grenada: the great teacher

By": Yahya Abdoulaye

Introduction

In June of 1983, Grenadian Prime Minister Maurice Bishop delivered a speech at New York City’s Hunter College, where he famously highlighted a CIA report that claimed that the revolution that was being developed on the tiny, predominantly Black, Caribbean of island of Grenada posed a threat worse than that in Cuba--because of revolution led by Black, english speaking leaders would speak directly to the Black masses of the United States. In just four years, the revolution in Grenada, led by the Black, revolutionary, Marxist-Leninist New JEWEL Movement, had birthed a new human; setting a shining example for the world that they could work to wrench the reins of their history from the hands of Uncle Sam’s imperialism. However, with every action comes an equal and opposite reaction--Grenada’s achievement, in the name of repossessing and progressing their humanity, saw a twin birth in the United States attempting to find a defect in their revolution to exploit, a defect that would eventually show its face only a few months after Bishop’s infamous speech at Hunter College.

When we look at the four years of revolutionary progress (1979 to 1983) made under the People’s Revolutionary Government, what lent it success and what led to its eventual betrayal, we find ourselves observing two key principles--the necessity of situating your struggle as a part of the broader internationalist anti-imperialist struggle, which helps clarify who your friends (or allies) are and who your enemies are; and the necessity for party unity through constant and open struggle. With the two of these motifs in mind, we will be able to clearly observe how the Grenadian revolution was able to hold the reins of its future/destiny/progress/humanity so firmly, but also why that hold remained firm for a relatively brief period of time.

A brief historical grounding

Grenada is appropriately nicknamed the “spice island” for it being a high nutmeg exporter; and taking so much pride in it that the flag of Grenada features a nutmeg on it--as of 2025, nutmeg exports from Grenada accounted for $4.8 million. As spice does, enhancing the flavour and taste of whatever it touches, so too did it flavour the history of Grenada. The island of Grenada has maintained a revolutionary flavour since Columbus and Co. first laid their eyes on the island during their third expedition. After they landed, the Arawak indigenous people fiercely fought against all attempts of the Europeans at making their presence known. Eventually, the tenacity and ferocity of European nature overwhelmed the Arawak, allowing for the eventual importation of enslaved Africans to work the land. The island went from Spanish to French to British hands over the course of a couple centuries, yet during this time, the revolutionary spirit of the Arawak, through the land of Grenada, was breathed into the enslaved Africans, allowing them to take up the mantle of defenders of the land. One such example of this rebellious nature being passed on is in the legacy of Julien Fédon. Fédon was a Martinique-born, Afro-French landowner, who in 1795, led a rebellion against British rule and French influence of the island. Taking inspiration from other rebellious sparks taking light in the region, principally such as the African revolution taking place in Haiti, Fédon initially led a few hundred formerly-enslaved Africans and other mixed-race islanders in a fight against French and British presence on the island of Grenada, with the familiar purpose of establishing another free Black republic in the region. Even though his future-building rebellion would be overpowered; even though the rebellion would see the mysterious flight and disappearance of Fédon, it is undeniable that the fight he waged would become a bridge between two ideas: the necessity of fighting in defense of the land started by the indigenous population, and the necessity of regional collaboration and integration.

Crossing this bridge into the 20th century, we see Grenada firmly in the hands of British colonial rule alongside other islands in the Caribbean. This shared colonial identity in the region sparked some Caribbean thinkers to push for a Pan-Caribbean entity in an attempt to control their own destiny. Whether this came in the form of a loose confederation of Anglo-Caribbean states, or one unified Caribbean entity incorporating all of the islands in the sea, what became apparent is that if self-determination was to be realised, it would be to the benefit of the whole Caribbean to fight and move as a unified body. One such proponent of this idea was the Grenadian newspaper editor, Theophilus A. Marryshow.

