BY MICHAEL BAUMANN
"The Government of Grenada must lift the ban" on more than 80 books published by Pathfinder Press, the Organization of American States has declared.
In a 12-page ruling issued March 1, the OAS Inter-American Commission on Human Rights condemned the Grenada government's censorship decree, in force since 1989, as a blatant violation of the "right to freedom of thought and expression."
Banned authors included revolutionary leaders such as Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, V.I. Lenin, Leon Trotsky, Fidel Castro, Ernesto Che Guevara, and Malcolm X.
"The Grenada book ban is an intolerable denial of the right of workers, farmers, young people, and others to decide for themselves what they will read," said Steve Clark, editor of Maurice Bishop Speaks, a book by the central leader of the 1979-83 Grenada revolution and prime minister of the Caribbean country who was killed in 1983. Clark is also the author of "The Second Assassination of Maurice Bishop," the lead article in issue no. 6 of the Marxist magazine New International. The article explains the achievements of the workers and farmers government established there 17 years ago and what led to the assassination of Bishop by a Stalinist faction within his party. That event opened the door for Washington to invade the Caribbean island and put in place a government of its liking.
"The fact that even the OAS - which Cuban revolutionary leaders have accurately described as the `Yankee Ministry of Colonies' - felt compelled to call for an end to the ban, is testimony to how difficult it has become to defend that flagrantly undemocratic action," Clark said.
The battle against censorship began in October 1988 when Grenada customs officials seized a shipment of Pathfinder books being sent to the Maurice Bishop Patriotic Movement. At that time Grenada's police commissioner said the titles were being checked against "a list of banned books."
In March 1989 another shipment of books was confiscated, and in April 1989 the government issued a decree banning 86 Pathfinder titles by name as "contrary to the public interest."
In response to the OAS ruling, Terry Marryshow, leader of the Maurice Bishop Patriotic Movement in Grenada, is demanding that the government of Prime Minister Keith Joseph "repeal the ban, remove the law from the books, and cease denying the citizens of Grenada the right to freedom of thought."
Marryshow told the Militant that while news of the OAS ruling had been broadcast in Grenada, the government has so far given no indication it intends to remove the decree.
Dennis Antoine, Grenada's ambassador to the United States and delegate to the OAS, told the Militant March 19 he had received the ruling. Although his government had not yet "officially" taken a position on the ruling, Antoine said, "I assure you it will respond."
"This is very important to the government's image," Antoine added.
Antoine's assurances notwithstanding, in subsequent calls to the offices of Grenada's prime minister and attorney general, the Militant was told no official statement had been issued.
The Grenada censorship decree was condemned around the world. Statements of protest were issued by the Congressional Committee to Support Writers and Journalists, a bipartisan committee of more than 80 U.S. representatives and senators; U.S. Congressional representatives Ronald Dellums and Sidney Yates; Rev. Allan Kirton, general secretary of the Caribbean Conference of Churches; members of the British, Canadian, and Australian parliaments; the Oil Fields Workers Trade Union of Trinidad and Tobago; and the Grenada Trades Union Council.
Kendrick Radix, Grenada's attorney general under the Maurice Bishop government, noted that the legal origin of the book ban can be found in British colonial law. "We are supposed to be free from colonial rule. In fighting the book ban we are reaffirming our right to read anything we choose," he said.