The Spicy Land

- THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE -

A HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL SATIRE 1950-2001

BY REYNOLD L. F. BENJAMIN, OBE

We hear they speak of the Spicy Land and called its children a happy band.

Mother! O Mother! Where is that radiant shore?

Shall we not seek it, and weep no more?

Is it where the Nutmegs grow high in the sunny skies?

Where its spicy fragrance perfumes the breeze, to bless us when we sneeze?

Historians say it is a land of conflict and Grenadians know it is no secret.

That was the experience of the French and the British,

As they waged war, as to who should own Grenada.

We changed from Colonialism to Crown Colony,

Associated Statehood as a Democratic Nation in 1974,

But as result of diminished democracy in the 1960’s and 1970’s,

We changed to Socialism as the solution, by the process of Revolution.

But that was not the solution you would agree, so we went back quickly to Democracy, by the process of Intervention with constant dressings of reconciliation,

To minimize the extent of confusion in the Spicy Nation.

Against this backdrop of conflict, was the shaping of Grenada’s History and Politics.

So it’s the place where there are so much political aspirations, deceptions and suspicions that we suffer from regular Political indigestion.

As a result, it is also the place where things happen so rapidly,

That we must learn in a hurry,

And forget immediately, in order to make space for new entries,

In our usual short memory capacity.

So there is never a dull moment in Grenada, with so many things happening, upon which we must comment and sometimes lament.

For it is also the place where the more some things change,

It’s the more they come back the same,

As we argue on whom we must put the blame.

We never fail to recognize the mistakes we made immediately, but we also, never fail to make the same mistakes repeatedly for all to see.

Sometimes, they were not mistakes at all, because they were done deliberately for political expediency.

As politicians, if they hold you closely, it is only a matter of time to distance you quickly; and if they lift you up, as soon as it is politically expedient, they put you down, and that is how we learned that “what goes around comes around”; but for Grenada it comes around before sun down.

However, there is some good in the worst of them and some bad in the best of them, but you never really know when and what to expect from some of them.

It seems as though we are always seeking the promise land, but how to get there is something we just cannot understand. However, we are still full of hope, Good Hope, Hope Vale, and it’s either that we failed to try or we tried to fail.

But the fact is, we never really carefully examined our trails to determine the reasons why we succeeded or why we failed.

In the 1930’s and 1940’s a wind of change was blowing in the Caribbean, as Political Parties and Trade Unions were emerging in the Region. Most of the Politicians in that era in the Caribbean came from the ranks of the Trade Unions and Grenada was no exception, with doors wide opened for exploitations.

Workers in the urban areas had some representation - T. A. Marryshow and E. A. Doc. Mitchell in the 1930’s and 1940’s. For rural workers on plantations, there was no representation. Wages were low, poor working conditions and socio-economic degradation as a result of exploitation.

In 1943 a Trade Union and Trade Dispute Ordinances were passed, and the St.George’s Workers Union emerged in 1946.

Against this background of readiness and timeliness there was a vacuum to be filled and so it was. In 1950 in Grenada a brilliant star appeared in the East, but it was not a signal of peace.

It was the entry of Eric Matthew Gairy, as he registered his Trade Union- Grenada Manual Maritime Intellectual Workers Union and GULP respectively in July 1950.

With the symbol of the Star, it was a declaration of war. The Grenada United Labour Party ‘GULPED’ up the working class in the country, and vowed to rid them of their miseries.

His mission was to dismantle the elite and plantocracy classes, focusing first on the sugarcane industry and quickly spreading over the whole country, as his Union waged war for supremacy.

He called strikes and demonstrations, as he pressed for higher wages and better working conditions. A reign of terror was experienced throughout the land, which necessitated the intervention of mother England.

The GULP leader was taken on board a British warship to discuss the conflict as he was identified as the culprit.

However his detachment from his supporters only escalated the conflict, for as the purple shades of evening filled the night, the landscape became a blazed with shouts of “Sky Red” and that was dread. Many important buildings were set on fire, which influenced the British to free their leader.

The wind of change was blowing steadily with new dimensions, and in all directions, and Gairy’s focus then, was on General Elections. The masses went on the rampage as the stage was already set for universal adult suffrage, so for the first time with no separation of sheep from goats, since you are twenty-one and over, you had the right to vote.

In 1957 with elections around the corner, the encounters became closer and bitter. The elite formulated a strategy to defend their constituencies and formed an opposition party called GNP- Grenada National Party led by Dr. John Watts.

Gairy branded the NNP Party as a social elite class which was the enemy of the working class. Strikes, demonstrations, ravaging of plantations, and harassments of plantation owners and non-supporters were the nature of the confrontations.