Marryshow gained a foothold in the newspaper industry early on as a teenager working with W.G. Donovan, who owned a printing establishment, and which also printed “radical” newspapers that would publish many pieces advocating for a “Federation of the British West Indies.” Working in this atmosphere, it’s undeniable the kind of influence that this could have had, and did have, on a young Marryshow. As Marryshow grew and matured, so too did the militancy in his ideology around a unified Caribbean grow and mature on the foundation of what Donovan helped lay. Marryshow would go on to found two newspapers of his own, promoting a more developed line around Caribbean unity; one which understood that though there may have been separation by language, the Caribbean had become predominantly African and shared many threads of commonality between them to justify regional unity of some kind. These ideas would become even more engrained in the mainstream of Grenada, with Marryshow later becoming a member of the government as a representative in the capital of St. George’s. Here, the “father of the West Indies Federation” would firm up the foundation that his ideological children would use to seize the reins of their future.

Where are your friends?

With the revolutionary triumph of the New JEWEL Movement in 1979, ousting the previous prime minister, Eric Gairy, who ruthlessly held the position for over 30 years, Bishop and the new People’s Revolutionary Government were quick to ensure that the world knew of Grenada’s new position in it. The Eric Gairy tenure saw close relations with imperialism and its servant-dogs--essentially, Gairy knew who his allies were.

On September 11, 1973, the popular leader of Chile, President Salvador Allende, was yet another target of an Amerikan-imperialist coup. In his place stood the CIA-backed Captain General Augusto Pinochet. Pinochet ruled and terrorised Chile for 16 years, which saw various abuses against the Chilean people. Operation Condor, an imperialist aggression in Latin America aimed at stamping out the fire of socialist governance being stoked in the region, saw some of its largest successes in Chile. Under Pinochet, tens of thousands of people were tortured, disappeared, jailed/interned, and killed. But Gairy as prime minister of Grenada saw Pinochet as fit to befriend and cosy up to. It was under the forces of Pinochet that Gairy entrusted his infamous Mongoose Gang to be trained by. The Mongoose Gang served as Gairy’s secret police force, composed of people within society of ill repute. This force, equivalent to the SAVAK of pre-revolution Iran, terrorised the people of Grenada with techniques acquired from the Pinochet regime, and refined at home on the island.

In 1962 Republic of Korea (South Korea), General Park Chung Hee staged a coup that would see his eventual ascendency to the presidency. As is expected with the post-1953 relationship between the Republic of Korea and the US, Park would align his actions and governance with the interests of Amerikan imperialism in the region. Under Park, normalisation of ties between the RoK and Japan would strengthen, brushing aside the recent and violent history of Japanese imperialism on the peninsula. During the US imperialist war against Vietnam, Park would commit over 300,000 South Korean soldiers to the fight against the North Vietnamese as they fought to rid their land of foreign interference and influence. With all of this experience in polishing South Korean anticommunism, helping to maintain their own manufactured stance against their peninsular family to the north, it would make sense that Gairy would align himself so closely with Park. Park would send funding and training to Gairy’s Grenada to aid Gairy in his suppression of left-wing activity on the island. In a true show of neocolonialist and imperialist solidarity between the two heads, in 1975, Gairy allowed the Park administration to purchase nearly unlimited fishing rights to the South Korean government, a move that sought to harm an economy that relied heavily on its fishing industry. Ironically, both leaders would meet their demise in the year 1979, with Gairy being ousted by the NJM through a coup and Park being assassinated.

