By Jorge Luna*

This process, which lasted 55 months, contributed not only to improving the lives of the 100,000 citizens of Grenada, but with its example and programs, also benefited other countries in the Caribbean and beyond.

From a young age, the leader of the revolution was attracted to history, sociology and politics, but -like many of his generation- he ended up studying law in Great Britain, where he also said he had directly felt racial discrimination and the negative treatment the metropolis gave to its colonies.

He made a critical reading of the history of his country and claimed the rebellious slave Julien Fedon -who British historians described as a criminal- as the National Hero of Grenada.

He was also nourished by the various nationalist efforts of the English-speaking Caribbean, Pan-Africanism, the work of Franz Fanon, the Algerian revolution, the Cuban revolution, and especially the US black power movement.

Together with other youths, he organized political groups against the Eric Gairy regime, going through various formats, until the fast-growing New Jewel Movement was established and it carried out all the forms of legal struggle.

On March 13 Gairy’s repressive and corrupt regime had increased its abuses, perpetrating numerous crimes against its opponents, particularly against the leaders of the New Jewel Movement.

History especially includes November 18, 1973, as “Bloody Sunday”, a brutal beating of those youths that left Maurice Bishop hospitalized. In 1974, Rupert Bishop, his father, was assassinated during a popular protest, a crime recorded as “Bloody Monday”.

Apart from the abuses of Gairy’s gang, known as the “Mongoose”, the dictator established close relations with repressive regimes of the time such as those of Chile, Argentina and Brazil, from which he requested weapons, ammunition, military and police training and financial support.

Faced with repeated electoral fraud and government repression, the young New Jewel Movement chose to assault, taking advantage of a trip Gairy made to the United States, the True Blue barracks, headquarters of the army, on March 13, 1979.

Through the so-called “Operation Apple”, with a minimum of casualties, it collected arms, captured the soldiers and called on the people to consolidate the victory. Thousands of Grenadians came out to support the “Revo”, as they called it.

Its impact was enormous in the Caribbean and the jubilation spread to the Caribbean diaspora in Canada, the United States and Europe, while the tiny island of Grenada occupied front pages and screens of the international media. The second revolution in the Americas, after the Cuban revolution of 1959 and shortly before the Sandinista liberation of Nicaragua (1979), broke out in a region where there were not -as there are now- so many independent countries, nor did they have diplomatic relations outside of the British Commonwealth.

Today, partly thanks to the Grenada revolution, all the countries of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) have active international links.

Several anti-colonial struggles during the 1970s, with a renewed spirit of sovereignty and rebellion, provoked political ferment in the region. In 1972, for example, Guyana, Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad-Tobago (the “big four” of the English-speaking Caribbean) jointly established relations with Cuba, an event of great significance.

A path of friendship, solidarity and collaboration was thus opened, which over several decades, has been strengthened in and out of Caricom, despite the tensions created by the various US administrations, which reinforced their political and military presence in the Caribbean.

Grenada under threat

From day one, the nascent revolution had to take urgent measures to defend itself against threats from mercenary groups that Gairy organized in the United States, as well as economic sabotage and terrorist attacks from abroad.

The United States publicly held the “Amber and the Amberines” military exercises on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques in 1981, considered a rehearsal for the “Urgent Fury” invasion of Grenada, perpetrated in October 1983.

At the same time, the country had to seek international diplomatic recognition and, quickly, the new government expanded its ties by actively participating in the United Nations and the Non-Aligned Movement, taking Grenada’s message to scenarios never before achieved.

Internally, the revolution carried out a broad program of long-term economic, political, social and cultural reforms, with emphasis on health, education, agriculture, fishing and housing, sectors abandoned by the deposed regime. Several of these programs have an echo in today’s Grenada.

The revolution called on the people of Grenada to participate in community councils, where the democratic rights of labor unions, retirees, women and young people were expanded. Grenada achieved one of the highest rates of economic growth among the countries of the Eastern Caribbean.

Its greatest contribution, however, -an old dream of several generations of Grenadians- was to build a new airport capable of attracting tourism and commerce on a large scale -later justly named Maurice Bishop International Airport.

Bishop described this effort as “the most important project for the future development of Grenada and the most important undertaken by any government in the nation´s history”. He even compared its significance to the early expansion toward the Pacific Ocean on the US railrod network.

That airport, which counted with the massive collaboration of Cuban technicians and builders, also remained as a symbol of the close relations between Havana and Saint George’s, as Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell recalled during his visit last year to Cuba, where he spoke with President Miguel Díaz-Canel and other authorities.

During those conversations, Bishop’s example and work and his friendship with the Historical Leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, were highlighted.

The official visits made to Saint George’s by Fidel Castro, in August 1998, and Miguel Díaz-Canel, in December 2022, also contributed to the full development of these ties in areas such as health, infrastructure, education, agriculture, aquaculture, culture and environmental preservation.

In 2024, Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell officially declared October 19, 1983, “National Heroes’ Day” to remember those who fell on that day, after a treacherous internal division.

Bishop, whom Fidel Castro described as his “brilliant, firm, vertical and endearing brother,” left a great political legacy, especially valuable in these times.

Beyond his contribution to the history of Grenada, he reminded everybody that one of the smallest countries in the world, with a small population, was able to tell Washington, in perfect English and without any fear: “We are not in anybody’s backyard!”

* Prensa Latina journalist and author of the book, Grenada: the New Jewel of the Caribbean, Ciencias Sociales publishing house, Havana, Cuba, 1982.

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