A year after the
"made in US " elections
GRENADA nesses and are accelerating the erosion of his regime's credibility. It is clear that the US wants to replace Blaize
Francis Alexis, a dynamic perassociate Keith Mitchell, could defend the US's long-term interests far better. And, in fact, for some months, despite their claims, Alexis supporters have
A YEAR AGO, the United States achieved at least one if its objectives in Grenada, when the pro-Washington New National Party
(NNP) won the December 3, 1984, elections. (1) This was the only success they could boast of after invading
1983. In every other respect, the situation was hardly brilliant from their point of view. The economy was going from bad to worse.
The progressive unions could not be destroyed.
The memory of Maurice Bishop remained alive, and a new party, the Maurice Bishop Patriotic Movement, resumed the fight for his ideas. Now, only a year after taking office, the government is threatened with a grave crisis and the NNP may break apart in the coming months. In the following article, we will try to describe the forces present and the evolution of the situation in Grenada since December
1984.
ARTHUR MAHON
The NNP came out of a fusion of point was allegiance to the United
States. The first, the Grenadan National Party (GNP), was led by Herbert
Blaize, an old conservative politician, who was to become premier again.
The second, the Grenadan Democratic Movement (GM), was founded by Francis Alexis, a professor who lived in exile during
Bishop regime from 1979 to 1983 and worked with the CIA for the
The last, the National Democratic
Party (NDP), was formed after the invasion by George Brizan, who was once associated with Maurice Bishop's
Jewel Movement (NJM) and worked with the revolutionary govern-
But for the strong pressure by the
United States and their own fear of seeing the former dictator Eric Gairy win this motley coalition
Immediately after tensions began to show up in the
Blaize's adversaries have complained constantly about his autocratic methods. Lacking confidence in anyone but his intimates, he has reserved all the ministries for those closest to him.
In an entire year he has called parliament into session only twice, even though the NNP holds all the seats save one. Moreover, members of his family have been appointed to diplo-
International Viewpoint 23 December 1985 the island in October
Managing a situation as delicate as the one in Grenada requires special qualities, and Herbert Blaize is hardly up to it, to say nothing of his poor state of health. Indeed, he was quite frank about his failings at the time of the elections.
When he was asked what his greatest strength was, he replied: "I have no strengths. I'm just an ordinary man who believes in the Lord, has confidence in Him, and knows that He will sustain him." (2)
Blaize is a typical representative of the traditional bourgeois layers in Grenada, who have always lived parasitical lives. Having been planters, they invested in trade.
of taking initiatives, Blaize has relied entirely on the Americans. When Vice-President Bush came
Grenada in he begged him to leave the occupation troops in position. He called "Marshall Plan" for Grenada, amoun-
500 million dollars, a totally unrealistic demand that could only troops in June 1985, Blaize and his intimates, acting over the heads of the other ministers, began to use the elite paramilitary force trained by the US to suit themselves, for example, brutally shutting down a radio station, repressing street vendors, burning the dwellings of young marijuana smokers. Such actions have aroused strong protests from the popunot unaware that such attitudes reveal Blaize's weakbeen trying to undermine Blaize's
In May, Alexis' supporters disit be known that the premier's right-hand man had handed out large sums of money to officials in the Ministry of Justice to speed up the extradition of the trade-union leader Chester Humphrey. (3) attempt to oust Blaize from his post. of being a "Communist." Some obserFrancis Alexis will be premier, and George Brizan will form an opposi-
The NNP won the 1984 elections with 59% of the vote. A year later, most Grenadans see the government as incompetent and corrupt. Blaize's methods have accelerated the regime's loss of credibility, they not in themselves sufficient to explain
More fundamental is the fact that the government failed to solve the burning questions facing the people, unemployment. rate of unemployment has gone from around 12% in 1983 to around 40% today. What is more, a lot of people who have a job often only work two or three days a week.
There has, of course, been a growth in the number of videos, motorcycles, and Japanese cars, which the country duty free or in the bag. age of US soldiers. But this has not compensated employment, higher prices, and the disappearance of the social programs set up under the revolution.
There is only one dentist on Grenada, but the authorities refuse to give work to young people returning from after finishing their dental studies there.
Steve Roberts in 'IV' No. , 1985. On the revolutionary experience in Grenada and the crisis that led to the murder of Bishop
Secretariat of the (SU) published 54, June 4, 1984. ted from the French. - IV. see 'IV' No. 85, October 28, 1985.
3
This situation has caused the greatest suffering in the countryside, and many young people have gone up into the hills to grow a little marijuana. Cocaine and prostitution became prevalent while the US soldiers were island, and burglary became
The young people have no hope, and it is indicative of the decay in the situation that in the past two the number who pass their exams has declined by half.
