Grenada with Andrew, Pt. 2

you should go and give it a listen. The gist is that, after drawn out efforts to gain independent nuns, 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,

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.

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 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 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

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

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 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 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

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

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 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.

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, 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, 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 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, 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, 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.

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 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 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 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 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 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 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, 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

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, 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 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 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 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

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

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, 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, 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 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.

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. 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.

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 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 they have read. And it could rub people the wrong way.

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 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 they're carrying yourself too big favorites.

moves again, suspected counter revolutionaries, imprisonment without trial. To imagine again, 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.

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 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.

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 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 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.

under house arrest. What what right now? But he did this shocked.

The day is nineteenth of October nineteen eighty three. The pro Maurice Bishop usual movement, leaders, government ministers, and a 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 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 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 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

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, 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 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.

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, 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 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 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 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 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 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 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. 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 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 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 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

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 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 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 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 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 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 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

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, 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

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 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 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

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 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 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, 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 their methodology. It's worth addressing.

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 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 at something that he himself participated in and it was obviously defining a very traumatic experience of his life.

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 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 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 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

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 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 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 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.

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 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 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 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 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 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

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 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.

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 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, because we don't want to do that again.