Reagan’s criminal invasion of Grenada

What was more cowardly than Ronald Reagan’s invasion of Grenada in 1983? Seven thousand troops and two aircraft carriers were hurled against a Caribbean country with only 110,000 people. That’s how much a threat Grenada’s revolution was to the U.S. empire.

U.S. planes bombed a psychiatric hospital, killing 47 patients. Pentagon flacks claimed the “armed patients and staff” were ready “to resist our forces.”

Maurice Bishop had led members of Grenada’s New Jewel Movement in overthrowing Eric Gairy’s dictatorship on March 13, 1979. People rejoiced.

The revolution went to work. Schools were repaired. Free books, school uniforms and hot lunches were provided for the first time to the poor. Health care was made free. Within four years the island’s unemployment rate fell from 50 percent to 12 percent. Cuban aid was indispensable.

Grenada’s revolution meant the most to women. “The very first decree of the revolution was to outlaw sexual victimization and exploitation of our women in return for jobs,” said Bishop. Jacqueline Creft became minister of education.

For 25 years Grenada’s dream had been to build an airport with a long runway so that jet planes could land. Reaganites claimed that the airport was going to be a Soviet base.

Grenada was becoming a socialist pole of attraction for African Americans. Maurice Bishop told 2,500 students at New York’s Hunter College about a secret U.S. State Department report describing Grenada’s appeal to Black people in the United States.

Four months later Bishop was shot in a prelude to the U.S. invasion. The escalating hostility of immensely powerful U.S. imperialism had turned Grenada into a political pressure cooker. The New Jewel Movement split as a consequence.

Killed along with Maurice Bishop on Oct. 19, 1983, were Fitzroy Bain, Norris Bain, Jacqueline Creft, Vincent Noel and Unison Whiteman.

This terrible tragedy was immediately exploited by the White House. Reagan needed a pick-me-up after the bombing of the Marine headquarters in Beirut on Oct. 23, where 241 GIs died.

Two days later he invaded Grenada. Reagan lied, saying that U.S. medical students were being threatened.

The Congressional Black Caucus unanimously condemned Reagan’s crime. Walter Mondale, the Democratic Party’s 1984 presidential candidate, ended up supporting the invasion.

The world was outraged. Ten thousand students marched to the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City while hundreds stormed the U.S. Embassy in La Paz, Bolivia. Protests in the Dominican Republic were put down with gunfire. The Oil Refinery Workers Union of Trinidad denounced the invasion. Mass protests were held in Havana, Cuba, and Managua, Nicaragua.

On a single day’s notice 5,000 people marched down the middle of 42nd Street in Manhattan. Five thousand protested in Berkeley, Calif. The Detroit City Council denounced Reagan’s invasion. Demonstrations took place coast to coast.

Nearly 300 AFSCME District 37 delegates representing 115,000 New York City municipal workers condemned the invasion in a resolution introduced by Mike Gimbel. But AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland refused to attack Reagan.

Grenada refused to surrender. As U.S. bombs fell on them, soldiers wrote on the walls of Fort Rupert, “We will rather die than become puppets of U.S. imperialism.”

Dying beside these Grenadian fighters were 24 Cubans, including construction workers who put down their shovels to fight the Yankee invaders.

At the time, the U.S. was preparing an invasion of Nicaragua. Cuba was also targeted. Grenada’s resistance, which lasted for months, helped stop these plots.

The stomping of Grenada by the colossus was a great tragedy. Yet when Grenada’s international airport finally opened, the U.S. couldn’t get it named for Ronald Reagan, hard as they tried. The masses wanted it named after Maurice Bishop.

Grenada is avenged by every forward move of the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela and every day Cuba is able to hold out against the empire.

Long live the memory of Maurice Bishop and all the martyrs of Grenada!