In
1969 Maurice Bishop returned to Grenada
after studying law in England. Soon afterwards he 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).
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, Maurice 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, 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.
(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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