December 18, 2025 • 47 mins
In the second of two parts, James and Andrew talk about the downfall of the revolution in Grenada and what we can learn from the failure of the revolution and the New JEWEL Movement.
Sources:
Grenada: Revolution and Invasion by Patsy Lewis et al
None Shall Escape by Fundi
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
All the media.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Hello and welcome. Take it happen here. I'm Andrew Sage,
your host, and I'm joined by James again.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Excited to be here again. I enjoyed the last episode.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Yes, another host of a canappen near. There are two
of us, So James's American British or British American kind
of and how we want to order that? And I'm Trinidadian.
As you may or may not be able to tell,
but in Trinidad there are actually a lot of Grenadians
(00:38):
and descendants of Grenadians. Between our islands has been a
lot of population exchange, mostly in one direction. But we're
here to talk about a notable point in the history
for my neighbor in Ireland, Grenada. If you missed part one,
you should go and give it a listen. The gist
is that, after drawn out efforts to gain independent nuns,
(01:00):
Grenada finally did so in nineteen seventy four, but unfortunately
under the rule of Eric Gary, an oppressive fixture of
politics that the people want it out. The underdog, the
New Jewel Movement led by Maurice Bishop, pulled off a
blood less coup while Gary was at a un meeting
in New York, and thus the People's Revolutionary Government was formed,
(01:23):
led by Prime Minister Marie Bishop. The manaches stay in
power from nineteen seventy nine to nineteen eighty three. So
today we're talking about what they did in that time
and what happened next, including the infamous US invasion that
is so often a footnote of history and its aftermath
on the people of Grenada that lasts up to this day.
(01:46):
Once again, the research for this episode leans on Grenada
Revolution and invasion by Pati Lewis at Al along with
None Should Escape by Joseph Edwards aka fundly so Fresh
the victory of the New Jewel movement. The temperature of
the populace was varied but excited. You had people who
(02:06):
had genuine revolutionary aspirations, people who were passionately anti imperialists,
and then the people who just wanted better health care
and education and didn't really care where who it came from.
And on that note, I would say that it's something
that often flies under the radar or escapes awareness in
the discourse because the most passionate, the most invested, the
(02:30):
most prominent voices all that we tend to hear the
vast majority of people pretty much go with the flow.
You know, they keep their heads down, their focus tends
to be on their immediate needs, their immediate interests. And
you have the idea logues in every camp, but of
every persuasion who are aiming to push the country in
(02:54):
a particular direction. But at least at this point in time,
there was an ambivalence towards the how, the political how
much of the population. They just needed to see the results.
And for a lot of people in the present day,
the change, the revolution, or whatever you want to call it,
isn't it going to come from an ideological transformation, well
(03:20):
worded argument or arrangement of you know, prose. It's going
to come from a lived experience where their life has
improved in some way, in some form of fashion, by action,
by a project that actually puts the change into practice.
And so that's really what the New Dual Movement had
(03:42):
been about from the beginning, being part of the community,
being part of the people taking part in you know,
supporting them, which is why they had the popular mandate.
And then once they got into power, a lot of
their efforts were focused on indeed trying to actually put
into place and alternatives for all the flaws that it
(04:04):
may have had, and get to that shortly, and that
they did. You know, they organized the Center for Popular Education,
They organized teacher training, sought to make secondary schools and
colleges more accessible to people. They introduced maternity leave for women, yes,
although notably party members who were women were pressured to
(04:26):
come back to work maybe after having children. So again
we'll get to those flaws. There was still inequality in
pay between men and women, but the Usual Movement did
make efforts to mandate equal pay and to engage in
some changes toward addressing the inequality between men and women
(04:49):
in the country. However, a revolution was still needed within
the revolution, as it has tended to be across these revolutions,
you know, across these years Usual stuff, women were still
doing the most of the housework, and both sexes were
expected to take part in political engagement. So you had
women in the party in the Udual movement, but it
(05:12):
was a sort of an expectation of equality in some respects,
like yeah, come out to work even though you just
had children, because everybody else is coming on to work.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
And yet it was like, oh, yeah, I can keep
on doing the housework. We're not gonna take on hour
load there.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Yep, that's funny. I finished my book recently. But they
have a chapter on gender, and there's just a communist
militant in Spain who was fighting at the front line.
But also they were saddled with that double burden, right
because women were expected to be the ones amongst, especially
amongst the communists, who cooked and cleaned in addition to fighting.
(05:52):
But she has this famous line where she says, I
didn't join the military to die with a dish cloth.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
In my hand.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Which that's great. Yeah, it's a good one. I like
it a lot.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Yeah, yeah, But flaws with engaging with gender aside. There will,
of course, other things the utual movement was doing that
was positive. You know, they encouraged agricultural diversification and local
food production, moving away from that sort of exclusive or
ne exclusive dependence on nutnet production that had defined the
(06:24):
colonial period. You know, they got rid of the old
Westminster style parliamentary system in favor of a one party
system with some elements of mass democracy. Now the degree
to which that democracy actually empowered people is debatable, but
there were, you know, efforts on the record. You know,
(06:46):
they organized public meetings to discuss the national budget. They
set up workers and youth and women's and farmers organizations,
and unfortunately, even though Bishop was influenced by c LR James,
he continued to pursue the sort of hierarchical leadership common
in Caribbean politics. And so even with these alternative organizations,
(07:09):
you had that kind of hierarchy. But I think that
is to be expected from any movement besides anarchism. Yeah,
so I can't say I'm surprised. They closed the independent
newspaper Torchlights after an article highlighting erastopian protest against lack
of representation in government. So there were efforts to ensure
(07:33):
that Greator moved towards secularism, but freedom of the press
was not something that was particularly high in the priorities,
and there were still prejudices against religious groups and movements
like the Rastaferians that had yet to be addressed. You know,
(07:55):
these things aren't dealt with overnight. But I think when
all you have is a hammer, everything can sort of
look like a nail. Yeah, they didn't do anything too
drastic in the economics. Spe for the most part, they
left people's private businesses alone. They implemented some state enterprises,
(08:17):
and they implemented some cooperative enterprises, so a fairly standard
mixed economy, a mixed economy that interverean extents be found
throughout the Caribbean, whether they had a revolution or not.
But they did establish cooperative and friendly relations with Cuba,
which was a real thorn on the side of the
United States.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Yeah, he didn't like them.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
And now this is I would say from nineteen seventy
nine to nineteen eighty so their first two years in power,
people were nervsited, you know, they were hopeful of the
genuine declonization and positive change taking place. But the excitement
part of the NEUVA site started to die down. By
(09:02):
nineteen eighty one. The People's Revolutionary Government PRG became increasingly
militaristic as time went on. They organized militias and armed people.
They were essentially preparing for a Geary counter coup, but
also potential Cie involvement. The police were replaced with military personnel.
And I think this is the trap that a lot
(09:24):
of these projects end up falling into. This concern about
the enemy within and the enemy without leads these revolutionaries
to cannibalize themselves, you know. The revolutionary potential and excitemes
GE's curtailed because there's so much fail dominating that some
(09:47):
enemy is going to attack, some violence is going to
take place that they need to prepare for, and so
you over your militarize, your militarize, and you stare the
course of the project away from its original intentions to
a point where it's not even recognizable to the people
who initiated it. Yeah, you know, I'm not saying that
they weren't right to be wary of US intervention. History
(10:13):
has demonstrated as much. But it was something that the
people of the country were becoming increasingly concerned about because
it's a small country, and it's uncommon, you know, it's
it's strange as unusual. It's unnerving to see militia's marching
on your street. Now, the Mutual movement was starting to
(10:36):
become more focused on establishing a vanguard corps, the more
they oriented themselves toward Marxism lending as well. So, like
I mentioned before, they were making this shift away from
the sort of popular mass democracy that people like see
Lar James was talking about. The more they read and
they studied the works of Marxism lenders and there were
(10:57):
people within the party who became more and more convinced. Again,
remember the end positions of power this point in time.
So you're in positions of power, and you're reading theoretical
justifications for why you need to be in power. You
know that you will stand by those theoretical justifications because
it lines up with your interests, your self interests to
(11:20):
you know, further your position of power, and the continuation
of your role as an authority, as a leader. And
so this vanguard call that they were pursuing, it ended
up creating a hierarchy of in group and out group.
You had the people who were in the vanguard, the
people who were out of the vanguard, who didn't get picked,
(11:42):
who didn't make the cut, you know, who felt snubbed.
