Tag Archives: Communism

Grenada: Gairy, Bishop, Balance or Coup

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PM Eric Matthew Gairy

Grenada PM Eric Matthew Gairy

Eric Gairy held the posts of Chief Minister in the Federation of the West Indies (1957-1962) and became prime minister of Grenada in 1967. During this period, the main opposition to the GULP came from the Grenada National Party (GNP). Gairy argued that Grenada should be granted its independence from Britain. Being a “puppet” for many years prior, it was feared that he would install himself as a dictator over Grenada if independence was dictated on his terms.

Maurice Bishop meets the Grenadian people, in a still from Bruce Paddington's film Forward Ever.

Maurice Bishop meets the Grenadian people, in a still from Bruce Paddington’s film Forward Ever.

Maurice Bishop returned to Grenada in 1969 after studying law in England. Soon afterwards he helped form the Movement for Assemblies of the People (MAP) and the Movement for the Advance of Community (MACE). In 1973 these organizations merged with Joint Endeavor for Welfare, Education and Liberation (JEWEL) to establish the New Jewel Movement (NJM).

In May 1973, Gairy visited London where it was agreed that Grenada would become independent in February, 1974. On 1st January 1974 the New Jewel Movement called a national strike and a Committee of 22 was established by the trade unions, civic organizations and the church to demonstrate against him Gairy.

Manifesto of the New Jewel Movement:
The people are being cheated and have been cheated for too long-cheated by both parties, for over twenty years. Nobody is asking what the people want. We suffer low wages and higher cost of living while the politicians get richer, live in bigger houses and drive around in even bigger cars. The government has done nothing to help people build decent houses; most people still have to walk miles to get water to drink after 22 years of politicians.

If we fall sick we catch hell to get quick and cheap medical treatment. Half of us can’t find steady work. The place is getting from bad to worse every day – except for the politicians (just look at how they dress and how they move around). The police are being used in politics these days and people are getting more and more blows from them. Government workers who don’t toe the Gairy line are getting fired left and right.

The government has no idea how to improve agriculture, how to set up industries, how to improve housing, health, education and general well-being of the people. They have no ideas for helping the people. All they know is how to take the people’s money for themselves, while the people scrape and scrunt for a living.

We believe that the main concern of us all is to (1) prevent the daily rise in prices of all our food and clothes and other essentials (it is unbelievable but that the price you can get for a pound of cocoa can’t buy a half-pound of fish) and (2) develop a concrete program for raising the standard of housing, living, education, health, food and recreation for all the people.

The present situation we face is that we are forced to live in jammed-up, rundown, unpainted houses without toilet and bath, without running water, very poor roads, overcrowded schools where our children can’t get a decent education … We can’t afford the cost of food to feed our children properly and this makes it easier for them to catch all kinds of illnesses. There are very few places near home for recreation. All we have is the rum shop to drown our troubles. It’s almost impossible to buy clothes or shoes these days. The prices are ridiculous.

On 21st January 1974, demonstrators were attacked by police. Several people were injured and Rupert Bishop, Maurice‘s father and the leader of the New Jewel Movement was killed.

_62889134_grenada_eric_gairy_bbcWe are now completely free, liberated, independent. In spite of a wicked, malicious, obstructive, destructive minority of noise-making self-publicists, God has heard our prayers. God has been merciful. God has triumphed.

Eric Gairy, speech 7th February 1974

Eric Gairy and his Grenada United Labour Party won the elections held on 7th November, 1976. However, opposition leaders complained that all election officials were members of GULP and that they had tampered with the voting papers.

’77, Grenada leader Eric Gairy sought advice from Pinochet on how to deal with civil unrest.

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The police and military would soon begin “counter insurgency” training from the Chilean Military.

Eric Gairy Prime Minister Eric Gairy of Grenada and President Jimmy Carter meet in the White House on September 9, 1977.

Eric Gairy and President Jimmy Carter meet in the White House on September 9, 1977.

United States State Department reported on the activities of Eric Gairy in 1978 and found that the formation of the infamous “Mongoose Gang” in the early 1970’s – law enforcement agencies outside the provision of the law of the state – was responsible for a series of unspeakable atrocities and terror campaigns against the Grenada citizenry. In 1979 a rumor circulated that Gairy planned to use his Gang to assassinate leaders of the New Jewel Movement while he was out of the country. On 13th March 1979, Maurice Bishop and the NJM took over the nation’s radio station and the rest of the country with the support of the people.

 “Sir Eric Gairy appealed to the US and British for help in capturing what he described as a ‘small group of Communists.'”  ON THIS DAY, 13th March 1979 – BBC

Influenced by the ideas of Marxists like Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and Daniel Ortega, Maurice Bishop began establishing Workers’ Councils in Grenada. He received aid from the Soviet Union and Cuba and with this money constructed an aircraft runway to improve tourism. Bishop attempted to develop a good relationship with the United States and allowed private enterprise to continue on the island. His actions improved the welfare of the common Grenadian, and the country as a whole, with improvements across every social measure.

