Caribbean Studies Association ConferenceMerida, Mexico. 23rd to 27th May 1994

Structural adjustment:

Its implications for youth in

Jamaica

Lincoln Williams

Social Welfare Training CentreSchool of Continuing StudiesUniversity of the West IndiesMonaKINGSTON 7Jamaica

Structural adjustment: Its implications for youth inJamaica

"The losers were clear. They were seen in the increased numbers ofhomeless and mentally ill searching routinely through the garbagecontainers, they were absorbed among the numbers of youth recruitedinto criminal posses, they were included among the fixed incomepensioners whose private poverty could not be relieved by food stamps,and they were numbered among those who stood grimly in visa lines(Witter, M and Anderson,P. 1991:126)

The above quote aptly illustrates the heated debates now taking place in the literature concerning the

cost and the benefits of the structural adjustment policies imposed on Jamaica since 1977.' The

elements which make up a structural adjustment package are summarised by Kathy McAffee (1991) in

the following way:

Reduced local consumption This is usually done by devaluation of the currency,

the removal of sudsidies on basic foodstuff and increased taxation.

Higher taxes

Increased government subsidies to the private sector This is usually

referred to, in structural adjustment terminology, as increasing the government's

Public Sector Investment Programme (PSIP). This covers investment in infrastructure

which is intended primarily to benifit the private business sector.

Lower taxes on businesses and tax holiday periods These are intended to

boost home investments and attract overseas investors.

Removal or reduction of tariffs and levies on export

Decreased spending on welfare provision

Privatisation of Government owned enterprises and services

Reduction in the number of government employees

Lower wages This is intended to increase the competitiveness of the country's

exports.

Opening up the domestic market to foreign based imports This is usually

achieved by removing import quotas and tariffs.

Expansion of tourism sector This is particularly so for the Caribbean countries

being restructured.

' The term structural adjustment is used to refer to the set of policy conditions and theirconsequences, imposed by lending agencies, principally the IMF, the World Bank and USAID, onJamaica in return for loans. In a strict sense the term should be used in relation to the loans securedfrom the world bank for "structural adjustment". These loans (SAL I-Ill ) were made between 1982 and1985. For the purposes of this paper however, the term will be applied to the policy package imposedon Jamaica from 1977 as conditions for balance of payment support.

1

It is the impact of such policies on youth that is the focus of this paper. The paper is a tentative and

exploratory one because very little has been published on this issue; there is also very little direct data

on which to draw for such an analysis. Slightly more has been written on the impact of structural

adjustment on women, for exmple, Davies and Anderson (1987) and French1990, and concerning

other identified vulnerable groups. After a brief review of some of the literature I shall attempt to tease

out some of the economic and cultural implications of structural adjustment for youth.

Brief review of the literature

Although the jury is still out, the literature could conveniently be divided into three categories.

First, those who see the whole enterprise as but a continuation of the colonial/ imperialistic goals

pursued by the rich countries, particularly the USA, to extract resources from the developing countries.

For these authors there are very few benefits, if any, for developing countries emanating from these

policies. They adduce cogent data and argument to show that the only winners are the rich countries.

Kathy McAfee (1991) and Joan French (1990) are good examples of writers who fall into this category.

Both adduce data to show that the lending nations received far more from debtor Caribbean states

than they lent, without any significant improvement in the key growth areas set out in their policies. In

reference to the increasing debt ratio experienced by Jamaica under structural adjustment loans

(SALs) in the mid 1980's, Joan French sums up the situation in the following way:

"It is a deepening and increasingly vicious circle in which the more we pay,the more we owe, the more we owe the more we borrow in order to repay,the more we repay, the more we owe" (1990:4).

For both authors all the benefits go to the lending institutions and all the cost to the debtor nations and

the poor and vulnerable groups within them. The conspiracy, however, is more sinister than the

robbing of the poor by the rich. Joan French spells it out in the following terms:

"It becomes increasingly clear, that in the context of present relations betweenthe U.S. and the Caribbean, the debt can never be paid. Debt equity swapsproffered as one way out, in which the Caribbean Countries allow U.S. andother foreign creditor interests ownership of key resources in exchange fordebt, hold out the prospects of the eventual take over of the Caribbeaneconomy and physical assets by these interests" (1990: 4).

Although the case is somewhat overstated, the general validity of the assertion is seen from the data

set out in Figure 1 below. A brief glance shows that, for example, in 1988 there was significant net

transfer to all creditors of $406M (US) from the Jamaica Government. This was equivalent to 14.5% of

GNP, 23% of export earning, and 33% of the value of Commodity imported.

