running on the slogans "Better must come", "Giving power to the people" and leading "a government of truth".
He instituted a series of socio-economic reforms that produced mixed results. Though he was a biracial Jamaican from an elite family, Manley's successful trade union background helped him to maintain a close relationship with the country's poor, black majority, and he was a dynamic, popular leader. Unlike his father, who had a reputation for being formal and businesslike, the younger Manley moved easily among people of all strata and made Parliament accessible to the people by abolishing the requirement for men to wear jackets and ties to its sittings. In this regard he started a fashion revolution, often preferring the Kariba suit which was a type of formal bush or safari jacket with trousers and worn without a shirt and tie.
Under Manley, Jamaica established a minimum wage for all workers, including domestic workers. In 1974, Manley proposed free education from primary school to university. The introduction of universally free secondary education was a major step in removing the institutional barriers to private sector and preferred government jobs that required secondary diplomas. The PNP government in 1974 also formed the Jamaica Movement for the Advancement of Literacy (JAMAL), which administered adult education programs with the goal of involving 100,000 adults a year.
Land reform expanded under his administration. Historically, land tenure in Jamaica has been rather inequitable. Project Land Lease (introduced in 1973), attempted an integrated rural development approach, providing tens of thousands of small farmers with land, technical advice, inputs such as fertilizers and access to credit. An estimated 14 percent of idle land was redistributed through this program, much of which had been abandoned during the post-war urban migration and/or purchased by large bauxite companies.
Other reforms introduced by Manley's administration included:
- The lowering of the minimum voting age to 18 years.
- The introduction of equal pay for women.[3]
- The introduction of maternity leave.[3]
- The outlawing of the stigma of illegitimacy.[3]
- The abolition of Masters and Servants Act.[3]
- A Labour Relations and Industrial Disputes Act which provided workers and their trade unions with enhanced rights.[3]
- The establishment of the National Housing Trust, which provided "the means for most employed people to own their own homes," and greatly stimulated housing construction, with more than 40,000 houses built between 1974 and 1980.[3]
- The introduction of free education at primary, secondary, and tertiary levels.[4]
- The introduction of subsidised meals, transportation and uniforms for schoolchildren from disadvantaged backgrounds.[4]
- The introduction of special employment programmes.[5]
- The introduction of programmes designed to combat illiteracy.[5]
- Increases in pensions and poor relief.[6]
- The introduction of a worker's participation programme.[7]
- The passage of a new mental health law.[8]
- The introduction of the family court.[8]
- An increase in youth training.[8]
- A reform of local government taxation.[8]
- An upgrading of hospitals.[9]
- The introduction of free health care for all Jamaicans.[9]
- The establishment of health clinics and a paramedical system in rural areas.[9]
- The establishment of various clinics to facilitate access to medical drugs.[9]
- A significant increase in spending on education.[9]
- An increase in the number of doctors and dentists in the country.
- An expansion of day care centres.
- The introduction of Project Lend Lease, an agricultural programme designed to provide rural labourers and smallholders with more land through tenancy.
- The introduction of a National Youth Service Programme for high school graduates to teach in schools, vocational training, and the literacy programme.
- The introduction of comprehensive rent and price controls.
- The introduction of subsidies on basic food items (1973).
- The introduction of protection for workers against unfair dismissal
