GRENADA: October 1983 What Really Happened

GRENADA:

October 1983 – What Really Happened

Meeting held on Saturday 29th October 

Results from the Reconvened Zoom Meeting

Organised by Grenada Forward Ever, the Committee for Human Rights in Grenada (UK) and GEMFM of Canada

A thank-you to all participants

Dear Attendee,

In my capacity as Secretary of Grenada – Forward Ever and on behalf of the Committee for Human Rights in Grenada (UK) and GEMFM of Canada, who organised the two well attended Zoom meetings on the theme GRENADA: October 1983 – What Really Happened, I take this opportunity to thank you for participating in these events.

Whilst the first meeting faced a number of challenges, ranging from technical to organisational issues, these were overcome and made up for in the meeting on the 29th October, which was really informative. We particularly welcome the contributions from those attendees who robustly challenged former Minister Strachan but more importantly listened to his account of the tragic and very disappointing events that occurred in Grenada during October 1983.

One of the issues we face when putting on events marking this period is the legitimate query, summed up as, “Why does Grenada-Forward Ever and associated organisations spend so much time on October 1983, when the Revo’ achieved so much.  Why not concentrate on these vast gains?”.

We agree.  However, the “entrance” that prevents us from entering into that part of Grenada’s history and celebrating the successes of the Revo,’ is the energy-sapping debate over who killed Prime Minister Maurice Bishop.  We believe that our meetings have set the records straight and we can now look at and learn from the achievements of the Grenadians and their leaders.

Following a lengthy discussion, the meeting agreed on the following objectives and requested that these be communicated to the Prime Minister of Grenada by way of an open letter.  These objectives are: –

  • Call on the Government of Grenada to establish a judicial inquiry to determine the facts of the events that culminated with the deaths that occurred at Fort George, at that time Fort Rupert, on 19th October 1983.
  • Support the Government of Grenada in its efforts to determine the whereabouts of the remains of Maurice Bishop and those that fell with him at Fort George on 19th October 1983; recover these and return them to their families to ensure a proper interment.
  • Congratulate the Government of Grenada’s intention to mark, as a public holiday, 19th October and call on them to ensure that such an event is one that leads to reconciliation amongst Grenadians and supporters of Grenada.

This letter has been communicated to the Prime Minister of Grenada.  A copy can be viewed at http://grenada-forwardever.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/2022-11-03-Letter-to-PM-Mitchell.doc

Further Information

A number of attendees wanted direct information from us in respect of the statements which were made during the meeting.  We will place these on this website shortly.  See the links to a few below.

Recording of the event

We recorded the 29th October meeting and this can be found at  https://youtu.be/wZveP3gr4IM.  Thank you once again for participating in these events.

Background to the Zoom meeting

The 1979 Grenada Revolution was tremendously successful; delivering numerous benefits to its people.  However, a crisis arose in the Revo’s leadership, which led to the death of Prime Minister Maurice Bishop on the 19th of October 1983 and the collapse of the Revolution.

The crisis and subsequent killing of Maurice has generated numerous theories about what happened.  Following the subsequent invasion of Grenada by the US armed forces, America made attempts to “judicially murder” the surviving leaders of the Revo’ including our guest panelists Selwyn Strachan, founder member of the NJM and Minister of Mobilisation in the Revolutionary Government.

Other members of the panel include Alan Scott, senior British trade unionist and renowned historian of the Grenada Revolution; John Calliste, an officer in the Security Services of the Peoples Revolutionary Government, and others who were closely involved in the Revolution and subsequent events.

To know what happened during this period, including 19th of October 1983, you joined us for, what was, a thorough and revealing discourse.  ALL QUESTIONS WERE WELCOME.  Numerous questions were submitted, and answered, via Zoom’s chat function.

Support to the Government of Grenada

Grenada – Forward Ever, the Committee for Human Rights in Grenada (UK)and GEMFM are not affiliated with any political party or organisation.  However, we urge participants to support the following objectives: –

  1. Call on the Government of Grenada to establish a judicial inquiry to determine the facts of the events that culminated with the deaths that occurred at Fort George, at that time Fort Rupert, on 19th October 1983.
  2. Support the Government of Grenada in its efforts to determine the whereabouts of the remains of Maurice Bishop and those that fell with him at Fort George on 19th October 1983; recover these and return them to their families to ensure a proper interment.
  3. Congratulate the Government of Grenada’s intention to mark, as a public holiday, 19th October and call on them to ensure that such an event is one that leads to reconciliation amongst Grenadians and supporters of Grenada.

You can support the above by: –

  • Writing to the Prime Minister of Grenada at, The Right Honourable Dickon Amiss Thomas Mitchell, Prime Minister of Grenada, The Prime Minister’s Office, The Financial Complex, ST GEORGE’S, GRENADA,
  • Circulate these objectives to your family, friends and colleagues,
  • Invite us to present information to your organisation, and
  • Ask your organisations to also write to the Prime Minister.

Introduction

The Zoom meeting, “GRENADA: October 1983 – What Really Happened”,  was a  reconvened meeting on the same subject held la few days before at the request of its participants. Grenada – Forward Ever, the Committee for Human Rights in Grenada (UK) and GEMFM, an established Canadian Internet station that broadcasts Grenada media, are the three groups who have organised these meetings. Our purpose is to get at the truth.