Pursuing the "free enterprise" economic policy advocated by Reagan, the government has continued to dismanthe public sector force of the economy. For purchased under recently been rented out to a private concern at sixty cents a day per room.
government foreign investors would pump new hopes have been cruelly dashed. "This is a sad story, " Blaize was to conclude, when the US firm Ingle Toys
La few months after getting thousands of dollars in subsidies from the US government. Indeed, it was a sad story, and there have been a lot of others like it since.
The US government tried every means to convince company heads to go and invest in Grenada. But the only ones that rushed simply in speculation. It is true that by comparison states, Grenada has a lot of disadvantages for an investor.
The island has a troubled past, to
The government is weak. The youth still have a rebel
And the unions are far from all having been tamed.
The infrastructure is inadequate, in particular supply. Industrialization is very recent, and still very poorly developed. The domestic market is small, to put it mildly. And on top of all this, Grenada is the Caribbean island furthest from
After this failure with US compan-
Washington's whom there are many in Brooklyn, to set up small businesses in their home
In recent months, it is France that has shown the most interest in Grenada. A French business based in Florida, the Groupe International du Transport et de l' Industrie Petroliere, is building a 700-room luxury hotel, and is going to aid Grenada to set up a national airline, which it will control. visited France. And the French government reportedly committed itself to partnership in the search for oil in Grenadan territorial as to set up a hydroelectric plant and a modern telephone exchange.
As a leader of the Maurice Bishop Patriotic Movement put it, since this government cannot create productive jobs, it is confining itself to carrying tasks of a colonial government, that is, "filling in the potholes in the roads and collecting taxes."
A large part of the US aid is in fact going to road repair. This makes it possible to employ a few thousand people, who are working in primitive conditions, since the asphalt factorstone-crushing been shut down or sold off.
Since the invasion, the US has given only 8 million dollars a year in aid. And a lot of people who voted for the NNP in the hope that this would bring the US dollars flooding in are now bitterly disillusioned.
No force in Grenada today has attracted the people on the rebound from the NNP. Two movements are, seeking to occupy the that it has left empty, and seen their following grow over the past year.
One is the Grenadan United Labour
(GULP) of former dietator Gairy, who was ousted from power by the revolution of March 1979. It got 36% in the 1984 elections. The other is the MBPM, which elections, although in reality it got
Gairy has two big aces. On the one hand, in the 1950s he led a big agricworkers strike that took an insurrectionary turn. He was imprisoned at the time, and in the eyes of the Grenadan peasants became the first figure to represent them in their with the city people linked to the planters and to the colonialists. And the great majority of the Grenadan people still live from agriculture.
On the other hand, Gairy remains an adept demagogue, endowed with an unquestionable charisma. His social base is among the poorest and most backward, largely illiterate, strata.
In the past year, Gairy has been working to consolidate and extend his infuence. He has gone "to the grass roots," which he did not do in the first period after he returned to the island. He has held several successful rallies. He has reestablished his old union, which is based mainly among
In October, the former dictator launched a strike on the plantations for higher wages. At the strike call was heeded by about 55% the government threatened to fire the striking workers, support crumbled had scant success with the youth, who make up half the population. Having lived the better part of their conscious lives under the revolutionary regime, teenagers are turning more readily to the MBPM, which in May launched the Maurice Bishop Youth Organiza-
At a meeting organized recently to pay homage to the martyrs of October 19, 1983, [Bishop and his Comrades], the average age of the 1,500 participants was hardly over twenty.
The Grenadan revolutionists came out of the October 1983 crisis almost totally isolated. They rebuilt links population through the Maurice Bishop Foundation, work of Maurice Bishop and his com-
Then, they started the newspaper Indies Times. After that, they launched the MBPM, which had only a handful of activists when the election campaign started
Through their electoral work the Grenadan revolutionists were able to get involved in mass political activity again and take their manifesto and proposals into the villages. Coming out of the elections, they had a new party that today claims about a hundred members, a not insignificant number for a country of 110,000 inhabitants.
The MBPM has to work under constant pressure from the intelligence services set up by the US. In Washington, Herbert Blaize made no bones intentions to repress the revolutionists: "You can't get rid of these people just with a rescue mis-
The said, referring to the US
The MBPM suffers from three other handicaps. The first, and perhaps the main one, was explained by George Louison, one of the party leaders, in an interview in February 1985:
"If Maurice Bishop had been alive, we would have won the elections hands down. But we are burdened with the legacy of the October 1983 events - Maurice's murder on October 19 and the US invasion on Octo-
25. The people say that they gave everything they had to a party, to a revolution, and to developing the
The collapse of the revolution shook their faith. Consequently, they lost confidence, they lost hope, and that is what has to be rebuilt." (4)
The crisis of confidence in the progressive movement that ensued from
This interview International Viewpoint 23 December 1985