The Grenadian Revolution, Part 3: Aliens, Mongoose & the 1970’s (Transcript)

In The Beginning

Date: May 25, 1969

To: Mr. Richard Nolte

Executive Director, Institute of Current World Affairs

535 Fifth Avenue, New York,

Dear Mr. Nolte:

 Grenada will likely be the next serious crisis spot erupting in the Caribbean. For beneath the surface appearance of fast-paced tourist development and in spite of Grenada’s image as a mini-state going places, the island is actually in a high state of tension which should be watched during the next six months”.

……..

This was the beginning of a letter written by Frank McDonald, renowned journalist and a past fellow at the Institute of Current Affairs who spent the 1960’s reporting on Caribbean countries. In the letter, addressed to Mr. Richard Nolte, executive director of the Institute of Current World Affairs, Mr. McDonald went into details on how the first few months in Eric Gairy tenure as premier of Grenada was a call for concern. For unlike the days of Squadermania Report, Gairy had no one to answer to as now, Grenada was an associate state and as such he took full advantage of this.

 By early 1969, according to Mr. McDonald, Gairy started getting a reputation of selling off Grenada to the highest bidder - usually American business men. Even more alarming, was that Gairy was a silent partner in several business and part owner of hotels that were been built all over the island. Then it seems that Gairy established a real estate company, around himself, through which the sale of Government lands were mediated. Mr. McDonald reports that throughout the first few month of his term, Gairy received various vehicles from Americans, had an impressive wardrobe which included tailored shirts from New York and the several real estates he owned throughout Grenada. Then there were the instances of the misuse of government institutions. In May of 1969, it was reported that Gairy late for an appointment, ordered the island’s authorities to let the island’s fire station out so to escort him, sirens blaring, to his meeting. 

Then, Gairy, now the most powerful politician and union leader in Grenada, decided to exercise his power a bit further. His trade union, Grenada Manual and Mental Workers Union (GMMWU), was the only recognised union in the country. Thus, all employers were required by law to pay Gairy and his union 5 cents per day for each worker in their establishment. What became even more bizarre is any attempt to create any rival union, was deemed illegal under the Gairy administration. 

One man who was brave enough to try to organise a separate union for farm workers, a Mr. Pope Maclain, was shot at one one occasion and his house searched numerous time for guns. This gun search was another matter for recent gun act was passed in Grenada’s parliament which enabled allowed Gairy to search the homes and confiscate any weapon belonging to anyone’s he and the rest of the government deemed a threat. 

Still, back to matter of unions on the island, just like Mr. Maclain, other persons were trying to organised workers. A Grenada Farmer’s Union was formed and by May of 1969, was reported to have about 1800 farmers on its roster. See, the issue is that any rival union would cause less 5 cents  been allocated to GMMWU and Gairy did not like this. Thus, he went on to the offensive against this Farmer’s Union soon after. Over the radio, he gave this message: 

“It has been brought to my attention that some agricultural employers are openly defying Government measures with respect to the payment of Wages to the Agricultural Workers of the State. Fortunately however legislation passed by Parliament with respect to wages refers only to a minimum wage structure and if ay Employer wishes to pay more than the take-home pay of $2.70 and $2.20 for men and women respectively, he may do so. But this has absolutely nothing to do with his obligation to pay another 30 cents in Union Dues, Welfare and Pension Scheme and Bonus. As a matter of fact steps will be taken to have certain estates pay much more than the minimum established. Times have changed however and I am responsible for the police. And here I must give this warning and I give it free, gratis and for nothing, do not resist the police for the consequences in accordance with the law of the state might be shockingly serious. Government recognizes the Farmers Clubs representing the majority of farmers as non-political bit unfortunately I cannot say the same thing about the Farmer's Union. If therefore some farmers wish to stupidly allow themselves to go down the drain under pretext that they are adhering to the dictates of any political farmers' union they must stand the consequence”  

