WEBVTT - Grenada with Andrew, Pt. 1 0:00:01.720 --> 0:00:05.000 All the media. 0:00:06.800 --> 0:00:10.880 So there's a revolution long forgotten that was tucked in 0:00:10.960 --> 0:00:14.680 a corner of the Caribbean. Those outside of the region, 0:00:14.760 --> 0:00:17.720 it's probably quite far from mind. You know, when most 0:00:17.800 --> 0:00:23.000 people think of Caribbean revolutionaries, they think of Cuba. But 0:00:23.079 --> 0:00:26.360 at the time, the rise and fall of the Grenada 0:00:26.440 --> 0:00:31.560 Revolution was everything. Hello and welcome to it can happen here. 0:00:32.320 --> 0:00:36.000 I'm Andrew Sage. You're a Trinadian host of kappen Here, 0:00:36.440 --> 0:00:38.120 and I'm joined by. 0:00:38.960 --> 0:00:42.159 James, your American British co host. 0:00:42.640 --> 0:00:44.400 American British. 0:00:44.440 --> 0:00:46.040 Yeah, I don't really know how to say. 0:00:45.840 --> 0:00:47.880 That, Like, which order should that hyphen been? 0:00:48.159 --> 0:00:50.680 Oh? Yeah, yeah, I don't know which way which way 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:54.959 I'm supposed to hyphenate, because we don't hyphenate white people, uh, 0:00:56.080 --> 0:00:57.080 which is a. 0:00:57.080 --> 0:00:58.040 Very American thing. 0:00:58.480 --> 0:01:02.440 But yeah, to be here, I always enjoy learning more 0:01:02.440 --> 0:01:03.560 about this part of the world from you. 0:01:04.400 --> 0:01:08.080 I'm glad. I'm glad, and you know, as we speak, 0:01:08.080 --> 0:01:14.679 I'm hearing helicopters overhead, and no, it's really a reminder 0:01:14.800 --> 0:01:17.200 of the times that we are living in. Last night 0:01:17.240 --> 0:01:21.720 there were quite a few stealth helicopters flying overhead, quite 0:01:21.800 --> 0:01:24.800 close to the ground. About three of them. Wow, all 0:01:24.840 --> 0:01:28.680 the lights were off. So it's it seems to be 0:01:28.680 --> 0:01:31.000 a ramping up and escalation in some ways, or just 0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:35.160 a continuation of the existing military presence. 0:01:36.160 --> 0:01:37.080 Yeah, jeez. 0:01:38.120 --> 0:01:41.600 And as we're talking about military presence in the US, 0:01:42.400 --> 0:01:45.000 which is something that I spoke about on this podcast 0:01:45.000 --> 0:01:47.480 before you go and check it out, we here to 0:01:47.480 --> 0:01:51.320 discuss the very recent history, positive and negative of my 0:01:51.440 --> 0:01:55.880 northern neighbor, Grenader. So I don't want to bog anyone 0:01:55.960 --> 0:01:59.560 down with too many facts, but it's important to get 0:01:59.560 --> 0:02:04.040 a idea of the context. So Grenada is the southernmost 0:02:04.240 --> 0:02:07.640 in the grouping of Caribbean islands known as the Windward Islands. 0:02:07.880 --> 0:02:11.000 It's a country composed of Grenada, the island, and a 0:02:11.040 --> 0:02:16.639 few smaller islands, including Kariaku and Petimosknat. It's long been 0:02:16.639 --> 0:02:20.160 considered the Spice Isle, as the hilly mainland was and 0:02:20.240 --> 0:02:23.720 still is home to a lot of nutmeg plantations. They 0:02:23.720 --> 0:02:27.120 currently have a predominantly African population of just over one 0:02:27.200 --> 0:02:31.280 hundred and seventeen thousand, sharing a country merely three hundred 0:02:31.320 --> 0:02:34.200 and forty four kilometers squared or one hundred and thirty 0:02:34.240 --> 0:02:37.240 three square miles for reference, The five boroughs of New 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:40.480 York City collectively make up seven hundred and seventy eight 0:02:40.840 --> 0:02:43.680 zero point eighteen kilometers square or three hundred point four 0:02:43.680 --> 0:02:47.440 to six square miles. So Grenada is small. You know, 0:02:47.520 --> 0:02:50.359 New York is big, but Grenada is also quite small. 