And this was facilities and it was fostering this an
air of secrecy that people in the country were beginning
to resent and lose trust in, because imagine you go
in from this sort of popular engagement with the people
as you, you know, take part in these efforts to
push Gary out of power. Then you have this sort
(12:05):
of secrecy, you have this sort of militarism. They're starting
to remind people a bit of the exact Geary government
that they wanted out. When two major events took place
in nineteen eighty one. There was a bombing under the
stage of a rally that killed some utes, and there
was a car ambustion as well. Both of these incidents
were blamed on counter revolutionaries in the country that famous buzzworth,
(12:29):
that famous catchphrase, that famous justification for any and every response. Yeah.
So it further pushed the country and really the whole
society into this culture of suspicion and repression and also
resent month for the New Dual movement. The New Jeral
movement wasn't responsible for the bombans, but you can imagine
(12:50):
people were probably saying when they were at the parlor
by the grocery, you know, out by the bar down
the street, they're saying, you know, at least didn't have
any bombings under Gary. You know, at least the didn't
have these combitions under Gary. Gary wasn't nice, but we
didn't have terrorist attacks. And the sort of transparency and
(13:12):
engagement people were accustomed to were starting to evaporate. The
Neudual movement was starting to be seen by some as
a secret society. And if your society is already small, right,
just about one hundred thousand people. Yeah, having a secret
society within that small society where everybody knows everybody, that's
(13:33):
not good, especially when the revolution is so new, so nationed.
You need people's trust and especially as well, because people
were not ideologically for Marxism Leninism, most of them, that is,
they were ideologically for Marxism Leniness and they were ideologically
nudual movement advocate. They just wanted Eric Gary out and
(13:57):
they wanted to improve once they're living conditions. They didn't
have a particular political ideology. They were committed too. And
in this time, you know, the Caribbean is part of
the rest of the world. The Cribbean is paying attention,
has to pay attention to what's happening in the rest
of the world, and especially within northern neighbor the United
States of America, and it's very influenced. At that point
(14:18):
in time. We're talking in the late seventies early eighties
cold war rhetoric that people are getting in the media.
The American media was still very and continues to be
very prominent in terms of what Cribean people consume. Because
we are English speaking, the Americans are English speaking and
they have far more resources, so their media comes to us,
(14:39):
and a lot of the narratives that Caribbean people get
come in at recent part from American narratives. So these
Cold War era narratives about communism as a scare word
was something that had yet to be addressed through actual
demonstration of what communism could actually be for people. You know,
(14:59):
people weren't one over on communism yet, it was still unfamiliar,
and in this time you really needed people who were open,
who are accommodating, who were showing people what it meant
in practice, who were you know, sort of disarming these
notions that could serve us obstacles towards people's buying into
(15:21):
the struggle. I'm saying this as a non Marxist lendness.
I'm putting myself in those shoes. If I'm trying to
get people invested in as convinced of this, that sort
of secrecy it doesn't push things in a postive trajectory.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Yeah, it's easy for the population to perceive that you've
replaced one elite with another elite, right, especially in post
colonial movements, when we do this exactly so, it's a
transparent word for one, you know.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Yeah, I mean not to say that people didn't see
the differences. Yes, correct, they went away the nuances. They
could tell the difference between an Eric Arey and a Mauricepisial.
They can tell the difference between you know, one form
of politics and another. It's not that they were just
ready to turn court immediately. I mean some of them
still had the fresh wounds of the trauma being inflicted
(16:10):
by eric Arey. Yeah, but it's because of that trauma,
so they were also sensitive to the potential of new traumas.
Call it paranoia, call it eunistan and right thinking suspicion.
But they were wary of what was taking place, and
you know, it didn't help. It didn't help that. Okay.
(16:30):
So you know some people they read like one or
two theory books and they start walking around like their
head is three times bigger than it is they started
walking around. It's kind of inflated sense of self importance.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
Yes, I'm very familiar with that kind of person.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Yeah, Unfortunately, that's exactly what started taking place among some
members of the party. They're reading all these books, all
these thick books from Russia and Germany and Marx and
learnin and all these people and it's starting to carry
themselves in a particular way. Yeah, with a level of
arrogance and nowhere to illness. And you know, and this
(17:11):
is we're sit in a society. We remember, we are
fresh out of colonialism, if you know, none of our
independent nations or even one hundred years old. Yet much
of the population still remember that colonial period. And much
of the population, like I mentioned before, needed changes the
education system because they didn't have educational opportunities. So you
(17:35):
had this vast educational inequality, right, and then you have
this new Joe movement and some of its members are
talking to you like you're stupid because you didn't get
to go to primary school. You didn't read all the
thick books that they read, or you didn't get to
go to secondary school, or you didn't get to go
to university, and so you don't know all the big
words and you haven't read all the thick texts that
(17:56):
they have read. And it could rub people the wrong way.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Yes, right, Yeah, there can be too much theory. I
think that often is too much theory, especially when it
creates this idea, right that reading is what distinguishes one
as a revolutionary, right as opposed to doing or just
knowing and caring, and it's a downfall of many movements.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Indeed, I think if you're coming from the background that
some of these Mutual Movement members were coming from, you
need to put in that extra effort not to dumb
things down, per see, you still want to respect people's intelligence,
but you have to be aware of the dynamic. It's
something that I myself have to work on, you know,
because I think it's a sort of curse of knowledge
(18:46):
where you read so much that you take for granted
and what you know, you know, you read to a
point where you almost forget that this is not common
knowledge or this word may be unfamiliar to a lot
of people, and you already have to be cognizant of it,
especially as you're approaching people, and make sure you're talking
to them in their language. They don't feel as though
(19:07):
they're carrying yourself too big favorites.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Yeah, definitely, Like the people who write the thick books
can't be your like milieu, you know, they can't be
there refused the stupid word, but like if those are
the people with whom you're sort of conversing in your head,
and then you begin to to speak in that language.
To people who aren't familiar with it, it just sounds weird. Yeah,
like it's yeah, as you said, you get too big
(19:33):
for your bridges, and you some pompous if you're not.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Careful exactly exactly, And so for the you know, big
shot lawyer again all the time, and she kind of
as I say this, for big shot lawyer thats like
Marie Bisher and a big shot economics like like Bernard
(20:01):
Chord and some of the other folks that had been
part of the core of the party. They had to
approach to people in a particular way, and they were
successful in doing so under Eric Garry and as they
were part of the opposition. But things were shifted also
the two of the eighties, we had a lot of
moves again, suspected counter revolutionaries, imprisonment without trial. To imagine again,
(20:23):
people are thinking, this is what the monk who's gang
two point zero? Yeah, the fair was starting to overtake,
the society was starting to become cannibalizing, as I said.
So by the time we get to nineteen eighty three,
we find ourselves with the people bereft of the early
days of hope in a House divided, which famously cannot stand.
(20:44):
Unbeknowns to the public, there were tensions between Maurice Bishop
and Bernard coord since at least nineteen eighty two, and
coord wasn't even part of the Central Committee of the
Neutral Movement anymore for a while. But within the vanguard
the party members still preferred Cord to Bishop. Cord was
seen as more intellectually equipt to lead with his knowledge
(21:05):
of theory. They started calling Bishop egotistics and counter revolutionary.
And I have to say, I love the double edged
sword of these kind of willingly thought to meet and
cliches because they can be used by you and then
they could be used against you in a snappy fingers.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
Yeah, it goes back to your fing about hammers and
nails that you mentioned before.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Indeed, so eventually the party decided to bring Cord on
as co leader with Bishop. Originally Bishop agreed, but this
started to create tensions. Things managed recently, but after a
while Bishop was surtned to push back against the co
leadership arrangement and the party started seeing it as him
favoring his own ascendancy over the collective unity, and then
(21:52):
he went to Germany. He left the country on a trip.
Don't worry. There was none of the coolest time, at
least not yet. When he went to journey on a
trip came back, there was not a welcome party for him.
Things were coming to a head. The party did not
have his back anymore, he could feel it. But he
(22:14):
did know that the people still had his back. Remember,
he knows he's charismatic, he knows people love him. So
all of a sudden, this is in nineteen eighty three,
by the way, a rumor was swollen that Cord wanted
to kill Bishop. Yeah, it's a dangerous rumor, you know.
It shatters this facade of a united front that had
(22:35):
carried the revolution, that had carried the government for so long.
