The U.S. Responds: Derailing "Democratic Socialism"
The PNP's anouncement in late 1974 of a commitment to "Democratic Socialism," coming on the heels of the increased bauxite levy and the formation of the International Bauxite Association...
...Export-Import Bank dropped Jamaica's credit rating from a top to a bottom category in early 1976...
...And though governments like Jamaica have been partially successful in renegotiating the terms of domination, they have not broken the chains which bind them...
...Negotiations are now under way with the companies for them to help the government by paying the 1978 bauxite levy in advance, rather than in arrears as is the standard practice...
...concern over the growth of socialism in Jamaica and the Caribbean were reflected in analyses such as the following by Newsweek foreign editor Arnaud de Borchgrave: I recently talked to senior intelligence men in Britain, France and Venezuela, to our CIA sources in the U.S., and - in Jamaica itself - to former Special Branch intelligence officials recently fired by Manley...
...Not only have some sectors of the underprivileged and working class benefited from the government's social programs, but more important, the Manley era has created a new opening for the growth of forces on the left...
...While U.S...
...3 The companies also conducted a U.S...
...It closed down entire factories, dismissed workers, and cut back production to instill fear among the people...
...The increasing agitation at the grass roots level, within and without the organized parties and labor movement, became translated into the demand for "socialism now...
...8. Cecil Nelson, "Turn the Setback into an Advance," in Socialism!, Vol...
...7. ,See Social and Economic Survey of Jamaica, 1974, 1975 and 1976, National Planning Agency, Government of Jamaica...
...During the first six months of 1976 there were over 160 unsolved murders, numerous cases of arson and over a thousand armed robberies.' 3 Observers began to comment openly about a pattern of "destabilization," and Manley declared a state of emergency in June 1976, expanding the government's search and detention powers...
...9 by Dr...
...Meanwhile, the Jamaican bourgeoisie went on strike...
...and July-August, 1974...
...The Jamaican press itself also employed scare tactics...
...November 1974 Kaiser agrees to sell 51% of its mining operations and all land to government...
...POLITICAL CRISIS As early as late 1974, more than two years before the next scheduled parliamentary elections, the JLP began massive campaigning throughout the island against the PNP and its program of "Democratic Socialism...
...The friendlier U.S...
...During his two-week visit as a guest of the Jamaican Council for Human Rights, Agee identified a CIA team of nine officers working undercover at the U.S...
...In addition, the PNP launched a foreign policy which was much more radical than that of any previous government...
...This campaign had a dramatic effect on the tourist industry within Jamaica...
...Manley described "Democratic Socialism" as equality and human dignity, public control of the strategic means of production, national sovereignty, and worker participation...
...Jamaica assumed a non-aligned stance, attempting to dissociate itself from its former image as a British and more lately, U.S.-allied regime...
...Several administration representatives have visited Jamaica, including Rosalynn Carter, UN Ambassador Andrew Young, and former Assis- tant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs Terence Todman...
...DERAILING "DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM" 1. See "Opinion Poll No...
...New York Times, July 25, 1974, January 8, February 7 & 29, 1976...
...Political support has also come from European social democratic parties - fellow members of the PNP in the Socialist International - with Mario Soares of Portugal leading a delegation of European social democratic officials to Jamaica in March 1978...
...September 1975 Government purchases telephone company from Continental Telephone December 1975 Kissinger visits for "informal" talks with Manley...
...The local capitalists who had planned and organized the dramatic rise of the bauxite levy in 1974 soon recognized that the revenues gained from the levy could not finance both their own ventures and subsidize a rising standard of living for the masses, as promised by "Democratic Socialism...
...Miami Herald, January 9 & February 4, 1976...
...The PNP's anouncement in late 1974 of a commitment to "Democratic Socialism," coming on the heels of the increased bauxite levy and the formation of the International Bauxite Association (IBA), sent a new wave of fear splashing over U.S...
...28, "The IMF Agreement...
...Wall Street Journal, January 12, 1976...
...The possibility that Jamaica might move sharply to the left, expropriating the bauxite/alumina investments was intolerable to the companies, Moreover, the fact that since the PNP had taken office in 1972 Jamaica had been slipping away from the camp of North American allies deepened the already existent fears in Washington of a rising tide of communism in the Caribbean...