Maurice Bishop with Fidel Castro, 26 July, 1983

Maurice Bishop with Fidel Castro, 26 July, 1983

Bernard Coard, the Minister of Finance, disagreed with Bishops efforts, as did United States foreign policy objectives. On 19th October, with the support of the army, Minister Coard overthrew the government. Maurice Bishop and several others, including Unison Whiteman (Foreign Minister), Jacqueline Creft (Minister of Education and Women’s Affairs), Norris Bain (Minister of Housing) and Fitzroy Bain (President of the Agricultural and General Workers Union) were arrested and executed.

Reagan being apprised of the situation as the U.S. invasion of Grenada.

Maurice_Bishop-450x350

Democracy requires inequity and a reaction to it, representative of the Peoples resolve.

Q:How to avert loss of life in on the road to revolution
Q:How to protect self-interest and democratic outcomes in the aftermath

A?:Rule of law, reconciliation, civic reorganization, and popularization of civic involvement.

ideas from:
http://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/grenadians-seek-greater-political-participation-new-jewel-movement-1973-1979

Wilder, Ann Elizabeth. The Grenada Revolution Online: http://www.thegrenadarevolutiononline.com/gairya.html

Lewis, Patsy. excerpts: Social Policies in Grenada
Found Online: http://books.google.com/books?id=AMpGrBP507sC&pg=PA27&lpg=PA27&dq=grenada+social+reforms&source=bl&ots=TyFt2v89dO&sig=9XWy0CWEq3qp816amWhkWJhqIN8&hl=en&sa=X&ei=0_ArUaG7BKKV0QHL-IHYAg&ved=0CHIQ6AEwCTgK#v=onepage&q&f=false

Ferguson, James. Grenada: Revolution in Reverse. Found online: http://dajialai.org/ziliao1/monthly%20review%20press/Grenada%20%20revolution%20in%20reverse%20%20James%20Ferguson.pdf

Williams, Dessima. Summary of Speech to United Nations, 1 October 2012. Found online:
http://gadebate.un.org/67/grenada

A Seuss-ish Butter Battle Cold War

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The Yook Chief made deals with other like minded spreaders. At first for their resources, the Yooks found new friends, ‘ventually forcing a decision ‘bout best bread-buttered ends.  Their tropical friends had their own customs too, but elected new Chiefs to try something new.  These new leaderoos, figuring “never enough butter,” buttered both sides of bread, sending Yook hearts afutter. The Chief Yookeroo thought they had been swayed by the Zooks, and the media attacked them, calling them kooks.  The Giperoo was young and a hero on the tube. He would reassure the Yooks on what was best to do.  There would be no Zook nonsense, no it must be contained. The radical Zook ideas would need to be shamed.  “This can’t go on”, the Chief would say, to this heathen idea they could not fall sway. He picked his best men, and lied of their hypocrisy, and installed puppet leaderoos in the name of yooocracy.  Far flung places were picked from a hat to engage the Zooks by proxy in geopolitical spat.  The boom-eroo complex moved along with great speed, Yooks were once again drafted according to need.  Yookeroo young began to line up for war; no one was really sure what they were fighting for.

Still all of this time, with fingers on triggers, more boom-eroos were planned and made and delivered.  More silos and spending to match that of the Zooks, no money was spent educating the Yooks.  More taxes were collected, but less money was made, and Yooks ducked and covered and were always afraid. Each Yook Dollar spent went to straight to the cause, pushed through Yookongress with patriotic applause.  There would be more boom-eroos, and boom-eroos meant more jobs, for the out of work masses that had turned into mobs.  Sound bites would tout the creation of work, from Yook leaderoo mouths with a wink and a smirk.   But not all Yooks knew booms or even –eroos.  The ones that did had numbered in few.  So no “real” jobs would gainfully employ, but yooocracy would cheapen the cost of Yook toys. With no money for schools, more Yooks wound up in jail. Idealistic Yooks yearned for this old way to fail.  And just for a glimmer, fail it did, a stand-in Chief was elected and Yooks looked within.  The Gipperoo waited from his Hollyook home, four years out west while a stand-down was sown.  Tired of shilling and starting to age, he could barely contain his zeal for the stage. When he’d get his turn, the Zooks would be crushed; out on top would be bread, with the butter-side-up.