But since most people loved Bishop, as he rightfully assumed,
in fact, they were of first name basis with him,
that's cool. They weren't saying Prime Minister Bishop, your honorable
Prime Minister Bishop. It was hey, Maurice, like that boy, Maurice.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
Yeah, that's always a good sign. Like it's one of
the positive marks of the revolution with Shava is that
everyone is a friend, and everyone's referred to generally by
their first name, and it's always kind of yeah, I've
seen enough read enough about you know, revolutions opposing a
revolutionary hierarchy. So that's always a good sign, I feel like.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
Yeah. So meanwhile, you had Cord who people didn't have
the same kind of relationship with. Yeah, you know, as
far as they're concerned, he's an enemino because of that rumor. Yeah,
and the party actually suspected that it was Bishop that
started the rumor. In fact, his own post our bodyguards
(23:36):
suspected it, but Bishop himself denied it. Whether he did
or did not start the rumor, we don't know. But
the party was insulted by his movements and put him
under house arrest. What what right now? But he did
this shocked.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Like a shocked peaka.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
And that's that's that's how the people feeling it, Like
what a prime minister arrested? You could do that, that's
the thing.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
So you see, the Vanguard, with all that secrecy at
this point in time, was operating on information that was
not made available to the people, and the people who
are pissed at the party. Now, the cracks in this
political arrangement with essentially a secret society on top, were
starting to show. The people generally speaking regardless of what
(24:29):
the party wanted wanted Maurice Bishop. They wanted the boy Maurice,
but the party was not interested in what people wanted.
The day is nineteenth of October nineteen eighty three. The
pro Maurice Bishop usual movement, leaders, government ministers, and a
(24:50):
mass demonstration of people roll up to Bishop's house to
set him free. There were gods, of course, assigned to
keep him in house arrest, but it was God stood down.
They refused to shoot at the people. To the crowd
of people walked to Fort Rupert. Now Fort Rupert wasn't
always Fort Rupert used to be Fort George. Fact, after
(25:13):
the revolution ended it again became known as Fort George,
but Fort Rupert was named Fort Rupert after Maurice Bishop's father,
who was killed by Eric Garry, as you may recall.
So they get there, but the majority of the Udual movement,
who were, like I said, backers of Bernard Cord, were
(25:34):
at another fort nearby. Then boom, three armored trucks pull
up from the Fort of Cord to Rupert's Fort Fort Rupert,
Bratata Da. They start firing into the crowd. People running
all over the place. Who one people died who one
of people scattered. This event as a trauma for Grenadians
(25:55):
even to this day. By the way, so the Cord
loyalists pull up and line up Bishop Unison Whiteman, who
was the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nor Spain, who was
the Minister of Health and was actually not part of
the neutral movement, and Jacqueline Kraft, who is the Minister
of Education. They lined them up against the wall and
(26:15):
shot them summary execution. Others including trade unionists, businessmen, and
high schoolers who were also killed at Fort Rupert. Right
after this, the military curfew was announced on radio. Guinigains
were told to lock their doors. Violators of curfew were
to be shot on site. A couple of days later,
(26:38):
as people more wanted their dead, the news came that
the United States will invade Grenada. If this was a
HBO series, I feel like that would be the end
of the pronouncement episode. So just to give you a
bit of context on the US's position, the United States
did not like the way that Cuba and the Soviets
(27:01):
and Grenada were becoming close, even though Grenada was technically
non aligned, like much of the world, was trying to
stay out of the hairs of the US and the
USSR in their cold law. Yeah, but Grenada and Grenadians
represented a serious risk. They were black, that's a big risk.
(27:25):
They were English speaking. Yep, they were English speaking black
people close to the border of the United States of
America as African Americans were engaged in their own struggle
for liberation in the US as our reach. Bishop noted,
I mean that's the threat that there could be communication,
(27:47):
collaboration between these groups, a demonstration of an alternative close
to the United States with ease of communication with the
United States. So the United States invasion was always a
potential outcome, but here it was flexing power and its
fair in its backyard. The Party rounded up a bunch
(28:07):
of people to join them in defending the revolution. Most
people were traumatized. They ran and they hid wherever they could. Some,
regardless of whether they liked the mutual movement at that
point in time or not, stood ready to defend their
island from invasion. But anymore were hidden and scared. And
there were also others who, out of revenge for the
(28:30):
revolution that betrayed them, betrayed the revolution by expressing their
support for the invasion. Now me personally, that's something I
would never do. I don't care how much I disagree
with any government that I'm under. I wouldn't co sign
the invasion of my country by an empire. But I
(28:54):
can understand the reasoning or the emotional because that some
people were in at that point. So the US's claim,
by the way, for the invasion was that they were
there to rescue American students who were in Grenada. So
the there to rescue these students from these communes. Perfect
(29:19):
American students weren't ender any actual threat. Obviously, nobody was
mining them or threatening them or anything. But they always
have to have some kind of story, right, Yeah. So
twenty fifth of October nineteen eighty three, America's boots land
on the ground, joined later by the military personnel of
(29:40):
Barbados and Jamaica. There were more deaths, mostly in Grenadians,
but also some Cubans who were there working on the
new International Airport, an airport that later became known as
Maurice Bishop International Airport, an airport that just over a
(30:01):
month ago the United States requested to use for its
military operations in the region. The United States kept the
media out of the island for two days after the invasion.
They were sure to curate an image of the communist threat.
(30:21):
They wanted to pay into picture for the media to
tell us story back at home about how yeah, they
were actually preparing to work with the Soviets as a
stage in ground to attack the United States. So this
invasion was the first overt as opposed to covert use
of force since Vietnam. The party in power at the
(30:43):
time needed an easy win, so party members this is usual.
Movement party members were imprisoned, an interim government was established
by Grenadians living abroad, and the revolution was over a
(31:08):
stock aftermath, the fall of the Utual movement and the
People's Revolutionary Government of Grenada led to the disintegration of
the Worker's Party of Jamaica. It destroyed cara Com the
Caribbean community as a united bloc, as Jamaica and Trindad
decided with the US and the invasion, while countries like
(31:29):
Trindad stood against the invasion. That was a split in
cara Comb that took years to recover from, and I
think most crucially, the fall of the Neudual movement led
to the death in all but name of the Caribbean
left from distrust from inviting and from this resolute enforcement
(31:53):
of the new colonial model. For all the flaws of
the revolution, had it was a representation, have an alternative,
that something else could be done besides business as usual.
And that alternative first felt in fighting, and then its
fate was sealed by a belligerent invasion. Yeah, and so
(32:18):
the Caribbean left not say it, it's actually entirely dead.
There are still figures from that era, there are still
people who carry progressive or evolutionary politics, but it's had
it's goal and age is no more. And that is
in part as a result of that US invasion. And
(32:40):
within Grenado, the bodies of those killed were never found.
In some cases, the families of those killed or of
department members may even still be divided to this day.
You know, you can imagine how they must feel, these
sort of social and police to call divisions that came
(33:01):
out of that kind of action. Who sided with Cord,
who sided with Bishop, who sided with the US? Who
stood against who brought whose actions were a response over
the US come in. If the revolution never happened, then
US wouldn't have come, These people wouldn't be dead. Blame
game accusations political conflicts, all of that. You know, it's
(33:22):
very easy to breeze over the deaths of people in
historical events as just numbers, as just statistics. You know,
it doesn't even click, you know, because I think, I
don't think our brains can fully handle that much trauma
at once, So we we could partmentalize it in a way,
we package it in something that's a bit more digestible
(33:44):
when you hear figures of you know, even just two
people dead. That's two people, two entire human beings with lives, interests, passions, relationships, connections,
future snuffed out. And in a country like Grenader from
a small country, one hundred thousand people, and I mean
(34:07):
I'm from Trinad, right, which has a population of about
one point four million people, and it still feels like
you know somebody who knows somebody. The networks are so tight.
