US invasion of Grenada DAVID HASLAM, the vice chair of War on Want, went on a fact finding mission to the island with two Kirkham he records his Want, David Haslam is a PLP mission was his third visit to Grenada.
What was your impression of the fighting and the casualties during the invasion?
A lot of reports on this have been nonsense, part of the American disinformation campaign. tainly the Grenadians fought back; the Cubans were only involved in as much as American marines attacked them at the airport.
major force Americans had to contend with was the Peoples Revolutionary Army. The PRA did SCLI aulte a bit of resistance, although it was nothing as strong as it could have been if the army and militia had been united. Because of the previous divisions in NJM Central Committee militias were very suspicious of the PRA - that certainly weakened their fight back considerably.
One report we heard was that there was a counter-attack on ine evening of the US invasion in which.
armoured vehicles nearv got onto the airstrip. In fact we saw them, they were stopped 100 yards short.
A British observer told us that if they'd got on the airstrip there might have been casualties. ( We were also' told that there least American helicopters shot down, and that suggests a much higher casualty rate than ne amencans dotul.
The anti-aircraft fire didn't cease till Friday night, that was four days alerte Invasioll, ana Wnree days after the Americans said everything had been tied up.
What about Grenadian casualties?
There have been widely divergent reports about this, and clearly the Americans have been blocking reports of Grenadian casualties. would certainly have to discount the talk of between 1000 and 2000 dead. On a small island, with that extent of everyone known. The best estimates we heard were that there were about the same number of people - perhaps 100 killed during the invasion as on October 19, the day Maurice Bishop and the others were executed.
Did the people you talked to give you impression ferences the NJM Central Committee or was it just a personal power struggle?
I think it was both. I think there were personal amoltons mvolved seems that the Coard-Austin faction had a 'harder left' political analysis of the rate of change that should go on in Photo: WAR ON WANT David Haslam inspects the ruins of Certhe the society. The Whiteman group felt should go more slowly and that the divergence between what the Central Committee wanted and masses would accept, should not be allowed to get too wide By the end it had become a very bitter struggle. You don't go ordering the execution of people you have struggled with for years, decades, without the rift being very deep.
I'm not saying we know who gave any the order for the executions. I doubt that it was Coard didn't strike me violence. But there were people there who were younger, more hot-headed and less politically experienced.
What evidence did you find of US intelligence involvement in the split in the NJM?
Inside the island, very little. An Antiguan left wing paper Outlet carried dif- evidence of US cussions at the verv highest level oI the army and governmemt. Whether or not those people were agents in the sense of actively trying to foment a split, that is not yet clear. My impres But it sion is that the Americans had very good information on the split in the leadership, OUL CHAL island didn't realise it.
Of the mental hospital bombed by the United States.
Bishop-Louisonthat things vosualol. what the the Coard-Austin port?
sometimes the execution of Bishop, others.
ty determined to pursue its line, - having met him. the masses.
man of to liberate Bishop sand.
The bourgeoisie knowledge of disThis supporters.
people on the You say in your report to War or Want that the invasion seemed to be supported by up to 90 per cent of the This seems to imply that faction was CAtreme v isolated in terms of mass sup invasion.
I think it is more or less accurate to say that the Coard faction had very little popular support, certainly after Whiteman developed the line of a vanguard par- think they had Lowson respective of its communication with When That became cear when. on 1y October, 10-15,000 people came out that is 10 per cent of the population of the island.
The population of St Georges for example is only seven and a half thoucreated. live in si Georges, and there was quite a lot of disaffection with the PRG there, and that is where a lot of journalists got their interviews with people saying they supported the invasion. My impression is that in the countryside there was a lot more support for the ding PRG, and especially for Bishop and "processed'.