...DESTABILIZATION The convergence of the interests of local and international forces of reaction in early 1975 spearheaded the attack against growing progressivism within the country...
...In a methodology reminiscent of pre-coup maneuvers in Chile, these forces orchestrated a destabilization campaign designed to bring the PNP government to its knees...
...bauxite imports of 20 percent...
...and the large-scale transferring of capital out of the country, which began in 1975...
...press also contributed to the destabilization effort by discouraging tourists from visiting the island, thereby undercutting the country's number two foreign exchange earner - tourism...
...Most of the programs, limited as they were, were strongly opposed by local commercial capital, landed interests, and the conservative sectors of the petty bourgeoisie...
...Journal of Commerce, December 13, 1976...
...Both of the island's major newspapers, the Daily Gleaner (the larger of the two) and the Daily News, are controlled by big capital...
...2. See NACLA Reports, January, 1973...
...has always considered the Caribbean of extreme strategic importance, both geopolitically (at the U.S...
...April 1975 Reynolds agrees to same July 1975 IBA formally established...
...Yet their survival (and that of the world capitalist system) is based upon their ability to continually expand in search of new sources of profit...
...3, No...
...2, 1977, p. 6. 9. Christian Science Monitor, December 14, 1977...
...The timing was right: the internal and external crises had converged...
...In addition, the number of strikes in the Jamaican bauxite/alumina industry doubled from 1974 to 1975 and doubled again from 1975 to 1976 - a fact noted by many observers who felt the strikes were provoked and prolonged by corporate management bent on further disrupting the island's economy...
...cit., p. 6. 16...
...In a well-prepared move in 1974, the PNP announced that it would begin to chart a new course in Jamaican politics - the course of "Democratic Socialism...
...This compromise created serious political contradictions for the PNP vis-a-vis its popular base of support...
...1, No...
...October 1976 Alcoa agrees to sell 51% of mining assets and all land to government...
...He also assured Manley there were no CIA operations in Jamaica (just as he had assured Orlando Letelier, Chile's ambassador to Washington in 1971, that there was no CIA involvement in Chile...
...May/June 1978 35About the authors: Sherry Keith and Robert Girling formerly lived in Jamaica and taught at the University of the West Indies, Kingston...
...Manley stretched himself even more thinly as the tenuous bridge over the chasm between the two factions while at the same time trying to steer a course of economic recovery which would not compromise the promises of a better deal for the people...
...hegemony in the area...
...These sources claim that Fidel Castro's grand design calls for a Marxist axis running across the Caribbean from Guyana to Jamaica to Havana...
...In the case of raw materials, the threat of nationalism is especially serious...
...o Chronology March 1972 PNP wins national elec- tions 1972 Government buys bus and electric power companies...
...October 1977 Government becomes largest hotel owner (60...
...Financial Times of London, January 19, 1978...
...The Manley government's move against the radical wing of the PNP and its decision to swallow the bitter pill of the IMF's medicine for the weakened Jamaican economy have resulted in a cooling of tensions between Washington and the Manley government...
...posture is not only a reward to Manley's concessions, but also evidence of the Carter Administration's efforts to coax Jamaica back into the U.S...
...In the long run, the Jamaican brand of nationalism represents a serious challenge to imperialism by introducing a new element of instability and uncertainty into the system...
...press campaign focusing on violence in Jamaica stepped up...
...and international lending agencies, the progressive wing of the PNP, along with the WLL, urged the government to seek economic aid from the socialist countries, Scandinavia, and the wealthier third world nations...
...after story of violence, unrest and hostility...
...As is common, the IMF credit was conditional on the government instituting a series of anti-working class pro-business measures, including a wage freeze, a near 40 percent devaluation of the Jamaican dollar, and a cutback in government spending...
...As a result of the IMF-imposed policies and devaluations, real wages are falling and the price of basic necessities is rising...
...This has done much to aid the development of a working class movement within Jamaica...
...Coming from the right wing of the PNP, Bell is a hard-liner who will be handed the job of making the IMF terms stick in the face of working class opposition...
...press campaign blaming Jamaica for the rising cost of aluminum and telling the U.S...
