_ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada — In August, 1965, while Working as a merchant seaman on the banana boat Brunsland’’, I remember calling at Grenada. Many Young beggers used to come up to us when the crew went ‘to town to stretch our legs after work and have a beer. Like most Caribbean islands, the economy of English-speaking Grenada and its 110,000 people was /ept in a state of underdevelopment by colonial rule. | Even when the island, which is about twice the size of Toronto, became politically independent from Britain in February 1974, they still had trouble: the grip of the big North American firms, Canadian banks, inefficient tech- “Tiques and outmoded ownership patterns in agriculture “4nd tourism was to hamstring any progress that could be “Made. A lot of people were out of work and the young- j Sters we saw were simply begging out of necessity to get ‘ Something to help out at home. When the Union Jack was lowered for the last time in Grenada (pronounced Gre-nay-da) in 1974, the man who °ecame prime minister was a former trade union leader famed Eric (later Sir Eric) Gairy. During his 18 year rule “Ne had corralled most of the political opposition and, as ’vidence would later prove, most of the treasury as well. Among the opposition forces who put up a staunch Tehtback were members of the island’s anti-imperialist , “ganization, the New Jewel Movement (NJM). At one , Slage, NJM leader, Maurice Bishop (later to become , Prime Minister under the People’s Revolutionary ) OVernment) was himself chopped up with a broken pop , ottle by members of Gairy’s secret army, the Mongoose Gang’’. However, on the morning of March 13, 1979, things 9 gan to change. On that historic day, the NJM j Nobilized its members and armed with a few old shot- Suns and revolvers, staged an insurrection and quickly Sized state power. This was a truly popular revolution ¢ ‘nd, incidentally, the first in the English-speaking Carib- h . The NJM, with its programs of reforms and drive = flush away corruption and stagnation, had long had the “UPport of the majority of the islanders who mostly work Grenada — deepening the democratic process as agricultural workers, fishermen and in the tourist industry. Gairy, visiting the U.S. at the time, was planning to move against the Jewel (an acronym for Joint Endeavour for Welfare, Education and Liberation) Movement lead- ers. But his plans were foiled and the revolutionary over- throw of Gairy’s rule, celebrated with massive festivities this March 13th, has meant many advances and good tidings for the people. Today, for example, all Grenadians have a chance to ‘take up post-secondary education. Whereas, only three islanders received scholarships in 1978, over 300 Gre- nadians have gone abroad to study at post secondary institutions since the Revolution. At other levels, the PRG has carried out a campaign to virtually wipe out illiteracy on the island. An in-training program for teachers, started in October 1980, is de- signed to expose all the teachers in the island to weekly tuition and ongoing assistance to upgrade their skills. From the Caribbean Norman Faria These teachers tell their students about an island economy that is presently not a centrally planned one like that of Cuba. The private sector is still very domin- ant, although the government is moving to establish state-run enterprises like the agro-industrial plant which has proven to be a spectacular success. Many tourists who visit the islands like to savour local foods, but often find that they are eating what they left at home. In Grenada, the government is paying attention to making available local fruits and juices from mangoes, paw-paw and plantains for local consumption. A lot is exported, thereby earning valuable foreign exchange. In overall terms, in 1981 — the first full year under the PRG-production in agriculture (mostly bananas, nut- mets and cacao), fisheries and forestry rose by 7.8%. There was a slight drop in earnings from the sale of nutmeg because of low prices on the international market. A major project for the island’s economy is undoub- tedly the construction of a new international airport, which is being built with Cuban assistance in the south coast of the island near the capital, St. George’s. Cana- dian and other tourists now visiting the island must first go to neighbouring Barbados or Trinidad and Tobago and thenboard a smaller plane run by the regional airline LIAT before they can get to Grenada. They: must then take an hour-long ride into town from the present small airport on the north of the island. Part of the 2,743 metre-long runway on the new airport will be open for day and night flights by LIAT planes this coming October. An important complementary aspect of these ad- vances on the social and economic frorits is the deepen- ing of the democratic process in Grenada, a development in which Grenadians now have more say in what's going on around them. As a new pamphlet on the new democ- racy inthis beautiful Caribbean