Grenada-Forward Ever was formed in 2018 to ensure continued recognition of the tremendous social, economic and educational progress made by the Grenadian people during the Revolution (Revo’) of 1979.  The United States invaded Grenada in 1983 to quash these gains and erase its memory from history. We oppose this plan and will continue to provide the people of Grenada and their descendants with the story of this phenomenal period.

We will also fight against all forms of colonialism and support the struggle for self-determination by oppressed people seeking to advance their material, economic, social and general well-being.

Further information on our organisation, Grenada-Forward Ever can be found on this website.  We invite you to join us in undertaking the above activities.

In October 1983 the leader of the Grenada revolution, Maurice Bishop, was slain by members of the Grenadian People’s Revolutionary Army, of which he was previously their Commander in Chief.  Supporters of the Revo’ were shocked by this and the events that led up to it.  Since then a number of theories have arisen as to “what happened”.

The Grenada Revolution

The Grenada Revolution (Revo’) took place on 13 March 1979, replacing the corrupt Gairy regime. From that date, to October 1983 the Revo’ introduced huge changes to the social, economic and educational life of the people of Grenada. Some of these changes included maternity benefits, free health care, free education, a huge increase in university scholarships, the introduction of a national insurance service, the reduction of unemployment from 40% to 14% and much, much more.

These were all done with the full involvement and leadership of the people of Grenada. An objective assessment of these gains were made by a number of international organisations including the IMF and World Bank.  Information about these gains can be sourced from a huge variety of sources including this website.

On the 19th of October 1983, all that ended.  At about 1 pm Prime Minister Maurice Bishop was killed and on the 25th of October 1983 an overwhelming number of US forces invaded Grenada and after a period of fierce fighting, the Grenada military was suppressed.

So, what happened?

The collapse of the Revolution

Our objective is to have frank and evidence-based discussions on the various factors that led to the collapse of the Revo’.  This includes the deliberations that took place within the leadership of the New Jewel Movement (NJM) as they sought to continue the successes of the Revo’. The NJM was the lead political organisation in the People’s Revolutionary Government (PRG) of Grenada.

The narrative promoted by the United States government as to what happened is a fairly simple one, namely that a group of power-hungry ultra-left Marxists led by Bernard Coard sought to overthrow the leadership of Maurice Bishop.

On the 19th of October 1983, they seized their opportunity and executed him and his supporters at Fort Rupert, the headquarters of the Peoples Revolutionary Army (PRA) in St George’s the capital of Grenada, thereby seizing power. Six days later, the United States forces invaded Grenada in what they described as a ‘Rescue Mission to establish democracy in the country’.

There are many genuine attempts to explain this tragedy.  However, a minority are calculated efforts created by the US invaders designed to sow disinformation, which from day one mounted a campaign to vilify everything the Revo’ achieved and stood for and, successfully so far, to turn Grenadians and others against the Revo’, its leaders and each other.

At this Zoom meeting we provided strong evidence on this subject, which we have researched over the last decades some of these details can be found elsewhere on this website.

Why did we organise this meeting?

It is clear that the achievements of the Grenadian people created significant developments in the country.  The US government’s hostility to the Revo’ was based on the fact that their historical policy is to create an environment of dependency in less developed nations, thus keeping them economically and socially vulnerable and thereby open for exploitation, as illustrated by the example of Cuba up to their revolution in 1959.

The example of Grenada blew that policy apart.  So, it had to be quashed.  Following years of continuous economic, military and propaganda pressure from the United States they utilised the tragic events of October 1983 to invade Grenada and put out the aspirations of the Grenadian people and progressives elsewhere.

The US narrative regarding October 1983 prevents Grenadians from building on the foundations of the Revo’ and thereby developing their society.  So, we at Grenada-Forward Ever believe that this narrative must be smashed, thereby allowing Grenadians to recover and resume their path to development.

Publications

We recommend the following publications, which provide a summary of some of the achievements of the Grenada Revolution and the events leading to its collapse.

  1. GRENADA: October 1983 – What Really Happened, a summary of events in Grenada leading to October 83. https://www.dropbox.com/s/s2ttrjspplpw60t/GRENADA%20October%201983%20-%20What%20Really%20Happened%20-%20Pamphlet.pdf?dl=0
  2. By Our Own Hands: A People’s History of the Grenadian Revolution. This book by Cushion and Bartholomew is a brave attempt to bring the gains of the revolution to life once more, as they remember the days and achievements of the revolution; which the Americans so brutally tried to erase from our minds. http://cls-uk.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Pamphlet-compressed.pdf.
  3. The Last Days of the Revo’ – Reconsidering the evidence presented at the trial of the Grenada 17  by Alan Scott. “…The aim of this pamphlet is to explain the tragic events that occurred between the 12th and 19th of October 1983. It is based on verbal accounts given to me by members of the People’s Revolutionary Army (PRA), including members of Maurice Bishop’s security guards, as well as affidavits that were sworn in 1993. http://grenada-forwardever.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/The-Last-Days-of-the-Revo.pdf.