...May 1976 Manley charges destabilization campaign against Jamaica is under way...
...Their pressure has borne fruit, for in two subsequent devaluations (October 1977 and January 1978), the gap between the two exchange rates has been diminished...
...The destabilization effort was composed of three related elements: domestic and international economic pressure, political crisis, and covert action...
...18...
...Overseas Private Investment Corp...
...Moreover, the Guyanese nationalization of U.S...
...September 1977 D. K. Duncan forced to resign as PNP General Secretary...
...In the short run, however, international capital has been able to adapt to the challenges presented by third world nationalism...
...The U.S...
...David Coore, Minister of Finance, Ministry Paper No...
...The actual number of visitors from the U.S., a figure which had been rising steadily since the sixties, declined by 13 percent between 1974 and 1975 and dropped by more than 10 percent in 1976...
...and Canadian bauxite interests in the early seventies, along with the previous loss of nickel and other U.S...
...All this culminated in an economic contraction that threw the PNP budget into shambles and pushed thousands more workers into the streets...
...January 1976 U.S...
...As summarized by veteran Latin America correspondent James Nelson Goodsell, when Manley "expressed friendship for Cuba's Premier Fidel Castro, Washington virtually cut off aid and all but official contact with Jamaica...
...But it is the Jamaican bourgeoisie, more than any other class, which has benefited from the government's confrontation with the companies...
...The recent Jamaican experience is one more illustration of the fact that without a decisive break with world capitalism, the continuing dependence of third world countries on international capital will have severe internal repercussions...
...The movement had turned to grass roots organizing in the early seventies when Munroe and several colleagues formed a university service workers union, the Allied Workers Union, and began to challenge the existing conservative approaches to trade unionism and politics...
...tourists in Jamaica...
...government resumes aid suspended in 1975 October 1977 Fidel Castro visits...
...The JLP's pitch was purely anti-communist and the extensiveness of the campaign suggested that the local resources of the party could not possibly have been sufficient to carry on such a sustained and expensive effort...
...August 1975 Revere suspends operations...
...At the end of 1975, accompanied by an entourage of some seventy advisors, U.S...
...public that higher car prices, for example, were the result of Jamaica's action in raising bauxite prices.4 The truth of the matter is that the price hikes bore little relation to Jamaica's levies and mainly served to boost profits at a time of lower production...
...threatens to cut aid if Jamaica establishes trade and air link with Cuba...
...government with the objective of ousting the PNP from office to halt a further drift to the left...
...December 1976 PNP reelected by landslide...
...dollars...
...By and large, the policies and programs established in the earlier phase of the Manley administration were continued...
...relations...
...Jamaica Weekly Gleaner, July 12, 1977...
...While reference to socialism and communism had been systematically suppressed during the previous decades, the debate over capitalism versus socialism now not only became legitimate, but also became the most burning political issue...
...Symbolic of these attacks was the removal of D. K. Duncan, a leading PNP radical, as party General Secretary and his resignation, under pressure, of his ministerial position - changes believed by some to have been unwritten conditions for the IMF loan commitment...
...October, 1973...
...has emerged...
...The external ramifications of the PNP's adoption of "Democratic Socialism" were far more serious...
...This crisis was brought about by the bauxite production cutbacks during 1975 and early 1976, declining sugar production and a price drop in the world sugar market, the reckless squandering of foreign exchange by Jamaican and foreign enterprises...
...As a result of Jamaica's stance, socialist Cuba is less isolated and the possibility of a stronger anti-imperialist alliance in the backyard of the U.S...
...As these links strengthened, Cuba began to provide Jamaica with technical assistance, especially in the areas of education (school construction) and fishing...
...September 1977 U.S...
...By the early seventies, the post-colonial economic order which had been established during the development of the bauxite reserves in the fifties and sixties was rapidly losing its credibility with the Jamaican people...
...In 1975 local Jamaican capitalists had entered into a tacit alliance with the aluminum companies and the U.S...
...By early 1977, the cumulative impact of the destabilization effort had brought the economy to a near standstill...
...Ellen Ray, "CIA and Local Gunmen Plan Jamaican Coup," in Counterspy, Vol...
...the nationalization (with full compensation) of public utilities, transportation and several manufacturing enterprises, as well as the British-owned Barclays Bank...