Now one would expect the Grenada Farmers Union to respond in the same way and have a broadcast of their own, however, that was not such, for Grenada’s sole radio station, W.I.B.S. was controlled by Gairy. So the organisation published a pamphlet and distributed among Grenadians. The pamphlet contained a the organisations rebuttal towards Gairy was titled “ Consider It A Threat and a Declaration of War on Farmers” and it went like this: 

“The public in Grenada and the peoples of the other Caribbean Countries were treated to a most unusual and unsavoury broadcast over W.I.B.S, by the Premier of Grenada on 15th, 16th and 17th April -  a broadcast which was a shock to our visitors and cause of shame to all well-meaning Grenadian. The Premier's statement is considered all part of his effort to crush opposition in Grenada and by a calculated programme of threat injection of fear and ‘divide and rule’ to subject all Grenada into a one-part, one-union state”

Seems Gairy got hold of this pamphlet because soon after he went back on the radio to give a counterattack of the counterattack of his original attack: 

“Get it straight from the horse's mouth now. There is one and only one parliament building in Grenada and that is at Church Street and when laws are passed regardless of your station in life your colour or creed, I can only advise you seriously and solemnly- keep the law of the land or you are heading for a lot of trouble, not only for yourself but also for your family”

Weeks later, four farms were vandalised by unknown persons in the middle of the night. When Mr. McDonald visit these farms, the owners were supporters of the GNP and members of the Grenada Farmer’s Union. 

This was one of the first real clash of the Gairy’s tenure as premier and he did not only put potential unionist on alert of the type of leadership that Grenada will witness moving forward, but everyone else in the country. Then, with Gairy already exploited the police force, when he announced that his 1969 budget would be 50% more than that of 1967 due to him establishing a Grenada’s defence force, it put persons on alert. According to Frank McDonald, one Grenadian journalist once said to him, “I have no gun, I have never used one but there may soon come a time when I shall be force to buy and use one

Frank McDonald in his 15 page letter stated that Gairy is selling off Grenada to the highest bidder which will eventually leave Grenada in the hands of American developers who will soon make the decisions in country and Gairy, in his signature white white shoes, white trousers and matching jacket, would get his cut of the share. Mr. McDonald called this ‘expatriate expropriation’. 

 Still, not even Mr. McDonald could predict how bad it would get come the 1970’s for in Gairy’s own apparent words, "once white men used to thieve so why not Uncle now?”

A Strange Miss World Pageant   

Historically, if there’s any two events that tells you the state of a society, its Miss World Pageants and the Olympic Games. As such, it should comes as no surprise that Gairy’s legacy of the 1970’s would start at a Miss World Pageant, specifically, the 1970 Miss World Pageant. The beauty pageant was held in London that year and still stands today as one of the most controversial. For at this Miss World pageant, the two apparent institutions that the establishment upholds, racism and sexism, would take centre stage. The first sound of problems was when the pageant allowed for South Africa to enter two entries: one black woman and another white; for even a beauty pageant could not faced up to South Africa’s Apartheid. 

Just a side note: as the late 1970’s rolled by, Apartheid got even more brutal towards black South Africans as seen by the shooting of school children in Soweto and the continuous state  brutality geared toward organisers like Steve Biko and Winnie Mandela. So when South Africa decided to send up two contestants to the 1976 Miss World, a black and a white woman, a number of countries boycotted the pageant and did not send a representative. However, one of those countries who boycotted Miss World, Jamaica, end up winning the 1976 pageant. If you want to learn more about how that happen, check out our Season 2 episode entitled: Cindy Breakspeare, Micheal Manley and Apartheid. 

Now back to Eric Gairy and the 1970 pageant. 