It's even tighter knit network wise in a Grenader or
a Tobago. You know, we're talking neighbors, relatives split into sides,
cousin blaming, cousin, friend killing friend, a decolonization never fully
(34:33):
began and never fully completed. Their social splits. On the
perspective on what took place you had the Bishop was
good crowd, the Bishop was bad crowd. The Bishop was bad,
but the revolution was good crowd. The revolution was bad
with Bishop was good crowd. You get all sorts of interpretations,
(34:55):
these kinds of traumatic historical events. Yeah, and the outcome
to this day is, you know, fair, unhealed, open wounds,
the youth, the passionate radical youth of yesteryear, keeping their
heads down on auto politics. Today. Unfortunately, very little has
been done in Grenea to deal with the traumas of
(35:15):
the invasion. Besides an attempted truth and Reconciliation commission, which
failed miserably due to a couple different obstacles, an unwillness
to reconcile among some, they continued incarceration of certain individuals,
unrecovered remains, anger towards entire sectors the population at the
(35:36):
execution of Bishop and others, and so in the years
that have followed, there's been a subdued political consciousness among
much of the population. They have risen to the challenge
of the US inviting themselves to set up shop in
Marich Bishop International Airport. There were many actions taken place
(36:00):
in Grenada to speak up under stand against that intervention,
but for the most part, the propy of this has
been disengaged from the sort of radical passion that you
saw in that time period. And it didn't help, of course,
that pretty much right after the revolution you had a
(36:21):
series of natural disasters. In September two thousand and four,
after being hurricane three for forty nine years, the island
was hit by Hurricane Ivan, a Category three hurricane that
resulted in thirty nine deaths and the damage or destruction
to ninety percent of the island's homes. In two thousand
and five, which is the following year, Hurricane Emily, a
(36:43):
Category one hurricane, struck the island and killed a person.
In twenty twenty four, Hurricane Beryl struck the island of Kariaku.
And so we're already dealing with the environmental instability of
being a Caribbean island, but now I also have to
be with the political and social instability of such a
traumatic incident. Before we close, I do want to get
(37:05):
into some of the critiques that I had of this project.
You know, I'm not the type of reason to look
at these historical moments, no matter my allegiance to the
exposed politics of the people in them. And we want
to paint them in a narrow or simplistic brush. You know,
I think I see that tendency across all groups. Yeah,
(37:27):
you know, the mark slellness. We'll talk about these revolutions
in a very fawning and agulating way. Then you're so
the anarchists to talk about, you know, the Spanish Civil War,
they talk about the Paris community. They talk about these
different projects as if they were and as if they
weren't serious flaws in their structure and the analysis and
(37:49):
their methodology. It's worth addressing.
Speaker 3 (37:52):
You know.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
It's very easy for nostalgia to take over.
Speaker 3 (37:55):
Yeah, definitely like something I think about a lot. Like
I translated a piece for the Strangers in a Tangled
Wilderness zine a few months ago, maybe even a year
ago now by an anarchist fighter who fought in the
International Group of the Druti Column who went by several names,
Charles Riddle with his birth name, but he has this
(38:15):
whole thing about how anarchists tend to write hagiographies, which
is the life of a saint, right, Like they've tried
to make the Spanish Civil War into these like exemplaries
saintly people as opposed to actually looking at the mistakes
people made and his stances are like his friends died
for nothing if we don't learn anything, and so if
(38:37):
we don't acknowledge the very real compromises and mistakes and failures,
then they have been defeated, right, and they all died
for nothing. But if at least we can learn from it,
then at least of something we can take going forward,
which is something I always thought was a great way
of phrasing something and quite an admirable way of looking
(38:57):
at something that he himself participated in and it was
obviously defining a very traumatic experience of his life.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
Yeah, it's something that I've rallied against, that sort of
great man approach history. Yeah right, I suppose that brings
me some of my first critique, which is something that
plays Grenada both before, during and after. It is revolution
when you have a political culture dependent on a maximum
(39:26):
leader or a personality cult or just a grouping around
her personality, whether that's Bishop or Gary or Cord. For one,
it's a continuation of the colonial politics of the British
in that sort of governor position, and it also I
think leads to a contempt towards common people, whether it
(39:48):
starts out that way or not, it eventually makes its
way into that direction. I still see personality politics rear
and it's ugly headed in Trinidad, even though we've been
independent even longer, you know, nineteen sixty two as opposed
to creator as nineteen seventy four. But the result of
that kind of politics is, you know, it's ideological and
(40:10):
policy splits either non existent or secondary to personality loyalties,
familiar ties, and in some cases ethnic loyalty. The United
National Congress, you went to see the party in power
intranet right now, party responsible for our current position is
a personality cult led by a current Prime minister talent
(40:31):
sub processor, and she's only one of many examples of
this sort of party first, leader first approach to politics
that we see in the region, a baggage that we
see in the region. I know, with radical politics, it's
sad because you expect to do away with that kind
(40:52):
of stuff. But the Revolution, in my view, had a
lack of decolonization away from the authoritarian tendencies of colonial rule.
That I think is why there was such an appeal
in Leninist thought and rule to begin with, Because it's
a lot easier to approach. You know, it doesn't unpack
(41:13):
the psychology of clonialism, or unpack how Gary's rule may
have shaped their own approach to politics. That another politics might,
that another anti politics might, and so they carried on
this elitist, authoritarian, and personality based politics despite having a
youthful beginning. Bishop was twenty nine when he started a
(41:37):
neutral movement, which is the same age that Gary was
when he got into politics. I know one could make
a movie of the mirrors in their histories, but despite
his youthful beginning, the youth carried on the mistakes of
their forebearers. They betrayed the excitement of people power that
people had for the revolution, just as they betrayed the
excitement of people power that people had for independence, and
(42:00):
they continue the consciousness of deference to hierarchy. Again, I
don't want to draw one to one comparisons between Gary
and Bishop. I recognize their stark differences and their politics,
and in their engagement with the people of Grenado they
were not the same, but in some ways they did rhyme.
(42:21):
I would wrap up, I suppose with Bundy's sort of
critique of Grenada's revolution, which is what I just echoed
this continued consciousness of a deference to hierarchy. A genuine
revolution depends on people taking direct responsibility, not waiting for
leaders or stages of development, not waiting on guidance, being
(42:42):
empowered themselves. That sort of tired Leninist gradualism and bureaucratic
control gets regular people no closer to actually having a
sense of autonomy and control over their lives. And as
funny sizes, especially in small Caribbean societies, participatory local self
(43:08):
managed systems are entirely feasible. Inclosing, fundly suggested that Grenada's
revolution failed because it moved away from this principle of
immediate collective self management and deliberately chose hierarchy. And from
that hierarchy came a sense of erodent trust, came, a
sense of secrecy, became a sense of secret societies, and
(43:31):
I created a culture of secrecy, a post transparency that
led to its downfall. As I mentioned, it was gossip,
a rumor of somebody trying to kill Bishop that got
this ball roller. So today I want to appeal directly
to Cribian radicals of all stripes to learn to learnessly
(43:53):
learn from the Grenadian revolution on appeal not just to
Cribian radicals, but to radicals all look across the world,
all across our listenership. It is critical in times when
the means of intervention and the means of disruption and
(44:14):
division and co optation are more powerful than ever, that
you engage in the sort of dissipation of leadership, that
you engage in grassroots and dispersed in powerment, That you
maintain an anti authoritarian ethos that cannot be co opted
(44:35):
by a charismatic power. But you're take an approach to
organization that does not lend itself to the vulnerabilities of hierarchy,
that you consider moving like my coruser, that you take
on networks and free associations rather than the sort of
X Marx Spot Bullseye centralized parties and the power struggle
(45:00):
that ensue from them from that first for power that
led so many downfalls for the revolutionary imagination. Before I
wrap up, I just want to ask James, we have
any thoughts.
Speaker 3 (45:15):
No. I think that's very eloquent the way you said it,
Like we have to build systems and ways of organizing
or relating to one another that don't allow this to happen, right,
we have to be very conscious, like you say, of
where it has happened. And I think the only way
there'll we understand the value of that is through studying history,
(45:36):
but like studying it from a place like you were saying, right,
like I get death is a statistic or a number
until it's a person. And I think if we can
study history from a place of like empathy, I guess,
and solidarity rather than this would never happen to me,
or like you said, like oversimplifying in a way that
I think doesn't help. And sometimes I think we do
(45:58):
it to kind of absorb ourselves from similarity, to think like, oh,
how close could I be to this? It's one of
the things I don't like about academic history that if
we are people who are interested in making the world better,
than we have to learn from all the other people
all over the world who tried to make the world
better in it, especially from the ones who didn't succeed. Yeah,
(46:23):
because we don't want to do that again.
Speaker 2 (46:25):
Like exactly and the times the ority engine. Yes, indeed,
we have to approach that with our due diligence, you know,
the strategies that were more relevant or more practical in
particular context, may be relevant or practical in your contexts.
Speaker 3 (46:45):
Yeah very much so. All right, yeah that was great,
Thank you Andrew.
Speaker 2 (46:51):
To all our listeners, thank you so much for tuning in.
I hope that you can look at our region with
clearer eyes and visualize us in the way is that
history repeats and rhymes. Until next time, We'll powell to
all the people peace.
