Staff WriterSeptember 9th, 2009 will be the 80th anniversary of the first political party made by us and for us. In the nineteen twenties Mr. Garvey and a number of his followers viewed the political landscape and determined that the African Diaspora needed a political party controlled by our people.
On September 9th 1929, Honorable Marcus Messiah Garvey founded the PEOPLES POLITICAL PARTY.
The PEOPLES POLITICAL PARTY held a mass meeting at Cross Roads. The newspapers of the day reported that there were more than 20,000 people in attendance. Marcus Garvey enunciated the party platform with a total of 26 planks. The meeting was a success by all accounts and the gathering was peaceful. At the end of the meeting people dispersed in an orderly manner to their respective homes. The following day a number of the establishment lawyers held the first of a series of secret meetings in which they would scrutinize Mr. Garvey’s speech hoping to find something they could use to incriminate him.
On September 10th, the lawyers spent the entire day analyzing the content of Mr. Garvey’s speech, however they could not find anything from the speech they could use to have him arrested. They made an agreement to meet the following day to look into the matter further.
On September 11th there where several proposal brought forward to have Mr. Garvey arrested. It was decided that they would have him arrested for the 10th plank of PPP manifesto ,which states, and here I paraphrase “any judge that acts contrary to the law should be impeached and imprisoned.” A few days later Mr. Garvey was arrested charge with seditious libel. Mr. Garvey was tried by what could be accurately described as a Kangaroo court and he was sentenced to three months in prison. While incarcerated he became the first person in recorded history to be elected from behind bars. Although Mr. Garvey had written a letter requesting a leave of absence during the period of incarceration he was barred from his seat in the council; with half of the members voting in his favor and the other half voting against seating him.
At an impasse the counsel decided to ask the Gifted lawyer Norman Washington Manley to write a brief to brake the impasse. Mr Manley took on the task and he wrote a brief proclaiming that Mr. Garvey should be denied the seat on the council on the basis that he had missed three meetings.
There was a subsequent election for the council seat; Mr. Garvey ran unopposed and was again elected by the people.
Unfortunately Mr. Garvey was hampered from being an effective legislature because he was constantly being summoned to court on charges that were false. Frustrated and somewhat defeated, Mr. Garvey left Jamaica for England where he would meet his demise.
In2002 PEOPLES POLITICAL PARTY was rekindled by Moses Emanuel Henriques, Byron Moore, Neville Henry , Miguel Lorne and more that 500 people who gathered at Ward Theater Kingston Jamaica and Declared that the party will go forward with the new name: Marcus Garvey PEOPLES POLICAL PARTY. The rekindling also firmly asserted that the party would be governed by the philosophy and opinion of Marcus Garvey.
The mission statement:
To empower our people in every community where we live.
To insure that eligible voters are registered.
To develop and maintain a voter education in respective communities.
To assist grass-roots in candidates winning elections.
MGPPP must develop into a party of young people guided by elders.
Roll up your sleeves and come to work! Make your ancestors proud and secure the future of your children!
Come to liberty Hall Kingston Jamaica September 9th, 2009! Come take your place in history, represent you clan and represent your community.
jamarch
