I HAVE just returned from a conference on the Grenadian Revolution sponsored by the University of the West Indies Open Campus in Grenada. March 13 marks the 46th Anniversary of the Grenadian Revolution which resulted in the overthrow of the authoritarian regime headed by Eric Gairy. The revolution lasted until October 1983, when one faction of the People’s Revolutionary Government (PRG) killed the leaders of another faction, including the Prime Minister, Maurice Bishop, over tactical and ideological differences. Six days later, the USA invaded Grenada and overthrew what remained of the PRG.

The Revo, which had given hope to so many and had achieved so much in terms of fundamental change, died a shocking death, and our Caribbean has since not been the same.

As part of a small group of Caribbean scholars who have used scholarship to try to explain and understand that moment in our history, including trying to capture its heroism, we have had to come to grips with the trauma, the hurt, the disappointment, and ultimately the silence surrounding that period. That most Grenadian and Caribbean people do not know of the revolution is a continuing indictment of our ability to deal frontally with our recent history, especially when it involves our own excesses.

My presentation at the conference attempted to locate the Grenadian Revolution in its larger historical context. I argued that the revolution was part of the larger Caribbean quest for freedom and self-definition, and that its immediate roots lie in the clash of ideas over the content and direction of Anglophone Caribbean Independence that raged in the 1970s, beginning with the so-called Rodney Riots in Jamaica in October 1968.

The point is that the Grenadian Revolution occurred in an age of revolution around the world, including in our Caribbean.

From the February Revolution of 1970, which almost brought the Eric Williams government in Trinidad and Tobago to its knees, to the popular uprising in the streets of Dominica in July 1979, which ousted the Patrick John regime there; to the Electoral Revolt in St Lucia that brought down the John Compton government in July 1979; to the Grenadian Revolution that overthrew the Gary regime in March 1979; to the Civil Rebellion in Guyana in July-December 1979, which shook the foundations of the Burnham regime; to Manley’s Democratic Socialist upsurge in Jamaica 1972-80 that assaulted the political status quo; to the Rastafarian-led rebellion in Union Island in St Vincent and the Grenadines in December 1979; to the Suriname Revolution in February 1980, the Caribbean masses had risen up against the authoritarian direction of Caribbean Independence.

History seldom lies, and I am merely stating that which is often not known by “talking heads”, or is conveniently forgotten by the partisan merchants. I also wish to remind, in passing, that our Guyana Government of 1979 supported, in very tangible terms, the revolutionary action against the State in Grenada, both before and after the March 1979 revolution. Bishop and his revolutionaries were supported, while Rodney and his revolutionaries were decimated.

Oh, the complexities of our politics and political history! Those who rant and rave should study our history before they open their babble. Here, in Guyana, we still have not settled our two traumas. Unlike Grenada, the invaders came to Guyana before the leadership split. British troops landed in October 1953 to abort a fledgling social revolution after a mere 133 days, thus opening the door to the 1955 leadership split.

Unlike Grenada, the leaders didn’t slaughter one another in 1955; but from 1961 to 1964, their followers engaged in a bitter civil disturbance that spilled the blood of hundreds. In 1979, Rodney’s Civil Rebellion did not oust the regime of the day, and Rodney paid the ultimate price for daring to challenge the excesses of the authoritarian state. Those two moments in Guyana’s history still bring out the worst in some in Guyana whenever we try to grapple with them.

As in Grenada, some prefer a mixture of sanitization and silence.

In my paper in Grenada, I argued that we in the Caribbean are still to get rid of the “Plantation Jumbie” of Authoritarianism. Our Independence leadership, from Williams and Burnham to Gairy and Bird, came to power as a result of the struggle against Colonial Authoritarianism, and ended up consolidating and mimicking the vey colonial authoritarian state and government they fought against. Manley and the Grenadian revolutionaries started social revolutions in their countries, but retained and used the very authoritarian state against their rivals. Jagan and the PPP came to office in the wake of the demise of the Burnhamist regime, and quickly turned to the very authoritarian regime to lawlessly redistribute the common resources to their cronies and to downpress their opponents.

Professor Clive Thomas wrote a seminal book in 1984 — The Rise of the Authoritarian State in the Periphery. In that book, he traces the origin of the Authoritarian State in the Caribbean, and explains its behaviour. In the presence of the PPP’s onslaught three decades later, he wrote a series of articles on the Criminalised State. “The more we change/Rearrange/Everything stays the same” sings calypsonian-musical poet David Rudder.

THOSE BROADCAST LICENCES
In my paper at the conference in Grenada, I opined that one of the positives of revolution is that they open spaces for fundamental changes of the status quo. I argued that the Caribbean has stood still in developmental terms partly because our governments have avoided revolutionary changes when the opportunities presented themselves. Our Independence leaders, once in office, became reformists at best, never going beyond the confines of political and economic correctness.

I opened Saturday’s papers and saw the Prime Minister commenting on the granting of radio licences. The PM said his preference is not for rescinding the obnoxious and illegal PPP giveaway of broadcasting licences to their friends and cohorts, but to give more licences. I am not sure whether the PM is speaking for the government as a whole or for the AFC faction of the government, but I completely disagree with that approach.

No, Mr. Prime Minister, you just cannot do that to those who voted for you in May 2015. No, you cannot do that to the historical moment you represent. Your government was elected as an alternative to “government as usual.” Yes, I know parties fool people on the campaign trail: they promise things which they know they would not and cannot deliver; but your Coalition is not like that. Yes, I know that parties say things on the campaign trail, but when they get into government, the realities of government force a rethink. I cut you that slack. I am sympathetic to the feeling that the government cannot go full throttle on prosecuting all of the PPP’s excesses committed by that party when they held office. I am understanding of the view that in our ethnic environment the charge of witch-hunting has ethnic consequences, and as such the government has to be careful about how it moves on the PPP boys and girls.

But, at least in the name of integrity, some of the most egregious offences have to be confronted. And this matter of the broadcasting licences is one of them. Those licences should have been rescinded in the first days of the change of government. Some people got stinking rich as a result of the monopoly they enjoyed in the industry.

Those licences also represent a political advantage for one side of the political divide in the dissemination of propaganda. Others were denied equality before the law. And then there is the very obscenity that the act represented the open misuse of power.

No, Mr. PM, you are wrong. What is the message you are sending to your supporters? Are you saying that the way to correct wrong in high places is to condone it in the name of political correctness?

I am not advocating that the government must prosecute people without evidence. I am not advocating seizing people’s property. All I am asking for is a little consideration for the ordinary masses. They voted you into government to clean up government, not to sanitize the filth of the previous government.

More of Dr. Hinds ‘writings and commentaries can be found on his YouTube Channel Hinds’ Sight: Dr. David Hinds’ Guyana-Caribbean Politics, and on his website www.guyanacaribbeanpolitics.com. Send comments to dhinds6106@aol.com