Speaker 1 (47:13):
It could Happen Here is a production of cool Zone Media.
For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website
coolzonmedia dot com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can
now find sources for it Could Happen here, listed directly
in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening.
All the media.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Hello and welcome. Take it happen here. I'm Andrew Sage,
your host, and I'm joined by James again.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Excited to be here again. I enjoyed the last episode.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Yes, another host of a canappen near. There are two
of us, So James's American British or British American kind
of and how we want to order that? And I'm Trinidadian.
As you may or may not be able to tell,
but in Trinidad there are actually a lot of Grenadians
(00:38):
and descendants of Grenadians. Between our islands has been a
lot of population exchange, mostly in one direction. But we're
here to talk about a notable point in the history
for my neighbor in Ireland, Grenada. If you missed part one,
you should go and give it a listen. The gist
is that, after drawn out efforts to gain independent nuns,
(01:00):
Grenada finally did so in nineteen seventy four, but unfortunately
under the rule of Eric Gary, an oppressive fixture of
politics that the people want it out. The underdog, the
New Jewel Movement led by Maurice Bishop, pulled off a
blood less coup while Gary was at a un meeting
in New York, and thus the People's Revolutionary Government was formed,
(01:23):
led by Prime Minister Marie Bishop. The manaches stay in
power from nineteen seventy nine to nineteen eighty three. So
today we're talking about what they did in that time
and what happened next, including the infamous US invasion that
is so often a footnote of history and its aftermath
on the people of Grenada that lasts up to this day.
(01:46):
Once again, the research for this episode leans on Grenada
Revolution and invasion by Pati Lewis at Al along with
None Should Escape by Joseph Edwards aka fundly so Fresh
the victory of the New Jewel movement. The temperature of
the populace was varied but excited. You had people who
(02:06):
had genuine revolutionary aspirations, people who were passionately anti imperialists,
and then the people who just wanted better health care
and education and didn't really care where who it came from.
And on that note, I would say that it's something
that often flies under the radar or escapes awareness in
the discourse because the most passionate, the most invested, the
(02:30):
most prominent voices all that we tend to hear the
vast majority of people pretty much go with the flow.
You know, they keep their heads down, their focus tends
to be on their immediate needs, their immediate interests. And
you have the idea logues in every camp, but of
every persuasion who are aiming to push the country in
(02:54):
a particular direction. But at least at this point in time,
there was an ambivalence towards the how, the political how
much of the population. They just needed to see the results.
And for a lot of people in the present day,
the change, the revolution, or whatever you want to call it,
isn't it going to come from an ideological transformation, well
(03:20):
worded argument or arrangement of you know, prose. It's going
to come from a lived experience where their life has
improved in some way, in some form of fashion, by action,
by a project that actually puts the change into practice.
And so that's really what the New Dual Movement had
(03:42):
been about from the beginning, being part of the community,
being part of the people taking part in you know,
supporting them, which is why they had the popular mandate.
And then once they got into power, a lot of
their efforts were focused on indeed trying to actually put
into place and alternatives for all the flaws that it
(04:04):
may have had, and get to that shortly, and that
they did. You know, they organized the Center for Popular Education,
They organized teacher training, sought to make secondary schools and
colleges more accessible to people. They introduced maternity leave for women, yes,
although notably party members who were women were pressured to
(04:26):
come back to work maybe after having children. So again
we'll get to those flaws. There was still inequality in
pay between men and women, but the Usual Movement did
make efforts to mandate equal pay and to engage in
some changes toward addressing the inequality between men and women
(04:49):
in the country. However, a revolution was still needed within
the revolution, as it has tended to be across these revolutions,
you know, across these years Usual stuff, women were still
doing the most of the housework, and both sexes were
expected to take part in political engagement. So you had
women in the party in the Udual movement, but it
(05:12):
was a sort of an expectation of equality in some respects,
like yeah, come out to work even though you just
had children, because everybody else is coming on to work.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
And yet it was like, oh, yeah, I can keep
on doing the housework. We're not gonna take on hour
load there.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Yep, that's funny. I finished my book recently. But they
have a chapter on gender, and there's just a communist
militant in Spain who was fighting at the front line.
But also they were saddled with that double burden, right
because women were expected to be the ones amongst, especially
amongst the communists, who cooked and cleaned in addition to fighting.
(05:52):
But she has this famous line where she says, I
didn't join the military to die with a dish cloth.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
In my hand.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Which that's great. Yeah, it's a good one. I like
it a lot.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Yeah, yeah, But flaws with engaging with gender aside. There will,
of course, other things the utual movement was doing that
was positive. You know, they encouraged agricultural diversification and local
food production, moving away from that sort of exclusive or
ne exclusive dependence on nutnet production that had defined the
(06:24):
colonial period. You know, they got rid of the old
Westminster style parliamentary system in favor of a one party
system with some elements of mass democracy. Now the degree
to which that democracy actually empowered people is debatable, but
there were, you know, efforts on the record. You know,
(06:46):
they organized public meetings to discuss the national budget. They
set up workers and youth and women's and farmers organizations,
and unfortunately, even though Bishop was influenced by c LR James,
he continued to pursue the sort of hierarchical leadership common
in Caribbean politics. And so even with these alternative organizations,
(07:09):
you had that kind of hierarchy. But I think that
is to be expected from any movement besides anarchism. Yeah,
so I can't say I'm surprised. They closed the independent
newspaper Torchlights after an article highlighting erastopian protest against lack
of representation in government. So there were efforts to ensure
(07:33):
that Greator moved towards secularism, but freedom of the press
was not something that was particularly high in the priorities,
and there were still prejudices against religious groups and movements
like the Rastaferians that had yet to be addressed. You know,
(07:55):
these things aren't dealt with overnight. But I think when
all you have is a hammer, everything can sort of
look like a nail. Yeah, they didn't do anything too
drastic in the economics. Spe for the most part, they
left people's private businesses alone. They implemented some state enterprises,
(08:17):
and they implemented some cooperative enterprises, so a fairly standard
mixed economy, a mixed economy that interverean extents be found
throughout the Caribbean, whether they had a revolution or not.
But they did establish cooperative and friendly relations with Cuba,
which was a real thorn on the side of the
United States.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Yeah, he didn't like them.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
And now this is I would say from nineteen seventy
nine to nineteen eighty so their first two years in power,
people were nervsited, you know, they were hopeful of the
genuine declonization and positive change taking place. But the excitement
part of the NEUVA site started to die down. By
(09:02):
nineteen eighty one. The People's Revolutionary Government PRG became increasingly
militaristic as time went on. They organized militias and armed people.
They were essentially preparing for a Geary counter coup, but
also potential Cie involvement. The police were replaced with military personnel.
And I think this is the trap that a lot
(09:24):
of these projects end up falling into. This concern about
the enemy within and the enemy without leads these revolutionaries
to cannibalize themselves, you know. The revolutionary potential and excitemes
GE's curtailed because there's so much fail dominating that some
(09:47):
enemy is going to attack, some violence is going to
take place that they need to prepare for, and so
you over your militarize, your militarize, and you stare the
course of the project away from its original intentions to
a point where it's not even recognizable to the people
who initiated it. Yeah, you know, I'm not saying that
they weren't right to be wary of US intervention. History
(10:13):
has demonstrated as much. But it was something that the
people of the country were becoming increasingly concerned about because
it's a small country, and it's uncommon, you know, it's
it's strange as unusual. It's unnerving to see militia's marching
on your street. Now, the Mutual movement was starting to
(10:36):
become more focused on establishing a vanguard corps, the more
they oriented themselves toward Marxism lending as well. So, like
I mentioned before, they were making this shift away from
the sort of popular mass democracy that people like see
Lar James was talking about. The more they read and
they studied the works of Marxism lenders and there were
(10:57):
people within the party who became more and more convinced. Again,
remember the end positions of power this point in time.
So you're in positions of power, and you're reading theoretical
justifications for why you need to be in power. You
know that you will stand by those theoretical justifications because
it lines up with your interests, your self interests to
(11:20):
you know, further your position of power, and the continuation
of your role as an authority, as a leader. And
so this vanguard call that they were pursuing, it ended
up creating a hierarchy of in group and out group.
You had the people who were in the vanguard, the
people who were out of the vanguard, who didn't get picked,
(11:42):
who didn't make the cut, you know, who felt snubbed.