One small piece of evidence for that is that we drove across the island former PRG ministers, and saw a lot of people waving and greeting them, but the nearer we got to St Georges the less this became. It is possible that if the journalists had got more out into the villages and countryside they would have found less support for the TA), Most of the people we talked to the did support it. For example one person who was very close to the PRG before said that he regarded it as a necessary evil. Ken Radix and George both ooposed it. because although it probably secured own safety, in the longer term it will have bad repercussions.
we interviewed Kendrick Radix while he was still boxed up in the Cuban embassy, he described it as Grenada's darkest hour. He thought ple. it would be a long struggle to get out of the situation the Americans have Did you get the impression that sup. porters of the NJM were being round. ed up by the Americans, irrespective of their support or otherwise of the "Austin-Coard coup?
We saw queues of PRA people hanRalis being We also saw the internment at roll sallnes alrport. It wa. early days when we were there and the cages hadn't been built yet. We heard of two or three hundred people being detained while we were there, some of liké officers in the army or members of the NJM Central Committee were being detained for longer times.
We saw people being picked up by the marines and taken away. The official position now is that only about 50 people are in detention. But the US troops are still going around and picking people up and holding them for a few hours. I talked to George Louison last week and he has been arrested three times in just over two weeks.
So that kind of harassment is continuing of the people who were not involved in any way in the events of the 19 October. That kind of pressure on all people associated with the NJM is continuing. The other factor is that many peoplę were not Grenadians, working on different programmes, have been kicked out.
What do you think the future of the trade unions will be?
Well there are three different kinds of unions in Grenada. There were those that support the PRG, like the Bank and General Workers Union led by Vincent Noel and the Agricultural Workers under Fitzroy Bain, both of whom were killed on 19 There was another group which was neutral. And there were one or two unions which opposed the PRG, for example the water front workers.
I think that the latter will have welcomed the invasion and will want to collaborate with the Americans. Some of the middle unions will along with that, although some of the younger members will oppose it.
What will happen to the pro-PRG unions is difficult to predict. They've lost their leaderships. There will be an ongoing battle in the unions between those who • want alive the memory of what the PRG achieved, and those who want to go along with the free enterprise economy that the Americans will seek to introduce What do you think are the prospects for the mass organisations? Very difficult. There are reports that we're getting that they are being closed down. The National Organisation and the National Youth Organisation have been closed down. It's not yet clear whether and in what form the Centre for Popular Educa tion, which has done much to combat illiteracy, will be allowed to continue I think the big battle will centre round programmes like the National Association of Cooperatives (NAC.
the food agro-industries programme which bought up farmers spare produce, the Productive Farmers Union which had about 1400 small farmer members. This is the sector where the PRG made their major thrust.
It's pretty clear now that the US AID programme is preparing plans to return Grenada to dependent cash crop economy which produces crops for export, rather than one which produces food for the needs of the peoOverall, do you think the gains of the revolution are lost?
I think in the short term the gains will have been cancelled out. As Castro said, the revolution was destroyed when Bishop was executed. What the invasion mav have done is resurrect ¿ symbol, in the sense of maybe in the longer term re-awakening the consciousness of the people. I think that consciousness is there, particularly in That will ree vole centration surface over time, particularly if the Americans are ham-fisted and insensitive in the way in which they pro. ceed.
FROM 1970 until 1972 a Tory government was riding high. The power workers had been defeated as had the postal workers. Only a strike at Fords and the occupations at the Upper had done anything to hold the line. The Tories then decided to go for the kill and break the back of the Socialist Action 9 December 1983 Clyde Shipbuilders su ava boa were user to take oil in and specia 'hard squads' of police used against • the pickets. Over a thousand people were on the picke line every day, miners were slung in jail without bail or trial and 13 pickets were arrested and kept in handcuffs Then at Saltley coke depot the miners won their biggest victory. For a week 600 police fought to keep the depot open. After four days of pitched battles bet-
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representatives of the Parliamentary Labour Par- ty, Ioan Evans MP and Nigel Spearing MP. In this interview with Kathy
Impressions. In addition to being vice chair of War on
Methodist Minister and a member of Brent Labour Party. His trip with the