One year after the invasion - elections under US occupation the country directly. However, the Interim Council, which was set up a year ago, and the Governor-General Paul Scoon were too unpopular for the elections to be put off any further.
This policy of putting Grenada 'on probation' has not come off without incidents. For example, recently, in
The invasion of Grenada by US forces under cover of a Caribbean joint operation was carried out in special circumstances that helped to assure its
It put an end to the short-lived regime of the Military Revolutionary Council (MRC), which was universally hated. Headed by General Hudson Austin and supported by the Bernard Coard faction of the
New Jewel Movement (NJM), the MRC was responsible for the assassination of Maurice Bishop and several others.
decision to impose a curfew and to disarm comed the arrival of US troops with a feeling of great relie population wel hardly surprising that the vast majority of the island's
Two to three thousand people were arrested by the occupying forces and taken to what were virtually internment camps, where they were interrogated and beaten up by the CIA. They were then presented with green cards that enjoined them in no uncertain terms not to get involved in any future political activity.
Meanwhile, the psychological warfare section of the US army started their vast machinery rolling to convince Grenadans that they had not only been saved from Bernard Coard but also from Cuban domination. The
Governor-General of the island, Paul Scoon, pushed through emergency measures, in particular forbidding all public meetings except religious services or business meetings.
One might imagine that the US would try to make Grenada into a kind of regional showpiece of bourgeois democracy and prosperity by pumping in the dollars. One might also have assumed that the revolutionary movement would find itself without any prospect for reconstruction for many years to come. One year later, however, quite another scenario is
Laurent BEAULIEU
In December 1983 the United States withdrew the vast bulk of the occupying troops, which then numbered six thousand for a population of 100,000 inhabitants. About 300 Americans remained military staff for the most part, plus the same number of Caribbean soldiers provided mainly by Jamaica and Barbados.
The foreign military presence is still very much in evidence today with jeep patrols, helicopters flying over the contry, soldiers posted at the police stations
- even if it is not all-pervasive, except in extreme south of the island, near the Point Salines airport.
In general, the US soldiers are fairly discreet.
It is rare to them strolling arrogantly see around the streets.
The occupying troops are primarily there as a permanent warning of the limits to which any possible opposition to the regime can go. They also act as a kind of intelligence network.
The island is sufficiently small for the US embassy to be able to find out everything that is going on. They do not need to completely patrol the island with uniformed soldiers in order to achieve this.
more, US imperialism is currently working toward the setting up of a regional military force based on the armies and
14
It also took the criminal the militias. It is therefore police forces of the various Eastern Caribbean islands.
Such a force would be based a few dozen kilometers from Grenada and would by equipped with means for rapid
These troops will play the same role of dissuasion that the occupation force is playing at the moment, when and if the latter are withdrawn
This is not to mention the fact that the US green berets will be training an elite Grenadan force which will complement the 600-strong police force at present under construction.
The invasion has not, however, led to the complete crushing of the population. The US has not chosen a policy of repressing everything that moves, because it knows very well that such a policy would lead them into continual confrontations with the local population. Also, for the United States, Grenada is less important for its own sake than for the role it plays as an example of the US' determination to pursue its counterrevo-
It was the image that Grenada gave of a revolution on the march that had to be
In contrast, the image that the country is supposed to project today is one of a democracy supported by the
This is what led the US to set up, at least provisionally, a regime which
Grenville, a young Grenadan was killed by a US soldier. Acts of intimidation are by no means unusual. A few days after the formation of the Maurice Bishop Patriotic Movement (MBPM), a bomb was placed in front of the home of its president, Kendrick Radix. Thorough searches, supposedly for arms caches, are not unusual.
The point is that this policy of limited repression is very precarious and at any moment the mask of democracy could suddenly slip. An example of this came about recently with the replacement, overnight, of the person responsible for the elections, Roy Chasteau. The reason given was one of ill-health but in reality, Chasteau demonstrated a spirit of independence which the Americans thought made him unsuitable for the post.