At the polls in October 1951, Gairy and his Party scored a resounding victory, which gave him the desired power to determine Grenada’s future.

He captured six of the eight Legislative Council seats and polled 66% of the votes. With such novelty of power, Grenada was seeing the emergence of a strong and popular leader, but with potential to be a dictator; for such was the motto of one of his publications “The Thunder”.

“To educate the masses, to entertain the middle classes, and to straightened up the social Asses.”

A reign of recklessness ensued, and to make sure that his target did not escape, his new focus became the acquisitions of large estates.

The workers and their families who were previously promised that they who laboured under stress, must benefit from the programme of land for the landless.

For the estate owners, this was regarded as an abuse of power and that the process will marginalize agriculture, given the fact that Grenada already had the highest peasantry in the Eastern Caribbean for its size and population.

So with a policy of accelerated fragmentation of lands, one would understand its long- term adverse effect on national production.

However, on the other side of the coin, over fifty years ago, it is gratifying to see the many new villages emerging, as it were from the slaves pens and barracks of the plantations.

With improved housing and living conditions of sons and daughters whose parents and grandparents were slaves of the plantation - that in it was a revolution.

From then to now in the 21st century, the remainder of some of these estates are being kept and continue to decline for all to see, to the detriment of national productivity.

Having accomplished his mission to dismantle the plantocracy, his next target was the Civil Servants, and it shows how far a politician can go to have his way even at the expense of hindering productivity.

Gairy disregarded their role and refused to be guided by them. As a matter of fact, they were threatened, and many were transferred to humiliating positions. In the meantime the abuse of spending power further frustrated the civil servants.

As a result, the colonial administrator brought charges against Gairy and his Government for:

• Contravening the laws and regulations governing the control of expenditure.
• Failure to seek and to accept advice from Civil Servants.
• A combination of interference and threats against Civil Servants to condone improprieties of expenditure.
• Deliberate destruction of the morale of the Civil Servants.

It was such abuse of spending power, which was given the name “squandamania” for which Gairy and his Government were dismissed by the colonial administration on June 18, 1962 and the Constitution was suspended with new elections the same year.

Gairy was humiliated and his popularity waned as Grenada moved towards higher constitutional status with internal Self-Government. The British Government then had the responsibility for external affairs.

In the meantime, the Grenada Opposition Party (GNP) had its new leader - Herbert Augustus Blaize, who returned from Aruba, the same country where Gairy also worked for some years.

The GNP campaigned on a promise to go Unitary State with Trinidad and Tobago, while the GULP opted for a Federation with the seven smaller islands in the Eastern Caribbean “The Little Eight”

As fate would have it, Gairy lost the elections to H. A. Blaize. GNP and Blaize became the first Chief Minister in the Associated Statehood with Britain in 1962.

Once out of power, Gairy involved himself in playing cricket throughout the island, and, at the same time, mobilizing his flock.

By the next elections in 1967, Gairy swept the polls once again in defiance, and his next focus was Grenada’s Independence. He immediately appointed Grenadian born Dr. Hilda Bynoe as the first women Governor in the Eastern Caribbean, and the machinery was on the move with preparations for Independence.

As Grenada advanced to Independence in 1974, there were massive daily demonstrations by the opposition against the reckless rule of Gairy and Gairyism.

For this they chanted in the streets “Gairy we are not taking any more, even though Independence is at the door, you have to go”.

The confrontations resulted in one death on the Carenage, that of Rupert Bishop, Father of Maurice Bishop. Such was the tempo, as death, destruction and looting accelerated the tensions.

The GNP opposition and their supporters chanted in the streets for weeks- “Independence yes, but with Gairy no.”

They finally made their way to the vicinity of Government House to make sure that the Lady Governor heard their voices saying that Gairy must go. As fate would have it, sometimes later the Lady Governor, Dame Hilda Bynoe resigned as Governor of Grenada, and walked out the door, and so it was, Grenada became an Independent Nation right in the middle of all the confusion.

The Businessmen closed their doors in opposition, while the Port and Electricity Commission were shut down by the Trade Unions. And so it was in subdued light, in the middle of the night of February 7, 1974 a nation was born in the wake of massive opposition and bitter confrontations.

Gairy’s function deteriorated drastically into a dictatorship as he became a victim of progress, and in the process he laid the foundation for the1979 Revolution.

The opposition Grenada National Party GNP was no match for Gairy’s GULP, so they formed an unholy alliance with the GDM Grenada Democratic Movement for the new chapter in Grenada’s political arena.

