“Revolutionaries do not have the right to be cowards. We have to stand up to fight for our country because, the country is ours. It does not belong to anybody else”

On this day in 1979, The People's Revolutionary Government (PRG) was proclaimed after the New Jewel Movement overthrew the government of Grenada in a socialist revolution. Maurice Bishop, leader of the New Jewel Movement, became Prime Minister.

Before Bishop was an anti-communist US-backed dictator named Eric Gairy. Gairy effectively used his secret police, known as the Mongoose Gang, to enforce his brutality, and have been compared to the Duvaliers’ Tonton Macoutes in Haiti.

While Gairy was at the UN, he was overthrown by the New Jewel Movement and they established a socialist state ruled by decree. While Bishop served as PM, Grenada sought closer relations to Cuba and the Sandinistas in Nicaragua (the picture shows Bishop with Fidel Castro (right) and Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega (left)).

Grenada also entered the stage of international opposition to South African apartheid in terms of foreign relations. At home, he established universal healthcare, equal pay and maternity leave for women, began construction of Grenada’s largest airport (now named after him), and oversaw a 30% drop in illiteracy and a 36% drop in unemployment.

The Goverment was particularly active in developing social policies: a Centre for Popular Education was established to coordinate government initiatives in education, including literacy campaigns. The learning of Grenada Creole was allowed at school.

In the health sector, medical consultations were made free of charge with the help of Cuba, which provided doctors, and milk was distributed to pregnant women and children. The government also began setting up a system of financial loans and equipment for farmers, and agricultural cooperatives were being set up to develop the activity.

Unfortunately, in 1983, some hardliners within the New Jewel Movement placed Bishop under house arrest. Bishop would later be executed by firing squad, and the hardline government would later be overthrown in a US military operation known as Operation Urgent Fury, killing 24 civilians in the process.

“It took several hundred years for feudalism to be finally wiped out and capitalism to emerge as the new dominant mode of production and it will take several hundred years for capitalism to be finally wiped out before socialism becomes the new dominant mode.”

• Grenada’s Revolution History :hammer-sickle:

• Grenada: The Future Coming Towards Us (1983) :red-fist:

• Maurice Bishop Speech – In Nobody’s Backyard (13 April 1979) :fidel-salute-big:

Hola Camaradas :fidel-salute-big: , Our Comrades In Texas are currently passing Through some Hard times :amerikkka: so if you had some Leftover Change or are a bourgeoisie Class Traitor here are some Mutual Aid programs that you could donate to :left-unity-3:

The State and Revolution :flag-su:

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The Conquest of Bread :ancom:

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