New Left Review I/142, November-December 1983

Fitzroy Ambursley and Winston James

Maurice Bishop and the New Jewel Revolution in Grenada

The brutal killings of Maurice Bishop and a number of his closest friends and supporters, and the subsequent us invasion of the island in October this year, brought a sudden and tragic end to the Grenadian revolution. Coming at a time when the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua is embroiled in armed conflict with us-backed counter-revolutionaries, and in the midst of dissension within the ranks of the Salvadorean revolutionary movement due to the political stalemate in that country, it is a major setback for progressive forces throughout Central America and the Caribbean. In the English-speaking Caribbean, the events in Grenada are being used by rightwing regimes to launch a vicious anti-communist campaign, paralleled only by that which was carried out at the height of the Cold War in the 1950s. The invasion of Grenada has provided the us with its first clear-cut counter-revolutionary victory since the invasion of the Dominican Republic in 1965. It has also boosted Ronald Reagan’s standing in the polls and increased the possibility of direct us military intervention in Nicaragua. This short essay provides some biographical information on Maurice Bishop, briefly discusses his role in carrying out the Grenadian revolution, and lists certain achievements of, and problems faced by, the four-year experiment in revolutionary transformation that he led.

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