0:02:50.840 --> 0:02:53.240 You know, for reference, it's slightly larger than Queen's but 0:02:53.440 --> 0:02:57.120 far less populated and far less dense. So it's talking 0:02:57.240 --> 0:02:59.960 small island state par excellence. And yet it has sat 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:03.080 at the center of one of the most critical events 0:03:03.120 --> 0:03:06.200 in Caribbean history. And it might be one of the 0:03:06.240 --> 0:03:09.240 sights of yet another such incident in light of the 0:03:09.320 --> 0:03:12.880 United States request to Grenada on October ninth to establish 0:03:12.919 --> 0:03:16.560 a temporary military radar base at the infamous Maurice Bishop 0:03:16.600 --> 0:03:20.080 International Airport, a request which has not yet received a 0:03:20.120 --> 0:03:23.399 conclusive response more than a month later at the time 0:03:23.440 --> 0:03:26.440 of me recording this, so I thought it apps to 0:03:26.680 --> 0:03:30.160 finally talk about this moment in history. I went to 0:03:30.160 --> 0:03:34.040 my library and got a copy of Grenada Revolution and Invasion, 0:03:34.440 --> 0:03:37.120 a companium of essays from various perspectives on the topic 0:03:37.240 --> 0:03:40.360 arranged by Patsy Lewis at al. That provided the basis 0:03:40.400 --> 0:03:44.040 of my research, particularly the essay by mu Collins, a 0:03:44.080 --> 0:03:47.360 Grenadian poet and novelist. I also drew some of the 0:03:47.440 --> 0:03:52.360 radical background law from fundy Aka Joseph Edwards, an underappreciated 0:03:52.400 --> 0:03:56.520 autonomous radical healing from Jamaica who spoke about the situation 0:03:57.240 --> 0:04:01.240 in Non Shall Escape. All linked in the show. So 0:04:01.240 --> 0:04:03.160 I don't want to get too deep into the history 0:04:03.200 --> 0:04:07.200 prior to what's immediately relevant today's topic. Oh, keep things brief. 0:04:08.080 --> 0:04:11.600 A couple hundred Amerindians lived in Grenada prior to the 0:04:11.640 --> 0:04:15.360 European invasion. Human settlement may have been as early as 0:04:15.360 --> 0:04:19.720 thirty five hundred BCE, but most definitely by the second century. 0:04:19.839 --> 0:04:24.800 See Spain, upon stumbling upon it, claimed it but never 0:04:24.839 --> 0:04:27.799 settled it. England attempted to settle it, but was driven 0:04:27.839 --> 0:04:32.719 out by the indigenous inhabitants, and eventually the island was 0:04:32.760 --> 0:04:36.120 settled and subjugated by the French, who engaged in a 0:04:36.120 --> 0:04:40.080 protracted war against the indigenous between today's Grenada, Dominica and 0:04:40.200 --> 0:04:43.839 Saint Vincent of the Grandians throughout the seventeenth century. You know, 0:04:43.880 --> 0:04:46.680 there's this narrative that the Europeans came and they just 0:04:47.360 --> 0:04:51.880 easily conquered the entirety of the Americas, and it's important 0:04:51.960 --> 0:04:55.440 to lay that myth to rest. There was, of course 0:04:55.480 --> 0:04:58.440 a very tragic great dyeing that was responsible for a 0:04:58.640 --> 0:05:02.479 vast majority the indigenous population losing their lives to the disease, 0:05:03.360 --> 0:05:08.040 in some cases intentionally weaponized by the Europeans. But despite 0:05:08.240 --> 0:05:12.120 differences in their weaponry, the Europeans didn't have an easy 0:05:12.160 --> 0:05:15.359 time conquering the islands, or conquering the Americans at all. 0:05:16.040 --> 0:05:19.760 In many cases, they did not succeed in Conqune Islands 0:05:19.839 --> 0:05:24.640 for many decades or centuries of struggle, but eventually Crenado 0:05:24.720 --> 0:05:27.720 was established as a colony of over fifteen thousand slaved 0:05:27.760 --> 0:05:31.960 Africans by seventeen sixty three. A year prior, in seventeen 0:05:32.000 --> 0:05:34.880 sixty two, Britain took over the island from the French 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:37.200 as part of the Seven Years' War, and the island 0:05:37.240 --> 0:05:40.560 was formally ceded to Britain in seventeen sixty three. By 0:05:40.600 --> 0:05:43.159 eighteen oh seven, Britain had brought one hundred and fourteen 0:05:43.200 --> 0:05:48.080 thousand slaves to Grenado. By eighteen thirty eight, slavery was abolished. 0:05:48.600 --> 0:05:52.080 In eighteen seventy seven, Grenada became a Crown colony and 0:05:52.240 --> 0:05:56.159 fast forward a little further under modified Crown colony status, 0:05:56.800 --> 0:06:01.320 the wealthiest four percent of Canadians were allowed to vote. 0:06:01.680 --> 0:06:05.720 Eric Geary founded the Grenada United Labor Party or GULP 0:06:06.080 --> 0:06:10.000 in nineteen fifty initially as a trade union, which led 0:06:10.000 --> 0:06:14.080 to the nineteen fifty one General Strike for better working conditions. 