Grenada: Remembering a Revolution · Global Voices
October 19 was the 29th anniversary of the bloody military coup in Grenada which ousted leader <PERSON> from government and prompted the United States-led invasion of the country. Two bloggers marked the occasion with detailed posts about what happened and how it forever changed the course of Grenada's history.
Blah Bloh Blog, who reposts her 2005 blog entry about the events every year on the anniversary of the uprising, noted that:
The events of that fateful day would have profound social and political ramifications that resound in Grenada even now in 2012.
North American Congress on Latin America blogger <PERSON> remembered the date as “[when] the United States attacked the island’s population of 110,000 with 7,000 troops via land, sea, and air” and put examined the decision in the context of the Cold War:
<PERSON> was also eager to score a military victory and restore the confidence that had been lost after the Vietnam War and the overthrowing of the Shah in Iran. This victory was to come at the expense of the Grenadian people, and the wider hopes of the Caribbean, in constructing a model of society based on social justice.
<PERSON> provided further background by explaining:
The Grenadian Revolution began on March 13, 1979, when the New Joint Endeavor for Welfare Education and Liberation, or the New Jewel Movement, overthrew the corrupt and increasingly oppressive government of <PERSON>. <PERSON> described life under <PERSON> as one of ‘a total dependence on imperialism, a reality that meant extreme poverty, characterized by massive unemployment, with more than half of the work force out of work, high malnutrition, illiteracy, backwardness, superstition, poor housing and health conditions combined with overall economic stagnation and massive migration.’
The role of the Grenadian Revolution, its importance to the wider Caribbean, and the threat it posed for the United States was best summed up by <PERSON> who remarked in 1980 that ‘We are obviously no threat to America, nor is Cuba for that matter. I think Washington fears that we could set an example for the rest of the region if our Revolution succeeds. In the Caribbean region you’re talking about small countries with small populations and limited resources, countries that over the years have been classic examples of neo-capitalist depend­encies. Now you have these new governments like Nicaragua and Grenada that are attempting a different experiment.They are no longer looking at development as how many hotels you have on the beach but in terms of what benefits people get. We certainly believe in Grenada that the people of the English-speaking Caribbean want to see an experiment like that succeed. 289
America understands that and obviously if we are able to succeed where previous governments following different models failed, that would be very, very subversive.’
The blog post claims that “the <PERSON> administration had to figure out a way to portray Grenada as an immediate threat to the world’s preeminent superpower” and claims that “this was done by portraying the construction of the Port Salines International Airport as the latest Soviet attempt to launch an attack on the United States.”
Both bloggers agreed on the push factors that caused the coup. Blah Bloh Blog explained:
In the latter years of the Revolution (or the Revo as it is still called), <PERSON> and his political partner <PERSON> began to drift apart ideologically. As one writer would put it, ‘One current of Grenadian socialism was egalitarian, democratic, and Jamesian; the other was hierarchical, statist, command-oriented, placing power above the masses..’
…while <PERSON> wrote:
A personal and factional rivalry began between <PERSON> and <PERSON>. <PERSON> was regarded as being more pragmatic, while <PERSON> on the other hand was seen by many as being much more ‘Stalinist’ and doctrinaire in character. <PERSON>’s ultra-left counter-revolution was extremely bloody, killing <PERSON>, his pregnant girlfriend, and many of his supporters in the Revolutionary cabinet. With the killing of such a charismatic and visionary leader, this was the date when the Grenadian Revolution was dealt its hardest blow; the invasion simply finished things off.
Before this could happen, one of the most vital elements which helped <PERSON> build his case for invasion came in the form of a request by the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States to invade Grenada to restore democratic institutions. The OECS leader and Prime Minister of Dominica, <PERSON>, made the request.
Twenty-nine years later, the events are still fresh in Blah Bloh Blog's mind:
I remember that day even now. October 19th 1983. I was 12, and my grandmother kept my brother and me home from school. 192