On the morning of the pageant, November 20, 1970, it is reported that members of the Angry Brigade planted a homemade bomb under one of BBC lorries. The bomb went off, waking up residents in the area. However, in the media, this paled in comparison to the other events that happened on that day. On the night of a contest, Women’s Liberation activists, staged a flour bomb thus pausing the live broadcast of the event. Now faced with accusations of upholding sexism and the mistreatment of black contestants and accepting a black and white South Africans which the media has described as “whitewashing the Apartheid regime”, the winners that year was historic and will forever be question. The first black Grenadian to ever enter the contest, Jennifer Hosten was declared the winner, becoming the first black woman to win the contest. To note, some sources have that Jamaica’s Carole Joan Crawford was the first black woman to win. Still, Pearl Jansen, Miss Africa South (the black South African contestant because the white woman representing South Africa was called Miss South Africa) was the runner’s up. She was the first black South African at the pageant. 

How is Eric Gairy involved in all of this? Well he was a last minute addition to the voting panel and when the premier of the country that end up winning is on the voting panel, a lot of things are called into questions. Funny enough, after Miss Grenada won, Gairy’s track record of corruption was brought up by persons apart of Miss World organisation. Still, members of the pageant resigned soon after, as a result of intense media backlash. Years later, Marjorie Christel, Miss Sweden, who was the favourite going in, said she felt she was cheated out of the title. 

This whole event is dramatised, in the 2020 film, Misbehaviour, starring Keira Knightly as one of the leading feminists and Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Jennifer Hosten, Miss Grenada. The writer of this episode who had to sit down and watch the almost 2 hours movie, stated that it’s a good watch. Nonetheless, Miss World 1970, was one of the first, in a long list, of events tied up in Gairy’s legacy.

The Beginning of State Brutality

Between 1970 to 1974, Gairy faced extreme opposition from a group of persons who were inspired by the explosive black power movement that took place in the Caribbean. A movement that has its roots in the 1968 Rodney Riots that took place in Jamaica. On the next episode of our series, we go into the details of how the black power movement would inspire these group of persons in the Grenada. 

Still, the first signed in the public dismay over Gairy was in November of 1970 when around 30 nurses took part in a peaceful demonstration where they brought to light the conditions of St. Georges Hospital. A larger protest erupted when the nurses were then joined by school children, youth group, member of GNP and trade unions. Previously, Gairy enacted the Emergency Powers Act in May of that same year and this gave the police a great amount of power. As such, Gairy allowed for the police to tear gas, beat and arrest the demonstrators. The 22 nurses would eventually be acquitted after been successful defended by a group of lawyers which includes Kenrick Radix and Maurice Bishop. On the next episode, we will go into more details about these two men. 

 One thing that Gairy’s treatment towards the nurses did do however, was it allowed for Grenadians to bear witness to the type of treatment Gairy would bring towards anyone he saw as a threat to his power. Although having two groups under his control, the police and the army which Grenadians called Green Beast, Gairy then created a secret police: the Mongoose Gang. 

It is said that the Mongoose Gang got its names in the 1950's, when the local health officials sought to eliminate the mongoose as a pest, and thus paid people who brought in mongoose tails as proof of killing the animals. The men who were employed in such work became known as the ‘mongoose-gang’.

 Gloria Payne Banfield, Permanent Secretary for the Planning in the Prime Minister’s Office under the Gairy’s administration had this to say about the origins of the Mongoose Gang 

“Well the Mongoose Gang was a very interesting group of people. I was told that this was a group of men who perhaps were unemployed and they were given employment by the then head of public health department and because mongoose had always been, you know, rampant in terms of crops and carrying rabies, and all of that, there was always a thing about - a program to eradicate mongoose. And so these men were a part of that group and they went out trapping them and that’s how they got the name as the Mongoose Gang. That word gang so they became the Mongoose Gang then - working to eradicate mongoose. Then of course, they had some skirmishes with other groups and so they went to the courts. When I say skirmishes, conflicts, nothing to do with politics, and then they became supporters of Gairy. And then it was claimed that he sent them to do things for him. Well, that again is debatable because while he may have sent them to do things for him, I’m sure they were other people who sent them to do things - they were general… people who would…you know.”

