On the morning of 13 March 1979, 46 lightly armed cadres led by Maurice Bishop successfully overthrew Eric Gairy in a bloodless coup. The new government was widely welcomed by the people of Grenada, under neocolonial policy, many were subject to poverty, exploitation and general backwardness. The New Jewel movement represented a long awaited change to many Grenadians such as Dennis Bartholomew who in a phone interview stated, “From being the descendants of slaves, from people who’d been colonised, from people who’d been tossed aside, we suddenly became the controllers of our own destiny. For 400 years, our forebears were enslaved. We suffered in order to produce Europe’s wealth. After slavery we were further enslaved under colonialism. But in 1979, with our ability, by our own efforts, we changed our course.” Dennis as well discussed how the sense of pride and national identity that came from the revolution did not restrict itself into Grenada’s borders, it spread throughout the entire Caribbean community, influencing many youthful revolutionary movements for independence similar to that led by Grenada’s fisherman, nutmeg workers, unemployed youth, peasant farmers and townspeople. Around the entire global community Grenada became an attraction for Black Power activists and socialist revolutionaries, Major figures such as Angela Davis, Daniel Ortega and Fidel Castro spoke highly of Maurice Bishop, a charismatic young lawyer and leader of the revolution, and were deeply inspired by his actions and housing and literacy campaign. Having captured power, the new jewel movement commenced the new phase of their revolution in improving the lives of Grenada’s people. As Bishop stated, “This revolution is for work, for food, for decent housing and health services, and for a bright future for our children.”
Under neo colonial policy in Grenada work was very scarce, at some points unemployment was upwards of 50% of the entire working age population. Agricultural and Industrial work bases were very concentrated to certain areas in Grenada owned by foreign companies, the revenue extracted from the mines and farms in Grenada did not go to creating any type of welfare system for the people, who many could not find work in private sector jobs offered by foreign companies. However, Through Maurice Bishop’s expansion of cooperatives, industrial and agricultural bases and the tourist industry as well as the creation of massive public works programmes, unemployment was slashed in his 4 years in power to 14% by 1983. Coupled with the employment campaign was the implementation of an aggressive nationwide literacy programme aimed at ending Illiteracy in Grenada, the movement came very close to succeeding in 4 years literacy rates increased from 85% to 98%. By 1983, 37% of the national budget was devoted towards education and health, school fees for private universities were abolished and public schools were repaired. Education became a right for all Children regardless of income who for the first time in history were provided with free books, school uniforms and hot lunches. Health care was socialized and made free to the people, the nationwide education programmes doubled the number of Doctors and Dentists in Grenada. Surprisingly considering the fact that Bishop inherited a deteriorating economy in 1979, even with the massive spending towards health and education, the economy grew by an average 10% each year.
Chris Searle stated in regards to Grenada’s literacy campaign during the revolution, “One of the first overwhelming truths and discoveries of the Revolution was that education was everywhere, it was irrepressible! It came at once from every side and at every moment. The dammed-up flood of four centuries of the people’s urge to know, to understand, to learn, to connect, to criticise, to express themselves, was unstoppable. At meetings, at rallies, at panel discussions, through songs, poems, plays and calypso, the message poured down upon the revolutionary leaders: Teach us, we want to know! Young and old, farmer and urban worker, fisherman and the woman cracking nutmegs, seamstresses and road-workers, all clamoured for more education, giving the cue for the slogan: Education is a must – from the cradle to the grave.” The changes in society, in which focused now on the empowerment of Grenada’s people, the liberation of women (which included the outlaw of sexual harassment/victimization) and education were reflected by Grenada’s new national culture, expressed through poetry, dance, drama and a new spirit within the people. Grenada remained friendly with the global community, forming special and close relationships with Cuba, Nicaragua, the Soviet Union, Vietnam, East Germany, the DPRK, Libya, Mozambique and Syria. Maurice Bishop was also close friends with many revolutionary forces fighting against South African apartheid and occupation, as he himself was a prominent Black Power activist. The assertion of the Grenadian people on the world stage ignited a new found sense of pride and nationalism within its people in which was never experienced before. “The shyness and reticence that characterised many of the Grenadian people before the Revolution, the self-consciousness of being a ‘small island’, second-rate or unnoticed was replaced by an explosion of national self-assertion through the revolutionary culture… More Grenadians were writing poetry and performing calypso than ever before, and receiving publication and air-play.” (Grenada Morning) By raising levels of social consciousness during the revolution and creating a new national identity around the importance of community, the Grenadian people had a new found motivation to perform labour on the fields, attend school, and participate in a popular democracy through Parish and Zonal Councils.
In regards to Grenada’s new ties and relationships on the world stage, and its importance to Grenadian nationalism Maurice Bishop states, “We are a small country, we are a poor country, with a population of largely African descent, we are a part of the exploited Third World, and we definitely have a stake in seeking the creation of a new international economic order which would assist in ensuring economic justice for the oppressed and exploited peoples of the world, and in ensuring that the resources of the sea are used for the benefit of all the people of the world and not for a tiny minority of profiteers. Our aim, therefore, is to join all organisations and work with all countries that will help us to become more independent and more in control of our own resources. In this regard, nobody who understands present-day realities can seriously challenge our right to develop working relations with a variety of countries.”
It’s unfortunate that Grenada’s revolution is remembered only by its last and final days in which Reagan ordered the invasion of the small island. The 4 years of revolution brought an experience to the people of Grenada of Democracy, Culture, nationalism, poetry, art, wealth, freedom and learning. It is important not to regard the Grenada experiment as a failure, as Bishop stated, “It took several hundred years for feudalism to be finally wiped out and capitalism to emerge as the new dominant mode of production, and it will take several hundred years for capitalism to be finally wiped out before socialism becomes the new dominant mode.”
New Democrat Society 