''The point is that now some two-thirds of mankind have been reduced to a peripheral status in political, economic and even social terms,'' he wrote. Manley became one of the most outspoken advocates of what he called a new international economic order for developing nations. Manley addressed the United Nations and chastised what he called ''the misplaced priorities'' of its members, ''especially the most powerful and wealthy ones.'' Along with Prime Minister Indira Ghandi of India and President Julius K. He expanded the health and education systems, organized job training programs for the young and the unemployed, fostered racial pride and tried to encourage agricultural self-sufficiency through state farms. Manley set out to reduce what he called the ''irrational and dangerous'' economic inequalities and class divisions that defined Jamaican society. Manley won a landslide victory in the general election that followed in 1972, becoming Jamaica's fourth Prime Minister. Tall, handsome, charismatic and a spellbinding orator who enthralled large crowds on the campaign trail, Mr. In 1969, Norman Manley died, and Michael Manley succeeded him as president of the People's National Party. In 1962, when Jamaica achieved independence from Britain, he was appointed to the Senate five years later, he was elected to Parliament and became vice president of the party his father was still leading. Manley quickly became involved in the trade union movement, focusing his efforts on improving salaries and living conditions for the island's sugar and bauxite workers. Once World War II ended, he enrolled at the London School of Economics, where he was exposed to the democratic brand of socialism espoused by Harold Laski, who became his intellectual mentor.Īfter his return to Jamaica in December 1951, Mr. He served a year and a half but did not see combat. Manley later said he considered himself ''the most privileged man in Jamaica'' because of that upbringing, he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force as an 18-year-old, in part to establish an identity independent of his glittering parents. Norman Manley founded the People's National Party, which would eventually serve as the vehicle to power for both father and son, in 1938, while Edna Manley became the focal point of a lively circle of artists, poets and musicians who made the Manley estate, Drumblair, their second home. Manley was raised in an atmosphere that combined political and artistic ferment. His English-born mother, Edna Swithenbank Manley, was a prominent sculptor.įrom birth, Mr. His father, Norman Washington Manley, was an Oxford-trained lawyer and orator who was to lead Jamaica to independence as Prime Minister from 1955 to 1962. 10, 1924, into one of the island's most notable families. Michael Norman Manley was born in Kingston on Dec. Manley's protege, described his predecessor as a ''colossal figure,'' and Jamaicans began lining up before dawn yesterday outside the Prime Minister's official residence to offer their condolences.