In contrast however, Grenadian diplomat Caldwell Taylor said this in relation to gang: 

“You look at the Mongoose Gang and their job as given by Gairy was to harassed, intimate, beat up and murder, anybody who was opposed to Eric Gairy.

Then, Bertrand Pitt, friend of Eric Gairy who appeared in a documentary on Eric Gairy by Bev Sinclair, had this to say about the infamous Mongoose Gang . 

“So this Mongoose Gang they talking about trying to make it like the Tonton Macoute in Haiti, Gairy had nothing to do with that. He tried to reach out to see if he could help these guys… he got so involve with them that all of them become familiar with him. When he goes to dances, they all follow “Uncle”, they want to kiss him and all them kind of things. And then they start to misbehave. And instead of censoring them, he figured well these are my friends, they liked him. Cause I went up to him one day and said, “let me take care of these boys” cause I knew them in St. Davis and I have a different relationship with them than all of them but he never agreed. And these boys, they had access to his house. Politicians in the Caribbean should study this situation - when people are no good, you have to keep them away from your home and things like that. And eventually, they became uncontrollable. They’re the ones that bring him down you know, because they did so much damn bad things and everybody put it on Gairy. It reach a stage where he didn’t know how to handle them”

Nevertheless, this did not go hand in hand in what Gairy said about the group. For in 1970, during a radio broadcast, the premier confirmed the creation of the Mongoose Gang and had this to say, 

 “The opposition referred to my recruiting criminals in the reserve force... does it not take steel to cut steel? I am proud of the ready response to my call on Grenadians regardless of their criminal record to come and join in the defense of my government and in the maintenance of law and order in their country”

Regardless of the narrative of the formation of the mongoose Gang, one cannot deny the influence Gairy had over these men and how he encourage their antics that took place in the country during the 1970’s. Throughout the rest of this episode and the next, we will go into more details of the gang’s antics. Years later, social scientists of the Caribbean and citizens of the region would compare the Mongoose Gang to another secret police, Haitian’s president Francois Duvalier’s Tonton Macoute. And if you know anything about Papa Doc’s tenure in the 1960’s as Haiti’s dictator, the Mongoose Gang had to be so extreme to be compare to anything of that regime. 

In October 1971, Gairy announced via radio the formation of a “night ambush squad”. Then, in March of 1972, The Torchlight newspaper reported that "gangs of G.U.L.P.” supporters were harassing and physically harming opposition supporters while the police when this was reported to them, did nothing. According to the David E. Lewis in his book ‘Reform and Revolution in Grenada, 1950 to 1981’: “This period in Grenada's political history saw the objective develop­ment of the capability of the power of repression which was invested in Gairy’s personalistic regime.” 

 Still, this was 1972 and in that year, we would see the passing ofThe Public Order Amendment Act, the Prevention of Crime and Offensive Weapons Act and the Explosives Amendment Act, which were all created to restrict the freedom of Grenadians and give the police even more power to search a person’s home without a warrant and ultimately to stopped any credible opposition from been forming against Gairy. But the “power of repression” was only going to get worst. 

The Road To Independence

Now, here comes the 1972 election and one would expect that given all that was taken place with Gairy and the rest of the population, surely he would lose come election: however that was not so. GNP, still the only credible opposition party to Gairy’s GULP up to that point, had many young supporters. Still, Gairy would end up winning the election with 58.8 percent of the votes and gaining 13 out of 15 seats. According to historian Brian Meeks, “the general perception was that there had been massive vote - rigging”. However, it should be note that during the election cycle, Gairy mentioned something of key importance - Grenada’s independence from Britain. On February 21st, a week before elections, Gairy announced his intentions to put forward a proposal for the countries path to independence. However, this talk of independence did not go well down with everyone on the island. 

A series of events would happened after and in the next episode we would go into those details. 

Skipping a head a bit, (it would all make sense in the next episode, we promise) by late 1973 Gairy found himself in deep problems. An islandwide strike made up persons who were intent on removing him was taking place. These persons were dubbed the Committee of 22 and were made up of the Grenadian Union of Teachers, the Civil Service Organisation, the Chamber of Commerce, the churches, the island’s Rotary club and anti-Gairy unions, with the exemption of GMMWU of course. This strike which started on November 19, was intended to bring those responsible for Bloody Sunday to be charge. It would eventually forced Gairy to appoint a commission to investigate the events of that dark day in Grenadian history in a legal event now called the Duffus Commission. On the next episode, we would get into details about this commission. 

Nevertheless, Gairy did not take this serious and the strike prolong for another 3 months for by this time, all the unions on the island joined in: utility workers, commercial and industrial workers and dockworkers. Then, in a sea of chaos, on January 21, 1974, another event took place which would become known as Bloody Monday. And remember that young lawyer, we spoke of early, Maurice Bishop, yes him, well, Bloody Monday, would be his villain story towards Gairy. 

On the next episode, we would get into more details about Bloody Monday. Really, everything comes together in the next episode. 

After Bloody Monday, and with Grenada scheduled to be an independent country in February, Gairy found himself in even more problems. The islandwide strike cause tremendous economic fall out. It was so bad that even Gairy’s secret police was not getting paid. Thus Gairy reached out to Britain however its key to remember that by January 1974, Grenada now an associate state, were weeks away from been an independent country. As such, Britain could not intervene in the internal affairs of the country. Nevertheless, the country gave an 100,000 pounds to the island as an independence gift which was to be used to pay civil servants. Then in a strong display of unity, in the last two months of the strike, Jamaica, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago, gave 2 million dollars worth of loans to Grenada. 

Another foreign entity stepped up and this was from the leadership of the Seaman and Waterfront Workers Union (SWWU). The powerful union would step in and order the dock workers back to work, just in time actually, for the island was running out of fuel. Another entity the Caribbean Congress of Labour (CCL), would send in an official, Burns Bonadi who served as a mediator between Gairy and the unions. Therefore what happened after, was that SWWU reopened the ports, subsequently ending the strike and saving Gairy and his regime. Ironically, none of the demands of the strike were ever met by Gairy. As such, in the middle of an islandwide shutdown, Grenada became an independent country on February 7, 1974. 

Aliens and Fascism 

With Grenada independence, Gairy was entitled to numerous honours and titles. This should come as no surprise but Gairy accepted them all and even invent some of his own. He would attend functions decked out in his various ribbons and medals. Then after been knighted by the Queen of England in 1977, according to historians Catherine Sunshine and Phillip Wheaton, Sir Eric Gairy would begin function with a lengthly prayer thanking God for himself. 

And the topic of God, throughout the 1970’s Gairy developed a sinister obsession with supernaturals. On numerous occasions he stated that his rule was God’s divine plan for Grenada’s development. It was widely believed that Gairy practiced obeah and in his own words, was “of the mystical world”. 

 Caldwell Taylor had this to say: 

“So Eric Gairy projects himself as the only person that stand between Gairy and Grenadians. He said several times that he was only answerable to God. So people did not find it very easy to challenge the leader since the leader was God representative on Earth, he was ruling by divine right. And therefore all queries relating to his tenure of office, relating to his abuses and so forth, should not be directed to him, but indeed should be directed to God”

Then there was the fascination with aliens. Gairy was convinced that the objects he thought he was seeing were hostile alien aircraft from outer space. Thus, in 1977, at an UN Assembly, he made these discoveries well known. According to Gairy, in his ramblings to the delegates, “persons from outer space are studying us, or perhaps living among us as earthlings”. Gairy then called upon the UN to investigate this by forming an agency to research U.F.O’s. 

