BROOKLYN — The Socialist Workers Party and Pathfinder books got a great political response at the Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique Day activities held here Aug. 21. The all-day festival draws hundreds of people, mostly Grenadians, who live in New York and the region. It features food booths, cultural performances and stands selling T-shirts, spices and other goods.
The booth was set up by Pathfinder Press and staffed by members and supporters of the Socialist Workers Party. There was no festival the last two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Maurice Bishop Speaks and New International no. 6, with the feature article “The Second Assassination of Maurice Bishop” by Steve Clark and articles by Fidel Castro, were displayed at the booth along with books on U.S. working-class struggles, analysis of the deepening crisis of capitalism, Cuba’s socialist revolution and more. Bishop was the central leader of the New Jewel Movement, which led the 1979 Grenada Revolution to victory. He was killed and the revolution overthrown in 1983 by Stalinist counterrevolutionary Bernard Coard, opening the door for Washington to invade.
The Pathfinder booth — the only one offering material on the revolution and its lessons — was bustling all day. Many people who as youth had participated in the revolution came by to discuss and debate. Equally important, many young people who had only heard of Bishop and the revolution from parents or grandparents came by to learn more. One had purchased Maurice Bishop Speaks at a previous Grenada Day and liked it so much he came back this year wearing a T-shirt he had made featuring the book cover (above, left).
Seventeen participants signed up for subscriptions to the Militant. Thirty bought copies of Maurice Bishop Speaks and 17 got copies of “The Second Assassination of Maurice Bishop.” Some 60 books were sold in all.
Those staffing the booth included Willie Cotton (left of main photo), the Socialist Workers Party candidate for governor of New York, and Sara Lobman, the party’s candidate for U.S. Senate.