#Jamaica prime minister 1972 trial

He was indeed a charismatic political leader, but there were times when his enthusiasm overwhelmed his judgement. The union was the theatre Michael Manley understood best. After one of these artistic breaks we were able to turn back to the consideration of pay and conditions in the mildest of manners. They were all obstinate and inflexible, while he and I were fierce in our arguments.Д«ut if Manley sensed that deadlock was too close he would suddenly bring, say, the Guernica into his tirade and we would both discuss Picasso, the others looking from one to the other of us like the heads in the advertisement 'That's Shell That Was'. His shop stewards were ranged down one side, my supporting executives down the other. When we negotiated collective agreements on pay and conditions we did so facing each other down the boardroom table. I saw the corner of his mouth quiver as he saw mine.

#Jamaica prime minister 1972 trial

Our eyes then met in an unblinking trial of righteousness, but we spoiled the scene. When he walked up and down one end of my office making his speech I responded by walking up and down the other end while making mine. Management was wearing suits and ties in those days.Дespite (or because of) the dramatic style of his arrival I became dramatic myself. He was a heroic figure, a tower of a man in an open-necked lumberjack shirt. Shortly after arriving I disciplined an announcer and Manley stormed in to confront me. Michael Manley's National Workers' Union represented the staff at Radio Jamaica when I took over its management in 1963, writes Graham Binns. In particular, he responded to a request to 'probe' the views of other Caribbean Basin governments on the merits of a proposed new region-wide Association of Caribbean States, with which he was much in sympathy, as a long-standing regionalist. It was 40 long, gruelling years since he had come home to take up his job with NWU.Д®ven in retirement, Manley did not cease to serve his Caribbean. Manley was 'Joshua': he epitomised the anger of his people he defined socialism as 'love' and he set energetically about the task of building a better society for all Jamaicans.Д«y this time, he was beginning to suffer the first serious ill-health that limited him in the last years of his life and in March 1992 he announced that his doctors had advised him that he could no longer carry the physical burden of high office and that he would resign as Jamaican prime minister as soon as his successor could be elected. He sought to articulate the growing disaffection of ordinary black Jamaicans and swept to a dramatic and exciting election victory in 1972. When his father retired as PNP leader in 1969, it was thus natural that Manley, already an elected member of the House of Representatives, should succeed him. He also came to acquire a deep awareness of the many social and economic ills, above all the deep-rooted inequality, at the heart of Jamaican society. Initially a highly nervous public speaker, he grew over the next 20 years of active and successful trade unionism into an impassioned orator. It was another defining moment for 'Young Boy', as Manley came to be dubbed by the sugar workers.

Cricket was always a great love, and for him a defining feature of what it was to be a West Indian, and he later wrote the huge A History of West Indies Cricket (1988).Д«y 1952, however, Manley was back in Jamaica and was immediately projected by his father into the key role of union organiser within the PNP- affiliated National Workers' Union (NWU). After graduating, Manley spent another year in Britain training as a journalist and following the fortunes of the West Indian cricket team.