2

1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988

DISBURSEMENTS 351 705 739 530 471 471 255 470 296% GNP 14.1 27.2 26.3 16.9 21.9 27.0 11.9 18.6 10.6% Imports 33.8 54.3 61.1 47.1 45.4 46.9 30.4 44.1 24.1% Export 23.8 45.1 51.1 38.6 34.6 34.7 17.1 27.8 16.7

REPAYMENTS 121 231 166 167 150 317 371 418 427% GNP 4.8 8.9 5.9 5.3 7.0 18.2 17.3 16.5 15.3% Imports 11.6 17.8 13.7 14.8 14.4 31.5 44.3 39.2 34.8% Exports 8.2 14.8 11.5 12.1 11.0 23.3 25.3 24.8 24.0

INTEREST REPAYMENTS 159 151 195 225 279 289 284 293 276% GNP 4.8 5.8 6.9 7.1 13.0 16.5 13.2 11.5 9.9% Imports 15.3 11.6 16.1 20.0 26.9 28.8 33.9 27.5 22.4% Exports 10.8 9.7 13.5 16.4 20.5 21.3 19.4 17.4 15.5

NET RESOURCE FLOWS 230 474 573 363 320 154 -116 52 -130%GNP 9.2 18.3 20.4 11.5 14.9 8.8 -5.4 2.0 -4.6% Imports 22.1 36.5 47.4 32.3 30.8 15.3 -13.8 4.8 -10.6% Exports 15.6 30.3 39.6 26.4 23.5 11.3 -7.9 3.0 -7.3

TOTAL NET TRANSFERS 71 323 378 138 41 -135 -400 -242 -406as % GNP 2.8 12.5 13.5 4.4 1.9 -7.7 -18.6 -9.6 -14.5as % Imports 6.8 24.9 31.2 12.3 3.9 13.4 -47.8 -22.7 -33.1as % Exports 4.8 20.7 26.1 10.0 3.0 -9.9 -27.3 - 14.3 -22.9

Memo Notes:GNP US SM 2188 2590 2803 3137 2144 1742 2747 2528 2793IMPORTS SM' 1038 1297 1209 1124 1037 1004 837 1065 1228EXPORTS SM! 1172 1562 1446 1374 1361 1358 1465 1688 1776

1 Commodity imports 2 Export of goods and non factor services

Figure 1. Debt repayments from Jamaica to international lending agencies 1980 - 1988

in millions of U.S.dollars

Source: Levitt (1991:9) Table 5

The second category consists of those writers who believe that the conditions attached to SALs are

fine but that they need a little fine tuning to ameliorate the negative side effects on vulnerable groups.

The best exponent of this position is to be found in the excellent works, produced by Cornia, Jolly

and Stewart, Adiustment with a Human Face (1987 Vol 2). The impact of this type of literature is to shift

the debate away from the general impact of structural adjustment in society, to a preoccupation with

trying to define the different categories of poverty. The front runners at the moment appear to be " the

new poor, the borderline poor, and the structural poor" (Zukerman1989 as quoted in Witter and

Anderson 1991:29) 2 .

2 It is interesting to note that Cornia et al point out that if all the vulnerable groups are addedtogether they would cover at least 50% of the Jamaican people.

3

It is interesting to note that 'Youth' is not included in any of the vulnerable groups recommended for

ameliorative measures. The 'aged' , 'women', low income agricultural workers, redundant civil servants

are, inter alia, some of the categories put forward. Although children are included they tend to be

those in the younger age group.

The third category includes those who again support the basic policies entailed in the SALs and argue

that it is difficult, if not impossible, to isolate the impact of SALs from the effects of Government

policies, and other internal factors or from the world recession which started in the mid 1970's after the

oil crisis. Others, like King (1993) argue that, in Jamaica's case, it is invalid to attribute such things as

the fall in real income, the shift in the distribution of income from labour to owners of assets (especially

property), and rise in unemployment (especially amongst the urban working class) to structural

adjustment. The rise in unemployment he argues was due to long standing structural factors at play in

the economy before structural adjustment came on the scene; the shift in the distribution of income

could be explained by the inflationary fiscal and monetary policies pursued by the government and

the negative capital flows could be explained by the rhetoric of Democratic Socialism espoused by the

then Manley government. This he argues is a classical case of where correlation is no proof of

causation. In the latter part of his paper, however, he too accepts that the reduction in government

expenditure on social welfare provision entailed in structural adjustment lending had a severe negative

impact on the majority of the population. As he puts it:

"To the living standards of those whose only income is labour income, thedevastation of public social services was probably as detrimental as the declinein real wages. The recovery and maintenance of those services are the singlemost important short run measure to ameliorate their living standard" (1993: 27)

The jury (in this case History and the people who have been structurally adjusted) will be a long time in

giving the final verdict on whether or not the structural adjustment medicine has been good for Jamaica

and other Caribbean states3 The patients are still very ill and the diagnosis for the short run is not at all

positive; full recovery cannot be predicted with any confidence. The fall of the East and the perceived

triumph of capitalism, the free market and the end of ideology, " means that there is only one type of

medicine that the doctor can prescribe: liberalisation of all markets with a minimum state. The interim

verdict, therefore, must be a very large question mark, because as Levitt summarises it:

"The structural adjustment programmes have unquestionably facilitated thenet transfer of real resources required to service external debt. They have not,however, established a viable regime of accumulation and growth and someof the measures which the government has been forced to accept under duressof withdrawal of balance of payments support will have negative effects on production andincome distribution" (1991: 9) .

3 Note that Chile is now being hailed as a success story for structural adjustment policies. It couldbe argued however, that Chile's success was due in large measure to the existence of an authoritarianstate that was able to impose the strong medicine without fear of rebellion from the patients or beingthrown out of office by the electorate. Is structural adjustment incompatible with a democratic state?

4

'The context in which we have to analyse the impact of structural adjustment on youth is one in which

there has been a severe reduction in GDP, a fall in real wages, a shift in the distribution of income from

labour to the owners of property, a substantial increase in unemployment particularly amongst the

urban working class and those in the public sector, the fall in the price of the country's main agricultural

and mineral exports, extensive reduction in government expenditure on health, education and other

welfare provision, removal of many government subsidies (particularly on basic foodstuffs) and the

continuous fall in the value of the Jamaica dollar.

In a word, it is extremely difficult to isolate how general economic policies have age specific

consequences. The effects of structural adjustment policies are not self evident. To isolate the impact

on specific demographic groups is even more problematic. This is due, inter alia, to the time lag

entailed in the effects of economic policies, the intervention of social factors such as class, race and

gender and the general lack of data.

We need, at this point to define a little more clearly what we mean by youth. For the purposes of this

paper, youth is defined as those aged between 15 and 25 years of age. For 1992, the 15 - 24 age

group comprised approximately 22% of the total population and, again approximately, 23% of the total

labour force. It is interesting to note that the Commonwealth Secretariat (1990) is predicting that in the

developing countries, this age group will continue to grow by some 16% between 1985 and 2000 .

Although the projection for the growth of this age group in Jamaica is lower than that predicted by the

Commonwealth Secretariat, this age group will continue to make up a significant percentage of

Jamaica's population. The United Nations' World population prospects (1992 revision) projected a fall

for this age group from 22% to 20.5% by 1995 and then a further fall to 18.6% by the year 2000. The

problem of having, proportionately, a rather young population will continue to be with us for some time.

This fact alone should mean that policy makers should be focusing more attention on how public

policies impact specificially on this age group. Unfortunately, there is no sign that this group is

receiving anything like the attention they merit from governments or the private sector.

It could be inferred that one of the most significant impacts of structural adjustment on youth would be

the rise in unemployment within this age group. There is some data to suggest that young people, in

the relevant age group, are over represented in the unemployment statistics. For example in 1987,

following the most intense application of structural adjustment policies in Jamaica 1980-85, this age

group made up 40% of the unemployed (Commonwealth Secretariat 1990). The Secretariat report

points out that in general youth comprised the largest proportion of the unemployed, which tends to

4 If one takes 1980 to 1985 as the most intense period over which the Seaga governmentembraced and implemented structural adjustment policies, it is seen that GDP, measured in constantprices, was barely higher than it was in 1980. In fact the average annual growth rate was approximately0.44%; as Payne puts it, "scarcely the stuff of economic miracles" (Payne1988:129)

5

be two and half to three times the adult rate, and that the urban working class, landless peasants and

females tend themselves to be over represented in this group for developing countries in the

Commonwealth as a whole.

There is no support in the data however for the hypothesis that structural adjustment has negatively

affected youth over and above what was happening to adults. Indeed the expert group appointed by

the Commonwealth Secretariat argued that the:

"Significantly higher unemployment rates for youth could be explained partlyin terms of the advantages of accummulated knowledge and experiencewhich those who had jobs had over those facing the labour force market "(1990:217).

