A 3-Minute Summary of Recent Grenada History
(all quoted material is from “Grenada, A History of Its People” by Beverley Steele)
In 2009 and now in 2010, many cruisers are choosing to spend hurricane season in Grenada instead of
Trinidad because they are spooked by the violence in Trinidad (none of it directed toward any cruiser in
the last several years, it should be noted) and more recently by one or more incidents of piracy that have
occurred between Grenada and Trinidad. They note, correctly, that Grenada and Grenadians seem very
peaceful and Grenadians like having cruisers in their anchorages.
But after overhearing a conversation among some Grenadian men that was not intended for “visitor ears”
and after seeing a road sign still up in Grenada thanking the US for “saving Grenada” I realized that
strong political passions still seethe about the events of 1983. That was the year Ronald Reagan landed
U.S. Marines on a hotel beach in Grenada. At the time I thought the whole thing was just a silly exercise
in right-wing American cowboyism to rattle all our neighbors to the south. And indeed, the media had
fun showing Marines in full battle dress running past bemused beachgoers in bathing suits.
But Americans have little understanding of West Indian history, which is older than ours and fairly
complex. And I was no exception. So I stirred myself to read Beverley Steele’s history of Grenada and
came to realize that in October 1983 Grenada truly was poised on the edge of chaos. Here is a very brief
summary of developments there during and immediately after the final years of British colonial rule.
Some of it is typical of several of the other British colonies as well, except not ending with such drama.
After World War II: “Although few Grenadians had served overseas, there were enough who, with
those who had been maintaining a fight for equal rights at home, were no longer daunted by the palerskinned elites, or no longer thought themselves inferior to them. Through the trade union movement they
would begin a process that would blow away the old plantation social structure forever.”
1948-1967. Eric Gairy, labor organizing and party politics.
Gary was born poor in 1922; he was Catholic-educated through primary school and then worked as a
pupil-teacher. (This was common in the West Indies at that time – it was a form of educational
bootstrapping: if you reached secondary school, you could teach primary school). He later worked for
Americans in Chaguaramas and an oil company in Aruba. Returned to Grenada in 1949 “full of ideas as
to how a trade union movement could uplift an oppressed population.” At that time, the “ population was
already divided culturally, with the elite [both white and black] imbued with British traditions, and the
population following a culture with African and French creole roots”. Gairy’s union organizing led to
“Sky Red,” a period of agrarian strikes and violent unrest lasting 2 months in 1951 which he barely
managed to bring under control in March. “Throughout the strike and the events leading up to it, Gairy
made it clear that it was not the colonial government itself that was the major cause of oppression in
Grenada. He told his supporters that the major oppressors in Grenada were those in the ‘upper brackets’
who continued to display a haughty attitude to the people of the working class and showed no interest in
their welfare.” There followed 15 years of party politics in which Gairy’s Grenada United Labor Party
(GULP – the West Indies is awash in acronyms) was in power intermittently in the limited forms allowed
by the withdrawing British Empire. Gairy accepted no advice about governing and began to follow a
“Mugabe trajectory”. By 1962 the British administrator had to appoint a Commission to look at GULP’s
spending of public funds.
Grenada became a State in Association with Great Britain in 1967 and Gairy won the first election under
the new Constitution.
1967-1979: Bad governance.
As Grenada’s first Prime Minister, Gairy turned from promoting the welfare of his constituents to
“building his image as a mystic, …settling personal vendettas and playing out his obsession with
controlling everything and everybody.” He created and armed special gangs as a personal militia.
Prosperous working estates were acquired by the government, some becoming Gairy’s property. Gairy
prospered and his friends prospered. Infrastructure in the island was neglected and education and health
facilities became non-functional.
1970-1979: New Jewel Movement
Maurice Bishop and Kendrick Radix were young lawyers fresh from studies in England. “They returned
to Grenada imbued with rosy ideas about Marxist society and the possibility of radical social
transformation, equality and the elimination of class, only to face Gairy’s increasing totalitarianism.”
The New Jewel Movement was formed in 1973; members were recruited, cells formed, and existing
political groups were infiltrated by supporters of NJM. Gairy met the challenge with physical violence,
culminating in Bloody Sunday, Nov 1973. That day NJM met with business leaders in Grenville to
discuss a planned general strike but Gairy’s “Mongoose Gang” arrived and 6 NJM leaders including
Bishop and Radix were so severely beaten that many of them were left permanently disfigured. Because
these young men were from good families, businessmen, professionals and religious leaders demanded
that Gairy identify and punish the men who had carried out the beatings. Many people began to support
the NJM.
