The weakness of the economy between 1977 and 1980 was the fulcrum on which all other problems turned. Shortages, outages, and stoppages were the order of life.

In these circumstances, the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) was the key institution. The BOJ could always print money (Jamaican dollars) for the dwindling government treasury, as it had been doing, but it could not print foreign exchange, which was critically short.

By 1976, the reserves of foreign exchange in the BOJ dwindled to a negative level, for the first time. Naturally, this meant a curtailment of imports as well as failure to make payments owed for goods, services, debt, etc. The shortages which followed were not limited to consumer goods only. Raw materials, spare parts, equipment, drugs, and fuel were among the other necessities included.

A series of news items in the Daily Gleaner in January 1980 revealed the extensive shortages:

“Raw material situation serious” ( Gleaner, January 11)

“The JMA issued a statement earlier that week saying that no licences had yet been issued for raw materials and even if they were issued now there would be a gap in production as manufacturers did not have enough raw materials to last until the end of the month…. and many could be forced to close, putting hundreds out of work.”

A survey of all factories was promised.

‘Trade sees rice in short supply’

“The continuing shortage of rice in Jamaica is noted by the distributive trade which is of the view that not enough rice is being imported to fill the normal needs of the island. There will be shortages from time to time and consumers will have to make the best use of the limited supply.”

Mr Leroy Lorde, managing director of Jamaica Nutrition Holdings (the government food corporation) said “there was no shortage of rice at present in the island.”

‘Salt, soap, detergents reappear’

“One operator told the Gleaner that he received his five cases of detergent and toilet soap, his first supply in three weeks. He said that yesterday he had to try to keep in order hordes of consumers who converged on his supermarket demanding detergent. He has since been giving one pack to each customer and will continue to do so until the supply runs out. This will be a matter of two or three days!

He also said that he bought 15 bags of salt which had been in short supply for weeks. This he could put out on the shelf.

In the case of bread the situation had not improved. One operator said that he had received only 100 loaves. That would last only about half an hour. Cooking oil, margarine and cornmeal are still acutely short, as is flour.”

‘Sugar shortage hits the city’ (

“A shortage of sugar has been affecting consumers as well as processors. Reports are that some manufacturers are faced with closure…. Meanwhile there is no sugar in the supermarkets.

Both National Sugar and Jamaica Nutrition Holdings reported that some supplies were being made.”

‘Factories may shut by March’ (

“The Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica said…. that a sample survey done by the Jamaica Manufacturers’ Association showed that without the granting of import licences 56 per cent of the island’s factories would be without raw materials by the end of February and 91 per cent by the end of March. This would create a situation of almost total closure of the manufacturing sector… Since October of 1979, almost no import licences have been issued for the importation of products for 1980 including consumer goods, raw materials and capital goods….(However) licences have been issued for re-validation for 1979 for… some tourism requirements… and CARICOM products.”

The choke in the supply system was due to: hoarding, strikes, and power cuts.

Hoarding was a prevalent accusation by consumers against shop keepers and distributors against Jamaica Nutrition Holdings. The situation resulted in supermarket riots where consumers battled for very limited supplies ( Gleaner, February 15) while terror-stricken workers locked themselves in storerooms.

As the brawls continued, Government promised to intervene ( Gleaner, January 29) but the authorities were helpless as without foreign exchange they could do nothing. Nonetheless, this could not stop them from passing the blame, as is customary in socialist systems, to find demons. This time, however, it was not the capitalists who were blamed; it was the humble higgler who was accused of buying up supplies ( Gleaner, January 25) for re-sale with price increases. The condemnation, therefore, had to be muted.

A number of strikes were occurring which had a destabilising effect. Mostly workers were demanding increased pay to cope with increased prices which were consequences of soaring inflation caused by the Bank of Jamaica printing money to keep the Government going. The headline story of the Gleaner of January 25 was a forewarning of “More price increases next week”.

The emergency facility at the University Hospital was closed as a cost-saving measure. Doctors denounced the move which, in addition to the shortage of drugs, bed linen and food for patients, was making medical treatment perilous.

Power cuts were a result of strike action by Jamaica Public Service to workers over pay disputes, or a breakdown of equipment for lack of spare parts. On January 15, 300 JPS supervisors went on strike leaving 70 per cent of the island without electricity ( Gleaner, January 15). Power outages caused production losses which resulted in some shortages and stoppages.

The decade created an aura of fear not known before. Doctors treated a near epidemic of ‘nerves’ (anxiety), ‘sugar’ and ‘pressure’ (hypertension). Night life virtually ceased, shopping was a fight for scarcities or a dull selection of available goods. In the rural areas among 14,000 closed shops or with only a few open the choice was Foska Oats, soft drinks or toilet paper.

Much of daily conversation was how to access black market dollars. Women were inconvenienced monthly and embarrassed at the official advice to use a piece of cloth. Many children never knew a real Christmas in that decade. But farmers knew Christmas every day. In circumstances of shortage of imported food, they sold everything.

The underlying fundamental problem was the lack of foreign exchange. Government, in addition to immediate needs to face the bubbling crises, needed to close a gap of US$100 million in foreign exchange. The net assets test of the 1978 IMF programme had been failed in December 1979. The new programme now being sought by the IMF for 1980 was offensive, politically. Prime Minister Michael Manley faced a crucial dilemma whether or not to agree to the IMF programme to get the funds. The anger of the people was now boiling over.

In a desperate attempt to secure foreign exchange, on January 18, Manley sent Dudley Thompson and Senator Richard Fletcher, Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance, to Algeria, Libya, and Kuwait, to seek financial support. From Libya, it was reported that Thompson had attacked the US as the “leader in imperialism” and described “American aid to the Third World as a poison which killed slowly under the cover of assistance.”

A diplomatic storm erupted with Manley having to do damage control by issuing a denial, which was widely distributed, stating that the Libyans had misunderstood something Thompson had said in a private meeting. The likely truth is that something close to what was published was said privately, but was deliberately published.

As if the diplomatic blunder of Thompson was not enough, Manley once again opened his mouth too wide. Speaking to a conference of PNP delegates on January 18, he described Trinidad, which had been supportive to Jamaica, derisively: “They say that Trinidad is going to be broke in three years…. that Trinidad has oil but they are allowing the oil to flow like a dose of salts through the country. Cadillac and Mercedes Benz are available but they can’t even patch a blasted pot hole.”

The Government of Trinidad ignored the statement, leaving it to the Trinidad Sunday Express (February 4) to issue an appropriate response entitled, “A dose of Manley”.

“….we must marvel at the sheer gall of the man who has unashamedly come hat in hand to this country to seek assistance, yet now stands revealed as deeply resentful of a country which has dug deep into its treasury to bail him out.”

Manley claimed that his remarks were “not intended to offend” ( Gleaner, January 29) then, as expected, went on to state, when I challenged him on the statement, that I had misunderstood what he meant. A long circuitous explanation of what he said he meant followed.

The incessant begging “business” missions to the Soviet Union, Hungary, Poland, Algeria, Libya, and Kuwait prompted Dr Carl Stone, top columnist of the Gleaner and respected pollster, to write a column published on January 29, entitled: “From self-reliance to beggary”

“….we have elected a Government, which does not believe that government spending should bear any relationship to the production of wealth. On the contrary Mr Manley’s PNP regime operates on the principle that it is political considerations rather than fiscal prudence that should dictate how much government spends. The inevitable result is the present situation where recurrent expenditure exceeds revenue by a considerable amount.

“When we add up all the multiple loans our Government has borrowed and calculate the size on a per capita basis Jamaica is way ahead of the rest of the Third World as a borrower of overseas loans. That is a rather curious achievement for a party/government that, by its rhetoric, had claimed to be moving the society towards self-reliance. But then Mr Manley’s Government is unmatched in the Third World and anywhere else in the degree to which its rhetoric bears no relationship to either practice or reality.

