S

By Trevor Munroe

General Secretary,
Workers Party of Jamaica

KINGSTON, JAMAICA

Pi. Evans family is a typical work-
Mgclass family in Jamaica. Father

_f£arns $40 a aeek, mother does a little

days work now and then.
The children did not-go to school all
ast week because it was rent week.
his takes over 30% of the family’s
Small income and they are two.weeks
M arrears. Thes could not afford the

Us fares and lunch money for the
Children. Bus fares have just gone up
another five cents.

Chicken necks and backs, canned
Mackerel and sardines have been the
amily’s only meat kind for some time
how, with flour dumplings and rice
Making up the rest of the meal. Under
4 new round of price increases an-

Nounced on February 32, chicken
Necks and backs have gone up from 38
ents to 47 cents a pound—an increase

“Of 24% — and a tin of sardines has

Moved up 30%. The immediate cause
of the price increases has been the re-
Moval of subsidies from basic foods

- {Nd the continued series of monthly

Mini-devaluations, both dictated to the
0vernment as‘a condition of the In-
ternational Monetary Fund (IMF)

agreement, signed in May last year. °

In return for making available to
‘AMaica $240 million over three years
© meet critical foreign exchange

Needs, the IMF has laid down harsh

Conditions which fall mainly on the
acks of the working people.

The IMF negotiating team de-
Manded and got the Jamaican gov-
€rnment to agree to a further devalua-
fon of the Jamaican dollar of about

0% followed by a. series of mini-
“valuations amounting to 15% over a
evear period. (The DMF had ear-
ler gotten the government to devalue
Wice, in 1977 and again in 1978.)

On top of this, the IMF got the re-
- val of strict price controls and its
replacement by guarantees of a 20%
jclurn on capital, a 15% limit on wage
Nereases and sharp cutbacks in gov-
ament expenditure on state projects

hd social services were imposed.
aXes on the consumption of working
ble were sharply increased.
fe As Part of the IMF ‘growth stra-
os the government has been re-
he to give new incentiies to the
ree and local capitalists to in-
ese Investment and production. Re-
Whiew’s, With the socialist countries,
ss ‘ch had shown great potential for
treansion following the signing of
agn € and economic cooperation
stil) ments with the Soviet Union, are
On the back-burner.
N important part of the IMF
ment has been a carefully de-
bees aid consortium under the aus-
ae of the World Bank made up of the
ag ir capitalist countries and lending
ate operating in the Caribbean.
arb ainchild, a creation of the
Stat, bean Task Force of: the U.S.
e Department, doles out a small

agre
8

— Ut st :
cond €ady diet of loans and grants on

to thytion that the government sticks
agreement.
€ results of these measures have

- Valyetastic. Inflation, fueled by de-

On, higher consumption taxes

Me loosening of price controls, in-

Prime Minister Michael Manley addressing the United Nations upon recei

ving a gold medal for

distinguished service against apartheid last October.

Jamaica: at mercy
of International
Monetary Fund

creased from 14% in 1977 to 47% in
1978. Real wages fell about 30%. Un-
employment is now around 25% of the
labor force and layoffs are continuing.
Despite the concessions to local and
foreign capitalists, export production
continues to falter, and more alarm-
ing, 34% of export receipts now go to
paying off the growing foreign debt.
Jamaica, like most ‘‘Third World”
countries, is deeply locked into the in-
ternational capitalist economic sys-
tem. Some 70% of exports and 60% of
imports are with the U.S., Canada and
the U.K. Bauxite and aluminum, sugar
and tourism account for 80% of in-
come. The bauxite and aluminum mul-
tinationals — Kaiser; Reynolds, Alcoa

- and Alcan — together still own $2 bill-

ion worth of investments in the island.

