Cynthia Hamilton

Chair Director: African and African American Studies

University of Rhode Island
E-Mail: cha6734u@uri.edu

CYNTHIA HAMILTON

US foreign policy and Grenada

The misinformation surrounding the US invasion of Grenada on 25 October 1983, coupled with the mystery of the events of 18 October 1983, resulting in the death of Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and five other cabinet officials, has had the effect of severely shaking the confidence and vision of many of those working for an end to the cycle of economic dependency and military repression in the Caribbean and Central America. Not only does the US action seem to portend things to come in the region, but, as the trial of the forty-two charged with the death of Bishop and others begins, the US, according to one military official on the island, intends 'to put the whole New Jewel Movement on trial'. There will be no distinction between Bishop and those accused with his death because, this official continued, 'they are all marxists after all, all from the New Jewel Movement'. I

We must develop an historical context for understanding the Grenada fiasco (both internal and external) as the US escalates its at- tack on the principles and motives of those seeking a socialist transformation, not only in Grenada but elsewhere in the region. All of the answers to questions of what really happened in Grenada cannot be given, for they may be buried along with the bodies of those Grenadians who died between 18 October and the period of the US occupation. But there are patterns of dependency and repression which have plagued the region and which may help us to clarify the past and to identify patterns for the future.

Cynthia Hamilton is at the Center for Black Studies, University of California. Race& Class, XXVI, 2(1984).