The 25th of this month marked thirty-five years since the USA invasion of the Caribbean island of Grenada, thereby bringing to an abrupt end the revolution that in four and a half short years had transformed the country and reverberated around the world. (1)
The New Joint Endeavor for Welfare, Education, and Liberation (New JEWEL Movement or NJM) effected a bloodless coupon March 13 1979, ending Prime Minister Eric Gairy’s “ineffective” five-year, post-independent regime. (2) The principles the NJM used as a bedrock for the People’s Revolutionary Government (PRG) were:
1. People’s participation, people’s politics, people’s democracy.
2. People’s co-operatives for the collective development of the people.
3. Health care based on need.
4. Full development of the people’s talents, abilities and culture
5. Full control as a people of our own natural resources.
6. Employment for all.
7. A decent standard of living for every family.
8. freedom of expression and religion.
9. The liberation of Black and oppressed peoples throughout the world.
10. A united people… A new society… A just society. (3)
With the popular and charismatic Prime Minister Maurice Bishop at the helm and a cadre of young revolutionaries, the PRG set about transforming the island. Their achievements in just a few short years are a testament to possibilities awaiting those daring enough to resist the deathly grip of European oppression and imperialism.
A brief overview of some of PRG’s milestones include:
A 300% increase in membership of the National Women’s organisation; a 2.1% to 5.5% increase in the economy (1979-1982) against a backdrop of a worldwide recession;. resumption of work on the Grenada International Airport; 35% increase in tourism; transformation from an importer to an exporter of fish; electricity to rural areas for the first time; reduction of unemployment from 49% to 14%; establishing free health care; a housing repair scheme that benefited 17,000 families; increase in school leaving exam pass rate from 3% to 32% (1978-1982); first new government secondary school built in 100 years; halving then abolishing school fees; extensive teacher training programme and reduction of illiteracy from 20% to 3%. (4)
There was also extensive consultation with the people through regular people’s assemblies and zonal council meetings, often attended by ministers and senior officials. (5)
All of this was being done against a backdrop relentless efforts to undermine and destroy the revolution by a hostile neighbour that also happened to be a world superpower – the USA. The regime of Ronald Reagan continued the USA tradition of “killing hope” wherever it surfaced and deemed it at odds with its own national interest. (6)
The USA narrative, was typically couched in terms like freedom and democracy where it regarded the Caribbean island, roughly the same size as Atlanta (but with a population 70% smaller) as a “threat to the National Security of the United States of America” that “needed to be taught a lesson.” (7)
There is a wealth of material demonstrating that it was a question of when, not if, the USA would invade. It carried out propaganda and military manoeuvrers in the region (including the notorious “Operation Amber and the Amberines”) (8)
What was most tragic however, that it was an apparent implosion within the PRG that was used as a pretext for the October 25th Invasion. The implosion took the life of Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and several members of the PRG and its cause is still the subject of searing debate even three and a half decades later.
There are variants of the prevailing narrative but at it’s core it posits that the implosion was caused by a power struggle initiated by a hard left cabal within the PRG, driven by a “jealous” Deputy prime minister, Bernard Coard, a childhood friend of Bishop’s. This view has it that the cabal believed that Maurice Bishop had diverged from the party line and either had to share leadership with Coard or be removed. (9)
Maurice Bishop initially agreed to joint leadership of the NJM (he would remain Prime Minister) but had to travel abroad Hungary soon after the agreement. On his return from eastern Europe (via Cuba) he changed his mind about joint leadership and was placed under house arrest. On October 19th 1983, once the people heard about the house arrest they demonstrated (oddly parading banners like “We Love the US”), freed him and escorted him to the army headquarters at Fort Rupert. (10) After he arrived, a military force was dispatched to Fort Rupert. Fighting broke out at Fort Rupert, and many unarmed civilians were killed. Bishop and seven others, including cabinet ministers, were captured. Then, on the instructions of Bernard Coard and his cabal, a four-man Peoples Revolutionary Army firing squad executed him with three members of his Cabinet – Unison Whiteman, Foreign Minister; Housing Minister Norris Bain and Education Minister Jacqueline Creft. The bodies have never been recovered, which when seen in context with the likes of Dedan Kimathi and Patrice Lumumba seems to be an imperialist imperative. (11)
The remaining members of the PRG were held responsible and put on trial for murder. They were convicted and sentenced to death, later commuted to life imprisonment.
