Labour Day and the politics of change

The Government's Budget is designed to give capital a friendly tax, inflation and interest-rate environment to induce it to invest. There was nothing in it for labour. Yet, Labour Day, coming right after the Budget, should remind us of the importance of the role of labour in any growth-inducement strategy. For this, we must understand Labour Day as part of a larger strategy for transforming society.

Labour Day, inaugurated by the Michael Manley administration of 1972, was, first of all, part of a politics of change, as he titled his 1974 book. This politics of change began with the proposition that Jamaica could not go on the way it had been going 10 years after Independence. One-quarter of the population was unemployed. This was twice those unemployed at Independence. Four-fifths of the children between six and 15 years in school would face unemployment at 15. Only a pitiful few would get training or tertiary education.

Classrooms were overcrowded and many of these children came from poor areas where there was little of a support system for them, either at home or in their community. They lacked decent housing and many mothers and fathers who worked lacked decent pay. Manley believed that the country should declare a war against poverty. Labour Day was a part of that war. "What do you do when you are at war?" Manley asked. "The soldier pulls in his belt, makes sacrifices and wins the war so that future generations can call him blessed."

The war must continue. Unemployment is rising again with, as some claim, 120,000 jobs lost over the past four years. Poverty has spiked, about double what it was four years ago. We must stimulate the real economy through those sectors that showed the greatest job gains between 2004 and 2008. These were agriculture, hunting, fisheries and forestry, education, real estate and business activities, wholesale and retail and repairs, health and social work, public administration and defence, hotels and restaurant services, among many others. These sectors gained 120,000 jobs between 2004 and 2008.

For every job, there must be training. This means that Manley's insistence on training those many young people who are leaving school is more important than ever because there are more of them than ever.

Self-Reliance

Labour Day was part of the philosophy of self-reliance, which was part of the politics of change. Manley noted that on the first Labour Day, there were 454 projects undertaken. They ranged from work on basic schools, repairs of old people's homes, beautification projects, and many others, all done by citizens without any money from Government. In the end, persons were able to say they did it by themselves and so were able to build pride and confidence in their own work and themselves.

Self-reliance is not just about volunteerism and saving Government money. It has a psychological dimension. Manley said that Jamaica would only prosper when "this country learns the lesson that the only way a nation can become great is when it relies upon itself as a nation; when the community relies upon itself as a community, and when the individual relies upon himself as an individual." We cannot be a great country when nation, community or individual are dependent on other nations, or on government.

Labour Day was only one example of how self-reliance would work. It would work through land and agricultural programmes such as Project Land Lease as well. Here is an area needing stimulus for real families on the land, not just incentives to an urban capital-owning class. On the special Hounslow, Cape Clear and Truro farms, fruit trees, root crops and legumes, carrots, soya, corn and peanuts were planted and reaped in quick time in the early 1970s. These farms employed thousands of farmers. The idea was to establish these as government farms initially, to set up infrastructure, proper administration and management to make them productive and then offer them to farming families as farm cooperatives.

Land Lease and government or cooperative farms were part of a plan to establish the foundation for more food security at a time when we were import-dependent in food and world inflation was driving up food prices. Our balance of trade in 1971 was -US$131 million. Today, we find ourselves in the same predicament. We are currently experiencing rising commodity prices. In fact, PricewaterhouseCoopers' (PwC) assessment of Audley Shaw's Budget presentation had them saying that our balance of payments deteriorated in 2010, reflecting a current account deficit of nearly US$1 billion by the end of last year. It wondered how we were going to pay back our debts if we do not grow the economy, import less and export more.

Children first

The politics of change actually conceived of measures to cushion the high and unpredictable prices of corn, wheat and soya, which were rising and which the country imported to feed animals. The high price of meat and milk, which would subsequently rise, would affect everyone, right down to the children who needed milk. Whereas the IMF and PwC might be concerned about the balance of payments, the politics of change went further. It was about children first.

The Manley government, therefore, established the Jamaica Nutrition Holding Limited to buy these feedstock imports at reduced bulk prices rather than leaving this to those with capital who would place big profit margins on imports, making them too expensive for the poor. To complement this, the nutrition complex was started on Marcus Garvey Drive to support the infant-feeding programme. This complex would produce 10,000 half-pints of milk a day and 100,000 patties to begin with.

This year's theme for Labour Day is 'It Takes a Village to Raise a Child'. This has to be translated into an economic and political model, though. Manley called it democratic socialism. Whatever name one might call it, it requires a politics of change and an economics of self-reliance. It also requires a culture of taking responsibility. This is what the Vision 2030 document and the present-day People's National Party emphasise in the latter's Progressive Agenda.

Labour Day, in other words, is more than just about a day, valuable as that is. All the good work we do in a day can be undone over the other 364 days of the year. The basic schools, the golden-age homes, the drained gullies, the beautification projects, can all deteriorate again if we do not have a sustainable economy that provides decent work, a way out of poverty, self-confidence, pride in achievement and taking responsibility for our development. It is this model that will give the children opportunities for higher education, training for better jobs, and respect for political, social and economic institutions. This is how the village can raise the child.

It is too convenient to separate Labour Day into a one-day effort cut off from its broader philosophy and greater responsibility. It is almost like being a one-day Christian who separates Sunday worship from what he/she does the other days of the week, without much thought to Christian philosophy and responsibility at work, school or play.

Robert Buddan lectures in the Department of Government, UWI, Mona. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and Robert.Buddan@uwimona.edu.jm.