Grenada was scheduled to become independent in Feb 1974, in spite of all the turmoil and civil unrest.
Many Grenadians felt “disgust and betrayal … with Britain for allowing independence to take place
amidst this confusion. . . . this was the end to the hopes and dreams many had had for Grenada and its
prosperity.”
Bernard and Phyllis Coard, a promising young professional couple from distinguished Grenadian
families, became active in the NJM about this time. Many religious communities became centers of
activity for NJM. Gairy was his own worst enemy. “Grenadians, prizing their freedom, bristled under a
regime of fear… Far from being cowed, they put their faith in the NJM, encouraging them to ….continue
the struggle against the destruction of democracy.” NJM began planning for an armed takeover and this
took place on March 13, 1979, while Gairy was visiting the US.
1979-1983: The People’s Revolutionary Government
The People’s Revolutionary Government now ruled. People were energized to repair schools and clinics.
Ties were sought with other Caribbean countries and also with the Soviet Bloc and Cuba. A housing
program was begun as was the new airport on the south coast. Health care was made free to all and
students were sent to Soviet Bloc countries for advanced studies. There was also a massive build-up of
Soviet arms in Grenada that was kept largely secret from ordinary citizens. US alarm and protests were
met with defiance. Tourism collapsed and the cost of living rose; in addition the price of nutmeg and
cocoa were the lowest in many years. “By 1983, the PRG had to face up to the fact that the economic
package meant to provide Grenada with a measure of prosperity had failed. . . The programmes designed
to alleviate unemployment were not as effective as they should have been, and things went from bad to
worse. The population began to withdraw its support from the regime.”
In addition, Animal Farm had sprouted: governmental repression increased, free speech became
dangerous, plots real and imagined called for violent response. “The end of the PRG started when, at the
beginning of 1983, the leadership turned on itself, and quarrels broke out over differences of opinion as to
the path of the Revolution and the management of the country.” The Coards and Bishop formed opposing
camps. Things came to a head on October 19, 1983, with 10,000 Grenadian supporters of Bishop
gathered in St. Georges. The Coard camp ordered the army to kill large numbers of Bishop supporters
who were at Fort George. “Bishop and his colleagues were shot over and over with ammunition so
powerful that their bodies were torn apart.” An unknown number of people died in the Fort – probably
between 200-300. “What is known is that it took several trips made by the large trucks to remove all the
dead bodies and dispose of them in ways that are still only whispered about.”
The United States invaded Grenada 25 October 1983, “supported by military and police personnel from
Barbados and the OECS. “ The Coards and others were arrested. Bernard Coard completed his 25 year
sentence just a few months ago. Even in Trinidad feelings expressed in the newspapers were still high
both for and against the Coards. When Grenada recently officially named its airport Maurice Bishop
Airport there were howls of protest there amid quieter expressions of approval. Perhaps the naming was
done to make peace with the past and as an expression of confidence in current political processes.
Steele concludes her story : “Both Maurice Bishop and Julien Fedon had been approximately the same
age when they took control of Grenada by armed revolution. Both were motivated to free the oppressed
people of Grenada from injustice. Both leaders had made fatal mistakes. The first mistake was to
…engage hemispheric animosities in what was a local struggle against oppression. The [second] was
..condoning unnecessary measures of suppression and brutality against their own Grenadian people. “
While we were in Grenada in June 2009, I got to know an accomplished Grenadian birding guide who
was a high school student in 1983 and was among the crowd of thousands who were in the town square to
support Bishop when the shooting in the Fort began. Thanks to him we learned about and participated in
an Emancipation Celebration in the Grenadian hamlet of Sherwood Forest. (We were the only outsiders).
As soon as it was dark, villagers lit flambeaux (beer bottles filled with kerosene and a rag wick) and
marched ½ mile to the local playing field, accompanied by actual real traditional drums, not a boom box.
The villagers definitely knew how to make flambeaux. One could imagine a group of workers marching
with flaming torches– a sight that surely would strike unease in white onlookers 100 years ago. At the
field there were some prayers and hymns and a woman dressed in traditional “slavery best” (long white
cotton dress, with mutton sleeves, tight waist and ruffled hem—very pretty) placed a floral offering in the
middle of the circle. Then we all repaired to the electrically lit stands for corn soup and conversation.
Marching with
flaming beer
bottles
Such a
privilege to
hear simple
drumming
instead of an
amplified
drum machine.
Emancipation
Offering
History lives in Grenada.
Copyright, all rights reserved. Constance Elson, May 21, 2010