In the meantime the New Jewel Movement (NJM) found it ideologically compatible to merge with Movement for the Assembly of People (MAP). And since they could not have won by the process of elections in their opinion, they settled for Revolutionary actions with the support of the Cubans. Between them, they formulated a strategy to assassinate democracy, and they used the opportunity when Prime Minister Gairy was out of the Country.

And so it was, at midnight, March 13, 1979 they took Grenada in quick marching time “Forward Ever Backward Never” as dawn follows day in true Revolutionary way- the orders were “Forward Ever Backward Never”.

The Peoples Revolution Army spared no effort in tightening its on Spice Country for their own security, and that general election were promised expeditiously- but that was not to be, as you would now agree, it would have been a different cup of tea in Grenada’s History.

The feeling of fear and insecurity were very high, both in the Ranks of the PRG and obviously the whole country. Many members of the PRG became ruthless and cruel, and people were threatened with “heavy manners”, which included imprisonment, and indeed hundreds of innocent people from all walks of life were sent to prison for unknown reasons.

There were many good initiatives by the PRG for promoting education and economic development. And as a result, many professionals, doctors, dentists, engineers, accountants and others, trained in Cuba, are still serving Grenada.

Of great economic impact also is the Point Saline International Airport- conceived by the Gairy Government, started by the Cubans and finished by the Americans after the Intervention, which could be considered by any stretch of the imagination a strange combination of assistance to this Spicy Nation.

For many however, that did not reconcile the situation, when one considers the extent of human rights violation, which of course is the modus operandi of Revolutions.

Looking back with hindsight it is clear, that the Revolution had a recipe for disaster, and that was why in the process it lost its leader.

The recipe used was:

• 1 cup of Revolutionary activities poured into a bowl filled with Grenada’s longstanding democracy.
• To this they added one cup of deceit.
• And one cup of hypocrisy with the promise to hold elections expeditiously.

However, they failed completely when they did not add a single drop of diplomacy, and that’s why it ended in tragedy. So four years later, with a split between the two leaders, it was more disaster for Grenada when the Revolution killed its leader. It was destined to fail and many innocent Grenadians died and others went to jail.

History was made for Grenada as the first English-speaking Island in the Caribbean to have had a Revolution. This sent shock waves to big brother America, with initiatives by the Prime Minister of Dominica Dame Eugenia Charles and the Prime Minister of Barbados Tom Adams. On October 22, 1983 a joint Caribbean/American Force landed in Grenada with the following orders:

• To rescue the American students.
• To free the political prisoners.
• To displace the Cubans and turn back the Revolution.

The mission was accomplished and an interim Government was put in place for one year by the then Governor General Sir Paul Scoon.

The Interim Government comprised of the following-

Nicholas Braithwaite (Leader)

Dr. Patrick Emmanuel

Arnold Cruickshank

Dr. De Vere Pitt

Ray Smith

Randolph Mark

Christopher Williams

Noel Kirton

The Interim Government’s mandate was for one year (1983 to 1984), and was regarded by many as the most peaceful period in Grenada’s History since 1950. This marked the closing chapters in Grenada’s History under the rule of Gairy from 1950 to 1983.

The events of that era have indelible impressions in the minds of Grenadians. For thirty years the focus was to crush Gairy and his GULP Government with the symbol of the star, until the country turned to war.

Some of those who survived the war took shelter in the House of GNP turned NNP, where they thought they would dwell in peace and harmony. But that was not to be - the House of NNP became ‘a Blaize’ with conspiracy, which hastened its leader to the cemetery, but not without loosing one‘N’ from NNP. However, said its deputy“that will not worry me because, I’m substituting a ‘T’, which would give my Party supremacy, so now it is TNP-The National Party”.

But TNP is now resting comfortably in purgatory, while NNP was still troubled internationally, but the same was true of NDC for they had internal wounds which opened up for all to see, and that’s how we got DLP.

It was also true of PRG and that’s what caused the tragedy, but this is characteristic of Grenada’s Political Parties, which seems to be infected with an invasion of defective genes, so we need a new strain of genes in the politician stream.

The Grenada National Party (GNP) gave birth to the New National Party (NNP), and the NNP gave birth to The National Party (TNP) prematurely, and that was why it died so early.

The Grenada Democratic Movement (GDM) gave birth to the National Democratic Congress (NDC), and the NDC gave birth to the Democratic Labour Party (DLP).

But what about the fate of GULP, the Grenada United Labour Party led by Eric Gairy? He returned to Grenada in 1983, and vowed to regain lost political territory, even though he lost the ability to see. Having failed at the polls in 1984 and 1990 respectively he departed to eternity. Only time will tell if the Party accompanied him on that great journey to eternity.