Conversely, the narrative from the accused, or the Grenada 17 as it became known, held that there was no plot from Bernard Coard to oust Maurice Bishop. In fact, Coard stepped down from his roles in the party more than a year earlier (1982) to help allay such inferences. (12) From this perspective the issue was less ideological than stylistic. The revolution was founded on a collective leadership approach and was shifting towards a “maximum leader model,” similar to that in Cuba under Fidel Castro. (13)
The effect was a deterioration in the party’s effectiveness which was already stretched. Maurice Bishop’s work was collectively identified as a serious source of weakness and the sharing of the leadership was proposed and agreed unanimously to help him work to his strengths. (14) The situation was made more complex by the assertion that “the CIA was successful in penetrating both the NJM and the PRG at the highest levels. They established a nest of hostile agents who had access to documents of the Central Committee and PRG.” Some of these agents, in conjunction with some party members (who may or may have been officially in league) were said to have constant access to and influence over Maurice Bishop. (15)
According to the remaining members of the NJM, the fateful events on October 19th less the result of a pre-meditated operation than a spontaneous response to the killing of soldiers by the armed demonstrating civilians.
Ewart Layne, day-to-day commander of the People’s Revolutionary Army, made a statement to the media in September 1999:
“I honestly believe that any objective observer who is aware of all the material facts would recognise that October 19th was a spontaneous situation, which got terribly out of control.
But I do not consider this an excuse. My perspective is that those who were leaders must accept responsibility for what happened.
I was the one who ordered the troops to go to Fort Rupert and to use military means to recapture the Headquarters.
Therefore, from the military standpoint, I must unreservedly accept responsibility for what happened. I so do. It is a very heavy responsibility given the magnitude of the events and given my youthfulness and immaturity at the time. But it is one I must bear.” (16)
Similarly, Bernard Coard, says that the leadership, and none more than he – in his own words, bear the responsibility of failing to avert the crisis that led to the October 19th killings. (17)
The decision to invade Grenada was taken well before the implosion but the fact that it happened provided the USA with an invaluable propaganda coup, using it as a pretext to launch an attack. The Grenadan army resisted the invading force for six days. (18) But ultimately the remaining leaders were convicted by what is largely regarded as a kangaroo court. (19)
The USA extracted full propaganda value out of the implosion – literally. Thousands of comics with the headline “RESCUED FROM RAPE AND SLAVERY” on the front cover were distributed throughout the island. It characterises the PRG as a brutal regime and a puppet of Cuba that has been vanquished by the USA (20). Ironically, it was largely through the gains of the revolution that so many were able to read the comic in the first place.
Consequently, the dominant narrative of the Grenada Revolution is ostensibly the one proffered by the USA, which ironically coincides in significant measure with some of those who regard themselves as ‘anti-imperialist’. The focus is more on who killed Maurice Bishop (with the role of the USA often curiously underplayed) rather than emphasising the gains of the revolution and how they were achieved. The USA has sought to nullify these gains and pressured most of the English speaking Caribbean to support its opposition to the PRG prior to its invasion and support for the invasion subsequent to it. (21)
(1) Tony Martin & Dessima Williams (Eds) (1985) In Nobody’s Backyard – The Grenada Revolution in it’s Own Words: Volume II – Facing The World. The Majority Press. p. 139ff.
(2) Steve Cushion & Dennis Bartholomew (2018) By Our Own Hands: A People’s History of the Grenadian Revolution. Cutlass/Caribbean Labour Solidarity. p. 9
(3) Cushion & Dennis Bartholomew. p. 10
(4) Cushion & Dennis Bartholomew. p. 12-27
(5) Cushion & Dennis Bartholomew. p. 29-32.
(6) William Blum (2002) ] (02/10/18) ‘Rogue State: A Guide to the World’s Only Superpower. Zed Books p.71. https://archive.org/details/WilliamBlumRogueState2002/page/n69
(7) Speech by U.S. President Ronald Reagan, March 10, 1983, reported on Radio Free Grenada and several radio stations in the Caribbean Region.