“The more we borrow, the more we have to borrow to merely pay our debts. Sooner or later all of what we are able to borrow will be just enough to service our debt payments in spite of the fact that we continue to borrow heavily and arrears continue to build up, especially in the area of private debt.

“Jamaica is now rapidly moving towards that position. Some 75 per cent of what we now borrow is used to service our debt payments, although arrears have been building up in the private debts contracted by the private sector.

“The sense of national shame that comes from having ministers of Government travelling with hat in hand begging, courting, abusing, and beseeching governments in an unending medley of mendicancy is dulled and numbed by the harsher reality of what is going to happen when large numbers of workers are pushed out on the street without jobs and legitimate sources of income.

“We have gone full circle from the bold rhetoric of self-reliance to the humiliating defeat of becoming the Third World’s top ranking beggar.”

In 1972, when the Manley regime assumed responsibility for the Government, the national debt was J$300 million. By January 1980 it was J$3,000 million, a ten-fold increase. The massive debt incurred was not used to generate growth. The economy lost 22.8 per cent of its GDP, the measure of production, between 1974 and 1980. The loans were used to import goods for consumption and to pay Government’s housekeeping expenses and debt, not to invest in increased production.

The PSOJ, facing the exasperation of a future with little promise of a solution, called for an early election, or the resignation of Government.

It seemed as if every aspect of the economy was moving in a negative direction towards a traumatic climax.

The results of a poll by Carl Stone were released on January 18. They showed the JLP holding 47 per cent support, a 10 per cent lead over the combined support of the PNP and WPJ (the communist Workers Party of Jamaica) receiving 37 per cent.

With a build-up of pressure from every direction and no easement in sight, Prime Minister Manley made a surprise announcement in a radio broadcast to the nation on February 3 that he would call the general election as soon as he was advised that the new electoral system would be ready. He was later advised that this would be before the end of October.

The Jamaica Labour Party welcomed the announcement declaring that it was “fit and ready”. The JLP also noted that the early settlement of the “horrors of the last few years” would be settled by a “political solution”.

Elections concern the people, not only the political parties. Two quotes from a survey conducted by the Gleaner the next day seem to spell out the thinking of a broad cross-section of the public:

M Clarke – taxi operator

“Lady is one thing I have to tell you. Michael Manley talk too much fi him own good. Mark you, I am not saying that in the first place him never mean well, but why did he have to tell people about how much flight a day to Miami and then must take one if them don’t like it? Why him have to say those things about America and then say him never sey them or never really mean them that way? Why him even have to say election not going to hold just a few months ago and now him say it a go hold, October? Look how bad it look now. October or whenever him say is good enough, but all I know is we can’t bear no more and if another man can do the job, put him in.”

Miss S – Sales Clerk

“The Government has really tried especially when they were just elected. You could see that they wanted poor people to have something of their own – land, free education, houses; even the minimum wage was great. But I knew Mr Manley is going to be in for a hard fight, because of what he wanted for poor people. My view is he should have waited before he nationalised all those things like bauxite and the JOS. You can’t be cooking too many things in one pot. I like Mr Manley but the men around him are not good. As for the election call, I feel if the majority want a different person well, so be the case.”

The announcement, coming without any fanfare, caught the country entirely by surprise. I was expecting that at the rate of deterioration, the economy could not survive another year and the election would have to be called in 1980. But I was not expecting an announcement which gave an unprecedented eight months notice instead of the usual one month. This would prove to be a truly fatal decision; the escalation of violence which usually takes place in the short electoral period between announcement and election day would now have roughly 240 days to wreak havoc. I shuddered at the thought, but I recognised Manley had no choice. A definite commitment for a 1980 election was welcomed by the JLP.