Time to Tell

by Gus John (Gus John Books, £7.99)

Tuesday 26 April 2011 by Alan Lloyd

More than a quarter of a century on from the murder of prime minister Maurice Bishop in Fort Rupert, Grenada, controversy still rages as to how the New Jewel Movement, which led a Marxist revolution against the tyrannical Eric Gairy in March 1979, imploded less than five years later.

Among the facts which are undisputed are that on October 13 1983 the central committee of the party ordered the house arrest of Bishop.

Thousands of Grenadians marched to Bishop's house to release him and carry him to Fort Rupert where he was expected to address them.

On arrival, gunfire started which resulted in Bishop and most of his cabinet being put against the wall and shot.

The guns were then turned on the crowd resulting in "hundreds" of deaths.

This was exactly the excuse that then US president Ronald Reagan was waiting for.

The Grenadian socialist government had been so successful that the full ire of the US and the dirty tricks section of the CIA had long been giving it their full attention.

Reagan sent in 8,000 troops along with air and naval support to take the island back into the US imperialist fold.

The rest of the New Jewel leadership were given a show trial and jailed for 17 years - all this on an island with a population of just over 100,00 people.

Gus John visited the island in December 1983 and kept a detailed diary, which is used as the basis for a book which highlights the fear, betrayal and plain confusion of ordinary Grenadians.

John argues that following the release of the remaining members of the Grenada 17 after 26 years in jail, now is the time for a full and frank explanation of the events up to the US invasion.

While acknowledging the interviews of Selwyn Strachan and Bernard Coard in the Morning Star last year John claims that fundamental questions such as who ordered the murder of Bishop and the firing on the crowd, what happened to the bodies of the dead and what exactly led to the divisions amongst the leadership which triggered the disastrous events of March 1983 remain unanswered

Although followers of the Grenadian tragedy will learn little new from this book, John makes a powerful case for suggesting that like South Africa with the ending of apartheid, it is difficult to forge a new future until the questions and ghosts of the past are finally laid to rest.

SOURCE: http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/news/content/view/full/103934