NU01y THE FOLLOWING speech by Maurice Bishop was given to an international conference of solidarity held in the Grenadan capital of St George's in November 1981. The editing is by Socialist Action.
regional, faced tisation of society.
Our always been, frastructure, above all, disasters.
13 March 1979 was a and 19 per cent damage to - the anti-Gairy Edward Brathdoor and Sped...
This and exdoomed....and thus origin and international agencies. Our people's revolution was therefore with the difficult twin task of economic reconstruction and democrafundamental objective has as detailed in the 1973 manifesto of our party, the construction of a new life and new society ... These principles and objectives were as valid at the dawn of our revolution as they were five years before when they were formulated, and as they are today - almost three years after that first morning of our revolution. Already we have begun to implement these aims, although in addition there were certain initial priorities that we set ourselves upon taking power jobs for the thousands of unemployed, health care, the improvement of the agricultural in ILaNd education, the process which would facilitate all other developments, the democratisation of the society....
Like our sister Caribbean islands we continue to be plagued by natural Each year since the revolution, hurricanes, high winds, or torrential rains have caused considerable aliculiure infrastructure. In 1979 we suffered USS6 million worth of damage. In 1980, the total destruction of 27 per cent of our nutmeg crop, 40 per cent of the banana of the cocoa, amoun ting to some US$20 million. In 1981, crops, roads, and bridges totalled US$5 million.
With an open, dependent economy tied to the economies of the capitalist world, we have suffered and are suffering from the ongoing economic crisis in the capitalist world. Demand for our principal commodity exports has drop.
year, our tourist industry, poised for recovery with full-house bookings at all the main hotels, was dealt a major blow with the sudden destruction by fire of undetermined of a substantial part of our largest hotel — the Holiday Inn....