Maurice
Bishop, the son of Rupert and Alimenta Bishop, was born in Grenada
on 29th May 1944. An intelligent pupil, Bishop
won a scholarship to the Roman Catholic Presentation Boys College.
While at this school he won the gold medal for "outstanding academic
and all round ability."
As
a young man Bishop developed an interest in politics and in 1962 joined
with Bernard Coard to form the Grenada
Assembly of Youth After Truth. Twice a month Bishop and Cord led debates
on current events in the Central Market Place in Grenada.
In
1963 Bishop went to London where he studied
law at London University. While at university Bishop became chairperson
of the West Indian Students Society and co-founded a legal aid clinic
for the West Indian community in Notting Hill. He was also a member
of the Campaign Against Racial Discrimination (CARD).
Bishop
married a nurse, Angela Redhead, in 1966. Bishop continued to do voluntary
work with the Legal Aid Clinic in Notting Hill. In 1969 he qualified
as a barrister and the following year returned to Grenada.
Bishop soon became active in politics and helped form the Movement
for Assemblies of the People (MAP) and the Movement for the Advance
of Community (MACE). In 1973 these organizations merged with Joint
Endeavor for Welfare, Education and Liberation (JEWEL) to establish
the New Jewel Movement (NJM).
The
most important political figure during this period was Eric
Gairy, the leader of the Grenada United Labour Party (GULP) and
prime minister of the country. In 1970 Gairy formed a private army
called the Mongoose Gang. On 18th November, 1973, Bishop and two other
members of the NJM were badly beaten by this gang. Bishop suffered
a broken jaw in the attack and was hospitalized for several weeks.
Gairy
began argued that Grenada should be granted its independence from
Britain. In May 1973 Gairy visited London
where he discussed this issue with Edward Heath
and it was agreed that Grenada would become independent in February,
1974. Bishop
and other members of New Jewel Movement
were worried by this decision. It was feared that Gairy would install
himself as a dictator after independence. A Committee of 22 was established
by the trade unions, civic organizations and the church. On 1st January
1974 the group called a national strike.
On
21st January 1974 the Committee of 22 held a protest march. During
the demonstration the marchers were attacked by the police. Several
people were injured and Rupert Bishop, Maurice Bishop's father, was
killed.
Eric
Gairy
and his Grenada United Labour Party won the elections held on 7th
November, 1976. However, opposition leaders complained that all election
officials were members of GULP and that they had tampered with the
voting papers. As a result of these elections Bishop became leader
of the opposition.
In
1977 Gairy began receiving advice from General Augusto
Pinochet of
Chile
on
how to deal with civil unrest. His police and military also received
"counter insurgency" training from the Pinochet regime.
Bishop and the New Jewel Movement retaliated by developing links with
Fidel Castro and his Marxist
government in Cuba.
Gairy's
state of mind also raised concerns. In October 1977 Gairy addressed
the General Assembly of the United Nations.
During his speech he urged the UN to establish an Agency for Psychic
Research into Unidentified Flying Objects and the Bermuda Triangle.
He also called for 1978 to be established as "The Year of the
UFO".
In
1979 a rumour began circulating that Gairy planned to use his "Mongoose
Gang" to assassinate leaders of the New
Jewel Movement while he was out of the country. On
13th March 1979, Bishop and the NJM took over the nation's radio station.
With the support of the people the NJM was able to take control of
the rest of the country.
Influenced
by the ideas of Marxists such as Fidel
Castro, Che Guevara
and Daniel
Ortega,
Bishop began establishing Workers' Councils in Grenada. He received
aid from the Soviet Union and Cuba
and with this money constructed a aircraft runway to improve tourism.
Bishop
attempted to develop a good relationship with the United States and
allowed private enterprise to continue on the island. Bernard
Coard, the Minister of Finance, disagreed with this policy. He
also disliked Bishop's ideas on grassroots democracy. On 19th October,
with the support of the army, Coard overthrew the government. Maurice
Bishop and most of his ministers were arrested and executed.