Added to the above is the fact that employers often see adults as having more commitment to work,

because they tend to be head of households. Thus the discrimination in the labour market against

young people, particularly those living in urban ghetto areas, is to be found in the employers' negative

perception of young people rather than in structural adjustment. This discrimination is in fact often

legitimised by its inclusion in labour legislation which supports the principle of "last in first out" which

usually means that the first to be laid off in periods of recession tend to be the young. The point that

youth are not disproportionately affected by recession is picked up by the UN report Economic

recession and specific age groups (1986). The report concludes that:

"The scant empirical evidence does not support the hypothesis that openunemployment rates for youth have been disproportionately affected byrecession All that can be said on the basis of employment statisticsis that recession pushes youth unemployment up "(1986:67)

With specific reference to the Jamaican situation King (1993) argues that the increased unemployment

amongst the urban working class was only exacerbated by structural adjustment policies; the policies

were not the prime cause. The 9.5% increase in unemployment (1978-82) amongst the skilled and

unskilled working class labour market, in which youth is over represented:

"Was a resumption of the trend of contraction of unskilled employment,evidentfrom the 1960's, exacerbated by the reduction in public sector employmentprogrammes dictated by structural adjustment " (1993:14) 5

Structural adjustment policies for King then were only a fairly marginal explanatory factor in the

increased unemployment rate amongst the unskilled urban working class. Of greater explanatory

significance was the economic decline that had been underway since the 1960's and the

inefficiencies and rigidities of the labour market.

5 There is the possibility that the gap between the unemployment rate for under 25's and over25's could be explained by the fact that the under 25's have a higher proportion of unskilled workers.

6

120

0 1 1 0 —0

D 100C)D,0

90

a,

80

Jo 707

601988 1989

ED Under 25 Yrs

1990

Years1991

st 25 Yrs. and Over

1992

If one looks however at the trend in unemployment for the under 25's and the over 25's, illustrated

below in Figure 2, it is clear that there was a large gap between the two levels between 1988 and

1990. Could it be that the lagged effect of the structural adjustment policies was beginning to have a

disproportionate impact on the under 25 year olds in the economy? It is still open to debate as to

whether or not all the above factors do in fact explain the difference in the employment of over 25s and

under 25s.

Figure 2. The unemployed potential labour force, by age, 1988-1992

Source: Social and Economic Survey Jamaica (1992 ) Page 6.7 Figure 16D

If structural adjustment policies have not disproportionately affected youth, what are the factors that

have led to the increased unemployment amongst urban youth? Some of the salient factors are

outlined below:

Growth in technological unemployment. King argues that in relation to Jamaica,

1966-73 could be characterised as a period of "dependent growth"; the twin engines of growth being

the bauxite and tourist industries. These he argues, however, were growth enclaves. The bauxite

industry was highly capital intensive and had minimum impact on the level of employment. Though the

tourist industry was more labour intensive, it had an import content of some 40%, and 75% of its profits

were repatriated abroad. Thus the average growth rate of 5.6% was not enough to absorb the increase

in the labour force, particularly the 15-24 age group. Similarly the embryonic manufacturing and service

sectors demanded skills which were not present in the urban working class. The Commonwealth

Secretariat summarises the problem in the following way:

7

"A growing element in unemployment could be considered "structural" i.e.caused by a failure to adjust to rapid changes in technology and internationalcompetitiveness and by a lack of effective measures to counter local mismatchesbetween the skills and other labour characteristics available, and those in demand"(1990:217).

The lesson to be learned here is that even if the final verdict is that structural adjustment policies have

laid the foundation for growth, there is no guarantee that the resulting growth will lead to the required

expansion in employment, particularly amongst the urban working class in general, and the 15 - 24 age

group in particular.

RuraVurban drift. There has been a secular trend in migration from rural areas to urban

areas and it could be argued that structural adjustment policies have accelerated this trend. For

example it could be argued that the liberalisation of agricultural markets, the loss of agricultural

subsidies, the consequent fall in world market prices has made it even more difficult to disguise rural

underemployment and unemployment. Such policies also make agriculture a less attractive profession

for rural young people to aspire to; such push factors are reducing the agricultural sector's traditional

role as a labour reservoir. The Commonwealth Secretariat projection is for this to continue to be a

growing problem for developing countries like Jamaica. They are predicting that the proportion of

youth living in urban areas in developing countries will rise from 36% in 1985 to nearly 50% by the end

of the century (1990:219) .