0:06:14.560 --> 0:06:18.160 Buildings were set on fire in this time, and this 0:06:18.200 --> 0:06:21.640 is in a broader regional context of radicalism and agitation 0:06:21.760 --> 0:06:24.960 for independence in the post World War II reality, which 0:06:24.960 --> 0:06:28.560 would intensify after many of the islands had already gained 0:06:28.760 --> 0:06:34.520 the independence. Eventually, Grenada got elections based on universal adult 0:06:34.600 --> 0:06:39.039 suffrage in nineteen fifty one and Eric Gary's party GULP one. 0:06:40.120 --> 0:06:43.360 This is before they got independence, though, in a time 0:06:43.400 --> 0:06:46.000 when the English speaking Caribbean was trying to establish a 0:06:46.040 --> 0:06:50.240 West Indies Federation between nineteen fifty eight and nineteen sixty two. 0:06:50.440 --> 0:06:53.520 It didn't succeed. Jamaica seceeded, and then Trinidad, so it 0:06:53.560 --> 0:06:56.839 fell apart, and after the fall of the federation, Grenada 0:06:56.880 --> 0:07:00.839 became an associated state in nineteen sixty seven, then finally 0:07:00.920 --> 0:07:05.040 gained full independence from Britain in nineteen seventy four, again 0:07:05.200 --> 0:07:08.000 under the leadership of Eric Garry. Who became the first 0:07:08.200 --> 0:07:12.080 Prime Minister of Grenada. The late sixties and early seventies 0:07:12.120 --> 0:07:15.040 were a radical time in general, so that's set in 0:07:15.080 --> 0:07:18.520 the stage for what comes next in Grenada, the rise 0:07:18.680 --> 0:07:23.520 of the New Jewel movement led by Maurice Bishop. You see, 0:07:23.560 --> 0:07:26.800 as Fundi found. In this time, we also had quite 0:07:26.920 --> 0:07:31.480 a few other confrontations going on across the Spanaphone, Francophone, 0:07:31.560 --> 0:07:35.360 Dutch of Phone and Anglophone Caribbeans. In nineteen sixty five, 0:07:35.440 --> 0:07:38.840 you had the popular revolt in the Dominican Republic against 0:07:38.880 --> 0:07:42.280 the military coup that was drowned in blood by the 0:07:42.400 --> 0:07:45.560 US invasion. In nineteen sixty seven, you had a spontaneous 0:07:45.600 --> 0:07:49.400 rebellion of agricultural workers in Guadelup. Nineteen sixty eight, black 0:07:49.400 --> 0:07:52.600 folks in Bermuda rioted against the racist and clueless control 0:07:52.640 --> 0:07:55.640 it dominated the island. In nineteen sixty nine, there was 0:07:55.640 --> 0:07:59.200 a violent confrontation against US soldiers by students and workers 0:07:59.280 --> 0:08:04.040 protesting the US occupation of the Panama Canal Zone. Kurisa 0:08:04.120 --> 0:08:08.120 was shaken by wildcatch strikes of workers, riots by employed 0:08:08.160 --> 0:08:11.280 and unemployed as well. Labor unrest was breaking out in Surinam, 0:08:11.360 --> 0:08:14.320 leading to general strike an Tiger had riots, strikes, and 0:08:14.320 --> 0:08:18.400 demonstrations over several years. Jamaica had workers at the Western 0:08:18.440 --> 0:08:23.040 Meatpackers established democratic control of their trade union local, taking 0:08:23.080 --> 0:08:26.720 full control over their union dues and negotiating their employer 0:08:26.760 --> 0:08:30.680 without official mediators to manage the sugar workers and the 0:08:30.680 --> 0:08:35.840 local community directly and of course infamously. In nineteen seventy, 0:08:36.360 --> 0:08:40.520 Trinad was shaken up as workers, academics and small farmers 0:08:40.559 --> 0:08:43.040 linked up against the system led by the government of 0:08:43.080 --> 0:08:47.600 Prime Minister Eric Williams, and after years of his rule 0:08:48.040 --> 0:08:51.320 under the Sloga and Massa they done. The people erupted 0:08:51.600 --> 0:08:55.400 against the newoor colonial system. Despite being ruled by this 0:08:55.559 --> 0:08:58.679 black leader, the hundreds of people in the streets championed 0:08:58.760 --> 0:09:03.000 black power, understanding what was needed was a people's politics 0:09:03.000 --> 0:09:07.160 in which new institutions could emerge. This black power revolution 0:09:07.240 --> 0:09:09.880 in Trondad was inspired in part by the black civil 0:09:09.960 --> 0:09:12.760 rights struggle in the United States, while also seeking into 0:09:12.840 --> 0:09:16.600 night the African and Indian populations in Tronad. After an 0:09:16.600 --> 0:09:20.360 attempted mutiny by the army and Venezuela and American gun 0:09:20.400 --> 0:09:24.680 boats standing by raid intervene, the military surrendered. The revolutionary 0:09:24.679 --> 0:09:28.000 initiative shifted away from the masses and doctor Derk Williams 0:09:28.080 --> 0:09:32.200 was saved. By nineteen seventy three, a few armed gorillas 0:09:32.240 --> 0:09:35.960 remained in the hills of Trinidad, but eventually their struggle 0:09:36.040 --> 0:09:40.240 was snuffed out. By nineteen seventy five in Guadeloupe had 0:09:40.240 --> 0:09:44.319 wildcat strikes taking place. Guyana had wildcatch strikes against the 0:09:44.400 --> 0:09:48.680 American and Canadian owned Boux side companies. Surinam had another 0:09:48.720 --> 0:09:53.720 general strike. Saint Lucia experience with wildcat strike. Dominica attempted 0:09:53.760 --> 0:09:58.120 to seize the British owned Castle brus estates. In Jamaica, 0:09:58.400 --> 0:10:02.280 there was a wave of appropriation from banks, warehouses, stores, 0:10:02.400 --> 0:10:06.640 batting shops and more cross Kingston and demonstrations initiated by 0:10:06.720 --> 0:10:10.280 students and workers against police brutality and for the release 0:10:10.320 --> 0:10:13.880 of prisoners. And in nineteen seventy nine Nicaragua had their 0:10:13.880 --> 0:10:27.760 revolution against the US Allied government. While all of this 0:10:27.840 --> 0:10:30.920 is going on, Grenada had a population of less than 0:10:30.920 --> 0:10:35.440 one hundred thousand people. It had just become independent under 0:10:35.520 --> 0:10:39.920 Eric Geary and Erek Garry is an interesting fella because 0:10:40.160 --> 0:10:45.280 you'll see some aspects of him mirrored later on. He 0:10:45.320 --> 0:10:49.520 came to power in nineteen fifty one with the wave 0:10:49.640 --> 0:10:52.800 of universal suffrage. He was twenty nine years all at 0:10:52.840 --> 0:10:55.680 the time. He had previously been a worker organizer in 0:10:55.840 --> 0:10:58.680 Aruba and was expelled from the island for that very reason. 0:10:59.320 --> 0:11:02.960 He spent deca in politics as a champion of agricultural workers. 0:11:03.679 --> 0:11:07.640 But younger generations were not as excited about him. They 0:11:08.160 --> 0:11:13.000 recognized his financial corruption, his penchant for rigged elections, and 0:11:13.080 --> 0:11:16.800 of course his use of secret police that were repressive 0:11:17.200 --> 0:11:22.280 to the people. So as creators making steps towards becoming independent, 0:11:22.960 --> 0:11:26.080 the people did not want him to be the leader 0:11:26.200 --> 0:11:30.760 of independence. There were strikes against him even before the revolution. 0:11:31.960 --> 0:11:34.079 But see Gary was karen on this tradition that was 0:11:34.120 --> 0:11:36.560 set up by the British. Whether he knew it or not, 0:11:37.559 --> 0:11:40.120 he and may have had this radical start as a 0:11:40.160 --> 0:11:43.840 worker organizer, but he came to carry on colonial interests. 0:11:44.440 --> 0:11:46.440 You know. He started off as a union man, but 0:11:47.240 --> 0:11:50.880 he turned against the workers, and even the British at 0:11:50.920 --> 0:11:53.359 one point had been scared of him as an organizer 0:11:53.800 --> 0:11:57.880 and had trepidations about him as an independent leader, but 0:11:57.920 --> 0:12:01.640 they still chose him and prefer him at the risk 0:12:01.720 --> 0:12:04.360 of maybe a more radical version of him leading an 0:12:04.400 --> 0:12:11.240 independent Grenader, and then came the New Duel Movement. Now 0:12:11.280 --> 0:12:14.160 the New Duel Movement is actually a combination of two groups. 0:12:14.720 --> 0:12:17.880 You had the Movement for Assemblies of the People, which 0:12:17.880 --> 0:12:20.800 was founded by Maurice Bishop, a lawyer who had studied 0:12:20.800 --> 0:12:24.760 in Britain. And you had the Joint Endeavor for Welfare, 0:12:24.960 --> 0:12:28.920 Education and Liberation or JEWEL, which is founded by Howard 0:12:29.040 --> 0:12:34.040 University economic student Unison Whitman. They were also joined by 0:12:34.200 --> 0:12:38.360 Bernard Cord, an economics lecturer at UIs in Augustin in Trinandobago. 0:12:39.280 --> 0:12:42.120 So at first, in terms of their politics, they really 0:12:42.120 --> 0:12:45.920 wanted popular assemblies and that sort of thing. But actually 0:12:46.040 --> 0:12:48.720 let me get into the background of the Caribbean left. 0:12:49.559 --> 0:12:52.079 You see, in the nineteen fifties there was an upheaval. 0:12:52.400 --> 0:12:54.960 You know, radicals had been shifting from the sort of 0:12:55.000 --> 0:12:58.040 Stalinism that had become popular in the post War two 0:12:58.040 --> 0:13:05.440 era towards a more critical sort of Trotskyism or Maoism. Yeah. 0:13:05.679 --> 0:13:08.920 See Lar James and George pat Moore, both based in London, 0:13:09.240 --> 0:13:12.720 were already advocate in independence for Africa and the Caribbean, 0:13:13.200 --> 0:13:17.160 rejecting the Styalinist idea that liberation should wait until after 0:13:17.320 --> 0:13:18.000 World Ward two. 0:13:19.000 --> 0:13:19.200 See. 0:13:19.280 --> 0:13:22.520 Lar James is an interesting figure politically to me because 0:13:23.160 --> 0:13:26.080 while he was ostensibly a Trotskyist, he was in many 0:13:26.080 --> 0:13:30.240 ways unorthodox in his approach to those politics. 0:13:30.920 --> 0:13:34.720 Yeah, Celar James's book Trying to Remember, it's called Beyond 0:13:34.800 --> 0:13:36.800 a Boundary or Beyond the Boundary. 0:13:36.559 --> 0:13:37.439 Beyond the Boundary. 0:13:37.840 --> 0:13:38.839 Yeah, it's a great book. 0:13:39.040 --> 0:13:40.840 To the only book about cricket that I've ever read, 0:13:41.440 --> 0:13:43.280 and that's the only one that I've ever enjoyed. Not 0:13:43.320 --> 0:13:46.920 a big cricket appreciate it, but as a sports historian 0:13:47.000 --> 0:13:51.000 that that book was foundational to like how how I 0:13:51.040 --> 0:13:55.400 approached my dissertation, and like as such, I've always had 0:13:55.400 --> 0:13:58.679 a really like a soft spot for him as someone 0:13:58.720 --> 0:14:01.840 who did sports living in academia for a living. I 0:14:01.920 --> 0:14:04.160 saw like a really positive example of the role that 0:14:04.200 --> 0:14:07.280 both of those can play in like liberation struggles in 0:14:07.360 --> 0:14:10.040 his writing. Yeah, Yeah, it's when I'd encourage everyone to 0:14:10.080 --> 0:14:11.960 read if you're looking for a book. It's like his 0:14:12.040 --> 0:14:15.480 writing is very readable, in his historical writing, like which 0:14:15.520 --> 0:14:17.800 I at the time of my life, when I was 0:14:17.800 --> 0:14:20.120 in grad school, I very much appreciated someone who wrote 0:14:20.120 --> 0:14:24.040 something that wasn't like self consciously trying to be dense 0:14:24.080 --> 0:14:28.160 and impenetrable to make them seem intelligent. Like face, his 0:14:28.240 --> 0:14:29.760 intelligence comes through just fine. 0:14:30.480 --> 0:14:33.400 Indeed, indeed, I've had a soft spot for him as 0:14:33.480 --> 0:14:37.400 well for some time, particularly after reading The Black Yakabins. 0:14:37.800 --> 0:14:40.000 Yeah, he used to assign that one alone. 0:14:40.440 --> 0:14:43.640 And I would say that the Tribean left at the 0:14:43.640 --> 0:14:45.400 time also had a bit of a soft spot for 0:14:45.480 --> 0:14:49.240 him because they were heavily influenced by his writings. Yeah, 0:14:49.280 --> 0:14:53.240 you know, in his nineteen fifty six pamphlet Face and Reality, 0:14:53.760 --> 0:14:57.160 which is about the Hungarian Revolution, ended up becoming a 0:14:57.320 --> 0:15:01.520 profound influence on Western Ian radicals, as it had revealed 0:15:01.520 --> 0:15:06.600 the potential of workers' councils and done a lot to 0:15:06.640 --> 0:15:11.560 expose the authoritarianism of the Soviet model. This is something 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:14.760 that Bundy wrote about and highlighted as he's given his 0:15:14.840 --> 0:15:19.440 sort of discussion of the origins and trajectory of the 0:15:19.440 --> 0:15:23.280 Caribbean left. So in the nineteen sixties and seventies, radical 0:15:23.360 --> 0:15:27.239 thought across the Caribbean was shaped by these more democratic 0:15:27.320 --> 0:15:31.600 socialist ideals. Ye had movements like Jamaica's Young Socialist League, 0:15:31.840 --> 0:15:36.120 Trindad's New Beginning Movement and Creator's New Jewel movements. They 0:15:36.120 --> 0:15:40.040 were all inspired by James and by grassroots workers councils 0:15:40.160 --> 0:15:45.160 rather than the typical Soviet orthodoxy. Of course, the Caribbean 0:15:45.280 --> 0:15:50.960 left was not immune to conflict or division. There were 0:15:51.080 --> 0:15:54.480 conflicts between those who were more loyal to stylists or 0:15:54.560 --> 0:15:58.280 pro Soviet positions, and that led to some splits within 0:15:58.440 --> 0:16:02.960 unions and political movements. Now, initially the Neutral Movement was 0:16:03.040 --> 0:16:08.160 leaning in that participatory democratic direction, but eventually they ended 0:16:08.200 --> 0:16:11.720 up going in to studying Marxism Leninism more not really 0:16:11.760 --> 0:16:15.360 at first they mainly wanted Gary out, but later they 0:16:15.400 --> 0:16:19.000 went into Marxism Leninism and transformed the movement into a 0:16:19.080 --> 0:16:23.560 proper political party of the vanguard variety in an effort 0:16:23.600 --> 0:16:28.240 to unseat Geary. They started building some momentum and immediately 0:16:28.800 --> 0:16:34.000 based consequences. In nineteen seventy three, Bishop Whiteman and others 0:16:34.080 --> 0:16:38.240 got beaten up and arrested by Gary's secret police multiple times. 0:16:38.760 --> 0:16:43.400 Bishop's own father was shot and killed by Gary's forces, 0:16:44.320 --> 0:16:46.520 and the high schoolers that were also taking a stand 0:16:46.560 --> 0:16:51.200 against Gary at the time were facing repression and violence. Now, 0:16:51.240 --> 0:16:55.280 with nineteen seventy four, independence was one, but sadly under 0:16:55.560 --> 0:16:59.600 Gary and his notorious secret police, which were by the way, 0:16:59.680 --> 0:17:04.920 called the Mongoose Gang. Now there was already suspicions of 0:17:05.000 --> 0:17:09.040 potential election fraud, and it wasn't helped by the fact 0:17:09.160 --> 0:17:13.439 that his Mongoose Gang was known to intimidate people. But 0:17:13.520 --> 0:17:17.639 in nineteen seventy six, despite this for a political landscape, 0:17:17.720 --> 0:17:21.880 Bishop won a leadership role as opposition and became known 0:17:22.000 --> 0:17:25.360 across the country in our country as small as as Grenader, 0:17:25.800 --> 0:17:30.720 as someone charismatic, personable, relatable. The New Dual Movement started 0:17:30.720 --> 0:17:33.480 to build a reputation for being connected to the people, 0:17:34.000 --> 0:17:37.640 engage with students, engage with pro bono work. In some cases, 0:17:37.720 --> 0:17:40.879 as I mentioned, some of them were lawyers, and they 0:17:40.920 --> 0:17:43.399 were youthful. They were bringing a youthful energy to the 0:17:43.440 --> 0:17:48.240 sort of old god colonial era politics of Erik Garry 0:17:48.640 --> 0:18:01.439 and his ILK. So the story of how the New 0:18:01.520 --> 0:18:06.080 Dual Movement came into power is actually a bit humorous 0:18:06.119 --> 0:18:10.000 to me. On the thirteenth of March nineteen seventy nine, 0:18:10.400 --> 0:18:13.639 Gary went to the UN meeting in New York that 0:18:13.760 --> 0:18:16.560 was happening at the time, and as the saying goes, 0:18:16.560 --> 0:18:20.560 when the cat's away, the mice will play. In this case, 0:18:20.640 --> 0:18:23.200 while the cat was away, the New Dual Movement pulled 0:18:23.200 --> 0:18:27.399 off a coup, a completely bloodless coup. They took control 0:18:27.400 --> 0:18:30.120 of the army barracks and the radio. When they went 0:18:30.160 --> 0:18:32.320 on the radio, and this is the funny part to me, 0:18:32.680 --> 0:18:35.520 they told people to go to police stations and demand 0:18:35.640 --> 0:18:39.600 that they put up white flags of surrender. And the 0:18:39.640 --> 0:18:42.200 population was so anti Gary that they did it. They 0:18:42.240 --> 0:18:44.800 just walked up in civilization. So they're like, yeah, put 0:18:44.840 --> 0:18:47.520 up these white flags, and the police shaid, yeah, sure, 0:18:49.080 --> 0:18:51.000 that was that. That's how the New Jeal movement came 0:18:51.000 --> 0:18:51.560 into power. 0:18:51.920 --> 0:18:54.960 Yeah, And this is such a fascinating time in history, right, 0:18:55.000 --> 0:18:58.240 Like they used to teach a class about culturing colonialism 0:18:58.400 --> 0:19:00.920 back in the day, and we would talk a lot 0:19:00.960 --> 0:19:04.399 about like this time period, like the post wind Rush 0:19:04.440 --> 0:19:10.680 period where like Caribbean political culture was very influential even 0:19:10.720 --> 0:19:15.960 in the metropol right in Britain specifically, Like this is 0:19:16.000 --> 0:19:20.080 when we have like sca music and then punk music 0:19:20.440 --> 0:19:23.439 arriving from that, which is a serious political force in 0:19:23.480 --> 0:19:25.720 a twentieth century. Like it's easy for people to sniff 0:19:25.720 --> 0:19:28.359 at that or whatever, but and that's the reason I 0:19:28.400 --> 0:19:30.920 am the way I am so like, I guess I 0:19:31.000 --> 0:19:34.720 have a fondness for it, but also like the state's 0:19:34.960 --> 0:19:42.199 capacity for violence and surveillance hasn't caught up to the 0:19:42.280 --> 0:19:46.280 capacity for mass communication yet, and so you have these 0:19:46.320 --> 0:19:49.879 movements which can mobilize a ton of people and the 0:19:49.920 --> 0:19:54.640 state isn't like all up in them with informers and like, 0:19:55.520 --> 0:19:58.440 it can either respond as a Soviet Union did in 0:19:58.520 --> 0:20:01.480 Hungary right with tanks that's where we get the word 0:20:01.480 --> 0:20:05.359 tanky from, or it can crumble like by people turning 0:20:05.400 --> 0:20:06.640 up and turn of the cops to surrender. 0:20:06.760 --> 0:20:06.840 Like. 0:20:07.040 --> 0:20:11.399 It's just a fascinating, like little to three decade period 0:20:11.440 --> 0:20:15.840 in history before the state, I guess recovers its advantage 0:20:15.880 --> 0:20:19.360 in terms of violence and surveillance. Yeah. 0:20:19.520 --> 0:20:22.359 I marvel at this time because I mean they didn't 0:20:22.359 --> 0:20:27.040 have this social media and stuff to connect people and 0:20:27.359 --> 0:20:31.639 you know, advertise they we're having this this protest or 0:20:31.720 --> 0:20:35.320 this action or this whatever. Yeah, but the networks were 0:20:35.320 --> 0:20:37.960 still there, you know, they were organic, and they were 0:20:38.560 --> 0:20:45.480 motivated by a genuine sense that a seriative was actionable. Yeah, 0:20:45.760 --> 0:20:47.480 you know, I think we have this sort of twenty 0:20:47.520 --> 0:20:52.959 first century Malays of cynicism. It's like that was tried before, 0:20:53.320 --> 0:20:55.720 you know. Yeah, every time we look at something, we 0:20:55.760 --> 0:20:58.040 can say, oh, that was tried before and they failed. 0:20:58.840 --> 0:21:01.280 When we look back at history, people who try those things, 0:21:01.400 --> 0:21:02.680 they didn't know if it was going to work out 0:21:02.840 --> 0:21:05.680 or not. They just tried it. I wouldn't be surprised 0:21:05.720 --> 0:21:07.800 if I was a fly on the wall on the 0:21:07.880 --> 0:21:11.240 day of the school if the neudual movement guys were 0:21:11.320 --> 0:21:14.440 just like, wait, what that actually works? 0:21:15.200 --> 0:21:16.600 Yeah, exactly, Like. 0:21:16.640 --> 0:21:19.119 Not to take away from their plan and an organization 0:21:19.720 --> 0:21:23.720 and you know, the genuine grassroots support that they had. 0:21:24.480 --> 0:21:25.840 It's still a swing. 0:21:26.119 --> 0:21:26.720 Yeah, totally. 0:21:26.760 --> 0:21:28.840 At some point you have to like roll the dice 0:21:28.920 --> 0:21:32.800 right and see how it goes, Like in this case. 0:21:32.920 --> 0:21:34.720 The roles of critical success, I'd. 0:21:34.560 --> 0:21:39.440 Say, yeah, yeah, it's a natural twenty Yeah, the Dragon's term. 0:21:39.920 --> 0:21:41.240 So I'd really like to let it out. 0:21:41.240 --> 0:21:44.000 In this period, this is like the heyday of pirate radio, right, 0:21:44.040 --> 0:21:47.920 where you have people broadcasting but like outside of sake control, 0:21:48.600 --> 0:21:51.080 and it's a really interesting time for culture and music. 