...ECONOMIC PRESSURE The destabilization effort began with the use of economic pressure and the aluminum companies were the first to lead suit...
...December 1977 IMF withdraws standby "loan...
...March 1974 Jamaica meets with other bauxite-producing nations to discuss formation of IBA...
...Foreign exchange reserves were nearly depleted, production in all sectors of the economy had declined, foreign loans had evaporated, and unemployment, which had declined during the first years of the PNP government, was higher than ever...
...Since several bilateral aid packages and loans from commercial bank consortia are dependent on a continued IMF agreement to assist Jamaica, and since the island's reserves are still in a net deficit of $170 million, the government's bargaining position is weak...
...February 1977 Government declares austerity program...
...Internally, the PNP's declaration of democratic socialism widened the arena of legitimate political discussion and ideological debate...
...Meanwhile, foreign investments in the island slowed to a standstill with some parent companies reportedly even refusing to lend to their local subsidiaries...
...In an effort to improve Jamaica's image in international financial circles, Manley announced the appointment of a new finance minister, Eric Bell, in March 1978...
...aid would be forthcoming if Jamaica declined to support the MPLA and broke off relations with Cuba...
...Jamaica Weekly Gleaner, October 28, 1977, and January 23, 1978...
...Given this choice, the bourgeoisie withdrew its support of Manley...
...Meanwhile the attacks against the pro- gressive forces within the PNP and the independent left have continued...
...The balance of pay- ments situation reached crisis proportions in early 1977...
...U.S...
...THE CREDIT SQUEEZE As in the case of Chile, the international credit squeeze has probably had the most devastating impact of any destabilization weapon...
...loans contingent on IMF-imposed policies that cut back beneficial social programs and penalize the working class...
...2, December 1976, p. 40...
...March 1977 Government nationalizes Barclays Bank April 1977 PNP sweeps local government elections...
...In fact, the government has been forced to turn to the bauxite companies for assistance...
...January 1974 U.S...
...As the political costs and risks of locating investments in the third world escalate, U.S...
...5. IBA Quarterly, Vol...
...Ibid., pp...
...3, September 1976, Jamaica Bauxite Industry, p. 2. 4. Miami Herald, June 11, 1974, and November 12, 1974...
...Manley paid a state visit to Cuba in 1975 and Fidel Castro returned it two years later with a five-day visit to Jamaica...
...hotels were shut down, and foreign exchange earnings from tourism dropped so drastically that tourism fell to number three position in foreign exchange earnings...
...The 1976 electoral campaign became the most violent and bitter in the island's history...
...investors and Washington...
...32May/June 1978 33 A Jamaican official reported that when the companies learned they had been outmaneuvered, top corporate officials made daily visits to the Bank of Jamaica insisting on a reversal of the two-tiered system...
...2 The destabilization was aimed at producing an economic downturn which, it was hoped, would undercut the PNP's popularity, push it out of office or force it to abandon its progressive rhetoric and policies...
...holdings in Cuba, meant that North American investors were anxiously watching political developments in the region...
...April 1976 Revere files $64 million claim with U.S...
...Moreover, the effect of government participation in the industry is to strengthen the tendency toward state capitalism rather than move the country toward socialism...
...September 1976 Philip Agee visits and warns of CIA involvement in destabilization campaign...
...Particularly alarming is the prospect that Manley-style progressivism could take a more decisive turn from anti-imperialism to anti-capitalism, leading others in the same direction...
...As this Report has shown, Jamaica has been able to capture a larger share of the profits generated by the bauxite mining industry within the island and exercise greater control over the exploitation of its natural resource...
...Nelson, op...
...Embassy in Kingston., 4 He observed that although charges of destabilization were difficult to prove - just as they were before the Chilean coup - the pattern of events which had rocked this island since late 1975 suggested outside interference in Jamaica's political and economic affairs...
...Not only have they been able to use the increased cost of Jamaican bauxite as an excuse to raise the price of aluminum disproportionately - an added cost that eventually comes out of the pockets of working people in the U.S...
...Jamaica, often referred to in diplomatic circles as a 28 NACLA ReportMay/June 1978 29 "pace-setter" in the Caribbean, was both politically and economically strategic to retaining U.S...
