tertiary level enabled the progeny of the poor and lower-middle class to become professionals. The legacy effect of that single decision is still producing rewards in today’s Jamaica.

However, Manley’s democratic socialism went beyond the welfare-state model. His government increased state involvement in the economy, expanded public ownership, and sought greater control over Jamaica’s natural resources, particularly the bauxite industry. The government imposed higher taxes on multinational corporations and pursued policies intended to reduce foreign economic influence.

Under the Manley government there was access to free education, subsidised student welfare (free meals, school uniforms, and transportation for disadvantaged schoolchildren), the Jamaica Movement for the Advancement of Literacy (JAMAL) for adult literacy (which has been renamed - Jamaican Foundation for Lifelong Learning – JFLL), the National Minimum Wage Act (1975), the Employment Equal Pay Act (1975), and the Maternity Leave Act (1979).

His government also instituted the Industrial Disputes Act (1975), National Housing Trust (NHT, 1976), and the Status of Children Act (1976), which effectively abolished the stigma of illegitimacy. There were also the Agriculture and Land Reform Project Land Lease (1973), Community Health Aides, National Youth Service (NYS), and Manley was one of the foundational architects and original signatories of the Treaty of Chaguaramas, which established the Caribbean Community to promote regional economic integration (CARICOM – 1973).

Despite the remarkable positives embedded in the principle of democratic socialism, it was heavily permeated with an atmosphere of distrust and fear. And, as I recall, the talking heads did not do nearly enough to assuage the rising public panic at the perceived glimpse of a faint silhouette of the spectre of a communist Jamaica.

Ostensibly, at that period, in hindsight the policy of democratic socialism employed the wrong narrative. It was too militant, too accelerated (rapid evolution becomes revolution), and occurred at the wrong time in world history; it was at the height of the cold war. The Cuban missile crisis had taken place in October of 1962. The United States of America discovered the deployment and installation of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba. The US declared a naval quarantine around Cuba to block further shipments.

On October 27, 1962, during the tense standoff, the US detected a nearby, submerged B-59 Soviet nuclear submarine and commenced dropping non-lethal depth charges to force the sub to surface. But the sub was cut off from the Soviet Union, it was trapped in deep water and their air-conditioning had failed. The consensus was that World War III had already begun, and if so, their orders were to launch a 15-kiloton nuclear torpedo at the American fleet. That was the poisoned atmosphere into which democratic socialism was born in Jamaica.

Garth Rattray is a medical doctor with a family practice, and author of ‘The Long and Short of Thick and Thin’. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and garthrattray@gmail.com.