0:21:51.840 --> 0:21:57.800 Like scar music explicitly explicitly begins in an anti racist way, right, 0:21:57.840 --> 0:22:01.639 like it calls itself two tone of music. Because bands 0:22:01.800 --> 0:22:05.679 were often look multi racial, and it's really interesting that 0:22:05.720 --> 0:22:09.640 we have this whole cultural movement which owes a lot 0:22:09.720 --> 0:22:12.600 to the wind Rush generation. But like you said, it's 0:22:12.720 --> 0:22:19.080 questioning the both capitalists and also Marxist orthodoxies in a 0:22:19.119 --> 0:22:22.040 way that I know, but I really wish. I mean 0:22:22.040 --> 0:22:23.600 a lot of people do today, don't get me wrong, 0:22:24.200 --> 0:22:26.760 but I wonder if we could tell those people now 0:22:26.800 --> 0:22:30.760 that you'd have people who were like dedicated vanguard Marxists. Again, 0:22:31.280 --> 0:22:35.720 like you know, it just seems a sad noise. 0:22:37.160 --> 0:22:39.080 Yeah, I mean, I think we could say the same 0:22:39.080 --> 0:22:42.760 thing about a lot of people's current politics. I'm sure 0:22:42.760 --> 0:22:45.040 if you went back in the past and we're like, 0:22:45.119 --> 0:22:48.280 you know, people are actually trying to be troadwives right 0:22:48.320 --> 0:22:51.440 now twenty five. You want to talk to the woman 0:22:51.520 --> 0:22:54.080 who had like no ability to open a bank account 0:22:54.200 --> 0:22:57.359 and we're trying to escape financial abuse, to rest abuse, 0:22:57.359 --> 0:22:59.359 all these different things, and they're like, oh, you know, 0:22:59.400 --> 0:23:04.880 there's actually a whole internet a trend of like, yeah, 0:23:04.960 --> 0:23:08.720 your husband should control all your finances. Actually yeah, I mean, 0:23:08.840 --> 0:23:11.520 of course that kind of sentiment never went away, but 0:23:11.960 --> 0:23:14.840 it's popularization definitely debunks I think this sort of notion 0:23:15.119 --> 0:23:20.400 that that progress quote unquote is something that is inevitable 0:23:20.520 --> 0:23:21.400 or irreversible. 0:23:22.119 --> 0:23:24.479 Yeah, definitely, Yeah, that's right. I mean you can even 0:23:24.520 --> 0:23:27.120 travel across the world and share that. I can only 0:23:27.160 --> 0:23:29.640 imagine how that would be received in Russia. Ava right 0:23:29.640 --> 0:23:32.639 to tell the friends in the women's movement that there 0:23:32.640 --> 0:23:34.679 are Western women who aspire to be tradwives. I mean, 0:23:34.680 --> 0:23:37.640 I'm sure they're aware they have the Internet, but yeah, 0:23:37.680 --> 0:23:41.320 it's certainly Yeah, this idea that we can only progress 0:23:41.400 --> 0:23:42.280 or move in one duration. 0:23:42.920 --> 0:23:45.760 Yeah, that's how the New Droal movement came into power, 0:23:46.320 --> 0:23:51.200 and upon getting to that position, they established the People's 0:23:51.320 --> 0:23:56.240 Revolutionary Government or PRG, which is led now by the 0:23:56.359 --> 0:24:01.800 Prime Minister of Grenader, Maurice Bishop. They were considered legitimate, 0:24:02.040 --> 0:24:06.720 of course, because they did have the people's mandate, but 0:24:07.320 --> 0:24:11.320 they opted not to solidify that legitimacy with an election, 0:24:11.880 --> 0:24:16.840 and they also went on to ban other parties. So 0:24:17.720 --> 0:24:20.200 in the next episode, I want to get into what 0:24:20.320 --> 0:24:24.520 exactly they did when they were in power in broad strokes, 0:24:24.600 --> 0:24:27.760 all their hits and misses with the economy and politics 0:24:27.760 --> 0:24:29.960 over the course of their four years, and how it 0:24:30.040 --> 0:24:35.600 culminated in an internal split, multiple killings and a US invasion. 0:24:36.320 --> 0:24:37.959 But if you want the details and how all that 0:24:38.000 --> 0:24:41.360 played out, you'll have to tune in. Next time. We'll 0:24:41.359 --> 0:24:44.640 get into the outcome of the PRG, the flaws, the revolution, 0:24:45.280 --> 0:24:48.960