Oct. 27 marks Independence Day for St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG): a day of celebration for the people who, via a 1979 referendum, became the last of the Windward Islands to gain independence from the United Kingdom. Since independence, SVG is still a constitutional monarchy, with King Charles III as the ceremonial head of state. However, recent events in the Caribbean, with Barbados removing the Crown as head of state, have led Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves to raise the question of a referendum in SVG to do the same.
RELATED: Caribbean Matters: Dumping the queen and the British colonial legacy
This same week in October also marks an ugly historical event that I rarely see mentioned stateside. The U.S. invasion of Grenada, spearheaded by then-President Ronald Reagan, began on Oct. 25, was code-named “Operation Urgent Fury.” Urgent Fury was joined by conservative governments in the Caribbean, but later denounced by the United Nations. Oct. 19 also marks the anniversary of the 1983 assassination of Grenada’s prime minister, Maurice Bishop, who rose to power in a bloodless coup in March1979.
Caribbean Matters is a weekly series from Daily Kos. If you are unfamiliar with the region, check out Caribbean Matters: Getting to know the countries of the Caribbean.
It’s interesting to hear the hopes for SVG Independence expressed in this 1979 song by SVG Calypsonian Kenneth Alleyne.
The lyrics are pointed and powerful:
Our Nation is Born
by Kenneth Vibrating Scakes Alleyne (c) 1979
INTRO
We are all moving on together
So we must now plan collectively for a brighter day
No one knows what’s in store for the future
True dedication can get us there {{more}}
1. Independence is a milestone
In our march to prosperity
Now St. Vincent and the Grenadines
Has a real nationality
We are a nation of many races
And has tried to integrate
The strength of so many faces
Shall bear the prospects of our fate
CHORUS
So in this moment of history tell it in every community
Our nation is born colonialism is gone
This is a time of national freedom so share a love with someone
The 27th dawn, of October our nation is born
One history, one ecstasy, one destiny for all ah we
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey!
2. While we take this stand as a nation
Let us not forget our past
For this future we praise our heroes
Who fought slavery to the last
Special honors to Marcus Garvey
His sacrifice gave us all a chance
And all the men who fought in this century
To bring us this day of independence
3. Though some manipulate the franchise
Of world adult suffrage
There’s still hope of a bright tomorrow
For all the under-privilege
Let love excel our wishes
Our advancement needs plenty of work
Remember back is death for the nation
That upholds less action and lots of talk
4. My people join hand in hand now
Put your differences aside
Get your hearts and soul together
We got to build this nation with pride
Work in harmony with good leaders
Never elect no one here to rule
Then we can feel at home like good comrades
Our people must not be election tools
Colonialism clearly lingers on in SVG, but now that Queen Elizabeth II has passed, with the 15-nation Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) growing in strength, will the last vestiges of British rule in SVG soon become history?
As for where things stand now, Prime Minister Gonsalves recently traveled to Scotland for a formal meeting with SVG’s new head of state, King Charles.
Gonsalves clapped back sharply when his visit with Charles was criticized by a member of the opposition party leadership, St. Clair Leacock—though he stopped short of naming names.
“It is well known, and King Charles himself knows, that I am not in favour of a monarchical system for St Vincent and the Grenadines, and I am not in favour of a British or foreign person to be head of state of our country,” he said.
“But…that does not mean that whilst the person remains the sovereign head of state, that I mustn’t communicate with him, or with Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, as it was.”
He noted that he must have the respect, “…not because my personal view is that we should have a home-grown, non-executive President.”
The Prime Minister further remarked that “they” continue with “their dishonesty” in saying that he (the Prime Minister) wants to replace the monarchy with himself.
“Why would I want to leave Prime Minister to become a ceremonial head when I have Prime Ministerial authority? I doltish? Come on, come on, come on, come on,” he said. Gonsalves describes criticism of his visit with King Charles as ‘loose talk’ With a noise seemingly akin to a scoff, Gonsalves commented that “There are people – I, I don’t aspire to that.”
I’ll be keeping my eyes on SVG to see when the referendum will be held, and will report back on those results in future editions of Caribbean Matters.
* * *
It’s not just SVG, of course. Colonialism in parts of the Caribbean has continued far too long.
RELATED: Caribbean Matters: British Virgin Islands activists protest recommendations for direct British rule
We see the ongoing effects playing out in nations like Haiti, where calls for international “interventions” by the United Nations are brewing once again. Which leads us to the history of the U.S. “intervention” in Grenada.
It is difficult to get a balanced view of what happened in Grenada in the 1980s, given Cold War attitudes at the time (which persist) toward buzzwords like “communism,” “socialism,” and “revolution” in Caribbean nations—which United States foreign policy diametrically opposes.
My point of view is colored by the fact that several of my classmates at Howard University, with whom I was also allied with during the rise of the Black Power movement here in the U.S., were from Grenada. My friends went home to become a part of the New Jewel Movement, and the events that took place afterward, which are summed up here in Encyclopedia Britannica.
