ue

_ When workers take over — or

_ €ven make substantial gains in their
Country, life isn’t necessarily a bed
Of roses.

Grenadian trade unionist Vin-

_ ێnt Noel knows this well. He was
_ nthe platform at a workers’ rally
‘When a bomb blast intended for

elf, his colleagues and the

- Prime minister ripped through the

Pilings under the concrete struc-
ture, killing three people.

The attempt in 1980 by the U.S.
Central Intelligence Agency to kill

__ Off the revolutionary leaders of the

New Jewel Movement on the small
Caribbean Island of Grenada was
the most serious act in an unrelen-

campaign of terror and
destabilization the Reagan ad-

 Ministration has waged against a
People which has dared to assert

their independence from U.S.

domination.

But, said the president of the
Country’s largest trade union while

_ lM Vancouver last week, Grena-

will never surrender the gains

Won in their 1979 revolution —
8ains that have cut unemployment
from a devastating 45 percent to 18
Percent and has involved most of
Its people in decision-making

rough “grass roots democracy.”’

“T invite any Canadian labor

fader to come to Grenada and see

for themselves,’ said Noel in
an interview he managed to
Squeeze in during the hectic pace on
the last leg of his cross-country tour
Meeting trade unionists during Oc-
tober and November.
_ Establishing contact with Cana-
union leaders and ‘“‘rank and

ae was the chief aim of the presi-

Ment of Grenada’s Bank and
Neral Workers Union, who ar-
Tived in Canada mid-October on

eo

the invitation of the Canadian
Union of Public Employees.

“T’ye also come to do educa-
tional work on Grenada — to put
my country on the map, and to tell
people that the revolution in
Grenada is in no less danger than
that in Nicaragua,’’ he told the
Tribune.

‘Important also is the establish-
ment of permanent links with
Canadian trade unions, which
share a common membership in
the International Confederation of
Free Trade Unions with their
Grenadian counterparts — as well
as the establishment of “‘solidarity
groups around Grenada’’ and
funds for the country’s literacy
campaign and other social pro-
jects, he said.

Some initial groundwork had

already been laid, when 18 CUPE

representatives visited Grenada last
March. Impressed by what CUPE
calls ‘‘the enormous growth in
union membership and the exten-
sive participation by Grenadian
workers in their unions’? — union
membership has doubled in the
space of three and one half years —
they subsequently arranged the
tour through the Ottawa-Grenada
Labor Education Project.

In his 21-day journey across the
country, Noel, who is also vice-
president of Grenada’s Trade
Union Council and a member of
the government, met with CUPE
president Grace Hartman, presi-
dent of the United Auto Workers
Bob White, and United Electrical
Workers president Dick Barry as
well as provincial and district labor
leaders, and. has dikieties to
numerous gatherings: »

“T would say we have had some
very useful meetings. We have

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Unions making history in Grenada

VINCENT NOEL. .
of bomb blast.

received some aid, and others are
examining what it is they can do,”’
he said.

Speaking to audiences and trade
unions, as he did herein Vancouver
and Nanaimo, Noel often told of
the dual tasks of the union move-
ment in Grenada.

‘There is the economic side — a
concern for working conditions,
profit sharing, contracts — most of
the normal trade union functions.

‘And there is a political side,
where we see to the education and
re-education of our people. We
teach that those in our history who
were considered ‘troublemakers’

~. were in fact revolutionary heroes

and martyrs,”’ he explained.
Grenadian workers are also in-
vovled in the country’s legislative
system, and ‘‘literally draft laws’’
through local parish councils, said
Noel.
Workers’ compensation and

_ paid maternity leave are some of

the gains registered in a country
with an economy still 60 percent
privately owned. Most private
firms are ‘‘basically supportive and
patriotic,’’ said Noel, ‘‘but those
who made vast sums of money

. Grenadian trade union leader was once target .

The reason for that is the
establishment of a manufacturing
sector that processes food items ina
country with an agriculture and
tourist based economy that used to
import much of its food items.
Some of the new industries are state
owned, and that, plus Grenada’s
involvement in the non-aligned
movement since the ousting of
former prime minister Eric Gairy’s
dictatorship in 1979 has a lot to do
with the attacks, both from within
and without the country, on the
revolutionary government, he said.

Such attacks include the bomb-

ing at thé Worker’s rally in 1980;in2*”

tended to claim the life of
Grenada’s popular leader, Maurice
Bishop, ‘and acts of ‘‘Jamaican-
style’? terror — indiscriminate
shootings of civilians similar to
those in the war of destabilization
against the progressive government
of former Jamaican prime minister
Michael Manly, said Noel.

There is also the direct military
threat posed by the United States,
whose aircraft and gunboats often
venture into Grenadian territory,

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DEC. 11 — Lasagna dinner at Pat
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60th anniversary of USSR
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Monday, Nov. 22, 7 p.m.
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Advance tickets only $7.50
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