Growth in the youth population. Currently, developing countries, including Jamaica, are

only able to absorb productively 20%-30% of their young people. The balance therefore will continue

to swell the ranks of the rural/urban unemployed. The problem will be exacerbated if reduction in

education expenditure (due to structural adjustment policies) make it difficult for parents to keep their

children enrolled in schools, colleges or vocational training for longer periods. Also if the growth in the

economy expected after the sacrifices made under structural adjustment policies does not materialise,

then it could be confidently expected that the problem will be further aggravated by young people

being forced out of their family homes to seek employment. As the UN report puts it:

"The increase in the economically active population of young age which occurredin some countries in years of crisis seems to indicate that the improverishmentproduced by recession has pushed young people and other dependents, includingchildren, out of the home in search of an independent livelihood, or in order tocontribute to the household income" (1986:67).

The lack of adequate and relevant vocation training. Not many new workers

entering the job market have received any vocational skills training. The contraction of the education

and training budget, as a direct consequence of structural adjustment policies (i.e. reduction in

government expenditure on education and training) has reduced vocational training opportunities for

young people. Currently 80% of those in employment have received no formal training. The

contraction in the Education and Health expenditure is set out in Figure 3 below.

8

REAL

i 0 79

ILI' C %PITA

1980

OUTLAY ON HEALTH AND EDUCATION IN MILLIONS OF US 1987 DOLLARS

FINANCIAL. YEARS 1979 -- 1987

1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987

REAL PER CAPITA EXPENDITURE

Health 12.1 10 0 42.2 44.0 39,5 30.4 27.9 25.6 32.2

Education 811 2 82.1 84.7 83.5 75.6 62.8 64.4 57.8 63.6

As PERCENTAGE OF GDP

health 3.3 3.3 3.4 3.6 3.2 2.6 2.5 2.2 2.7

Education 6.3 6 8 6.9 6.8 6.2 5.3 4.8 5.0 5.4

"Foal 9.6 W. i 10.3 10.4 9.4 7.9 7.3 7.2 8.1

CAPITAL EXPENDITURE AS % OF TOTAL EXPENDITURE

i iCaitil 5.5 2.9 10.4 9.2 4.0 5.0 3.7 6.9 15.1

Education 10 6 8.6 5.5 6.9 8.2 7.4 10.6 8.8 21.3

Total 16.1 17.5 15.9 16.1 12.2 12.4 14.3 15.7 36.4

SOURCE: World Hank: ,Social Sectors Development Report, June 1989 and Economic and Social Survey, 1980-1987

Figure 3. Contraction in Education and Health expenditure in Jamaica 1979 - 1987

Source: Levitt (1991:50) Table 19

The debate about the impact of structural adjustment on youth is not just one about number

crunching. It is not just about the reliability or validity of the data. It must be remembered that at the end

of the day it is peoples' lives, not countries, that get structurally adjusted. To get a more balanced

picture, therefore, it is necessary to explore, again tentatively, the cultural impact of structural

adjustment policies on youth.

Cultural context

"It is not yet widely recognised that structural adjustment is as much a socialprocess as an economic one" (Witter and Anderson 1991:2)

No one living in Jamaica, particularly between 1980 to 1985, could doubt the impact of structural

adjustment policies on the mass of the Jamaican population. It was not necessary, nor is it now, to

produce realms of data to show that structural adjustment policies were causing acute distress and

suffering. An OXFAM report in 1985 put it thus:

9

"As inflation measures push up prices, the purchasing power of consumersdeclines because of rising unemployment and low pay. As cuts in publicexpenditure erode social services provisions, standards of health care deliveryand education fall. As the government balances its books, poverty is on theincrease and people are suffering" (quoted in Payne 1988: 127)

The situation was so bad that even the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) was moved to

urge the then JLP government to respect:

"The severe hardship which Jamaican families have had to endure as we gothrough this necessary but difficult and painful period of economicadjustment" (Payne 1988: 106).

We are reminded by Stan Cohen that in times of crisis society needs to create "folk devils" on whom

the problems of society can be projected. In a word youth has become a metaphor for "social instability

and change" (Hall et al 1978).

It is not surprising therefore, to see increasing emphasis, during the period of structural adjustment, by

the Education and Youth Ministries on the need to reintegrate youth into society Thus in the

unpublished draft youth policy (1993) of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), which the current

government is attempting to revamp as their own, it is stated that:

"An important test of success of a National Youth Policy is the extent to whichyouth are convinced that they are integrated as members of society into themainstream of national life through their active participation in all areasof activities" (1993:2)

In the objectives section of the paper, the first objective of the policy is to:

"Create attitudial change by inculcating the principles of patriotism,discipline, selfless service, honesty, commitment and leadership" (ibid:4)

Other objectives are stated as to:

"prepare youth for productive action and the leading of useful andconstructive lives"

" inculcate a disciplined and wholesome attitude to work so as to facilitatethe contribution of youth to the development of the society " (ibid:4)

The draft policy goes on to argue that the above policies are even more justified because of the

breakdown of the family support systems.