In particular, he is said to have favoured re-opening the electoral register, which had been closed in the spring, when many people, especially the youth, had lost interest in elections. The affair did not end there either. After stormy discussions with Paul Scoon, the election workers went on strike. The majority of them were subsequently sacked.
US policy is so fragile that it has not been possible to turn Grenada into a showcase of Western prosperity. In fact, The spirit of Maurice Bishop lives on (DR)
International Viewpoint 26 November 1984
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GRENADA
International Viewpoint 26 November 1984 sabotage by the left.
siderable, but had revolutionary jobs.
individuals.
to implement regime.
been cut to half.
Journalists who
The standard of living has been badly
• affected by price rises and the ending of most of the social programmes brought in by the revolutionary government.
of these programmes still exist on paper, but they have been emptied of all content.
There are many examples of this.
The Interim public transport system still exists, but a lot of buses are kept in the garage, which allows for the growth of the private minibus services whose prices are much higher.
Public health remains free, but many of the doctors who worked in the clinics were foreigners who were expelled a year
US.
ago. The public body that controlled imports of certain basic produets, the
National Importing Board
For example,
(MNIB), no longer has the right to import directly and is therefore forced to sell at the same price as the private shops.
These
US attacks trade unions
The present authorities know that increases in unemployment present a huge threat to the political stability of the island. The United States Association for
International Development (USAID) is which had trying to increase the number of schemes for creating temporary employment. But going around the island you cannot help wondering what happened to the 57 milhas have lion dollars — a considerable sum for such a small country - which the US was supposed to allocate in 1984.
In fact the 'aid' policy of the US is governed by two considerations. Firstly ly led a strike.
the aid must not be too expensive be-
Some cause the USA would then be obliged, politically, to do the same for the regimes of the other small islands of the Carib.
revolutionary the bean that have demonstrated their allegiance by participating in the Grenadan invasion. On the other hand, the immediate objective was to finish the airport and create an infrastructure around it to attract US investment.
*Investors want elections, security and
1983.
an infrastructure. We will give them all three, but this requires patience, forgotten.
USAID representative in Grenada stated recently. The New York Times of July
29, 1984, was more explicit about the intentions of the Reagan administration.
It revealed that the US was opposed to the international banks giving the needed loans to public companies in trouble, and such as that state-owned banks already been classed as 'good bargains for private buyers.
The daily newspaper added that the
US 'was insisting on the value of a young,
English-speaking workforce paid four or five dollars a day, which, although more than the three dollars a day paid in
Haiti, still represents a bargain compared to wages in Central America, the far East
Bishop'.
and the other traditional centres of cheap
One of the objectives of US imperialism was to bring the trade-union movement to its knees. The trade unions have certainly come in for some rough treatfew months, but the imperialists' aim has not been acheived
Others were
The United States
In fact,
George
'spirit of Maurice
15
summer, a new spirit has begun to awaken in the population.
The occupying troops came to be looked on no longer with benevolence but with mistrust. In some cases, they were treated with open hostility by some layers of the population. Grenadans never had many illusions in the blessings the US occupation might bring, but they saw their situation getting worse and worse every day. On top of this, a section of the population began to get interested in politics again. Last May, for example, an opinion poll revealed that the majority of Grenadans were not interested in elections. The results of such a poll would be very different today. The relative size of
Leaders of the MBPM: Einstein Louison (left) and Kendrick Radix (DR) is clear enough evidence of this. Left reorganise
The turnaround in the situation convinced the MBPM to put up candidates in the December 3 legislative elections. For the MBPM, the elections present the opportunity to contrast the disastrous policies that have been pursued over the last year to the achievements of Maurice Bishop's revolutionary government. also provides the chance to reestablish a dialogue with the people and to reestablish the links with former sympathisers of the NJM.
The MBPM, emerge as an active and dynamic force. On October 19, one year atter what they call 'Bernard's shame' , a meeting was held attracted about 2,000 people. This was the most important political meeting that had been held for a year. This was not just a meeting to honour the martyrs of a year ago. It also marked the launching of the MBPM's campaign. The people present took up slogans like
"The people united will never be defeated' and 'Maurice Bishop',
Everywhere, throughout the day, people of all ages were sporting badges of Maurice Bishop and his comrades, and some even went into mourning.
