Vol. 76/No. 41      November 12, 2012

Below is an excerpt from Maurice Bishop Speaks, one of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for November. Bishop was the central leader of the 1979 revolution in the Caribbean island of Grenada that overthrew the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Eric Gairy and brought a workers and farmers government to power. Bishop became the nation’s prime minister.

The piece below is from a speech he gave to more than 2,500 at Hunter College in New York in June 1983. In October of that year the revolutionary government was overthrown by a Stalinist-inspired coup led by Deputy Prime Minister Bernard Coard, in which Bishop was murdered. That betrayal opened the door to a U.S. military invasion that installed a pro-imperialist regime. Copyright © 1983 by Pathfinder Press. Reprinted by permission.

BY MAURICE BISHOP  
At a time when even the big powerful industrialized nations were growing backwards last year, we grew forward by 5.5 percent. And coming out of the old history of negative development and retrogression under Gairy, when year after year it was backward growth, over the last four years of the revolution cumulatively we have grown by over 15 percent.

The revolution in Grenada started from a base under Gairy of 49 percent unemployment—one in every two people who wanted to work couldn’t get a job. And among women, 70 percent unemployment, seven out of every ten could not get a job. Therefore at the dawn of the revolution over 22,000 people who wanted to work could not find work. When we did a census last year, April 1982, the unemployment rate had dropped from 49 percent to 14.2 percent. [Applause] …

The last year of Gairy, 1978, the capital investment program was $8 million. The first year of the revolution that figure was doubled to $16 million. The second year of the revolution it was more than doubled again to $39.9 million.

The experts were saying that this is impossible—you don’t have the resources, you don’t have the management, you don’t have enough tractors, you don’t have any trucks, you don’t have enough engineers, you cannot possibly do it. You are only lucky in 1979 when you doubled Gairy’s. And you are only lucky in 1980 again when you doubled your own. And then when we went to 1981 and we doubled it again, they said, we know you have the luck, but something is wrong.

And last year in 1982 it went up to over $100 million, and then we gave them the secret: we told them that in a revolution things operate differently than in the normal situation. [Applause] We have been able to make these accomplishments because in Grenada, consistent with our three pillars of the revolution—where the first pillar is our people who are always at the center and heart and focus of all our activities—we are able to mobilize and organize people to cut out waste, to cut corruption, to stamp out inefficiency, to move to planning, to look out for production, to check on productivity, to make sure that state enterprises are not set up to be subsidized but that state enterprises, too, must become viable, must make a profit, and therefore the state sector will have the surplus to bring the benefits.

Our people have gladly been pulled into the economic process because our people see the benefits which the revolution has brought them. They understand that when thirty-seven cents out of every dollar is spent on health and education that means something.

They look around and they understand that year after year inflation is being held reasonably in check. Last year it ran at 7 percent while wages ran at 10 percent, thus ensuring an overall increase of 3 percent in the standard of living of all our people.

They look around and recognize that year after year production increases. Last year in the state sector, production went up by over 34 percent. And in the private sector, production also rose. Last year, too, there was a tremendous rise in the export of nontraditional products. The increase in the export of fruits and vegetables last year went up by over 314 percent, which is a massive increase in a short period. There are also increases in production in areas like flour and clothing, and there was a slight decrease in the area of furniture.

At the same time there were some increases in the area of our traditional export crops—nutmegs, cocoa, and bananas. …

But our people in Grenada are not only able to see these economic achievements in the broad terms in which I have described them, but they are able to feel what these benefits mean to them in a concrete and material way. Because today the money that the people of Grenada used to have to spend, for example, when they went to a doctor or a dentist, they no longer have to spend because they now have free health care.

They now understand that the number of doctors in the country has more than doubled, moving from a ratio of one doctor to every 4,000 before the revolution to the present ratio of one doctor for every 2,700 of our population. Moving from a situation before the revolution where there was just one dental clinic for the whole country, today there are seven dental clinics, including one for our offshore islands of Carriacou and Petit Martinique.

Our people understand the value and the benefits of free secondary education. Because they know now that once their children are able to pass a common entrance exam and get into secondary schools, they no longer have to worry about finding those fees, which for agricultural workers, for example, was very often impossible. …

Following the establishment of the Centre for Popular Education [ ] program in early 1980, within one year the illiteracy figure in Grenada was reduced to 2 percent of the entire population.
 
 
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NY forum discusses example, legacy of Grenada Revolution  
 
 
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