The above sentiments are reflected in the Youth section of the Jamaican Five Year Development Plan

(1990-1995) and an unpublished Five Year Youth Plan drafted by the Ministry of Youth. Based upon

the above perception, without any official youth policy, the governments of both parties in this period

embarked on a series of schemes and ad hoc projects to contain the perceived threat from youth.

10

Aware of the high youth unemployment that was being caused by the implementation of structural

adjustment policies, particularly between 1980-1985, the then Prime Minister Edward Seaga set up

the Human Employment and Resource Training Programme (HEART) Trust in 1982 to provide the

work discipline that youth would get if they were in real employment. The Social Development

Commission (SDC), a statutory organisation located in the Ministry of Local Government, Youth and

Sport, had shifted its focus away from general community development and increased its work with

youth. The Police themselves began a programme of setting up their youth clubs throughout the

island and many non governmental organisations (NGOs) were mobilised to contribute to the strategy

of containment.

The above programmes have had some limited success, particularly with the least disaffected section

of the youth population. For example, the HEART Trust has been successful, particularly after its

reorganisation in 1989, in upgrading the level and scope of vocational training. In the rural areas the 4-

H Clubs, a statutory youth organisation, have also had some limited success in motivating some young

people to stay in agriculture; and the work of the SDC in the urban areas particularly through its youth

empowerment programmes has 'reintegrated' some young people living in the depressed areas.

I would want to contend, however, that one of the principal impacts of structural adjustment policies

since the mid 1970's is that they have accelerated the development of a deviant youth sub-culture that

is making it increasingly difficult for large numbers of youth to be integrated into mainstream society. I

am not here using the word 'deviant' in its sociological or derogatory meaning but more to point out

that deviant behaviour usually represents meaningful attempts on the part of the individual, or a group,

to solve a perceived problem rather than a "meaningless pathology" (Young 1973 quoted in Brake

1985: 20)

Structural adjustment policies have contributed to the growing numbers of marooned urban

communities. These communities have developed a distinctive "hustle culture" born of necessity. The

youth in these communities are experiencing these pressures and trying to cope with them in their

own way. One way of doing so, is the development of a sub-culture which is linked to, but relatively

antonomous from the parent culture. As Murdock reminds us:

"Subcultures are the meaning systems and modes of expression developedby groups in particular parts of the social structure in the course of their collectiveattempts to come to terms with the contradictions of their shared social situation.More particularly subcultures represent the accumulated meanings and meansof expression through which groups in subordinate structural positions haveattempted to negotiate or oppose the dominant meaning system. Theytherefore provide a pool of available symbolic resources which particularindividuals or groups can draw on in their attempt to make sense of their ownspecific situation and construct a viable identity" (Murdock 1974:213).

11

Such subcultures tend to focus around explorations of masculinity , hence violence is an integral part

of such cultures. As Professor Nettleford put it in a recent speech, " There are no longer any gunmen,

only gun boys". The subcultures also tend to be very heterosexist and homophobic; females are

marginalised; styles and music are distinctively macho and have an influence far more pervasive,

across economic and class boundaries, in relation to youth in the wider society, than other youth

subcultures.

The youth subculture to be found in these marooned urban communities tends to meet all the above

criteria The exploration of masculinity is drawn from the parent culture, as is the homophobia and the

sexism. The music and style are distinctly theirs. For example, dance hall music not only glorifies

violence, especially against the police and the rich, but also homophobia. The dance hall styles for

women are aggressive and explicit; they are dressed in not very much and dance in the way alluded to

in Tina Turner's song "Private Dancer". The argot is distinctly blue.

At the same time such a sub culture, as reflected in dance hall music ,has maintained its links with a

strong sense of black identity, its source springs close to those currents in the reggae music

internatonalised by Bob Marley. Also, like reggae, dance hall provides cryptic political critiques of the

parent and hegemonic culture. The music, and the sub culture as it is lived in everyday life, stresses a

sense of self reliance and a stylised sense of high self esteem and self confidence. It is also a source of

challenge and critique of the dominant culture. For example the hegemonic culture still stresses the

cultural superiority of the European nuclear family. As Professor Nettleford puts it:

"The nuclear family is still socially recognised despite the universal presenceof the single parent, matriarchal or extended family pattern" (1993:126)

The hegemonic culture continually seeks strategies to maintain the illusion; for example through

religion or social projects which continually seek to respectabilise the families in these areas. This has

been given a new boost under the guise of the U.N's International Year of the Family.