And this was facilities and it was fostering this an
air of secrecy that people in the country were beginning
to resent and lose trust in, because imagine you go
in from this sort of popular engagement with the people
as you, you know, take part in these efforts to
push Gary out of power. Then you have this sort
(12:05):
of secrecy, you have this sort of militarism. They're starting
to remind people a bit of the exact Geary government
that they wanted out. When two major events took place
in nineteen eighty one. There was a bombing under the
stage of a rally that killed some utes, and there
was a car ambustion as well. Both of these incidents
were blamed on counter revolutionaries in the country that famous buzzworth,
(12:29):
that famous catchphrase, that famous justification for any and every response. Yeah.
So it further pushed the country and really the whole
society into this culture of suspicion and repression and also
resent month for the New Dual movement. The New Jeral
movement wasn't responsible for the bombans, but you can imagine
(12:50):
people were probably saying when they were at the parlor
by the grocery, you know, out by the bar down
the street, they're saying, you know, at least didn't have
any bombings under Gary. You know, at least the didn't
have these combitions under Gary. Gary wasn't nice, but we
didn't have terrorist attacks. And the sort of transparency and
(13:12):
engagement people were accustomed to were starting to evaporate. The
Neudual movement was starting to be seen by some as
a secret society. And if your society is already small, right,
just about one hundred thousand people. Yeah, having a secret
society within that small society where everybody knows everybody, that's
(13:33):
not good, especially when the revolution is so new, so nationed.
You need people's trust and especially as well, because people
were not ideologically for Marxism Leninism, most of them, that is,
they were ideologically for Marxism Leniness and they were ideologically
nudual movement advocate. They just wanted Eric Gary out and
(13:57):
they wanted to improve once they're living conditions. They didn't
have a particular political ideology. They were committed too. And
in this time, you know, the Caribbean is part of
the rest of the world. The Cribbean is paying attention,
has to pay attention to what's happening in the rest
of the world, and especially within northern neighbor the United
States of America, and it's very influenced. At that point
(14:18):
in time. We're talking in the late seventies early eighties
cold war rhetoric that people are getting in the media.
The American media was still very and continues to be
very prominent in terms of what Cribean people consume. Because
we are English speaking, the Americans are English speaking and
they have far more resources, so their media comes to us,
(14:39):
and a lot of the narratives that Caribbean people get
come in at recent part from American narratives. So these
Cold War era narratives about communism as a scare word
was something that had yet to be addressed through actual
demonstration of what communism could actually be for people. You know,
(14:59):
people weren't one over on communism yet, it was still unfamiliar,
and in this time you really needed people who were open,
who are accommodating, who were showing people what it meant
in practice, who were you know, sort of disarming these
notions that could serve us obstacles towards people's buying into
(15:21):
the struggle. I'm saying this as a non Marxist lendness.
I'm putting myself in those shoes. If I'm trying to
get people invested in as convinced of this, that sort
of secrecy it doesn't push things in a postive trajectory.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Yeah, it's easy for the population to perceive that you've
replaced one elite with another elite, right, especially in post
colonial movements, when we do this exactly so, it's a
transparent word for one, you know.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Yeah, I mean not to say that people didn't see
the differences. Yes, correct, they went away the nuances. They
could tell the difference between an Eric Arey and a Mauricepisial.
They can tell the difference between you know, one form
of politics and another. It's not that they were just
ready to turn court immediately. I mean some of them
still had the fresh wounds of the trauma being inflicted
(16:10):
by eric Arey. Yeah, but it's because of that trauma,
so they were also sensitive to the potential of new traumas.
Call it paranoia, call it eunistan and right thinking suspicion.
But they were wary of what was taking place, and
you know, it didn't help. It didn't help that. Okay.
(16:30):
So you know some people they read like one or
two theory books and they start walking around like their
head is three times bigger than it is they started
walking around. It's kind of inflated sense of self importance.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
Yes, I'm very familiar with that kind of person.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Yeah, Unfortunately, that's exactly what started taking place among some
members of the party. They're reading all these books, all
these thick books from Russia and Germany and Marx and
learnin and all these people and it's starting to carry
themselves in a particular way. Yeah, with a level of
arrogance and nowhere to illness. And you know, and this
(17:11):
is we're sit in a society. We remember, we are
fresh out of colonialism, if you know, none of our
independent nations or even one hundred years old. Yet much
of the population still remember that colonial period. And much
of the population, like I mentioned before, needed changes the
education system because they didn't have educational opportunities. So you
(17:35):
had this vast educational inequality, right, and then you have
this new Joe movement and some of its members are
talking to you like you're stupid because you didn't get
to go to primary school. You didn't read all the
thick books that they read, or you didn't get to
go to secondary school, or you didn't get to go
to university, and so you don't know all the big
words and you haven't read all the thick texts that
(17:56):
they have read. And it could rub people the wrong way.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Yes, right, Yeah, there can be too much theory. I
think that often is too much theory, especially when it
creates this idea, right that reading is what distinguishes one
as a revolutionary, right as opposed to doing or just
knowing and caring, and it's a downfall of many movements.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Indeed, I think if you're coming from the background that
some of these Mutual Movement members were coming from, you
need to put in that extra effort not to dumb
things down, per see, you still want to respect people's intelligence,
but you have to be aware of the dynamic. It's
something that I myself have to work on, you know,
because I think it's a sort of curse of knowledge
(18:46):
where you read so much that you take for granted
and what you know, you know, you read to a
point where you almost forget that this is not common
knowledge or this word may be unfamiliar to a lot
of people, and you already have to be cognizant of it,
especially as you're approaching people, and make sure you're talking
to them in their language. They don't feel as though
(19:07):
they're carrying yourself too big favorites.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Yeah, definitely, Like the people who write the thick books
can't be your like milieu, you know, they can't be
there refused the stupid word, but like if those are
the people with whom you're sort of conversing in your head,
and then you begin to to speak in that language.
To people who aren't familiar with it, it just sounds weird. Yeah,
like it's yeah, as you said, you get too big
(19:33):
for your bridges, and you some pompous if you're not.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Careful exactly exactly, And so for the you know, big
shot lawyer again all the time, and she kind of
as I say this, for big shot lawyer thats like
Marie Bisher and a big shot economics like like Bernard
(20:01):
Chord and some of the other folks that had been
part of the core of the party. They had to
approach to people in a particular way, and they were
successful in doing so under Eric Garry and as they
were part of the opposition. But things were shifted also
the two of the eighties, we had a lot of
moves again, suspected counter revolutionaries, imprisonment without trial. To imagine again,
(20:23):
people are thinking, this is what the monk who's gang
two point zero? Yeah, the fair was starting to overtake,
the society was starting to become cannibalizing, as I said.
So by the time we get to nineteen eighty three,
we find ourselves with the people bereft of the early
days of hope in a House divided, which famously cannot stand.
(20:44):
Unbeknowns to the public, there were tensions between Maurice Bishop
and Bernard coord since at least nineteen eighty two, and
coord wasn't even part of the Central Committee of the
Neutral Movement anymore for a while. But within the vanguard
the party members still preferred Cord to Bishop. Cord was
seen as more intellectually equipt to lead with his knowledge
(21:05):
of theory. They started calling Bishop egotistics and counter revolutionary.
And I have to say, I love the double edged
sword of these kind of willingly thought to meet and
cliches because they can be used by you and then
they could be used against you in a snappy fingers.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
Yeah, it goes back to your fing about hammers and
nails that you mentioned before.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Indeed, so eventually the party decided to bring Cord on
as co leader with Bishop. Originally Bishop agreed, but this
started to create tensions. Things managed recently, but after a
while Bishop was surtned to push back against the co
leadership arrangement and the party started seeing it as him
favoring his own ascendancy over the collective unity, and then
(21:52):
he went to Germany. He left the country on a trip.
Don't worry. There was none of the coolest time, at
least not yet. When he went to journey on a
trip came back, there was not a welcome party for him.
Things were coming to a head. The party did not
have his back anymore, he could feel it. But he
(22:14):
did know that the people still had his back. Remember,
he knows he's charismatic, he knows people love him. So
all of a sudden, this is in nineteen eighty three,
by the way, a rumor was swollen that Cord wanted
to kill Bishop. Yeah, it's a dangerous rumor, you know.
It shatters this facade of a united front that had
(22:35):
carried the revolution, that had carried the government for so long.