In the general election of August 1967, the Grenada United Labour Party (GULP) defeated the Grenada National Party (GNP) and took office under the premiership of Eric M. Gairy, a trade unionist. Grenada became an independent nation on February 7, 1974. The transition was marked by violence, strikes, and controversy centring upon Gairy, who was named prime minister. Opposition to Gairy’s rule continued to mount, and a coalition called the New Jewel Movement (NJM), along with other opposition parties, succeeded in reducing GULP’s majority in Parliament in the 1976 election. On March 13, 1979, while Gairy was out of the country, the NJM staged a bloodless coup, proclaimed a People’s Revolutionary Government (PRG), and named their leader, Maurice Bishop, as prime minister. The new government faced opposition from Western nations because of its socialist principles and the substantial aid it had begun receiving from Cuba, but it embarked on a program to rebuild the economy, which had been left in disarray by Gairy. The PRG administration was ended in October 1983 by a military coup, during which Bishop was killed.
Military History Now reminded us of the start of the invasion, some 39 years ago this month.
As the site noted in 2016, the invasion was one of relatively few post-World War II “large scale airborne operations.”
America’s Oct. 25, 1983 invasion of Grenada, codenamed Operation Urgent Fury, began with a parachute landing on the island’s main airport at Point Salines by 500 U.S. Army Rangers. The mission was followed by amphibious and helicopter assaults on the island by more than 6,500 U.S. troops. Washington ordered the incursion amid mounting suspicions that a multinational airport construction project underway on Grenada might provide Soviet and Cuban transport aircraft a base for refueling.
History vlogger Jabzy produced this succinct three-minute video about the invasion, and a glimpse of the aftermath.
Left-leaning teleSUR offered this take on the 40th anniversary of Bishop’s rise to power.
British YouTuber Simon Whistler’s detailed, 25-minute documentation of events leading up to and after the invasion leaves it up to the viewer to decide whether or not the invasion was justified.
One “mistake” during the invasion was the accidental bombing of a mental hospital on the island, captured here by artist Sue Coe.
Oct. 25 is now an official holiday in Grenada, dubbed Thanksgiving Day. Yet the holiday has some critiques, voiced below by Grenadian Edward Frederick.
Frederick cites a 2014 opinion piece by S. Brian Samuel in NoWGrenada, titled “The World’s Most Uncelebrated Holiday.”
October 25 is Grenada’s own version of Thanksgiving Day; when a nation doesn’t celebrate what it wants to forget.
[...]
Mind you, by the time the liberators had landed, the entire nation – collectively and individually – was still reeling from the emotional trauma of the past six days. If Martian soldiers had landed that morning, they would have been feted as conquering heroes, and Grenada would now have a lot of half-Martians walking around today. On that first Thanksgiving Day, which the American soldiers were celebrating, people of Grenada spontaneously warmed to the idea, and in a touching display of appreciation, showered the soldiers with a Grenadian version of a Thanksgiving dinner , in villages and beaches throughout the island. Our local leaders, latching onto a good thing, declared that henceforth, 25 October would be celebrated as “Thanksgiving Day” – essentially saying: Thanks America, for freeing we.
Fast forward 31 years, and what do we have? This most moribund of holidays; a speech here and there; bored politicians trotting out well-worn phrases. Basically, it’s just another day off – which this year falls on a Saturday, dammit.
Really, isn’t it about time we did away with this fawning foolishness? Judging by the lack of reaction or any kind of connection that this holiday has with “the masses”, one really has to say: this is a meaningless holiday. Hey, we all like another day off, but if we want to have a holiday with meaning; how about we just move the date up just a little – to 19 October. And how about we change the name, to something like Remembrance Day? Something that means something. For good or bad, 19 October is a date that is loaded with Grenadian historical significance; and it strikes me that this would be a more appropriate day for some national reflection and soul-searching; than on the day the invasion came. When a still unknown number of Grenadians and Cubans died; when an also unknown number of mental patients died when they were bombed by mistake. That’s something to celebrate? Instead, let us remember and reflect upon the chain of events that got us to that sad state of affairs in the first place; and reaffirm that such a tragedy will never be repeated in Grenada; that we will never again put dogma before life.
Those critiques have borne fruit.
From Caribbean National Weekly on Oct. 19:
The Grenada government says it is moving ahead with plans to have October 19 declared a public holiday to commemorate the 1983 killings of former prime minister Maurice Bishop and several members of his cabinet leading to the collapse of the left-wing People’s Revolutionary Government (PRG).
In addition to Bishop and his cabinet colleagues who were killed in the palace coup orchestrated by his deputy, Bernard Coard, several civilians died at Fort Rupert that was renamed Fort George.
[...]
“Grenada will erect a monument for peace next year in recognition of the tragedy of 83, in keeping with the guidelines for monuments. It will incorporate the names of all Grenadians who lost their lives on the 19th. This monument, we believe, can become a symbol of peace and healing.”.
Redhead said teaching the stories about the Grenadian Revolution will be encouraged through civic education.
Sounds like good news to me. What do you think?
Join me in the comments for more on Grenada and SVG, and the weekly Caribbean News Roundup.
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