(8) Maurice Bishop (04/06/83) We Proudly Share the Noble Dreams of Martin and Malcolm. Africology: The Journal of Pan African Studies, vol.10, no.3, May 2017. http://www.jpanafrican.org/docs/vol10no3/10.3-19-MBishop.pdf
(9) Steve Clark (1987) The second assassination of Maurice Bishop. New International. p. 70
(10) Rich Gibson (25/10/18) Thirty-Five Years On: The Mystery of the Grenada Invasion Remains. https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/10/25/thirty-five-years-on-the-mystery-of-the-grenada-invasion-remains/ . Golden Guvamatanga (24/05/17) Africa’s bloody path to independence. https://www.thepatriot.co.zw/old_posts/africas-bloody-path-to-independence/; The Lemniscat (25/10/12) Congo, January 1961 – the disposal of the body of Patrice Lumumba. https://thelemniscat.wordpress.com/2012/10/25/congo-january-1961-the-disposal-of-the-body-of-patrice-lumumba/.
(11) Wikipedia (22/09/18) Maurice Bishop. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Bishop; Associated Press (08/06/12) Grenada trying to find remains of slain Marxist PM. https://www.foxnews.com/world/grenada-trying-to-find-remains-of-slain-marxist-pm; Clark. p. 101ff.
(12) Bernard Coard (2017) The Grenada Revolution: What Really Happened? McDermott Publishing. p. 97.
(13) Coard. p. 93
(14) Grenadians for the Truth about October 83 (2002) The October 1983 Grenada Tragedy:Whose Struggle For Power? Committee To Free The Grenada 17. p. 37. http://grenada-revo-full-story.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/WhoseStruggle.pdf
(15) Grenadians for the Truth about October 83. p. 37-39
(16) Ann Elizabeth Wilder (2018) Ewart Joseph ‘Headache’ Layne [1958- ]. https://www.thegrenadarevolutiononline.com/layne.html
(17) Coard. p. 318
(18) Grenadians for the Truth about October 83. p. 51
(19) Grenadians for the Truth about October 83 (2002) A Travesty Of Justice: The Case Of The Grenada 17. Committee To Free The Grenada 17. p. 6. http://grenada-revo-full-story.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Travesty.pdf
(20) Ethan Persoff (1984) Grenada Comic Book. http://www.ep.tc/grenada/grenada10.html
(21) Juan Williams (02/11/83) Guyana’s Leader Defiant After Grenada Invasion. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1983/11/02/guyanas-leader-defiant-after-grenada-invasion/594c5775-591d-4e6d-af6e-42bcc9526a32/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.9d41af5621ad
So tonight we ask the question:
Grenada Invasion 35 years on: What are the lessons?
1) Is there enough focus on the gains of the revolution?
2) Has the USA narrative dominated reflections on the revolution?
3) Did the USA have a role in the implosion?
4) Was the PRG infiltrated?
5) Did the Grenada 17 receive a fair trial?
6) Could the PRG model be replicated elsewhere?
Eld. Ewart Layne: was one of the original ’12 Apostles’ – meaning those who had trained in military studies before the takeover from the Gairy Government 13 March 1979. By 1981, aged 23, Layne was a Major in the People’s Revolutionary Army and a People’s Revolutionary Government defence minister. He was responsible for overall running of the PRA and commander of the first military region, he was on a weekly basis the tutor for six political classes, study guide for applicant members to the party, liaison for the New Jewel Movement party support group of workers on the airport construction site, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Grenada Farms corporation (the umbrella body which had taken over Gairy’s state farms), Chairman of the Board of Directors of Grenada Agro-Industries Limited, and a member of the Political Bureau and of the Central Committee. He also, as a leader of the revolution, had from time to time to address parish Councils and other meetings of a political nature.
As part of the Grenada 17 he was imprisoned from 1983 until his release in 2009. While in prison he acquired two law degrees and currently awaiting the outcome of an appeal refusing his bid to seek admittance to the local bar to practice law.
He is the author of the book about the Grenda Revolution, We Move Tonight.