Remember
Today marks the 22nd anniversary of the 1983 uprising in which Maurice Bishop, his companion and fellow minister Jacqueline Creft, members of his government and innocent civilians were killed. The events of that fateful day would have profound social and political ramifications that resound in Grenada even today.
Maurice Bishop was the leader of the People’s Revolutionary Government (1979-1983). Whether you share his politics or not, one unmistakable fact remains – he was one of the most charismatic West Indian political personalities ever. He was much beloved by the Grenadian population, and his untimely death at a relatively young age has only added to his status as a people’s hero.
Just last night I caught a piece of Malcom X on TV. Bishop was quite a disciple of Malcolm, and I am always struck by the similarities in their speaking style and personal magnetism. Like Malcolm, Bishop had the power to move crowds to tears, or to anger, when necessary. Women flocked to him, men admired him, the elderly adored him. Their rhetoric was similar as well:"The new society must not only speak of Democracy, but must practise it in all its aspects. We must stress the policy of "Self-Reliance" and "Self-Sufficiency" undertaken co-operatively, and reject the easy approaches offered by aid and foreign assistance. We will have to recognise that our most important resource is our people." - Maurice Bishop.
You can read more about Bishop here.
In the latter years of the Revolution (or the Revo as it is still called), Bishop and his political partner Bernard Coard began to drift apart ideologically. As one writer would put it "One current of Grenadian socialism was egalitarian, democratic, and Jamesian; the other was hierarchical, statist, command-oriented, placing power above the masses.."I remember that day even now. I was 12, and my grandmother kept us home from school that day, almost as if she had a premonition that something terrible would happen. At about 1pm we could hear the sounds of gunfire coming from the city, and the sounds of car horns blaring, people running out of town. I remember my grandmother being terrified for the safety of my uncle who working in the heart of St George’s; thankfully he showed up unhurt and full of news later on that afternoon.
This is a synopsis of the day’s events from www.thegrenadarevolutiononline.com:
Maurice Bishop, as Prime Minister, began to be criticized for his under-performance and lack of administrative leadership in relation to the crisis of multiple problems facing the country, including the deteriorating state of the economy. The period of criticism and conflict between Maurice Bishop and his supporters, and Bernard Coard and those of what is called the ‘Coard faction’ went back as far as the early 1970s, according to some accounts. No report of strife within the Party was printed in the official People's Revolutionary Government (PRG) newspaper, "The Free West Indian."This is the wall that they were lined up against and executed.
Another interesting point is that the Central Committee was a collective body with consensus or near consensus decision-making. There is a concept that the needs of the collective soon supercede those of its members. The ‘Coard faction’ proposed that ‘joint leadership’ be shared between Bishop and Coard. They felt the marriage of the strengths of the two men would be beneficial for the country. The ‘joint leadership’ decision was unanimous. The decision was,
according to some, a formalization of the responsibilities previously borne by Bishop and Coard. The consensus decision by this collective became the overriding factor which many concluded took precedence over Bishop's decision change. Bishop had other ideas. The duties and responsibilities would leave, according to Bishop's final feeling on the matter, Maurice Bishop only as a show piece, a front, a ceremonial functionary without real power. Bishop said needed time to think about how joint leadership would work itself out day-to-day.
When Bishop refused to accept the idea of ‘joint leadership’ as workable, and rumors and alleged threats seemed to throw the situation into a psychiatric state, the Prime Minister was placed under house arrest. The house arrest occurred the evening of 12 October 1983 by unanimous decision of the remaining Central Committee members. There were frantic efforts to resolve the situation. Mediators Michael Als and Rupert Roopnarine were called in. Michael
Als' press statement Crisis in the NJM gives an overview of the situation.
Many Grenadians were alarmed by what was termed 'Bishop's house arrest.' They demonstrated and marched to Bishop's house to release him on 19 October, 1983. He was freed by a very large crowd with some reports at 4-5,000 people. Many supporters were waiting for a speech from Maurice Bishop in Market Square. For an uncertain reason, Bishop and a large group went to Fort Rupert, the headquarters of the People's Revolutionary Army. The soldiers there were persuaded to disarm. The weapons were handed out from the armory to Bishop's supporters.
A PRA assault unit in three BTR-60 armored personnel carriers headed on to Fort Rupert. An unidentified person, either on the Fort or off the Fort fired the first gunshot. There is controversy over who fired first. Many civilians died, either by bullet or by trying to get off the
Fort. In the melee, people sought to escape from Fort Rupert by jumping off from its heights. Because of the elevated placement of Fort Rupert, citizens all over St. George's stood on their balconies and viewed bodies falling to the ground. The photo below captures some of the horror.Whatever opinion you have about what caused the internal power struggle within the Government of Grenada, here was a situation of the deepest national tragedy. The hard consequences of that conflict resulted in the deaths of the following eight people who were lined up facing a courtyard wall in Fort Rupert on 19 October 1983, in the following order from left to right:
- Keith ‘Pumphead’ Hayling from the Marketing & Import Board
- Evelyn ‘Brat’ Bullen, a pro-Bishop business supporter
- Foreign Minister Unison Whiteman
- Prime Minister Maurice Bishop
- Minister of Education Jacqueline Creft (pregnant at the time)
- Evelyn Maitland of Maitland's Garage
- Minister of Housing, Norris Bain
- Fitzroy Bain, President of the Agricultural and General Workers Union
American visitor: Why did Grenadians, who are friendly, courteous,gentle, funDespite the best (and often grossly misguided) efforts at delving into the truth about what really happened that day, who was to blame, etc., the events of October 1983 left a brutal, sad and violent scar on the psyches of Grenadians. But as we continue to struggle with the repercussions of one of the darkest moments in our nation's history, the words of Maurice Bishop's rallying cry come to mind -
loving and proud people, end up jailing and shooting each other?
Unidentified Grenadian: I don't know. We ask ourselves that question all the time. - from an introductory page of Frederic L. Pryor's book “Revolutionary Grenada”
Forward ever. Backward never.
Posted by YingYang at 1:24 PM
5 Comments
well, I tell you....That day in 1983 was it, when the story came on the news in Jamaica, I said "but this is the Caribbean....those things don't happen here, only in Iraq or Israel or so".
I remember the film clip showing people walking up a hill in St George's. That stuck in my mind.
I became fascinated with Grenada, and after missing out of visiting there on my 1993 caribbean vacation (flight schedules couldnt allow it), I went in 1995 and that was it. I was hooked.
When i went to live there from 1997 to 2001, I asked always the same thing that that american visitor asked. With people who are so friendly, and unhostile, how could this have happened. People have tried to explain it to me, but it just don't make sense.
The people must have been brain washed or hypnotized.
Very sad day in Grenada's history.The accounts of soldiers turning guns on people are so chilling
Trinidadian writer and academic, Merle Hodge, who was a friend of Maurice Bishop and Jacqueline Creft and was in Grenada at the time of the revo, once told me (after reading a travel piece I'd written on Grenada) that Creft was not pregnant when she was killed. There's no way to prove or disprove this of course, but I thought it worth mentioning.
And after my first visit to Grenada, like Michelle I too was incredulous: how could this have happened? I'm yet to get a satisfactory answer.
I was in first year high school really didnt know anything about what happened, just knewthat we got one new guy at our school who came in november from grenada and that he hated the US. could really understand it then cause I thought through tv and propaganada there is no way the US could be bad guys.
when i really understood wha happened there though it really left me feeling very sad and hurt for my fellow caribbean people
Amazing. I would like to get a copy of that book you referred to. Excellent historic post.
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