Added to the effect of the economic
crisis were the effects of the destabili-
zation campaign waged by the U.S.
administration in 1975 and 1976. Under
the influence of progressive currents
inside and outside of the ruling
People’s National Party (PNP), the

‘government of Prime Minister

Michael Manley had embarked on a

program of anti-imperialist measures

and internal reforms. °

These moves were of deep concern
to U.S. imperialism. When Henry Kis-
singer, then secretary of state, visited
Jamaica early in 1976, hetold Manley:
end the close relations with the

socialist community and Cuba in par-
ticular, and all the doors of U.S. assist-

ance will be open to you. If you persist,
you will pay the price. To Manley’s

credit, the government did not draw

back and Jamaica announced its sup-
port for the MPLA in Angola and for
Cuba’s role in stopping the NATO-
CIA-backed and South African forces
from their invasion of Angola. |
Economic and political sabotage
was intensified. Economic destabili-
zation was aimed particularly at baux-
ite and tourism while financial support

_and guidance went out to terrorist

groups and CIA front organizations

springing up overnight. Instead of in- .

timidating the Jamaican masses, the
hostile tactics united them and the
PNP swept in a landslide victory over
the rightwing Jamaica Labor Party in
December 1976.

The struggle grew between those
forces who argued that the govern-
ment should rely on the IMF to over-
come the balance of payments prob-
lems and those on the left, including.
the Workers Party of Jamaica, who

- argued that it was precisely because of

the worsening effects of the world eco-
nomic crisis that the government
should not accept the terms of the IMF
but seek a more progressive solution in
closer relations with the socialist
countries and deeper economic and
social reforms.

“mn return for making available to Jamaica $240
million over three years to meet critical foreign
exchange needs, the IMF has laid down harsh

conditions which fall mainly on the backs of the

working people.”

The Manley government’s decision

to accept the IMF agreement was in
large part due to the continued
strength of the capitalist class within
the PNP government and within
Jamaica generally. The capitalists
felt that a-rejection of the IMF loan
would mean a severe weakening of
their own positions in the country and
fought this course bitterly.

The working class on the otherhand _

was still weakened by its own divisions
and the lack of a strong Communist
vanguard. It was partly in order to
remedy this weakness and to
Strengthen the struggle against im-
perialism that the Workers Party of
Jamaica (WPJ) was formed in De-
cember 1978.

The WPJ and other left forces
within and outside the PNP have
warned that the IMF agreement would
lead to a strengthening of the right
wing in the country and eventual de-
feat for the PNP. These warnings have
begun to materialize.

On January 8, 9 and 10 the opposi-
tion Jamaica Labour Party led de-
monstrations against the increased
gasoline prices which were joined by
thousands of taxidrivers, motorists,
small businessmen and unemployed
and by a small section of the workers.
These demonstrations were island-
wide in character and led -to the bar-
ricade of all key roads and highways.
Although the majority of the working
class remained on the sidelines there
was widespread sympathy for the de-
monstrators.

On February 19, after announce-
ment of anew wave of price increases,
the JLP called for a lock out of all pri-
vate business. The merchants, shop-
keepers anda large section of the in-
dustrialists closed their doors in a lock
out which put the government further
on the defensive. The prospect is for
increasing street actions by the reac-
tionary forces leading to the resigna-
tion or overthrow of the government if
the present course is maintained.

The progressive forces, while de-
fending the government from the reac-
tionary attempts to overthrow it, have
been mobilizing mass pressure for
abandoning the IMF agreement. Many
organizations and unions including
those affilated to the PNP have come
out against the terms of the agreement.
This struggle is being carried out in a
complex situation where the reactio-
nary forces have been gaining strength
and have the ability to take over and
lead in a rightwing direction mass de-
monstrations or protests initiated by the
left. Despite this these mass struggles
have been making gains.

There are some signs that the Man-

ley Government may be responding to
. the growing popular discontent. ‘The

government has announced that it in-
tends to renegotiate the IMF agreement
to bring a stop to the continuing devalu-
ations. A long awaited law on the disclo-
sure of accounts in trade union negotia-
tions is being brought to Parliament.
There are some indications that the
economic relations with the Soviet
Union are being given greater priority.
These developments are being followed
closely in Washington. But such steps,
while important, are still along way
from the measures needed to halt the
deteriorating situation. Neither the
working class and its allies, nor the big
capitalists and imperialists, will be
Satisfied with them.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—AUGUST 3, 1979—Page 3

TTT