In addition, the increasing isolation of these communities from mainstream society, is making the

process of secondary socialisation extremely problematic for Jamaican society. As Brake reminds us:

"The young have to be socialised into sets of values involving their place in the work force,the encouragement of an early family marital life to assist in the reproduction of that work-force,and conventional political and moral outlook concerning the world and their place in it. If thisdoes not occur, then the young workforce is not programmed into work habits with valuessuitable to strictly separated schedules of work and leisure " (1985: 19-20)

How to reproduce the existing social relations of production by producing the next generation of

disciplined workers with the requisite work ethics and ideology has been made an even more

problematical task for Jamaica, by the imposition of structural adjustment policies. Subcultures are

12

linked to the parent culture. It would not be surprising therefore if youth are infected by the general

view of structural adjustment held by adults in their communities. As Witter and Anderson point out:

" To the extent that structural adjustment was viewed as a set of externally imposedmeasures, designed to swing the balance further in favour of the propertied classes,and to extract resources from the country through increasing foreign penetration andinternational indebtedness, the prevailing ethos was one of negativism and futility"(1991: 129)

If this general view is added to the fact that a large minority (40%) of these youths have had no previous

experience of working and in October 1990, 74.7% of the unskilled urban working class had been

unemployed for at least one year (King 1993), these factors make it extremely problematical for the

state and its agencies to successfullly achieve this secondary socialisation and the integration of the

youth into mainstream society. For the youth living in urban ghettoes there is an attractive alternative

society in which the Don provides the role model and the drugs trade and other illegal activities are the

major employment industries. Paradoxically the values which underly and inform action in this

subculture are not too distant from the values that underpin the structural adjustment policies; rugged

individualism and unbridled competition stressing material success and conspicious consumption and

'the win at any cost' mentality. The umbilical cord to the dominant culture is still well intact. Given the

above analysis, what policies are needed to tackle the undoubted acute problems facing youth in

Jamaica, particularly those living in the urban ghettoes? Some proposals are outlined below for

consideration.

The way forward: some policy proposals

It is proposed in this section of the paper to put forward some Policy options for alleviating some of the

more entrenched problems facing young people today in Jamaica. It is hoped that such policies would

better facilitate the integration of young people into mainstream society. The proposals take note of

the current political and economic constraints facing the government.

Witter and Anderson (1991) argue that as a result of the electoral failure of 'Democratic Socialism' no

party is really prepared today to articulate the interests of the poor. Similarly, as argued above in

relation to the 'end of ideology', there is really only one game in town, namely the 'market' and

therefore a reluctance on government's part (i.e. the reluctance of both Peoples National Party (PNP)

and Jamaica Labour Party (JLP)) to use "traditional redistributive policies and social provision" (King

1993), for example, subsidies, public works etc. It is recognised that the government is still operating

under the dictates of structural adjustment; they still have to pass the IMF test each time they wish to

access the next traunch of loans 6

6 The current PNP government has announced that Jamaica will not need to enter another loanagreement with the Fund. The opposition JLP call this wishful thinking.

13

1 . Changed Perception of the priority of youth. An indication of how low youth issues

are on the current, and last, government's agenda is the fact there is no youth policy in place. There is

no overall framework in which the problems facing young people can be systematically addressed.

There is no rationalisation or coordination of agencies dealing with youth. There is currently a great

deal of duplication taking place. I am reliably informed that the government is now looking at the

possibility of revamping the last administration's unpublished youth policy. This is to be recommended

in that we are not continuing the old practice of automatically ditching a policy belonging to a previous

government only to engage in reinventing the wheel. It also means that if the opposition forms the

next administration, there is a greater likelihood that there will be a continuity in youth policy'

2. An integrated system for vocational training and social education. These

should be the twin pillars of a youth policy. At present there is a plethora of agencies engaged in

vocational training . The HEART Trust should be the coordinating agency for all vocational training. If

the future level of structural youth unemployment is to be reduced, then the current mismatch

between the skills demanded and the 'non-skills' supplied must be urgently tackled. Such training

must target young people living in the urban ghettoes. Funds to expand vocational training could be

justified to the IMF as a means of eliminating one of the major inefficiencies and rigidities in the labour

market.

The social education element of the youth policy should be co-ordinated by the SDC. By social

education I mean those activities which seek to continue the process of secondary socialisation, that

is, non formal education which enhances the ability of individuals and communities to have effective

control over their lives.

