The Grenada Revolution: 40 Years After

The Grenadian Revolution (1979-83) was a defining moment in the political history of the Caribbean. On March 13, 1979 the socialist New Jewel Movement (NJM) seized power from the Eric Gairy dictatorship in Grenada. The Grenadian Revolution was a postcolonial, anti-dictatorial, anti-imperialist, liberation project. Given the machinations of the Cold war, it was simultaneously a bastion for the left and a source of antagonism for reactionary forces on the right. Despite its promise, which held possibilities for many, within four and a half years, the Grenadian Revolution imploded given the convergence of its own internal contradictions and US imperialism. Its tragic demise saw the assassination of Prime Minister Maurice Bishop, some members of the Cabinet and several others. The US military seized upon this implosion and invaded Grenada on October 25, 1983.

Analysis on the Grenadian Revolution can be classified into four major waves. In the aftermath of the US invasion of Grenada, several scholars and other observers turned their gaze on that small island state in a first wave course (Boodhoo, 1984;Ledeen and Romerstein, 1984; Payne, Sutton and Thornlike, 1984;Brierley, 1985; Thornlike, 1985a; Pastor, 1986 and Lewis, 1987). The early debates located the Grenadian Revolution within the Cold War conjecture. With the passage of time, interest in Grenada subsided. However, there was a rekindling of scholarly interest in the ‘Grenada affair’ as progressive scholars engaged in radical self-critique in a second wave (Meeks, 2001; Scott, 2001; Hart, 2005). Interest in the Grenadian Revolution intensified as several panels were organized at the Caribbean Studies Association and other international and regional conferences. In this third wave of the discourse, a body of work emerged that concentrated on questions of postcoloniality, history, memory and the Grenadian Revolution (Scott, 2014; Puri, 2010, 2014). Within Grenada, there was an induced amnesia and in that sense, a generation of Grenadian and Caribbean youth were disconnected from the past. However, in the ebb and flow of history, Grenadians who had experienced the revolution first-hand engaged that history from various disciplines and theoretical strands (Collins, 2003, 2011; Grenade, 2010, 2015; Lewis et al, 2015; Lambert 2020).

One of the consequences of the demise of the Grenadian Revolution was a long legal battle in what became known as the trial of the ‘Grenada 17’. However, in September 2009, Bernard Coard, Deputy Prime Minister in the PRG and the remaining prisoners charged with the murder of Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and others, were released from prison after twenty-six years. Once the legal chapter was over, key actors of the PRG begun to provide insider perspectives in a fourth wave of analysis (Layne 2014; Victor 2014; B. Coard 2017, 2018; P. Coard 2019). In a most recent publication, Smith (2020) revisited the assassination of Maurice Bishop based on declassified documents and interviews conducted with several insiders, further stimulating renewed interest in the Grenadian Revolution.

Therefore, in this thematic issue of LAP we hope to receive contributions that will provide theoretical insights on the Grenadian Revolution, both its accomplishments and its demise. Contributors are invited to reflect on that historical moment in light of the current crisis of capitalism and possibilities for progressive politics in Latin America and the Caribbean. Papers are invited on but are not limited to the following broadthemes:

• The Grenada Revolution, revolutionary thought and contemporary Latin American and Caribbean politics and society
• The contemporary crisis of capitalism and lessons from the Grenadian revolution
• Life and Legacy of Maurice Bishop
• The NJM and experiences of Caribbean left movements
• Grenada Revolution – history, memory, reconciliation and healing
• Rethinking development for societal transformation
• Education for liberation
• Arts and Culture
• Women, youth and community empowerment
• Democracy, the rule of law and human rights
• Regionalism in the Caribbean: Challenges and prospects
• International Relations and Foreign policy

SUBMITTING MANUSCRIPTS

To avoid duplication of content, please contact the issue editor to let her know of your interest in submitting and your proposed topic. We encourage submission as soon as possible, preferably by September 30, 2022, but this call will remain open as long as it is posted on the LAP web site.

Manuscripts should be no longer than 8,000 words of paginated, double-spaced 12 point text with 1 inch margins, including notes and references, using the LAP Style Guidelines available at www.latinamericanperspectives.com under the “Submit” tab where the review process is also described. Manuscripts should be consistent with the LAP Mission Statement available on the web site under the “About” tab.

Manuscripts may be submitted in English, Spanish, or Portuguese. If you do not write in English with near native fluency, please submit in your first language. LAP will translate manuscripts accepted in languages other than English. If you are not submitting in English, please indicate if you will have difficulty reading reviews and/or correspondence from the LAP office in English.

Please feel free to contact the issue editor with questions pertaining to the issue but all manuscripts should be submitted directly to the LAP office, not to the issue editors. A manuscript is not considered submitted until it has been received by the LAP office. You should receive acknowledgment of receipt of your manuscript within a few days. If you do not receive an acknowledgment from LAP after one week, please send a follow-up inquiry to be sure your submission arrived.

E-mail Submissions: send to lap@ucr.edu

Subject Line: Author name – Manuscript for Grenada Revolution: 40 Years After issue
Please attach your manuscript as a Word Document (doc or docx)

Include: Abstract (100 words), 5 Keywords, and a separate cover page with short author affiliations (less than 130 words) and complete contact information (e-mail, postal address, telephone).

Postal correspondence may be sent to: Managing Editor, Latin American Perspectives¸ P.O. Box 5703, Riverside, CA 92517-5703.

For an article with more than one author, provide contact information for all authors but designate one person as the Corresponding Author who will receive correspondence from the LAP office. If any contact information changes while your manuscript is under consideration, please send the updated information to LAP promptly.

Submission of a manuscript implies commitment to publish in the journal. Authors should not submit a manuscript that has been previously published in English in identical or substantially similar form nor should they simultaneously submit it or a substantially similar manuscript to another journal in English. LAP policy discourages manuscripts from authors who have had a manuscript accepted by the journal on a similar topic within the past three years.LAP will consider manuscripts that have been published in another language, usually with updating. Prior publication should be noted, along with the publication information.

Issue editor contact information:

Dr. Wendy C Grenade,

Senior Lecturer in Political Science, Department of Government, Sociology, Social Work and Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus Email: wendy.grenade@cavehill.uwi.edu.