But since most people loved Bishop, as he rightfully assumed,
in fact, they were of first name basis with him,
that's cool. They weren't saying Prime Minister Bishop, your honorable
Prime Minister Bishop. It was hey, Maurice, like that boy, Maurice.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
Yeah, that's always a good sign. Like it's one of
the positive marks of the revolution with Shava is that
everyone is a friend, and everyone's referred to generally by
their first name, and it's always kind of yeah, I've
seen enough read enough about you know, revolutions opposing a
revolutionary hierarchy. So that's always a good sign, I feel like.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
Yeah. So meanwhile, you had Cord who people didn't have
the same kind of relationship with. Yeah, you know, as
far as they're concerned, he's an enemino because of that rumor. Yeah,
and the party actually suspected that it was Bishop that
started the rumor. In fact, his own post our bodyguards
(23:36):
suspected it, but Bishop himself denied it. Whether he did
or did not start the rumor, we don't know. But
the party was insulted by his movements and put him
under house arrest. What what right now? But he did
this shocked.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Like a shocked peaka.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
And that's that's that's how the people feeling it, Like
what a prime minister arrested? You could do that, that's
the thing.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
So you see, the Vanguard, with all that secrecy at
this point in time, was operating on information that was
not made available to the people, and the people who
are pissed at the party. Now, the cracks in this
political arrangement with essentially a secret society on top, were
starting to show. The people generally speaking regardless of what
(24:29):
the party wanted wanted Maurice Bishop. They wanted the boy Maurice,
but the party was not interested in what people wanted.
The day is nineteenth of October nineteen eighty three. The
pro Maurice Bishop usual movement, leaders, government ministers, and a
(24:50):
mass demonstration of people roll up to Bishop's house to
set him free. There were gods, of course, assigned to
keep him in house arrest, but it was God stood down.
They refused to shoot at the people. To the crowd
of people walked to Fort Rupert. Now Fort Rupert wasn't
always Fort Rupert used to be Fort George. Fact, after
(25:13):
the revolution ended it again became known as Fort George,
but Fort Rupert was named Fort Rupert after Maurice Bishop's father,
who was killed by Eric Garry, as you may recall.
So they get there, but the majority of the Udual movement,
who were, like I said, backers of Bernard Cord, were
(25:34):
at another fort nearby. Then boom, three armored trucks pull
up from the Fort of Cord to Rupert's Fort Fort Rupert,
Bratata Da. They start firing into the crowd. People running
all over the place. Who one people died who one
of people scattered. This event as a trauma for Grenadians
(25:55):
even to this day. By the way, so the Cord
loyalists pull up and line up Bishop Unison Whiteman, who
was the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nor Spain, who was
the Minister of Health and was actually not part of
the neutral movement, and Jacqueline Kraft, who is the Minister
of Education. They lined them up against the wall and
(26:15):
shot them summary execution. Others including trade unionists, businessmen, and
high schoolers who were also killed at Fort Rupert. Right
after this, the military curfew was announced on radio. Guinigains
were told to lock their doors. Violators of curfew were
to be shot on site. A couple of days later,
(26:38):
as people more wanted their dead, the news came that
the United States will invade Grenada. If this was a
HBO series, I feel like that would be the end
of the pronouncement episode. So just to give you a
bit of context on the US's position, the United States
did not like the way that Cuba and the Soviets
(27:01):
and Grenada were becoming close, even though Grenada was technically
non aligned, like much of the world, was trying to
stay out of the hairs of the US and the
USSR in their cold law. Yeah, but Grenada and Grenadians
represented a serious risk. They were black, that's a big risk.
(27:25):
They were English speaking. Yep, they were English speaking black
people close to the border of the United States of
America as African Americans were engaged in their own struggle
for liberation in the US as our reach. Bishop noted,
I mean that's the threat that there could be communication,
(27:47):
collaboration between these groups, a demonstration of an alternative close
to the United States with ease of communication with the
United States. So the United States invasion was always a
potential outcome, but here it was flexing power and its
fair in its backyard. The Party rounded up a bunch
(28:07):
of people to join them in defending the revolution. Most
people were traumatized. They ran and they hid wherever they could. Some,
regardless of whether they liked the mutual movement at that
point in time or not, stood ready to defend their
island from invasion. But anymore were hidden and scared. And
there were also others who, out of revenge for the
(28:30):
revolution that betrayed them, betrayed the revolution by expressing their
support for the invasion. Now me personally, that's something I
would never do. I don't care how much I disagree
with any government that I'm under. I wouldn't co sign
the invasion of my country by an empire. But I
(28:54):
can understand the reasoning or the emotional because that some
people were in at that point. So the US's claim,
by the way, for the invasion was that they were
there to rescue American students who were in Grenada. So
the there to rescue these students from these communes. Perfect
(29:19):
American students weren't ender any actual threat. Obviously, nobody was
mining them or threatening them or anything. But they always
have to have some kind of story, right, Yeah. So
twenty fifth of October nineteen eighty three, America's boots land
on the ground, joined later by the military personnel of
(29:40):
Barbados and Jamaica. There were more deaths, mostly in Grenadians,
but also some Cubans who were there working on the
new International Airport, an airport that later became known as
Maurice Bishop International Airport, an airport that just over a
(30:01):
month ago the United States requested to use for its
military operations in the region. The United States kept the
media out of the island for two days after the invasion.
They were sure to curate an image of the communist threat.
(30:21):
They wanted to pay into picture for the media to
tell us story back at home about how yeah, they
were actually preparing to work with the Soviets as a
stage in ground to attack the United States. So this
invasion was the first overt as opposed to covert use
of force since Vietnam. The party in power at the
(30:43):
time needed an easy win, so party members this is usual.
Movement party members were imprisoned, an interim government was established
by Grenadians living abroad, and the revolution was over a
(31:08):
stock aftermath, the fall of the Utual movement and the
People's Revolutionary Government of Grenada led to the disintegration of
the Worker's Party of Jamaica. It destroyed cara Com the
Caribbean community as a united bloc, as Jamaica and Trindad
decided with the US and the invasion, while countries like
(31:29):
Trindad stood against the invasion. That was a split in
cara Comb that took years to recover from, and I
think most crucially, the fall of the Neudual movement led
to the death in all but name of the Caribbean
left from distrust from inviting and from this resolute enforcement
(31:53):
of the new colonial model. For all the flaws of
the revolution, had it was a representation, have an alternative,
that something else could be done besides business as usual.
And that alternative first felt in fighting, and then its
fate was sealed by a belligerent invasion. Yeah, and so
(32:18):
the Caribbean left not say it, it's actually entirely dead.
There are still figures from that era, there are still
people who carry progressive or evolutionary politics, but it's had
it's goal and age is no more. And that is
in part as a result of that US invasion. And
(32:40):
within Grenado, the bodies of those killed were never found.
In some cases, the families of those killed or of
department members may even still be divided to this day.
You know, you can imagine how they must feel, these
sort of social and police to call divisions that came
(33:01):
out of that kind of action. Who sided with Cord,
who sided with Bishop, who sided with the US? Who
stood against who brought whose actions were a response over
the US come in. If the revolution never happened, then
US wouldn't have come, These people wouldn't be dead. Blame
game accusations political conflicts, all of that. You know, it's
(33:22):
very easy to breeze over the deaths of people in
historical events as just numbers, as just statistics. You know,
it doesn't even click, you know, because I think, I
don't think our brains can fully handle that much trauma
at once, So we we could partmentalize it in a way,
we package it in something that's a bit more digestible
(33:44):
when you hear figures of you know, even just two
people dead. That's two people, two entire human beings with lives, interests, passions, relationships, connections,
future snuffed out. And in a country like Grenader from
a small country, one hundred thousand people, and I mean
(34:07):
I'm from Trinad, right, which has a population of about
one point four million people, and it still feels like
you know somebody who knows somebody. The networks are so tight.