isle puts it: “‘In Grenada now, transformation is on the agenda, people’s power is in the offing, and the fragile and cracking edifices of Westminister are tottering from the force of its vision an ocean away, a vision that is being carefully studied by awakening peoples all over the world.” | INTERNATIONAL FOCUS _ By TOM MORRIS Ss i} ‘ a It’s aggression, ; pure and simple ; “They have tried through 1 | PSychological coercion to U.S. State Pe! BS Red ee Ded Nag teat fhe Ne eel Sinn tee a Saget oy FT RETR amet Ia wee igs New force me to say things about El Salvador,’’ the 19-year old told a stunned press conference in Washington last week. “An official in the U.S. em- bassy told me that they needed to demonstrate the presence of Cubans in El Salvador. They 8ave me an option: I could Come here or face certain death.”’ Speaking was Orlando Es- Pinosa, a Nicaraguan citizen who had been held for one year by the El Salvador military. {oe : sors * CIA year-old map of Nicaragua army camp. Part of Reagan's Under torture he told a story of being trained in Cuba and Ethiopia and sent to El Sal- vador. It was just what the Department wanted, and they flew the youth to a press conference set up in the office of State De- _ partment spokesman Dean Fisher. But as the cameras whirred and U.S. officials whinced, Espinosa blew the whistle. ‘“You made us look very bad,”’ growled Fisher after the debacle. | Bad indeed. The ‘‘proof” had backfired, as had another juicy revelation a week earlier. In that one, Secretary of State "Campaign to topple the Sandinistas. Imagine, they spotted “East German trucks”. Haig ominously told a Congressional hearing the El Salvador junta had captured a ‘Nicaraguan guerrilla leader”’ who also revealed, said Haig, he had been sent from Nicaragua to lead the libera- tion fighters. This one turned out to be another 19-year old — a stu- dent making his way iome from Mexico to Managua to visit his parents. It was all in the best tradition of the so-called Libyan “‘hit squad”’ that was splashed ac- ross the newspapers last winter — a tale dreamed up to create hatred and fear in the U.S. against Libya’s Ghaddafi. That’s a dangerous gang of liars inhabiting the White House and Pentagon. Their crass stupidity is manifest, but they seem to have no limits governing their actions. In one short week we were fed stories of Nicaraguan mili- tary build-up complete with CIA aerial photos; so-called Nicaraguan captives were paraded out, the U.S. press re- vealled a $19-million CIA fund being channelled into Nicaragua to destabilize the Sandinista government and a U.S.-trained force is estab- lished to carry out military acts against Nicaragua from - neighboring Honduras. Those are acts of aggres- sion, pure and simple. That's _Reagan’s reply to national liberation. Death camps and ‘freedoms’ The nazi occupation of Po- land began 43 years ago on Sept. 1, 1939. It lasted four years and 10 months before the Soviet Army liberated the country. In the process, the -USSR lost thousands of troops —more than Canada lost in the entire war. Records of the nazi occupa- tion of Poland are plentiful and terrible. Millions of Poles died, death camps pocked the land. Starvation, deportation, brutality and butchery fill every page of the records of the Nuremberg trial of war crimi- nals who practiced their trade on the Polish people. More of us should read or re-read these transcripts to remind ourselve what fascism is. - It’s with this in mind we read. an incredible quote by Zyg- munt Przetakiewicz, the so- called “‘Chief of the Solidarity Information Bureau in Cana- da’’ speaking to University of Toronto students March 2. The Varsity, U. of T. student newspaper, writes: ‘‘He com- pared martial law to the Nazi occupation, saying that he pre- ferred the latter in some ways because during that period, ‘the economiic situation was better and people could travel PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 26, 1982—Page 5 freely and communicate with each other’. What the hell is Przetakiewicz talking about? Surely somewhere in his young life, (he wasn’t even born when the occupation took place) someone told him what fas- cism did to his country? Is he talking about the ‘freedom to communicate”’ in Auschwitz? If Przetakiewicz represents the thinking of Solidarity’s leadership then the Dec. 13 martial law to avert civil war didn’t come a minute too soon. Maybe he should wander down to Toronto’s Central Re- ference Library and take a look at the records. Bang, Bang, you’re dead It seems almost logical that in a nation obsessed by weapons that it should happen, and it did. Last week the town council of Kennesaw, Georgia passed a law requiring each household head to own a gun. “Wild Man”’ Myers, owner of a gun store is delighted, other citi- zens aren't too sure it’s a good idea. _ Five million U.S. private citizens today own handguns — and one is purchased every 13 seconds. Gun deaths. over- shadow military and _ traffic deaths in the U.S. It's quite a country ...