After this pivotal year, the NJM under the leadership of Maurice Bishop, would usher in a new era of internationalism on the island and within the region. In his first proper speech to the people of Grenada in the wake of the revolution’s takeover, Bishop proclaimed that Grenada was in nobody’s backyard, taking a jab at Manifest Destiny herself, and reasserting its position as a sovereign nation with the right to align itself with any people it deemed fit. In the same speech, the nation heard the crescendo of the call to regional unity that was growing in one and two generations before the revolution. Bishop would recount that when the NJM met with the Amerikan ambassador to Grenada in 1979, they inquired about aid to help develop the island, to which the ambassador to “the wealthiest and most generous country in the world” responded with an offer of $5000. Counter this with the immediate response from Jamaica and Guyana, two Caribbean nations who at the time were experiencing their own times of progress. These two exploited nations immediately sent expertise in construction and economic planning to the island. Or take the case of Cuba, a nation notorious for its international solidarity efforts since its revolutionary conception. Cuba would send literacy brigades to Grenada to help stamp out the illiteracy crisis by 1981. To help Grenada in its efforts to sustain broader international trade efforts, Cuban engineers were called upon to aid the Grenadans in their building of an international airport. Fidel Castro, leader of the Cuban Revolution at the time, himself would form a deep bond with Maurice Bishop, as well as Unison Whiteman and Kendrick Radix, two more leaders within the leadership apparatus of the NJM. Their eventual falls would have an effect on Fidel, for he recognised their determined movement towards humanity as genuine and in step with their own--not because Castro infantilised them or their abilities, but because of the international solidarity shown by Bishop and the NJM throughout their time to the rest of the world in general, and to Cuba in particular.

When it came to supporting progressive movements around the world, Bishop never stood idle in voicing support for those around the world fighting to assert their sovereignty and self-determination. When Nicaragua saw the victory of the Sandinistas over the CIA-backed Somoza government, Grenada was one of the first countries to recognise their leadership. At the 46th anniversary of the assassination of Nicaraguan national leader and namesake for the revolutionary government, Augusto César Sandino, Bishop would wholeheartedly declare that the spirit of Sandino resides in Nicaragua and in Grenada. In defense of Palestine and their struggle against ZioAmerikan domination, Bishop never failed to voice his distaste for the backwardness of the Non-Aligned Movement and their acceptance of Egypt within the movement after the Camp David Accords. For Bishop and the NJM, normalisation of any kind stood as an affront to the supposed anti-imperialist values that were being touted by the movement. At Grenada’s first appearance at a Non-Aligned Movement conference, Bishop would unabashedly proclaim that Egypt being in the front of the audience after signing normalisation papers amounted to a stain on the legacy and ideals of the movement, questioning its seriousness. Among other struggles mentioned would include a strong vocal support for the cause of Western Sahara and the Polisario Front who were and still continue to fight against Moroccan occupation of their land.

For Bishop, international solidarity wasn’t a mere posturing full of empty words and flat critiques. For Bishop, in order for the people of Grenada to actualise their humanity, Grenada needed to realise who their friends and allies were. With Nicaragua, the spirit of Sandino was breathed in by Grenada. With Grenada, the spirit of Jose Martí was breathed in by Grenada. With Jamaica, the people of Grenada embraced Michael Manley. With Palestine, the young Grenada risked its status on the global stage by offering sharp and pointed critiques for normalising zionist relations. With Chile, the spirit of Allende was breathed in by Grenada. With Guinea-Bissau, the spirit of Cabral was breathed in by Grenada. With these people, Grenada in fact, found more than friends, but comrades in a universal, united struggle. Were it not for internal disruptions within the People’s Revolutionary Government, the political landscape of the Caribbean, Latin America, and possibly even the world, could have looked different. But that is a speculation for another time.

Combatting Liberalism

We stand for active ideological struggle because it is the weapon for ensuring unity within the party and the revolutionary organisations in the interest of our fight. Every communist and revolutionary should take up this weapon. This opening line to Mao Zedong’s “Combat Liberalism” succinctly outlines the path to success within a revolutionary party--the necessity for constant critique and self-critique within the party ranks. Though the New JEWEL Movement and People’s Revolutionary Government faced immense pressure from outside forces to tow the line that Manifest Destiny drew, their dissolution leading to the overthrow of the revolution cannot be entirely blamed on that. Their downfall was due to the internal turmoil being stoked by one faction within the party, a faction termed “The Coard Group” by Fidel Castro.

