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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><SPAN class=TopStory>Neither party the same as before</SPAN>
<SPAN class=Subheadline></SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>Michael Burke
Thursday, October 19, 2006
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=80 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>Michael Burke</SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>Opposition leader Bruce Golding has remarked that the ruling People's National Party (PNP) is not the one that Norman Manley founded. He was speaking specifically about the matter of integrity, and lauded Norman Manley as such a man. In terms of political ideology both parties have been like a bouncing ball that jumps from one place to the next.<P class=StoryText align=justify>In 1980, there was a full-page interview with a somewhat younger Bruce Golding in the now defunct Daily News. Golding was at pains to point out that the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) was not the same party as it was up to 1972. He implied that Edward Seaga as JLP leader had brought about that difference. Yet, some 15 years after that in 1995 Golding would leave the JLP while the same Seaga was leader to form the National Democratic Movement. Seven years later in 2002 he was back in the JLP.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Incidentally, up to now Bruce Golding is the youngest person ever to be elected to Parliament, not Andrew Holness. When Golding was elected on February 29, 1972 he was 24 years, two months, three weeks and three days old. Andrew Holness was more than that when he was elected.<P class=StoryText align=justify>I have argued that in the 1944 elections the JLP and the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union were one and the same. In that first election, which the JLP won by a landslide and in which not even Norman Manley won a seat, the well-to-do supported the Jamaica Democratic Party in 14 of the 32 constituencies. All JDP candidates lost their deposits as they all failed to get the required one-eighth of the votes cast to get a refund of the deposit.<P class=StoryText align=justify>So by 1949 the upper classes were mostly supporting the JLP as they considered that party to be the lesser of two evils. But in giving financial support, the mission of the JLP started to change. And the original mission of the JLP was a simple one. It was about getting better wages for workers, which was the same aim of the BITU.<P class=StoryText align=justify>The PNP started off basically as a middle-class citizens' association that wanted Jamaica to rule itself. Two years after its launch it declared itself a socialist organisation. Over the last 68 years of its existence, the PNP has advanced or retreated on socialism depending on the political climate. It seems as if the PNP has followed the dictum of the 19th century statesman Otto Von Bismarck that "politics is the art of the possible". But as Michael Manley wrote in his book Struggle in the Periphery: "The PNP has always been socialist in the sense that it never said that it was not."
Still, the jump from socialism to reform-capitalist in the PNP has been amazing. In 1952, there was the purge of the Four Hs (Ken Hill, Frank Hill, Richard Hart and Arthur Henry). But even with the purge, the Wills Isaacs- and Florizel Glasspole-led right-wing faction would not really surface until after Noel 'Crab' Nethersole died in 1959.<P class=StoryText align=justify>When the PNP lost in 1962, there had been something of an internal rift with the young Socialists, a faction within the PNP. Then the PNP won in 1972 (the same election which saw Bruce Golding being elected a JLP MP, succeeding his father). Michael Manley as prime minister would announce Democratic Socialism as Jamaica's path in 1974. The PNP won again in 1976 but by 1980, it was clear that our big neighbo
<SPAN class=Subheadline></SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>Michael Burke
Thursday, October 19, 2006
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=80 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>Michael Burke</SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>Opposition leader Bruce Golding has remarked that the ruling People's National Party (PNP) is not the one that Norman Manley founded. He was speaking specifically about the matter of integrity, and lauded Norman Manley as such a man. In terms of political ideology both parties have been like a bouncing ball that jumps from one place to the next.<P class=StoryText align=justify>In 1980, there was a full-page interview with a somewhat younger Bruce Golding in the now defunct Daily News. Golding was at pains to point out that the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) was not the same party as it was up to 1972. He implied that Edward Seaga as JLP leader had brought about that difference. Yet, some 15 years after that in 1995 Golding would leave the JLP while the same Seaga was leader to form the National Democratic Movement. Seven years later in 2002 he was back in the JLP.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Incidentally, up to now Bruce Golding is the youngest person ever to be elected to Parliament, not Andrew Holness. When Golding was elected on February 29, 1972 he was 24 years, two months, three weeks and three days old. Andrew Holness was more than that when he was elected.<P class=StoryText align=justify>I have argued that in the 1944 elections the JLP and the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union were one and the same. In that first election, which the JLP won by a landslide and in which not even Norman Manley won a seat, the well-to-do supported the Jamaica Democratic Party in 14 of the 32 constituencies. All JDP candidates lost their deposits as they all failed to get the required one-eighth of the votes cast to get a refund of the deposit.<P class=StoryText align=justify>So by 1949 the upper classes were mostly supporting the JLP as they considered that party to be the lesser of two evils. But in giving financial support, the mission of the JLP started to change. And the original mission of the JLP was a simple one. It was about getting better wages for workers, which was the same aim of the BITU.<P class=StoryText align=justify>The PNP started off basically as a middle-class citizens' association that wanted Jamaica to rule itself. Two years after its launch it declared itself a socialist organisation. Over the last 68 years of its existence, the PNP has advanced or retreated on socialism depending on the political climate. It seems as if the PNP has followed the dictum of the 19th century statesman Otto Von Bismarck that "politics is the art of the possible". But as Michael Manley wrote in his book Struggle in the Periphery: "The PNP has always been socialist in the sense that it never said that it was not."Still, the jump from socialism to reform-capitalist in the PNP has been amazing. In 1952, there was the purge of the Four Hs (Ken Hill, Frank Hill, Richard Hart and Arthur Henry). But even with the purge, the Wills Isaacs- and Florizel Glasspole-led right-wing faction would not really surface until after Noel 'Crab' Nethersole died in 1959.<P class=StoryText align=justify>When the PNP lost in 1962, there had been something of an internal rift with the young Socialists, a faction within the PNP. Then the PNP won in 1972 (the same election which saw Bruce Golding being elected a JLP MP, succeeding his father). Michael Manley as prime minister would announce Democratic Socialism as Jamaica's path in 1974. The PNP won again in 1976 but by 1980, it was clear that our big neighbo
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