Why was Fidel Castro so quick to condemn the

[Cheung Mo]

The fucker essentially destroyed Grenada by betraying the principles of revolutionary Marxism and his comrades within the New Jewel Movement...If Bishop had implemented policies derived from Marx's theories and had not tried to play nice with Washington and with big business, Bernard Coard and the military would not have turned against him and the only instability that would have existed in Grenada would have been due to bourgeois resistance sponsored by imperialist intervenors....And do you not think that Coard and the members of the NJM who backed him had the right to be incredibly pissed off that their so-called leader -- upon attaining power -- was betraying the very principles that they had dedicated their entire lives to fighting for right in front of their faces?

If Castro is not a treasonous reactionary, should he not have been above defending one?

[bezdomni]

What? :blink:

[metalero]

could you elaborate more on how Bishop play "nice" with washington and big business? I thought Bishop was a Marxist with populist leanings, someone like Chavez who you fully support. Anyway, the fact that you have one of your comrades shot because of sectarian divisions in the party, rather that strengthening the revolutionary unity did deserve the condemn of someone as Castro who really knew how things were going in Granada back then.

[Cheung Mo]

Is it possible then that reactionary interests within the armed forces and other sectors of civil society manufactured a conflict between Bishop and Coard (by, for instance, blackmailing Bishop into advocating a position that would throw him into direct conflict with other members of the New Jewel Movement...It's not a stretch to imagine bullets in the heads of his wife and children courtesy of the military if he does not comply with their reactionary position) so as to create a situation in which forces of foreign imperialism would be forced to restore order on behalf of the bourgeoisie?

The reason I hypothesise this position is simply from reading that many of Coard's closest friends and most trusted political allies saw an inconsistency between the alleged betrayal and what they say going on on the ground in Grenada.

[Severian]

Maurice Bishop was the most popular leader of the Grenada revolution.

Coard led a narrow Stalinist faction which overthrew the revolutionary government and provided a marvelous opportunity for Washington to invade. They murdered Bishop and fired on a huge demonstration of Bishop's supporters.

(This faction acquired a majority of the New Jewel Movement, the ruling party, but that just reflected the small size and political narrowness of that party....and Coard's hold on its organizational apparatus.)

It was, in fact, Coard's Stalinist faction which destroyed the Grenada revolution. Fidel Castro accurately compared Coard to Pol Pot.

It's no surprise, unfortunately, that Cheung Mo supports Coard. He's known for posts in which he proposes mass executions as the answer to everything. Also for weird conspiracy theories, like suggesting the CIA planned the 1979 Iranian revolution decades in advance. Then when I or anyone else calls him on his bullshit, he doesn't explain himself - he just goes off and trolls about something else.

The facts on what happened in Grenada: (http://www.themilitant.com/1998/6238/6238_30.html) An excerpt from the article "The Second Assassination of Maurice Bishop" by Steve Clark. In New International magazine, issue #6 - I recommend the full article.

In mid-October 1983 a faction led by Deputy Prime Minister Bernard Coard in Grenada's army, government, and New Jewel Movement (NJM) overthrew the workers' and farmers' government brought to power by the March 13, 1979, revolution.

Prime Minister Maurice Bishop, backed by other NJM leaders and the overwhelming majority of the island's workers and farmers, resisted this counterrevolution and attempted to reverse it. On October 19 the Grenadian people launched an uprising to restore their government to power. They shut down workplaces, poured into the streets of the capital, St. George's, and freed Bishop, who had been placed under house arrest by the Coard faction. Estimates of the crowd range from 15,000 to 30,000 - equivalent for that island of 110,000 people to an outpouring of 35 to 65 million in the United States.

Troops loyal to Coard's faction turned their guns on the mass demonstration, killing many participants and wounding others. They assassinated Maurice Bishop and five other revolutionary leaders - Fitzroy Bain, Norris Bain, Jacqueline Creft, Vincent Noel, and Unison Whiteman. The working people of Grenada were stunned and demoralized.

One week later, on October 25, United States armed forces stormed the island and occupied it. The Coard faction had handed free Grenada to imperialism on a silver platter. The country once again was shackled with a government subservient to Washington. Discredited worldwide by these crimes and their disastrous consequences, Bernard Coard and his followers have tried ever since to cover their tracks by conducting a second assassination of Maurice Bishop. Their political targets include all those revolutionaries - in the Caribbean, North America, and elsewhere - who champion and seek to learn from Bishop's political legacy.

The first assassination succeeded in eliminating Maurice Bishop himself. But Bishop's accomplishments and example as a revolutionary internationalist leader proved more enduring than Coard had reckoned. As the truth came out about what actually happened in October 1983 - through the efforts of surviving Grenadian revolutionaries, Cuban president Fidel Castro, and others - the original explanations presented by Coard and his followers were increasingly repudiated by communists, anti-imperialist fighters, and progressive-minded people throughout the world...

The revolution brought to power for the first time in Grenada a government not subservient to U.S. and British imperialism and the local landlords and capitalists. The new workers' and farmers' government began to carry out a revolutionary democratic program. From the outset it also began promoting the organization of working people in town and country to advance their class interests against the power and prerogatives of the large landowners and capitalists.

Given the tiny industrial base, small urban working class, and the concrete character of the economic backwardness of Grenada, however, the transition to a planned economy based on state property in industry, banking, and big trade was necessarily a process that could unfold only over a number of years. Most important, it could advance only in tandem with the expanding organization, mobilization, and political consciousness of the workers and exploited farmers, whose class alliance formed the social base of the revolutionary government, state, and vanguard working-class party.

Grenada's productive forces, both in agriculture and industry, had to grow and be modernized...

Meanwhile, Grenada's economy remained capitalist. The working people through their government and the New Jewel Movement needed to make use of the technical and managerial skills of middle class and professional layers who were willing to cooperate in expanding production and cooperate with capitalists willing to continue investing in productive enterprises. The revolutionary government guaranteed the ownership rights of capitalists so long as they did not sabotage the economy or participate in illegal acts....

The tempo of a revolutionary transformation of property relations in Grenada could not be predetermined. That would depend on the concrete evolution of the class struggle and the economy in Grenada and internationally. During this transition period, the workers' and farmers' govenment, together with the unions and other mass organizations, decisively altered the relationship of class forces to the advantage of working people in their struggles for better living and working conditions. This included the adoption and enforcement of labor laws guaranteeing union rights and regulating the wages and job conditions of rural and urban workers.

Moreover, the new People's Revolutionary Army and People's Militia gave the workers and farmers a way to defend their political power against counterrevolution instigated by U.S. imperialism and by local landowners and businessmen. Without this armed power, the transition to a new, nonexploiting society would be a utopia. Some 3,500 Grenadians received army or militia training between March 1979 and October 1983.

Coard, in contrast to the course described above, seemed to think it was possible to make a revolution like a cup of instant coffee. By bureaucratic edict, without regard to what the masses of Grenadians thought or wanted. Naturally this approach was disastrous in practice, as it always has been.

[la-troy]

Cheng Mo you attacked me in a post stating that Bishop was reactionary and then left. you made no point to support your claim and left it up to some other guy to debate it with me.

I am afraid you are doing it again. If this is your view you need to make points.

Google this "committee for human rights Grenada"

It supports your claim about Bishop being reactionary so read it and come back and argue.

Castro supported Bishop because he was a popular leader who fought for his people against poverty and American imperialism. Also Castro's experiment with Manley had failed while Bishop was succeeding so Castro just backed a potential ally. Its a damn shame his troops did not reach Grenada on time.

I ask you this Mo are you from the Caribbean?

If you are I am disappointed in you.

If you are not i suggest you research the history of the British Caribbean and see the peculiarities of the region before you condemn Bishop for taking it slow.

[Severian]

Originally posted by la-[email protected] 26, 2007 05:26 pm
Cheng Mo you attacked me in a post stating that Bishop was reactionary and then left. you made no point to support your claim and left it up to some other guy to debate it with me.

I am afraid you are doing it again.
Yeah, he sure did. I mentioned earlier it's what he always does....