 Grenada’s independence not only brought Gairy even more power but more international connections. Grenada joined the United Nations and the Organisation of American States and Gairy would go on to forge relationships with fascist regimes. Notably, one of these regimes was with Chile where he made a state visit in 1976. Then in 1977, Gairy signed an agreement for military training with Chiles where two Grenadian went to Chile to learn torture techniques. Then in October of 1977, military planes from Chiles flew into Grenada into the middle of night with 34 boxes of medical supplies. According to historian, Catherine Sunshine and Phillip Wheaton, it is widely believed, that these boxes contained arms. In 1979, Gairy would seek modern arms to equip his armed forces to which the High Commissioner replied, “to shoot what with?” Gairy would then turned to the Chile for assistant. This relationship and aid, would lead to Gairy parsing and defended the Pinochet regime of Chile.

And in the middle of all this, Grenadians had to deal with news of Gairy’s numerous sex scandals that took place throughout the 1970’s as it is said that he sexually exploited women who seek work in the public sector. 

 However, despite all of this, Gairy would go on to win the 1976 election but winning only 9 of the 15 legislative seats. It should be note, that this election was clouded in drama as Gairy removed names of opposition supporters from the voters registration lists while permitting supporters GULP supporters to vote multiple times. There was also the continuous crackdown on his opposition by the Mongoose Gang and the police. On our next episode, we go into more details about the 1976 election.  

Severe Under Development

As the 70’s rolled on, the Grenadian parliament became “a caricature of the Westminster model”. Gairy took control over the Cocoa Board, the Grenada Nutmeg Association and the Banana Cooperative Society and replaced their elected board with his own appointees. He then took lands from those from his opposition which he turned into government farms and ran them into a loss as a result of mismanagement. 

Acres of Grenadians most valuable lands were sold and leased to foreigners by Gairy. He even ran an international $500- a ticket scheme of which no prizes were ever awarded. He would then banned loudspeakers prevented unions from communicating. In 1977, he refused to increase civil servants pay which was a recommendation by the Salaries Revision Committee. These salary increases ranges from 54% to 14% and when the unions called for strike, Gairy threatened the leaders lives. By February of 1978, he passed legislation effectively taking away the right for workers from 11 services sectors to strike. 

Sadly, it was Grenadians who were feeling the blunt of this. Under Gairy leadership, it was one instance of hardship after the other. 

 Wages for workers in retailing and manufacturing were E.C. $50 a month while government ministers’ salary was E.C. $2000 and they paid no taxes. Unemployment reached 50%, food prices rose by $200, clothing by 164% and housing by 135%. Then when agricultural production dropped by 25%, Gairy raised taxes on imported goods like rice and flour while allowing import monopolies to his friends which allow them to charge scalpers prices. This mean, in the case of sugar, Gairy awarded sole importation licenses to only one person who made more than 100% profit on each 200 pound bag. 

Then in the case of infrastructure, Gairy did little. The islands road systems feel into despair. Medical care was low in quality and extremely expensive as local doctors were scarce. The few  medical clinics on the island were unsanitary and ill equipped. Then in education, no new schools were built during Gairy’s tenure. Primary school buildings deteriorated, teachers went untrained, while secondary schooling became a privilege and not a right. Gairy then stopped paying Grenada’s dues to the University of the West Indies and such citizens could no longer receive subsided university training in the region. 

This is what world renowned Grenadian diplomat, former Grenadian ambassador to the US and OAS, Dr. Dessima Williams had to say about this:

“Under Gairy, there were roads in the holes, rather than holes in the roads, so bad was the situation. To take a bus from Grenville to St. Georges, used to cost a labour what that labour would make in a day. Remember people coming down the road, either cursing or crying in dismay from the lack of social services that they were in the country. People were taking out their teeth instead of having it repaired, because to fill a tooth was so expensive. I remember the situation facing people from medical care where people would go and sit for hours and hours and hours”

The country was on the brink of collapse and by the latter end of the decade, it was Gairy vs the People of Grenada. Average citizens, the workers class, the poor, the rural community, women and other minorities were under immense pressure. 

Sill, there’s a popular saying in the Caribbean “dat pressure bus pipe”. But pressure also make diamonds. And a few young Grenadians were going to put this to test: would the pressure facing Grenadians bus pipe or create a new jewel?