The Revolution
Standing on the wide stone wall of Fort George, I can feel the layers of history. The view of the city is beautiful. Cannons on either side of me point towards the turquoise ocean. The stones are weathered. Poised above the entry to the port, the strategic advantage of Fort George is clear. From here, the French, then British, could defend its harbors.
During their reign, Britain developed a plantation economy—primarily nutmeg and cocoa—by abducting and enslaving people from Nigeria and Ghana. By the time enslaved people were emancipated in 1834, the “Spice Island” population was mostly of African descent.
For the next hundred years, Britain ran Grenada from afar by appointing a governor and limiting voting rights to the elite. Eric Matthew Gairy led the trade union in violent resistance to this system, and Britain ultimately granted Grenada their independence in 1974.
Eric Gairy became prime minister of the newly independent nation, but his political party—Grenada United Labour Party (yes, GULP)—became corrupted. Gairy maintained a private group of militants called the Mongoose Gang. As opposition to him grew, people were attacked or disappeared. In breaking up one protest, the Mongoose Gang killed a man named Rupert Bishop, father of Maurice.
The left-wing New Jewel Movement formed, gaining popular support for change. Maurice Bishop emerged as a leader. On March 13, 1979, the armed movement took control in a nearly bloodless coup while Gairy was abroad. Maurice Bishop became prime minister of the People’s Revolutionary Government.
Incidentally, Andrew was just under a year old at the time and living with his parents and older sister in the tiny fishing town of Gouyave along Grenada’s west coast. They were somewhat removed from the main action in St. George’s, but still found their lives and movements affected by shifting unrest and curfews. They completed their time in Grenada later that summer as the new government dug into its agenda.
With Marxist underpinnings and their motto, “Forward Ever, Backward Never,” the People’s Revolutionary Government (PRG) set to work improving education, employment, health care, infrastructure, and agriculture. They posted billboards proclaiming, “Never Too Old To Learn,” and trained people of all ages. They enacted laws to protect fair pay and maternity leave for women. With help from Castro’s Cuba, they began building a runway on the Southern end of the island, which is today’s airport. They were ambitious. They made mistakes.
From their interactions with Grenadians, the Gaschos retain an impression of the revolution as damaging and disruptive to people’s lives. There is also evidence for people’s significant support of the revolution. Today—only 44 years after the coup—opinions still run strong in support or critique of Gairy and Bishop.
Within and surrounding this new government, disagreement festered. Gairy supporters remained. The PRG banned the capitalist newspaper and handled dissent by jailing vocal opponents. Division inside the party resulted in Bernard Coard—Bishop’s deputy—taking control. Maurice Bishop was placed on house arrest by his own army.
On October 19, 1983, the people filled the streets and marched to his house, freeing him. They convened at Fort George. The army arrived. Violence ensued. Some people escaped by road or by jumping from the fort walls. Maurice Bishop (age 39) and ten others were then executed by firing squad.
I turn from the cannons and the ocean now to look down into the large square courtyard. So much happened on this spot in this nation about twice the size of Staten Island. So much was dreamed and lost.
On October 19, the army immediately enacted a strict curfew across the island. Citing concern for American medical students and fear of Russia gaining another communist foothold in the Caribbean, U.S. president Ronald Reagan deployed nearly 2,000 U.S. troops to the tiny island nation.
In justifying this military action, Reagan did not mention the scant intelligence they possessed regarding Grenada, the speculative nature of his concerns, or the desire for a America-bolstering success on the heels of the devastating October 23 attack on U.S. military barracks in Lebanon.
On October 25, 1983, the United States invaded Grenada in the controversial and inaptly named Operation Urgent Fury. The People’s Revolutionary Government was unseated. A U.S.-approved interim government was installed, headed by Governor-General Paul Scoon. In 1984, the New National Party won general elections, and Grenada has maintained a democratic constitutional government.
Grenada still contains this turbulent political history, but it is also a small island of around 120,000 people. I look across Fort George at the town of St. George’s, where political opponents—even those who were once armed against each other—are living as cousins and neighbors and in-laws and coworkers, as they were before the revolution.
Today, there is a rejuvenated civic energy under the recently elected Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell. He is a young (my age) forward thinker who has been compared in some ways with Maurice Bishop. The future of Grenada holds possibility. Meanwhile, Grenada is evidence of a small population’s ability to live together somehow, despite deeply held philosophical differences and a painful history of division.
