Today in Labor History March 13, 1979: The Marxist New Jewel movement, led by Maurice Bishop, overthrew the prime minister of Grenada. Bishop led the People’s Revolutionary Government of Grenada until 1983, when he was overthrown and executed in a coup supported by the U.S. Bishop supported anti-racist struggles around the world and the fight to end Apartheid in South Africa. Under his leadership, Granada gave women equal pay to men and provided paid maternity leave. They also banned sexual discrimination and introduced free public health and literacy programs that brought the national illiteracy rate from 35% down to 5%. In 1983, the U.S. invaded Granada. 19 U.S. soldiers and 45 Grenadian soldiers died in the fighting that ensued. The invasion effectively ended the so-called “Vietnam Syndrome,” where U.S. leaders feared that overt regime change, with U.S. boots on the ground, would spark large antiwar protests, like those that rocked the nation in the 1960s and early 70s. The Grenada invasion paved the way for much more aggressive interventions like Panama, Iraq, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and, of course, Iran. In fact, the code name Trump's used for the Iran war, "Epic Fury," is a variation of the code name used for the Granada invasion, "Urgent Fury."
#workingclass #LaborHistory #grenada #imperialism #communism #cuba #racism #apartheid #equalpay #feminism #antiwar #publichealth #sexism
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