President
Ronald Reagan, who had been highly critical
of Bishop's government, took this opportunity to intervene and sent
in the United States Marines. The
initial assault on 25th October, 1983, consisted of some 1,200 troops,
and they were met by stiff resistance from the Grenadian army. Heavy
fighting continued for several days, but as the invasion force grew
to more than 7,000, the defenders either surrendered or fled into
the mountains.
Bernard
Coard and 13 others were sentenced to death but these sentences were
commuted to life-imprisonment in 1991. His wife, Phyllis Coard, was
also sentenced to life-imprisonment. While in prison Bernard Coard
has developed a programme of education for the 300 inmates of Richmond
Hill Prison.
(1)
Manifesto
of the New
Jewel Movement (1973)
The people are being cheated and have been cheated for too long-cheated
by both parties, for over twenty years. Nobody is asking what the
people want. We suffer low wages and higher cost of living while the
politicians get richer, live in bigger houses and drive around in
even bigger cars. The government has done nothing to help people build
decent houses; most people still have to walk miles to get water to
drink after 22 years of politicians.
If we fall sick we catch
hell to get quick and cheap medical treatment. Half of us can't find
steady work. The place is getting from bad to worse every day - except
for the politicians (just look at how they dress and how they move
around). The police are being used in politics these days and people
are getting more and more blows from them. Government workers who
don't toe the Gairy line are getting fired left and right.
The government has no idea
how to improve agriculture, how to set up industries, how to improve
housing, health, education and general well-being of the people. They
have no ideas for helping the people. All they know is how to take
the people's money for themselves, while the people scrape and scrunt
for a living.
We believe that the main
concern of us all is to (1) prevent the daily rise in prices of all
our food and clothes and other essentials (it is unbelievable but
that the price you can get for a pound of cocoa can't buy a half-pound
of fish) and (2) develop a concrete program for raising the standard
of housing, living, education, health, food and recreation for all
the people
The present situation we
face is that we are forced to live in jammed-up, rundown, unpainted
houses without toilet and bath, without running water, very poor roads,
overcrowded schools where our children can't get a decent education,
and without any proper bus service. There is almost no ambulance service
in case of illness. We can't afford the cost of food to feed our children
properly and this makes it easier for them to catch all kinds of illnesses.
There are very few places near home for recreation. All we have is
the rum shop to drown our troubles. It's almost impossible to buy
clothes or shoes these days. The prices are ridiculous.
(2)
Maurice
Bishop, speech (March, 1979)
Let me assure the people of Grenada that all democratic freedoms,
including freedom of elections, religious and political opinion, will
be fully restored to the people. People of Grenada, this revolution
is for work, for food, for decent housing and health services, and
for a bright future for our children and great grandchildren.
(3)
Grenada
Revolution Online (2002)
Bishop was 6’ 3" tall, an excellent speaker; a handsome
man with recognized charismatic features of personality. He was known
to be pragmatic in that he held that the results of an idea are the
best criteria by which to judge its merit. He appeared not to be rigid
about this for he kept creativity and hope alive in his vision. He
was more a realist in terms of figuring how ideas would work out.
He was articulate and warm with people.
Bishop's charisma and his
democratic sensibilities, though, proved not to be a substitute for
wielding authority and leadership. On the distaff side Bishop was
criticized for being wandering, wavering and waffling. The charge
that he was 'vacillating' repeatedly occurs.
(4)
Kendrick Radix, a member of the NJM government, was interviewed about
Bernard
Coard in 1984.
In 1978, there was some dissatisfaction with his (Coard's) performance
because he introduced a new style of leadership into the party leadership.
Politely, it could be called lobbying, but more accurately I would
call it a type of subversion, canvassing, infighting. Instead of collective
consideration and amendment of various proposals, he would arrive
with an already worked out package, and through force of personality,
convince the others to accept it. This fundamentally conflicted with
collective functioning, and was not received well. An attempt was
made to remove him, but the move was stalled with the personal intercession
of Bishop.
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