...The mounting economic pressure increasingly favored the forces of local and international capital, and Manley was forced to turn to the International Monetary Fund for assistance...
...1 0 Moreover, 30 NACLA ReportMay/June 1978 31 during 1976, the Jamaican government was unable to secure a single private market loan...
...The base of the Allied Workers Union, however, remains limited, as the union's attempt to organize workers in other sectors has been met with violence and intense opposition from the existing trade union forces...
...doorstep and astride essential foreign trade routes) and economically (markets, sources of raw materials and investment sites...
...Because of the imposition of the bauxite levy in 1974 and the formation of the IBA in 1975, relations between the Jamaican government and the foreign aluminum companies were already very tense...
...At the same time, we should oppose the U.S...
...Carl Stone," in Jamaica Weekly Gleaner, February 20, 1978...
...But they have also been able to recuperate some of their initial capital investment by allowing the Jamaican government to purchase a share in their operations...
...The local capitalists were also alarmed by the resurgence of a left wing in the PNP and the growth of a communist party, the WLL...
...What is equally clear is that the Jamaican working class will have to bear a heavy burden as a consequence of the government's stance...
...For this is not the first time, nor will it be the last, when the forces of imperialism combine efforts to attempt to beat back progressive movements within the third world...
...While these reforms contribute to an eventual weakening of imperialism and should be supported, it is only through a new world order that the root causes of underdevelopment and inequality can be addressed...
...Local production was grinding to a near standstill as the capitalists laid off workers, closing down their factories in what was referred to as a general strike by the ruling class.Is Cut off from the international money market by the banks and U.S...
...role in destabilization was ignored by right-wing press, but protested on the walls...
...Investigations of "destabilization" charges gathered impetus with the visit to the island in September 1976 of Philip Agee...
...Next came cutbacks in production of both bauxite and alumina in 1975, thereby sabotaging government revenues and throwing workers into the streets...
...6. See, for example, Christian Science Monitor, July 11, 1974, May 17 & June 21, 1976;Los Angeles Times, May 11, 1975...
...4, No...
...3. "Jamaica's Bauxite/Alumina Industry: First Half Report," in JBI Digest, Vol...
...IMPACT OF DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM The immediate effects of the call for "Democratic Socialism" were political, and they were felt both domestically and internationally...
...Since late 1977, there has been a flurry of diplomatic visits between the two countries, and U.S...
...8 When the Manley government narrowly failed to meet one of the IMF's criteria for the Jamaican economy last December, the IMF terminated the agreement, forcing the 10 percent January devaluation, and sent a team of negotiators to Kingston to work out a new agreement...
...All concerned recognized this as a highly improbable line of action, so the companies followed this by filing a suit with the World Bank's International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes contesting the legality of Jamaican government's bauxite levy...
...The Jamaica Bauxite Institute estimated that an 81-day strike at Alcoa, a 43-day shut-down at Alpart (a refining venture owned by Reynolds, Anaconda and Kaiser), and a 35-day strike at Alcan during the first six months of 1976 cost the industry over 400,000 tons of bauxite production...
...Jamaica was able to take some steps to assert greater national control over the bauxite industry through "joint ventures" and the formation of a bauxite producers' association, the IBA...
...aluminum companies doubled their bauxite imports from African sources in Guinea in 1975, they cut back their imports from Jamaica by 30 percent, for a net industry-wide reduction in U.S...
...The WLL's analysis of the PNP government's "Democratic Socialism" platform concludes that while the PNP's stance in recent years is a great advance over that of the fifties and sixties, it amounts to little more than bourgeois democracy on the political front with a state capitalist approach to the economy...
...imperialism...
...The spread of this analysis was aided by the Manley government's lifting of the previous administration's ban on all literature relating to black power or radical politics as well as by the next-door Cuban example of how a nation could break the bonds of imperialism and provide employment and greater social equality...
...One of the government's major foreign policy shifts was to develop closer ties with Jamaica's nearest neighbor, Cuba...
...Arnaud de Borchgrave, "Cuba's Role in Jamaica," Newsweek, January 28, 1977...
...However, the contradictions were too deeply rooted to be resolved in this manner...
