Michael Norman Manley ON OM OCC PC (10 December 1924 – 6 March 1997) was a Jamaican politician who served as the fourth prime minister of Jamaica from 1972 to 1980 and from 1989 to 1992.

[3] He attended the Antigua State College and then served in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II.

[5] When his father was elected premier of Jamaica in 1955, Manley resisted entering politics, not wanting to be seen as capitalizing on his family name.

[6][7] After his father's retirement in 1969, Manley was elected leader of the People's National Party, defeating Vivian Blake.

Manley had long harboured an opposition to communism largely because its totalitarian tenets contradicted his deep respect for democracy.

Although the party willingly accepted capitalists within its ranks as part of its desire to build national consensus, the PNP opposed "capitalism as the system upon which to base the future of Jamaica [because] this system involves the exploitation of people and obliges individuals to pursue private gain at the expense of their fellow citizens without regard to any other interest.

Although he was a Jamaican from an elite family, Manley's successful trade union background helped him to maintain a close relationship with the country's poor majority, and he was a dynamic, popular leader.

[16] Subsidised meals, transportation and uniforms for schoolchildren from disadvantaged backgrounds were introduced,[17] together with free education at primary, secondary, and tertiary levels.

[23] Manley developed close friendships with several communist and socialist leaders, foremost of whom were Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Olof Palme of Sweden, and Fidel Castro of Cuba.

[24] Manley's support for Cuba sending troops to Angola during the Angolan Civil War was criticized by Henry Kissinger and others, and led to a worsening of relations between the US and Jamaica.

[25][26] In December 1977, Manley visited President Jimmy Carter at the White House to remedy the situation, and relations improved somewhat.

"[29] Despite some international opposition — especially from the US and the OAS —, Manley deepened and strengthened Jamaica's ties with Cuba, maintaining friendly relations with Fidel Castro, and paying an official visit to the country in 1975.

The Gun Court imposed a mandatory sentence of indefinite imprisonment with hard labour for all firearms offences, and ordinarily tried cases in camera, without a jury.

[35] During the emergency, according to a report published on 2 November 1977, by investigative reporters Ernest Volkman and John Cummings of the New York newspaper Newsday, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) plotted Manley's assassination, with attempts that "were supposed to have taken place" on 14 July 1976 in Jamaica, and during a visit later in the year to Toronto.

[40] Seaga's failure to deliver on his promises to the US and foreign investors, as well as complaints of governmental incompetence in the wake Hurricane Gilbert's devastation in 1988, contributed to his defeat in the 1989 elections.

[37] By 1989, some right-wing critics had begun to assert that Manley had softened his socialist rhetoric, explicitly advocating a role for private enterprise.

[22] The government also announced a 50% increase in the amount of nutritional assistance for the most vulnerable groups (including pregnant women, nursing mothers, and children).

The government had an admirable record in housing provision, while measures were also taken to protect consumers from illegal and unfair business practices.

[45] The other books he wrote include The Politics of Change (1974), A Voice in the Workplace (1975), The Search for Solutions, The Poverty of Nations, Up the Down Escalator, and Jamaica: Struggle in the Periphery.

[46] On 6 March 1997, Michael Manley died of prostate cancer, the same day as another Caribbean politician, Cheddi Jagan of Guyana.

[41][47] He was honoured with a state funeral on 16 March with religious services held at the Holy Trinity Cathedral, attended by Cuban President Fidel Castro, Trinidadian Prime Minister Basdeo Panday, and Haitian President René Préval, as well as other various leaders and delegates from the Caribbean.