By this time the boom-eroos were biggered and baddered.  Bitsy Big-Boy had no longer mattered.  The potential for carnage had gadzupled by far, and the Gipperoo was anxious raise up the bar.  If only he were Chief, the Zooks would retreat. There would be no butter spread on bread-underneaths.   The Zook “question” should be pushed to the top concern.  The Yooks would get the number one spot they deserved. Because the Yooks were tired of settling for less, the old showman decided to perform the show he knew best.  A deal was arranged, and some Yooks came home, and the dovish Chief Yook was removed from his throne.  The Gipperoo rode into power on a wave of support, to a “new dawn for Yooks” and more building of forts.  We would make more bombs and profits would trickle down, to the poor Yooks living in the poor side of town.  This scheme was a myth, making more Yooks broke, and ever more weary unlike wealthy Yook folks. Weapons were passed on to fight Yook wars, to shady new friends quick to offer support. Monies were funneled through third world regimes, and the discovery of this: a Gipperoo bad dream.  There even was a Yook financial crash, but this had nothing to do with the inevitable Zook collapse. The Zook walls that went up a while ago, came down because the Zooks demanded it so.

Based upon the Butter Battle Book, by Dr. Seuss

Amnesty Gives Power to ANC Criminals

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The extent of the crimes is well known…
and the government is full of perpetrators…
can amnesty really be the mechanism of reconciliation?

1990: Namibian Independence: Winnie & Nelson Mandela with Joe Slovo at the Namibian Independence celebrations.

Winnie & Nelson Mandela with Joe Slovo at the Namibian Independence celebrations.

The many crimes of the ANC have been absolved by amnesty.

It’s hard to hear the name ‘Mandela’ without also recalling ‘Mandela United’ (football club) or the South African Communist Party. While the man himself may or may not be a Saint, he endorsed something which became so barbarous and wild. Near the end of his revolution, children were killing children. Who could know the number killed or maimed by land mines. Not to mention, conscionable dissenters, ‘rehabilitated’ at Camp Quatro. Is this how they will steward this new nation? the How could anyone, black or white, sleep safe.

If one was lucky to survive a revolution (which has the color of klepto-communism), must they now face a ring of violent conspirators and tortuous murderers as their newly elected ministers. Is this an improved South Africa; for everyone, black or white? Can the media be trusted to examine the corruption, or will they look over the scandal? Are they willing to challenge the ANC on behalf of their readers or viewership? Time will tell if this new nation will be victims, again, unless the rotten are purged.

The Party of a violent Revolution should not be the party of the people and state.

1930’s Soviet Industrial Output

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The smoke of chimneys is the breath of Soviet Russia

The smoke of chimneys is the breath of Soviet Russia

The Soviet Union industrialized under a series of five-year plans, which increased the industrial output of the USSR by 50% in the first five years (all this while the most of the West was reeling from the Great Depression).

The Soviets built new cities, centered upon entirely new industries.  Large cities such as Moscow and Leningrad doubled in size, as the country became more urban (and more industrial).  Much of the hard work, like mining, was done by prison labor and gulag became part of the Stalinist economic system. Because of the urbanization and forced prison labor, the USSR would transform from an agrarian nation to and industrial power in just a few years.

Bolshevism: False Promises & Mutinies

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The Bolsheviks made a lot of promises to the army and the peasants, about better distribution of food and land.  The Bolshevik position won out over the Mensheviks because the Bolsheviks “merged a peculiarly Russian tradition of revolutionary zeal” and basically convinced the people that they could get things together quickly. Nearly sixty thousand troops mutinied in Petrograd and joined the revolution, causing Nicholas II to abdicate.

Biko Was No ANC Communist

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Mr. Biko understood that society must acknowledge its group consciousness, and do so under one banner, as opposed to multiple, self-defeating fronts.

He was disheartened by the committees which advocated revolution, feeling that there was no need for violence–that the overall numbers gave them the leverage they needed. Biko hoped that barbarism and riotous behavior could be avoided. He believed that black South Africans would have a free nation, one day, in ANY outcome, because the untenable situation mandated it and that it would be quite sad if it came by way of bloodbath, when it needn’t be.

The ANC claimed ‘solidarity’ with the working men of the world, but failed to unite their own people against their local oppressors. Biko feared they were at the suggestion from outside influences and willing to use violence when the most effective approach would be peaceful confrontation.Biko felt that submitting to the ANC’s claim of representation, meant sharing the guilt in their crimes, and suffering the penalty of their actions.

The ANC overlaid the nonsense of foreign geopolitics on top of the liberation struggle. This resulted in justice seeking blacks like Biko being called a great many things: ‘agitators’, ‘communists’, while holding no sympathies to Russia or planned economies. From what I have studied, Biko believed that there were more liberating philosophies, and perhaps room for both the public and private sectors in the economy.

Biko believed that participation in the economy had been legally denied, as well a voice in that process. From his point of view, no white representative could suffice in fully representing the concerns of black South Africans. Nor, he felt, should he be the speaker of the people his race marginalizes. What Biko sought was representation and the ability to represent. The same status before the law.

But many of South African leaders leaders disagreed, aligning with the ANC, content to subscribe to borrowed notions to solve the disparity. Biko believed that Communism would not solve South Africa’s woes, in the same way that the Western Democratic model would be ill suited. Biko suggested the solution must be African, and borne of black Africans, who recognize their entitlement to such freedom under God.