3 . Promotion of micro-enterprises. Such a policy King (1993) argues can be justified on

three grounds: first, economic contraction has forced a larger proportion of people into the informal

sector and self-employment; secondly, such a policy would be consistent with the ideology of

liberalisation because it seeks to expand entrepreneurship; thirdly, micro-enterprises tend to be very

labour-intensive and therefore more efficient at using capital. He further points out that the:

"Social benefit-cost ratios were not only greater than one, but were larger thanthose for large-scale enterprises" (1993: 22).

Thus government needs to eliminate the systematic discrimination which is entailed in many of their

policies, for example, how contracts are issued and how foreign exchange policies are implemented,

which at present favour the large firms.

If this policy is going to be successful then goverment must expand the access to capital for micro

entrerprises, as the lack of capital is the major constraint on the expansion of this sector. The

'The Commonwealth Secretariat's expert group based their recommendation on youth policies interms of "youth entitlement" and encourages all the Commonwealth governments to do the same.

14

commercial banks are extremely reluctant to lend to such small enterprises. In this regard the

government needs to enlarge the capital base of its Micro-enterprses Development Agency (MIDA)

which is the major source of loan capital for micro-enterprises.

4 . Expansion of the informal sector. At first sight this policy option would be anathema to

any self-respecting government because by definition the micro-enterprises in this sector lack

government registration and pay no taxes. The reality, however, is that as the formal employment sector

(particularly in the public sector) has contracted, more and more people have had to turn to this sector

to "hustle" a living. This sector, however, has not expanded to the size expected (King 1993) and has

not been able to absorb the number of people seeking to enter it. As King puts it , the declining

opportunity in the informal sector:

"Leads to the conclusion of increased hardship, unemployment, and underemployment in the informal sector, even as the number of persons thereinexpanded" (1993: II).

It must be borne in mind, however, that an expansion in the informal sector per se will not necessarily

benefit youth. This is because, with the exception of drug dealing, the sector is dominated by women

over the age of 45 years (Witter and Anderson 1991) .

5 . Creation of a career advice service for young people. This is an area in which the

government has to intervene because it is not profitable for a private sector organisation to provide

such a service, because its "Macro-economic benefits are greater than its private profits" (King 1993).

The main source of recruitment in Jamaica is by word of mouth and if the efficiency of information flow

between firms and potential workers is to improve, then a specialist state agency focusing on youth

needs to be put in place. It is interesting to note that in England even a Tory government, so keen to

privatise as many government services as possible, has decided after a long debate not to privatise the

Schools Careers Service, at least not yet.

6. Building organic links. Social projects and workers in these communities need to build

organic (in the Gramscian sense of the word) links within these communities. If they continue to see

themselves as new age missionaries coming in to 'civilise' the inhabitants of these urban communities,

then their impact will continue to be marginal and short term. They must seek to build on the positive

aspects of these cultures and see many of the negative aspects as survival imperatives rather than

pathological.

Conclusion

There is sufficient evidence to show that there is an inextricable link between social and economic

development. Even the international lending agencies now recognise that structural adjustment

policies cannot work if they do not take into account their social consequences (Zuckerman 1989).

15

Indeed the United Nations Development Project report in 1993 makes it clear that a country that does

not give sufficient priority to human resources development jeopardises their chance of sustainable

economic development. Rex Nettleford makes this point forcibly when he points out that:

" There can be no place in the region for grand strategies that leave social costout of the equation of development or relegate them to a second order of priorityto await the advent of capital whether by loans, grants, technical assistance orthrough proceeds from export " (1993:23)

I have sought to argue that although we cannot conclusively show that structural adjustment has had a

disproportionate negative impact on youth, it has undoubtedly accelerated the growth of marooned

communitiues in urban ghettoes. Such communities have given birth to a youth subculture that is more

aggressive and has a harder cutting edge to it than its predecessors. This harder cutting edge is a

reflection of the harsher struggle for survival over the past seventeen years induced by structural

adjustment policies. I am not here putting forward an economic determinism of the Althusserian variety,

but simply recognising that the economic and cultural spheres are inextricably linked.

If Jamaica is to achieve sustained economic development a way must be found of tapping into the

human resource potential trapped in these marooned urban ghettoes. The above policy suggestions

need to be implemented in the context of a Jamaican society that is consciously trying to create a

national cultural identity that gives to young people living in such communities a " sense of place and

purpose in their own society " (Nettleford1978:85).

Kingston, Jamaica

May 1994

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