Winston
Bernard Coard was born in Grenada
on 10th August 1944. Coard studied at the Grenada
Boys Secondary School where he met Maurice
Bishop.
As
a young man Coard developed an interest in politics and in 1962 joined
with Bishop 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.
Coard
moved to the United States to study economics
and sociology at Brandeis University in Massachusetts. In 1967 he
moved to England and studied political economy at Sussex University
in Brighton. While in England Coard joined
the Communist Party.
Coard
taught for two years at schools in London. In 1971 he published his
book How the West Indian Child is Made Educationally
Subnormal in the British School System. After completing
his doctorate Coard moved to Trinidad where he taught at the University
of the West Indies. He was also a visiting lecturer at the Institute
of International Relations at St. Augustine.
In
1976 Coard returned to Grenada and soon
became active in politics and joined the New
Jewel Movement (NJM), an organization created by his boyhood friend,
Maurice
Bishop.
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, 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,
Maurice
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. 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, along with Phyllis Coard, Selwyn Strachan, John Ventour, Liam
James and Keith Roberts, were arrested on 31st October 1983. The leaders
of the coup were put on trial in August 1986. Along with 13 others,
Board was sentenced to death. This sentence was 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.
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