Maurice Bishop premises was constantly full of people looking for badges, photographs, posters and T-shirts. Some brought petitions demanding that the bodies of the martyrs be returned to their families or that the international airport be named after Maurice Bishop.
Two thousand leaflets were distributed in half a day. Five hundred people were present at a religious service alongside the families of Maurice Bishop and his mur-
Four hundred people turned up at the cemetry for the unveiling of a bust of Maurice Bishop, even though this ceremony had not been an-
On October 25, 1984, the anniversary of the invasion, when the Chamber of Commerce closed all the shops so that everyone could participate in the religious ceremonies (which were not a great success to give thanks for the American soldiers, the MBPM organised a hommage in the cemetery to the soldiers of the revolutionary army who died defending
On October 29, the MBPM organised, in a few hours, a meeting to support the election workers who had been sacked.
were organised in several districts and MBPM posters were pasted up all over the island. MBPM premises were opened up to the public apart from the one in St. George's.
Among some young people, the MBPM seems to have made a significant impact. The enthusiasm that was shown for the recent MBPM initiatives proves that certain sections of the population have remained politicised.
The October 19 meeting was very impressive in this respect. The crowds there raised their fists and chanted revolutionary slogans with deep conviction. Moreover, the fact that, despite all the anticommunist propaganda that has been heaped on the Grenadan people for the last year, the name of Fidel Castro was with great force, is indicative of the changes that are taking place.
When the airport was opened under the name of Point Salines on October 28, a group of Grenadans held up a ban-
'Welcome to the Bishop International Airport' another in Spanish saying 'muchas gracias, companeros!' This latter was addressed to the Cuban workers who had participated in the construction of the airport under the NJM government.
Apart from the MBPM, three other parties are putting up candidates in the December 3 elections.
The New National Party (NNP), is a political formation which is supported by the United States. about the only successful thing that Washington has done in Grenada in the last year. It was founded at the end of August at a meeting between different parties held on the island of Saint Vincent, with the prime ministers of Barbados, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent in
The NNP is the product of a fusion firstly, Herbert Blaize's Grenadan National Party (GNP), an old bourgeois party which was in power before the
Gairy regime; the Grenadan Democratic Movement (GDM) of Francis Alexis, a party made up of exiles without any base;
National Democratic Party (NDP) led by George Brizan.
The latter party was formed recently around a figure who was linked to the NJM by an electoral agreement in 1976. It aimed to attract people who had never been involved in politics before and might infuse some new blood into Grenadan
The NDP claimed to stand for the main parts of the policies brought in by Maurice Bishop, whilst at the same time
American intervention. It is undoubtedly the NDP that will provide the public image for the NNP.
Even if Eric Gairy, the former dictator ousted by the NJM in 1979, is not standing himself his party, the Grenadan United Labour Party (GULP), will present slates in the majority of constituencies. Accusing the NNP of a lack of pro-American fervour, they seem to be well organised and have the support of a religious sect.
Between these two parties is the Christian Democratic Labour (CDLP) of Winston Whyte, which has little influence. The CDLP accuses Gairy of being a dictator and the NNP of hav ing 'communists' like George Brizan in-
The most likely outcome is that the NNP will be the big winner in these elec tions. This party comes across as a force for moderation and unity made up of new people who will bring stability to he country after the upheavals that it has been through.
Another trump card for the NNP, and by no means the least important, is the fact that it is supported by the States! Some of its candidates make no bones about explaining that they will be able to funnel American aid into their constituency. Its weakness lies in the fact that many of the candidates were emigres who have only just returned to the coun-
It should not be assumed, on the other hand, that Gairy will not get a substantial vote in these elections. In the country areas Gairy is still, for many people, the leader who led the huge peasant struggles thirty years ago and was the first
International Viewpoint 26 November 1984
PEACE MOVEMENT-
to restore dignity to black people. Some people, deeply affected by the events of
October 1983, will vote for Gairy's party because they are sure that he, at least, is anti-communist.
It is very unlikely that the election