...As early as 1974 articles began to appear in the U.S...
...They opened with threats of withdrawing from their mining operations...
...Occupancy rates in hotels fell to record lows, thousands of tourist industry workers were laid off, aggravating the already serious unemployment problem...
...This is particularly the case with food, including such vital items as flour and rice...
...The Daily Gleaner, owned by the Ashenheim family, possibly Jamaica's richest and most arch-conservative family, mounted a relentless campaign against Manley and the left wing of the PNP, a campaign which continues to the present...
...granted an addi- tional $63 million loan package (with predictions by observers of more to come...
...Jamaica Weekly Gleaner, January 23, 1978...
...For the aluminum companies a devaluation of the Jamaican dollar promised windfall profits on their exports of bauxite and alumina, which they purchase from their Jamaican subsidiaries in U.S...
...hegemony in the region...
...While the call for "Democratic Socialism" spread like wildfire throughout the island, a defined May/June 1978 2728 NACLAReor programmatic approach to its implementation was much slower in taking shape...
...39-40...
...In spite of the recession and the strikes, the four major aluminum companies managed to clear combined profits of over $250 millions The U.S...
...the attempt to set up agricultural cooperatives, especially among sugar workers...
...He held off-therecord talks with the Manley government, reportedly centering on Jamaica's friendly relations with Cuba, its support for the MPLA in Angola and Cuban assistance to the MPLA, and the Jamaican government's program of social democracy...
...the land-lease program aimed at improving some of the worst aspects of the land tenure patterns...
...With world capitalism already severely shaken by the oil crisis, additional supply interruptions or price hikes would heighten the crisis of capitalism...
...Much to their surprise and anger, however, the government had been forceful enough to negotiate a two-tiered devaluation with the IMF, whereby certain basic foreign exchange earners, such as bauxite, would remain at the old exchange rate...
...At the same time, the maturing of a radical analysis of the island's social and economic ills began to be felt both within as well as without the PNP...
...8 Wealthy families continued to squander already scarce foreign exchange by refusing to observe government import restrictions and smuggled an estimated $200 million out of the island...
...and other advanced capitalist countries are restricted by rising energy costs and environmental controls, the possibility of further roadblocks in the third world is unsettling...
...As one of the most vocal and successful champions of demands for a new international economic order, the Manley government has also provided a test case for evaluating the impact of those demands...
...Kissinger reportedly told Manley that U.S...
...The PNP government also announced its support for African liberation movements, including the MPLA in Angola, and both Julius Nyerere of Tanzania and Samora Machel of Mozambique made official visits to the island...
...March 1978 Manley names new Finance Minister, negotiations with IMF start over...
...The success of the Cuban Revolution, the precarious situation in the Dominican Republic during the early sixties, the existence of a relatively strong communist party in Guyana, and the concern over control of the Panama Canal and Puerto Rico, all contributed to growing uncertainty over U.S...
...Neither of the two major trade unions supported the wage freeze...
...Secretary of State Henry Kissinger arrived in Jamaica for a "vacation...
...Trevor Munroe, a professor of government at the University of the West Indies, grew out of elements of the intelligentsia which had formed the New World Movement in the sixties -largely university students and faculty who had moved beyond cultural nationalism to a Marxist analysis of West Indies problems...
...Meanwhile, the attacks of the JLP upon the radicalism and economic "mismanagement" of the PNP continued...
...And the PNP's opponents lost no time in broadcasting the new policies as examples of how "Democratic Socialism" was selling the workers down the river...
...government's attempts to undermine those forces through destabilization measures and the policy of making U.S...
...After initially rejecting the IMF's terms in January 1977, declaring "We are not for sale," the government, pressured by the growing deficit and shortages, backed down and accepted the IMF's terms on a $74 million standby loan to ease the balance of payments situation...
...The Jamaican left views the concessions made by the Manley government to the IMF and the strengthening of the PNP's right wing within the government as a setback for progressive forces within the country...
...May 1977 40% devaluation...
...and the expansion of educational facilities and opportunities...
...This opening of political debate within the PNP itself, as well as between the PNP and the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), which increasingly identified itself as the defender of capitalism, also encouraged the development of a communist party, the Workers Liberation League (WLL), formed in December 1974...
