lessons to be learned by fighters for national noeramon and socialismn the Caribbean and around the world.
Six years ago, the Grenadian people, CASUIL resistance unprecedented history of English-speaking bean call of the New Jewel Movement led by Maurice Bishop ellect region's most fundamental with imperialism since the revolution in 1959.
On 19 October 1983, these same Grenadian workers. farmers. women. and youth, in another massive movement of resistance involving a third of the island's population, rose up to free their revolution's leader Maurice Bishop from nouse arrest, and were brutally down gunned under the command of the New Jewel Movement's central which had been hijacked by Bernard Coard and his gang of ultra-leftists and opportunists. This infamous act of counterrevolution opened the door for the equally infamous Yankee invasion which drove the last nail into the coffin of the revolution's corpse. Clear On the occasion of this sixth anniversary we must sing out loud the manifold achievements Grenada revolution, lest they be lost in a maze of imperialist misinformation, or forgotten amidst pressures of our daily struggles. We must remind ourselves, and remind all peace and freedom-loving humanity, that it was the revolution that brought democratic rights, national sovereignty, economic justice, and social progress the working It was the revolution that enabled the national economy to grow by 12.5 per cent over three vears, it was the revolution that reduced ment from 50 per cent to 14 per cent, that introduced free secondary education and free medical care, and that provided scores of university scholarships for talented young Grenadians o sit doora n was merevonon that stimulated the unionisation of Grenadian workers, that called on women to step forward to take their rightful place as social and economic equals laws to protect and advance the interests or working larmels, ulal rasca the incomes of agricultural workers, that drastically reduced crime.
It was the revolution that allowed sports and culture to blossom. the revolution that built the Maurice Bishop Airport, projects.
popular mass women, youth, farmers, ren. was troops try's committee, mechanisms to increase then or a national revolution, superior farce that today, democracy in Grenada.
These are Just material achievements that of the the country;
ternationalist people of owners of their destiny unemploy- tionary Bishop and his close comrades. Divide widespread Tammersn that adopted Galle tion of giants'.
It was Unemployment now cupied that invested millions of dollars in other maior economic development yCal.
again It was the revolution that created organisations of and childthe revolution that established councils in all the counthe regular and direct participation of the people in running the country's attairs. was the revolution that involved the masses, for the first time in the history of the Caribbean, in the formulation budget. was the in short, that initiated a pro superior tiny camontary palanculary propped up by Washington, has falsely laid claim to for La few of the joyously recall on this occasion. But we must also celebrate the intangibles, spiritual achievements Grenadian people: their pride in self their self-confidence and hope; their high national and inconsciousness; their collective sense of belonging, ot barticipating, of involving themselves in their nation's attairs, their sense of feeling genuinely sovereign, of being country its resources, of being masters of their — all of which were so eloDCIsonified and inspired by the revolucommitment Maurice Today, however, the workers and longer hold power Grenada, although the spirit of their revolution is very much alive. Today, in the absence of the revolutionary hardship, misery, nobelessness nave returned to what a Cuban friend of mine once described as 'the small nastands at more than 40 per cent in militarily ocGrenada and little no tion, economic growth is expected this Prostitution is ramoant once Drug abuse is on the rise. Social services are deplorable. socio-economic programs of revolution, which once delivered benefits to the working people, are things of the past.
The of production that were once owned by the people's state have been sold to local and foreign CaDilallsLs. The government ment code and the structure of import duties and tariffs have been revised to make it easier for foreign capital to penetrate the substandard North American imports to be dumped on the local market The much ballyhooed financial aid from the USA has resulted in millions training equipping military and paramilitary police and counterinsurgency forces, with only for infrastructural projects pennies social welfare programmes Austerity is the order of the day and greater political and economic subordination to imperialism is the guiding principle.
gressive, democratic bionary around the world. Over the past year and a half, new questions have arisen the and fresh insights have emerged to enlighten our analysis. Such a discussion is not a useless exercise in 'armchairism', to coin against the imperialist occupation of Grenada and the escalating attacks on the rights and living standards of its people. Instead, should be seen as necessary for the clarification of political theory and for strategy on revoluta fighting workers and farmers must be grounded.
the take issue with those political currents in Britain, North America, Caribbean who have embarked on a campaign to rewrite the history of the revolution's collapse. I am referring to the advocates are-to-be-blamed' explanation, which purports to lay for the crisis of October Maurice Bishop and his allies on the one hand, and Bernard Coard and his supporters on the other. Such an explanation patently misleading. Those who are peddling it today deliberately distort the facts, with the real motive of rehabilitating the discredited Coardites, who are the true architects of the revolution's collapse.
Since mid-1984 these have stepped up their campaign of misinformation in Britain and North America through articles in various left wing publications, through their •WIl leaflets through speaking Human Rights in Grenada and Committees to Free the Political Prisoners of in Grenada with the purpose of conim- fusing and deceiving the ill-informed, manipulatill. timents of supporters of the Grenada revolution and opponents of the US human riglils pro- supporters argue that revolutionaries revoluforces in the Caribbean and house arrest.
patriots La phrase, or ongoing struggle this discussion which the present and pracuct denied As a point of departure, I want to of 19 October of the 'both-sidesequal responsibility 1983 on Coard, captured false the RMC fighting, soldiers elements day, Come'.
and brochures, tours. They , have so-called Committee Don Rojas' the genuine sen Socialist the smokescreen of this campaign, Coard's Revolution. of his key allies without the consent or members of the New Jewel Movement, and against the will Grenada's working people. On 19 October 1983 the Coard faction, which had taken NJM central committee, ordered the cold-blooded assassinaof Maurice Bishop Unison Whiteman, Jacqueline Creft, Fitzroy Bain, and other Grenadian revolutionaries who had been taken to Fort the jubilant masses after they had liberated Bishop from his On the same day the Coardites massacred dozens of other Grenadian who were gathered at Fort Rupert. The soldiers who carried out the dastard v crimes were subsecuent ly applauded publicly by Coard's so-called central committee and RevoluMilitary Council' (RMC), whose members were hiding out a Fort Frederick.
Over Radio Free Grenada on th night of 19 October Hudson Austi he unal bishop alla bic Oluel lally were killed in a crossfire instigated by Bishop supporters at Fort Rupert. He that Bishop had ever been under house arrest, and spread the slander that Bishop was in league with "counterrevolutionaries'.
The RMC imposed a _24-hour shoot-on-sight curfew of the entire Grenadian population from the night right up to the da! before the Yankee invasion Moreover, while the RMC caller on the Grenadian people to lay down their lives to resist the US invasion Strachan, James, others, who were all well-armed, were captout a fight. The 16 members of Yankee invaders cowardly abandoned their troops after the first two days of leaving young Grenadian •leaderless to heroically de fend their homeland with their live and their blood. Not a single member of the RMC was killed in battle. ToGrenadian folk humour has reformulated the acronym 'RMC' to 'Run when the Marines These are some of the facts. Thes are some of the unforgivable crimes.
• Reprinted above is the first part o Next week Actin will reprint the final "joint leadership' arguments of the Coardites and their apologists, their bureaucratic methods and examines the lessons of the Russian