It's even tighter knit network wise in a Grenader or
a Tobago. You know, we're talking neighbors, relatives split into sides,
cousin blaming, cousin, friend killing friend, a decolonization never fully
(34:33):
began and never fully completed. Their social splits. On the
perspective on what took place you had the Bishop was
good crowd, the Bishop was bad crowd. The Bishop was bad,
but the revolution was good crowd. The revolution was bad
with Bishop was good crowd. You get all sorts of interpretations,
(34:55):
these kinds of traumatic historical events. Yeah, and the outcome
to this day is, you know, fair, unhealed, open wounds,
the youth, the passionate radical youth of yesteryear, keeping their
heads down on auto politics. Today. Unfortunately, very little has
been done in Grenea to deal with the traumas of
(35:15):
the invasion. Besides an attempted truth and Reconciliation commission, which
failed miserably due to a couple different obstacles, an unwillness
to reconcile among some, they continued incarceration of certain individuals,
unrecovered remains, anger towards entire sectors the population at the
(35:36):
execution of Bishop and others, and so in the years
that have followed, there's been a subdued political consciousness among
much of the population. They have risen to the challenge
of the US inviting themselves to set up shop in
Marich Bishop International Airport. There were many actions taken place
(36:00):
in Grenada to speak up under stand against that intervention,
but for the most part, the propy of this has
been disengaged from the sort of radical passion that you
saw in that time period. And it didn't help, of course,
that pretty much right after the revolution you had a
(36:21):
series of natural disasters. In September two thousand and four,
after being hurricane three for forty nine years, the island
was hit by Hurricane Ivan, a Category three hurricane that
resulted in thirty nine deaths and the damage or destruction
to ninety percent of the island's homes. In two thousand
and five, which is the following year, Hurricane Emily, a
(36:43):
Category one hurricane, struck the island and killed a person.
In twenty twenty four, Hurricane Beryl struck the island of Kariaku.
And so we're already dealing with the environmental instability of
being a Caribbean island, but now I also have to
be with the political and social instability of such a
traumatic incident. Before we close, I do want to get
(37:05):
into some of the critiques that I had of this project.
You know, I'm not the type of reason to look
at these historical moments, no matter my allegiance to the
exposed politics of the people in them. And we want
to paint them in a narrow or simplistic brush. You know,
I think I see that tendency across all groups. Yeah,
(37:27):
you know, the mark slellness. We'll talk about these revolutions
in a very fawning and agulating way. Then you're so
the anarchists to talk about, you know, the Spanish Civil War,
they talk about the Paris community. They talk about these
different projects as if they were and as if they
weren't serious flaws in their structure and the analysis and
(37:49):
their methodology. It's worth addressing.
Speaker 3 (37:52):
You know.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
It's very easy for nostalgia to take over.
Speaker 3 (37:55):
Yeah, definitely like something I think about a lot. Like
I translated a piece for the Strangers in a Tangled
Wilderness zine a few months ago, maybe even a year
ago now by an anarchist fighter who fought in the
International Group of the Druti Column who went by several names,
Charles Riddle with his birth name, but he has this
(38:15):
whole thing about how anarchists tend to write hagiographies, which
is the life of a saint, right, Like they've tried
to make the Spanish Civil War into these like exemplaries
saintly people as opposed to actually looking at the mistakes
people made and his stances are like his friends died
for nothing if we don't learn anything, and so if
(38:37):
we don't acknowledge the very real compromises and mistakes and failures,
then they have been defeated, right, and they all died
for nothing. But if at least we can learn from it,
then at least of something we can take going forward,
which is something I always thought was a great way
of phrasing something and quite an admirable way of looking
(38:57):
at something that he himself participated in and it was
obviously defining a very traumatic experience of his life.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
Yeah, it's something that I've rallied against, that sort of
great man approach history. Yeah right, I suppose that brings
me some of my first critique, which is something that
plays Grenada both before, during and after. It is revolution
when you have a political culture dependent on a maximum
(39:26):
leader or a personality cult or just a grouping around
her personality, whether that's Bishop or Gary or Cord. For one,
it's a continuation of the colonial politics of the British
in that sort of governor position, and it also I
think leads to a contempt towards common people, whether it
(39:48):
starts out that way or not, it eventually makes its
way into that direction. I still see personality politics rear
and it's ugly headed in Trinidad, even though we've been
independent even longer, you know, nineteen sixty two as opposed
to creator as nineteen seventy four. But the result of
that kind of politics is, you know, it's ideological and
(40:10):
policy splits either non existent or secondary to personality loyalties,
familiar ties, and in some cases ethnic loyalty. The United
National Congress, you went to see the party in power
intranet right now, party responsible for our current position is
a personality cult led by a current Prime minister talent
(40:31):
sub processor, and she's only one of many examples of
this sort of party first, leader first approach to politics
that we see in the region, a baggage that we
see in the region. I know, with radical politics, it's
sad because you expect to do away with that kind
(40:52):
of stuff. But the Revolution, in my view, had a
lack of decolonization away from the authoritarian tendencies of colonial rule.
That I think is why there was such an appeal
in Leninist thought and rule to begin with, Because it's
a lot easier to approach. You know, it doesn't unpack
(41:13):
the psychology of clonialism, or unpack how Gary's rule may
have shaped their own approach to politics. That another politics might,
that another anti politics might, and so they carried on
this elitist, authoritarian, and personality based politics despite having a
youthful beginning. Bishop was twenty nine when he started a
(41:37):
neutral movement, which is the same age that Gary was
when he got into politics. I know one could make
a movie of the mirrors in their histories, but despite
his youthful beginning, the youth carried on the mistakes of
their forebearers. They betrayed the excitement of people power that
people had for the revolution, just as they betrayed the
excitement of people power that people had for independence, and
(42:00):
they continue the consciousness of deference to hierarchy. Again, I
don't want to draw one to one comparisons between Gary
and Bishop. I recognize their stark differences and their politics,
and in their engagement with the people of Grenado they
were not the same, but in some ways they did rhyme.
(42:21):
I would wrap up, I suppose with Bundy's sort of
critique of Grenada's revolution, which is what I just echoed
this continued consciousness of a deference to hierarchy. A genuine
revolution depends on people taking direct responsibility, not waiting for
leaders or stages of development, not waiting on guidance, being
(42:42):
empowered themselves. That sort of tired Leninist gradualism and bureaucratic
control gets regular people no closer to actually having a
sense of autonomy and control over their lives. And as
funny sizes, especially in small Caribbean societies, participatory local self
(43:08):
managed systems are entirely feasible. Inclosing, fundly suggested that Grenada's
revolution failed because it moved away from this principle of
immediate collective self management and deliberately chose hierarchy. And from
that hierarchy came a sense of erodent trust, came, a
sense of secrecy, became a sense of secret societies, and
(43:31):
I created a culture of secrecy, a post transparency that
led to its downfall. As I mentioned, it was gossip,
a rumor of somebody trying to kill Bishop that got
this ball roller. So today I want to appeal directly
to Cribian radicals of all stripes to learn to learnessly
(43:53):
learn from the Grenadian revolution on appeal not just to
Cribian radicals, but to radicals all look across the world,
all across our listenership. It is critical in times when
the means of intervention and the means of disruption and
(44:14):
division and co optation are more powerful than ever, that
you engage in the sort of dissipation of leadership, that
you engage in grassroots and dispersed in powerment, That you
maintain an anti authoritarian ethos that cannot be co opted
(44:35):
by a charismatic power. But you're take an approach to
organization that does not lend itself to the vulnerabilities of hierarchy,
that you consider moving like my coruser, that you take
on networks and free associations rather than the sort of
X Marx Spot Bullseye centralized parties and the power struggle
(45:00):
that ensue from them from that first for power that
led so many downfalls for the revolutionary imagination. Before I
wrap up, I just want to ask James, we have
any thoughts.
Speaker 3 (45:15):
No. I think that's very eloquent the way you said it,
Like we have to build systems and ways of organizing
or relating to one another that don't allow this to happen, right,
we have to be very conscious, like you say, of
where it has happened. And I think the only way
there'll we understand the value of that is through studying history,
(45:36):
but like studying it from a place like you were saying, right,
like I get death is a statistic or a number
until it's a person. And I think if we can
study history from a place of like empathy, I guess,
and solidarity rather than this would never happen to me,
or like you said, like oversimplifying in a way that
I think doesn't help. And sometimes I think we do
(45:58):
it to kind of absorb ourselves from similarity, to think like, oh,
how close could I be to this? It's one of
the things I don't like about academic history that if
we are people who are interested in making the world better,
than we have to learn from all the other people
all over the world who tried to make the world
better in it, especially from the ones who didn't succeed. Yeah,
(46:23):
because we don't want to do that again.
Speaker 2 (46:25):
Like exactly and the times the ority engine. Yes, indeed,
we have to approach that with our due diligence, you know,
the strategies that were more relevant or more practical in
particular context, may be relevant or practical in your contexts.
Speaker 3 (46:45):
Yeah very much so. All right, yeah that was great,
Thank you Andrew.
Speaker 2 (46:51):
To all our listeners, thank you so much for tuning in.
I hope that you can look at our region with
clearer eyes and visualize us in the way is that
history repeats and rhymes. Until next time, We'll powell to
all the people peace.
Speaker 1 (47:13):
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