...But this tendency became more marked in late 1975 and early 1976 as papers carried story May/June 1978 2930 NACLA Report U.S...
...But the government was not willing or able to wrest decisive control from the bauxite companies given the parameters it set for itself: respect for the rules of the capitalist game...
...In a less-than-coincidental confluence of events, the U.S...
...Some of the more prominent members of the PNP's conservative wing dissociated themselves from the party and the PNP increasingly became divided into two hostile camps...
...This demand was not lost upon the politically astute PNP leadership...
...These included an employment program designed to provide public works jobs...
...July 1977 $74 million IMF stand-by loan announced...
...June 1974 Alcoa, Reynolds and Kaiser file suit with ICSID against Jamaica...
...Perspectives Events in Jamaica over the past several years have implications not only for future develop- ments on the island, but also for what they reveal about the prospects for progressive third world governments like Manley's, which are pressing for reforms in the international economy and addressing some of the demands of the working class...
...6 Travel agents also participated in this tarnishing of Jamaica's image as a tourist paradise by advising clients to visit other parts of the Caribbean...
...On the other hand, it is important to point out that in the Jamaican context, Manley's "Democratic Socialism" has been a decidedly progressive force...
...Agency for International Development (USAID) turned down Jamaica's request for a $2.5 million food grant in 1975, refusing to lend additional funds to the Manley government until it changed its stance, and the U.S...
...And within the Caribbean region, the Manley government has been an important influence in shifting the political balance in favor of progressive forces to the disadvantage of U.S...
...The WLL, led by Dr...
...camp...
...The issues raised by more militant third world governments like Manley's have also created new cracks in the capitalist system by laying bare its inherent inequities...
...While the production cutbacks were partially due to industry-wide reductions in response to the international capitalist recession, Jamaica suffered a disproportional cutback...
...June 1976 State of Emergency declared...
...Although it is too early to tell how far the scales have been tipped in favor of the right, it has become increasingly difficult for Manley to carry off his balancing act between progressive and reactionary elements within the PNP, and between the interests of the bourgeoisie, petty bourgeoisie and the working class...
...The aluminum companies, on the other hand, moved swiftly to adapt to a new situation that was neither of their choosing nor liking...
...transnationals are no longer free to roam the May/June 1978 3334 NACLA Report globe at will...
...press about hostility toward U.S...
...2, No...
...and international loans have once again begun to flow to the island...
...Moreover, while the interests of national capital had momentarily diverged from those of international capital in the 1973 oil crisis, this "was only a temporary antagonism...
...In December, when Manley was Carter's guest in Washington, the World Bank announced a loan to Jamaica, and shortly thereafter the U.S...
...Without harboring illusions that a social democratic government in Jamaica can resolve the root problems of poverty and inequality, North Americans should give critical support to progressive elements both within and without the Manley government...
...After 12 years as a CIA agent in Latin America, Agee resigned in 1969 and has dedicated his efforts toward exposing the Agency's operations around the world...
...12 By early 1976 the political and social violence on the island had reached alarming proportions...
...2, December 1976, p. 28...
...June 1974 Bauxite levy legislation passed...
...The Manley government's compromise with the IMF greatly limits the government's ability to continue with its progressive social programs...
...DESTABILIZATION TAKES ITS TOLL Although the PNP, led by Manley, was re-elected by a landslide in December 1976, the destabilization efforts were seriously disrupting the national economy...
...Though the majority of the WLL cadre and leadership is drawn from intellectuals, it has rapidly become a recognized political force in Jamaica both in the eyes of the masses and official political circles...
...III...
...In spite of initial efforts made 31 May/June 1978NACLA Report during the early part of 1977, aid was not forthcoming with the speed or quantity necessary...
...And finally, none of the Jamaican government's moves vis-a-vis the bauxite industry has resulted in any basic reordering of the international system, but rather amount to reforms in that system...
...January 1978 IBA establishes bauxite common pricing accord...
...January 1978 10% devaluation...
...At a time when new investments in the U.S...
...October 1974 PNP announces platform of Democratic Socialism...
...The call for socialism, democratic or otherwise, was the straw that broke the camel's back for Jamaican-U.S...
Vol. 12 • May 1978 • No. 3
