Friends and enemies
Garvey’s support among African Americans, and black people all over the world, continued to grow. But he had enemies too. The US Government and its supporters thought he was a troublemaker, stirring up racial hatred. They were afraid of his message. They started to keep watch on him as soon as he arrived from Jamaica. Government spies joined the UNIA, and were hired in the business organizations. Garvey even survived an assassination attempt – someone tried to kill him.

Sentenced to five years!

In 1922 Garvey and three officers of the Black Star Line were arrested and charged with ‘using the mail to defraud’. They were accused of using the mail system to invite people to invest in the Black Star Line when they knew the company was bankrupt – had run out of money. Garvey defended himself, and said he was not guilty, although there was dishonesty in the company. He explained about his organization, and how he was trying to help his people. The officers were released, but Garvey was found guilty, fined and sentenced to five years in prison. All over the world, Garvey’s supporters protested. They petitioned – wrote requests to – the Government, wrote letters to the press, and held protest rallies.

Garvey immediately started or reactivated – got going again – UNIA branches all over the island. He launched – started – a daily newspaper called the Blackman, which supported poor people, workers, colonial subjects and African people. It helped to spread Garvey’s message in Jamaica.
When he returned to Jamaica in December 1927, "The Gleaner" reported that: "Mr Garvey’s arrival was perhaps the most historic event that has taken place in the metropolis of the island ... no denser crowd has ever been witnessed in Kingston."

The Sixth International Convention and the Peoples Political Party:

In 1926 the UNIA held its Sixth International Convention in Kingston. It opened with the largest parade ever seen there. Hundreds of delegates attended from all over the world. After the convention, Garvey launched the Peoples Political Party (PPP), at a mass meeting in Cross Roads. Before then, people stood for election to the Legislative Council as independent candidates, with their own programmes. Garvey promised that PPP candidates would carry out the same programme if they were elected. Read the main points of the PPP Manifesto – statement of policy – in the Briefing. Which of them do we have now? The last point of the Manifesto got Garvey into trouble. He was imprisoned for three months in the Spanish Town jail for contempt of court – disrespect to judges.

While Garvey was in prison, he was elected as a councillor for the Allman Town division of the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation. In those days you could be a councillor and a member of the Legislative Council (now an MP) at the same time. But although he was very popular, Garvey did not win a seat in the election to the Legislative Council in 1930. At that time most people could not vote! Only people who owned property, or a business, or who paid rent could vote. And those people opposed Garvey. In Jamaica, as in the USA, black people saw Garvey as their spokesman. For most white people – officials, planters and merchants – he was seen as an enemy, stirring up racialism. Garvey himself said that he put ‘race first’.

Garvey was a councillor for four years. As a member of the KSAC he agitated – campaigned – for the reforms in the PPP Manifesto. He tried hard to get an eight-hour day for workers, but he did not succeed. Outside the KSAC he agitated on behalf of workers too. He led street meetings to protest about their poor living conditions. He said "If you were to go into the homes of hundreds of thousands of the people of this land, you would see there misery unexplicable." Garvey started the Jamaica Workers and Labourers Association to help workers form unions. He led a deputation – representatives – to the Governor to get conditions improved. Nothing happened. The Governor said there was ‘no unusual suffering’. So Garvey sent a petition to the King of England. The king sent a Royal Commission – committee of inquiry – to look into the conditions of the people in Jamaica. Garvey inspired other people in Jamaica to try to improve social conditions. One of them was Amy Bailey.

In 1934 the UNIA held another International Convention to celebrate the centenary – 100th anniversary – of the abolition of slavery. The Convention set up the Permanent Jamaica Development Convention. This group made a five-year plan for Jamaica’s development. Garvey still had problems in Jamaica, because of the people who wanted to stop his work. So the UNIA decided to move its headquarters to London.

For five years Garvey continued his work. In 1936 Italy invaded – attacked and entered – Ethiopia, and Garvey protested in his speeches and writings. He organized three more conferences of the UNIA, in Canada. Then he became ill. Marcus Garvey died in London in 1940.
The main proposals of the Jamaica Development Convention were: