They got independence from Britain in 1974 but are still part of the British Commonwealth.
When the Grenadian people overthrew their crazy, UFO fanatic Prime Minister, Eric Gairy, in favor of a populist government which would advocate for the poor, working people of the country, the USA (Reagan-Bush) invaded a teeny, tiny island nation which was misperceived as a communist threat in order to distract the US people from the disaster in Lebanon.
:(
Three of the Grenada 17 were recently released and there is hope for the remaining political prisoners to be released soon. Phyliis Coard, the sole female prisoner, was released a number of years ago because she had cancer. The US Government and military was complicit in a kangaroo trial and sentencing these people to death (which as finally commuted) and in keeping them in prison since 1986.
The US military and the CIA used Abu Ghraib torture techniques on the political prisoners in a foreshadowing of the human rights debacle in Iraq. :( Three excellent links:
http://www.caribbeannetnews.com/2004/06/28/torture.htmGrenada 17 says US torture of POWs not new
by Leroy Noel
Monday, June 28, 2004
ST GEORGE‘S, Grenada:
The 17 persons convicted in Grenada for the death of former Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and several of his cabinet colleagues say reports of the humiliation and torture of prisoners of war in Iraq, Afghanistan and at Guantanamo Bay, by their US military captors are nothing new.
A statement from the Grenada 17 says official US spokespersons have sought to portray these horrible abuses as recent, isolated incidents by out-of-control individual soldiers, and not the result of official US policy but those who lived through the US invasion of Grenada know the truth.
...snip...
The Grenada 17 indicated that guard-dogs were set halfway into the sweat boxes to terrorize them; abuse, including racist abuse, was screamed at them day and night by the soldiers; and the boxes were constantly beaten at night so as to deprive the detainees of sleep. They were kept in those boxes on the asphalt tarmac for days or weeks, in the sun, in the stifling daytime heat. Leaks in the boxes let in the heavy October night rains, so that they shivered in their wet clothes night after night, many becoming ill they claimed.
...snip...
The committee added that black plastic bags were placed over the heads of the three most senior Grenadian military officers, to half-stifle them. Former ministers of the Grenadian government were deliberately humiliated by being publicly paraded half-naked, blindfolded and manacled; video film and photographs of them were shown around the world. All of the above is in violation of international law as regards the treatment of prisoners of war.
http://www.caribbeannetnews.com/2004/06/28/torture.htmThe Last Prisoners of the Cold War are Black by Rich Gibson:
http://www.geocities.com/elethinker/RG/GrenadaupdateMarch2001.htm
Monthly Review
From: Dr. Rich Gibson
San Diego State University
College of Education
San Diego CA 92120
rgibson@pipeline.com
The Last Prisoners of the Cold War Are Black
On March 13, 1979 a revolution took place in Grenada, the first in an African-Caribbean country, the first in the English-speaking world. The people who made up the revolutionary cadre were quite young, average age around 27, and the uppermost leadership was mostly middle class, educated abroad. They called themselves the New Jewel Movement (NJM). The revolution, or coup as some called it, was popular, a move to replace a somewhat mad dictator named Eric Gairy who spent much of the tiny country's (pop 100,000) resources on investigating the reason Grenada was a key landing point for flying saucers. When I interviewed Gairy in 1996, he told me he was immortal, God. He died in 1997; has not been seen since.
...snip...
The NJM leadership were socialists, though their socialism was eclectic--hardly the doctrinaire image the U.S. later created. They borrowed and won investments from any government they could, from the British to the USSR to Iraq and Cuba (which provided mostly doctors, construction specialists, nurses, and educators). They began a mass literacy project (led by Paulo Freire), quickly improved medical care, began to set up processing plants for fish and spices, and started building a jet-port. The country had a tiny landing strip only able to introduce prop planes, a problem for an economy tied up with tourist interests. The plan, in general, was to build national economic development by expanding existing forms of production (agriculture, tourism, etc.) and by creating a new class of technologically competent workers who might use their skills to create a role for Grenada in the information-economy as well. The educational programs had a critical part in that project.
To claim that the NJM rule was a model of egalitarian democracy, as much of the chic left did at the time, would be off-point. It wasn't. While Angela Davis and Maurice Bishop danced during Carnival in the beautiful house allotted to revo leaders, democracy and equality went on the back burner in favor of national economic development, and the party became privileged in terms of decision-making power and the distribution of goods: the shipwreck of most socialist movements. Women cadre were often doing the work (as well as the home work). Some men issued orders and took advantage of prestige. The NJM arrested people and held them without charge. A few citizens were killed under circumstances which were at best questionable. But NJM was under terrific pressure. The US quickly moved to crush the revo, made tourism nearly impossible for U.S. citizens, and it is fairly clear that the CIA made several attempts to murder key leaders. In four years, by 1983, the NJM was in real trouble.
NJM grew more isolated from the people. Rather than reach out, the party turned inward. The leadership tried to rely on a correct analysis and the right orders rather than to build a popular base. Even though there was no question that Bishop would win elections, the NJM leaders refused to hold them. The NJM top central committee remained a very exclusive bunch. In 1982 and 1983, clear disagreements began to emerge within the entire organization. The leadership turned inward.
...snip...
Shortly afterward, US troops were blown up in their barracks in Lebanon. President Ronald Reagan took to the TV, announcing he had discovered, through satellite photos, that the Cubans were building a secret Soviet-Cuban military airstrip in Grenada. Actually tourists were frequently taken there, US medical students jogged each day on the airstrip. The main financial support for the airport came not from the U.S.S.R. nor from Cuba, but from Margaret Thatcher's Britain. Reagan declared the US medical students to be in grave danger, said that the NJM was a threat to all regional security, got the organization of Caribbean nations to back him, and invaded a country the size of Kalamazoo with a massive military force, under a precedent- setting news blackout. Though the medical students were radioing out that they were in no danger, US rangers "saved" them, after U.S. jets bombed a mental hospital. Remarkably, it is clear that Castro was forewarned of the invasion and that Cuban troops tasked to stop the US landing at the new airport never fired their weapons at the Rangers making parachute drops on the runway-until the Rangers later attacked them. The Cubans had told the Grenadian military that they would defend the airport area. The invasion of Grenada (popular among most of the people sickened by the long collapse of the NJM) was complete in a week. It was, however, denounced as illegal by the U.N. Security Council, by Margaret Thatcher and the British government, and by a myriad of US congress-people.
Seventeen NJM leaders were charged with the murder of Bishop and the others, though it is clear that most of them were nowhere near the incident, or could not have participated, like the commander of the fort who was locked in a cell. According to affidavits filed by former U.S. attorney general Ramsey Clark, the NJM leaders were denied attorneys. They were tried by jurors who chanted "guilty" at them during jury selection, in trails led by judges hand-picked and paid by the U.S. They were unable to make a defense in the kangaroo atmosphere. Their lawyers fled Grenada after a series of death threats. Key witnesses, like a bodyguard who was present when Bishop created and ordered the death threat rumor, were denied the right to testify. Fourteen of the NJM members were sentenced to death.
In prison, they were tortured for eight years, according to statements made to me be a former prison warden. Torture was especially horrible for the lone woman, Phyllis Coard, who was held in near-total isolation for years simply because few women are jailed in Grenada. In 1991, after their children had been introduced to the fellow who was to hang them from a prison courtyard gallows, the sentences were commuted to life. The New Jewel leaders are still serving time in a prison built in the late 1700's. The last prisoners of the cold war are black. Their health is rapidly fading. Despite tremendous obstacles created by prison officials over the years, the NJM prisoners are conducting one of the most successful literacy campaigns in the country. Less than two in ten of the program' grads return to the Richmond Hill jail. As of October 2001, the NJM prisoners, will have served 18 years. Phyllis Coard was released in 2000 to seek cancer treatment abroad, following an international outcry on her behalf. She is expected to return to the jail following treatment.
I filed a Freedom of Information suit demanding documents which were seized by the US and kept out of the trial. The US military seized, literally, tons of documents in Grenada immediately following the invasion. The documents were sifted and some of them later appeared in a book called the Grenada Documents. This suit came to court in Detroit on November 10th, 1997, after delays of more than one year. In October, 1998, Judge Hood gave the U.S. government thirty days to give me the documents. To date, the US has released a ream of blacked-out material, some of it indicating that the US clearly interfered in the trial of the Grenada prisoners. However, the US insists that the remaining documents were all returned to Grenada. The Grenada government denies ever receiving the material.
I spent 1996 in Grenada on a Fulbright interviewing many of the jailed NJM leaders. To say they are innocent of everything is not the case. To say they are innocent of the charges brought against them is. And to say they are being subjected to horrible conditions and denied due process is also true. While it may not be politic to argue for the freedom of people with whom I have disagreements, it remains that their imprisonment is a great wrong that needs to be righted. And the truth of the Grenada revo, and its destruction, needs to be known.
To Rich Gibson's Home Page
The Grenada Revolution Online (a scholarly and historic overview and current Grenadian events website) This site is objective and comnprehensive.
The Grenada Revolution
"Learn the basics of the story of The Grenada Revolution online.
In 1983, the United States was part of Grenada's history.
Discover what happened and why."
http://www.thegrenadarevolutiononline.com/index.html 
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