While Maurice Bishop served as prime minister of Grenada, the man who served as deputy prime minister was Bernard Coard. The two had known each other since their days in primary school, where they helped sharpen each other politically and intellectually. Coard would attend undergraduate studies in the US, where he joined the Communist Party USA; upon moving to the UK for graduate studies, he married his wife, Phyllis, and subsequently joined the Communist Party UK. After their stint abroad, the Coards would arrive back in Grenada in time to join the New JEWEL movement as they forged ahead making gains among the people in pre-revolutionary Grenada.

After the triumph of the revolution, the relationship cultivated from their youth between Coard and Bishop began to show signs of weakness, especially when viewed from the perspective of Coard to Bishop. Coard was known to be a dogmatic, rigid, “ultra left-wing” Marxist, refusing to bend at times to the will of the party and the people. As Bishop and the PRG began to stride ahead into the future, Coard’s ideologically liberal anchor kept him unable to maintain the same pace. To regard oneself as having rendered great service to the revolution, to pride oneself on being a veteran, to disdain minor assignments while being quite unequal to major tasks, to be slipshod in work and slack in study. His inability and refusal to keep in step with the aims of the party, which represented the will of the Grenadian people, caused him to slip into the tenth type of liberalism shown above. His rank as Deputy Prime Minister--effectively making a “second in command”--allowed him major influence. Because of his strong ties to the Grenadian military command post-1979, he developed a sort of cult-like following among the military leadership, which he would eventually call upon to arrest and murder Bishop along with the majority of the Central Committee.

After a period of about two years, Coard would abandon his position within the party and within the Central Committee. This had next to no effect on his ability to influence decisions seeing that not only was his faction in the government still strong, but also due to the fact that his wife and coconspirator, Phyllis, remained within the Central Committee. When slanderous reports on the character of Maurice Bishops came out, which were later denounced by both the government and the Grenadian people, the question of from whom did the slander come? was relatively easy to easy--the Coard Group. When Bishop came back from his final tour of the United States with the mere idea of holding parliamentary elections, who were the first to accuse him and the party of “abandoning” the Marxist-Leninist line? The Coard Group. Eventually, when he expressed an interest in rejoining the party and committee structure, what was the demand of Coard and his group? That the prime minister seat be split into two separate seats--one which would inaugurate Coard with the effective claim to power, and one which would keep Bishop as the face of the revolution because, according to Coard himself, “that is all Bishop was even good at.” When, in response to this demand, Bishop demanded that news of this be shared to the masses should it be adopted, it was Coard who expressed his desire to keep the Grenadian people in the dark!

Eventually, in 1983, this growing contradiction within the party would come to a head, where the world would see the political overthrow of Bishop and his co-leadership; where the world would see the murder of Grenadian civilians at the hands of Coard’s military forces; where the world would see the swift, brutal invasion by U.S. Marines which would effectively stamp out the fire of the People’s Revolutionary Government, led by the New JEWEL Movement. To assert his influence, the devil only needs a crack, and where liberalism is allowed to flourish, the forces of counterrevolution will slither through. It isn’t for us to advise the New JEWEL Movement on how they should have handled the Coard Group at the time, for we have the gift of hindsight. The new government was attempting to rebuild a nation after centuries of exploitation. They were developing new relationships with other nations seeking to unite humanity, after previously being sold to nations who wanted nothing but resources from the island. The lesson to draw from this however, is that if we are to seriously and effectively serve the people as a party/organisation/collective/etc., then the necessity for combatting liberalism within our ranks is paramount. Just because something is built does not mean that it will always stand; constant maintenance and upkeep is required. If a party has a crack, there must be a swift and strong fix to maintain structural integrity. Through struggle, one grows, and with growth comes the ability to bear a heavier load.