“The Cubans have made a tremendous difference,” Terry Marryshow told the Militant in a November 17 telephone interview from St. Georges, Grenada’s capital. Marryshow is a representative of the Maurice Bishop and October 19th Martyrs Foundation. The foundation was established after the Oct. 19, 1983, counterrevolutionary coup in Grenada, in which then-prime minister Maurice Bishop and other government leaders were murdered.

Marryshow said the island’s electrical lines were “almost totally devastated” by the hurricane. They are being repaired by Cuban volunteers who display “a very strong work ethic,” he said.

“From six o’clock in the morning until late in the evening you see them on the road putting up new poles and electric lines. They’re also salvaging old lines and using them rather than new ones where possible,” Marryshow noted.

“They display a large Cuban flag on their trucks so everyone can see who they are. People receive them quite warmly,” he continued.

According to the Cuban daily Juventud Rebelde, the electrical workers are veterans of the hurricane recovery efforts in Cuba, restoring service in less than ten days to seven provices in Cuba that lost power after Hurricane Ivan hit.

Marryshow was not aware of any contingents from the United States, Britain, France, or Germany coming to aid Grenada in the aftermath of the hurricane. He did note that the government of Venezuela headed by President Hugo Chávez has sent soldiers to help the Grenadians in the cleanup of debris and the construction of new buildings. According to the Cuban news agency Agencia de Información Nacional (AIN), the Cuban internationalist workers held a ceremony in October in St. Georges. The Cuban ambassador to Grenada, Humberto Rivero, told the volunteers that “the spirit of combat… has always characterized the Cuban people in difficult battles,” reported AIN.

“The Grenadian population was waiting anxiously for the Cuban contingent,” the news agency reported, “due to the prestige gained by the Cuban collaborators in that Caribbean nation and in particular the Cuban workers during the construction of the Point Salines Airport.”

In 1979, the Grenadian toilers, under the leadership of Maurice Bishop and the New Jewel Movement, overthrew the despotic regime of Eric Gairy and placed a workers and farmers government in power.

Cuba provided unconditional aid to the Grenada revolution from the beginning. Particularly noteworthy were the efforts of Cuban construction workers to build a new airport at Point Salines.

In 1983, a counterrevolutionary faction of the New Jewel Movement—led by Bernard Coard—overthrew the workers and farmers government, assassinating Bishop and other revolutionary leaders. The U.S. government immediately seized on this devastating blow to Grenada’s working people to prepare an invasion of the island. Despite the defeat of the revolution and the imminent assault by Washington, the Cuban government decided the construction workers would remain and continue building the airport, as a commitment to the Grenadian toilers.

The overwhelming majority of Cubans in Grenada at the time were civilians, half of them over 40 years of age. The construction workers at the airport were instructed by the Cuban leadership to engage the U.S. soldiers only if they were attacked. When the U.S. soldiers did open fire, the Cuban workers responded and stood their ground as long as possible.

U.S. Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf later said that what “started as a highly unconventional, surgical in nature operation went sour right away… because of the assumption the Cubans weren’t going to fight.” Despite the overthrow of the revolution and Washington’s invasion, the Cuban government has continued to offer unconditional aid to the island. Prior to dispatching the electrical workers contingent this fall, Cuba had a contingent of doctors, engineers, and architects working at St. Georges General Hospital.

The Maurice Bishop and October 19th Martyrs Foundation commemorates the Grenada revolution each year on the anniversary of the coup. This year, Marryshow reported, he was the featured speaker at a tribute to Bishop and the other fallen leaders held at Fort George, formerly known as Fort Rupert.

On Oct. 19, 1983, about 30,000 Grenadians took to the streets, freed Bishop from house arrest, and marched to Fort Rupert, where they convinced many soldiers to turn over their weapons. Troops loyal to the Coard faction arrived and opened fire on the crowd, however, and then executed Bishop and the other revolutionary leaders.  
 
 
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