Grenada - Grenada’s Revolution and Beyond

• Pages: 179-196

CHAPTER 10

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY UPTO 1979

In our 1977 study,1the chequered constitutional history of Grenada since 1945 was

outlined. In this chapter, a short summary of the developments in that island from about

1962 leading up to the tragic events of October 1983 will be attempted. The constitutional

implications of these developments will also be examined.

It will be remembered that 1962 was the year of the dissolution of the Federal

Government of the West Indies, when both Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago proceeded

to independence on their own. General elections had been held in Trinidad and Tobago in

December 1961 and after the elections the political leader, speaking at a convention of the

party, called the Federation ‘a disgraceful episode’ and unequivocally rejected a

suggestion that his country should enter into a new federation with the Eastern

Caribbean territories (including Grenada) since by that time Jamaica had expressed its

desire to ‘go it alone’ to independence. The Trinidad People National Movement’s

resolution on the issue of federation did, however, leave the door open for a new

association whereby the smaller territories would be permitted to join Trinidad on a

unitary statehood basis.

Grenada expressed a desire to join the unitary state of Trinidad and Tobago and when

a new Government came to power in Grenada in 1962, the scheme was that in one year

the modalities for Grenada’s absorption would be completed. In the event, the merger did

not materialise mainly because the new Grenada Government seemed to have lost its

enthusiasm for the proposal.2 Thus, we find the same economic historian Dr Williams,

advocating, in 1962 – albeit for a very sound reason – the very same type of merger which

he had earlier condemned as characteristic of the British Government in the 19th century.

The next attempt at some type of association between Grenada and other territories

was made in 1972 when representatives of Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, St

Kitts/Nevis/Anguilla, St Lucia and St Vincent met in Guyana on 8 November 1971. The

representatives issued a statement expressing the very sound view that the only salvation

for their people lay in the creation of a federal State and the setting up of a Preparatory

Commission which was to be established within the Commonwealth Caribbean

Secretariat under a budget to be separately provided by the participating territories.3

Needless to say, this further effort came to naught as well, mainly because there was

no wherewithal for the budget. Even if there was a genuine will to federate (which the

author seriously questions), the result would have been the same.

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GRENADA – GRENADA’S REVOLUTION AND BEYOND

1 See Phillips, 1977, pp 18–20 and 95. See also a full account of Grenada’s constitutional history by

Patrick Emanuel (1978).

2Ibid, pp 70, 71.

3 Ibid, pp 206, 207.

Instead of joining a federation, Grenada was busy considering becoming an

independent State, for two years later the usual Independence Conference was held in

London, resulting in the Grenada Constitution Order 1973,4by which the country became

an independent State within the Commonwealth. However, before independence was

attained there was serious civil unrest stemming mainly from the fact that by this time the

Premier, Eric Gairy, was encountering fierce opposition from the New Jewel Movement

(NJM),5a left-leaning party that had come into being in 1973 and was rapidly mobilising

the ‘broad masses of the people’.

By 1973, the position of the Premier was becoming desperate and he set out to

suppress the NJM at all costs, using the conventional resources of the police, but relying

even more on the unconventional resources of a group of ex-convicts known as ‘the

Mongoose Gang’.

Although in 1973 the total strength of the parliamentary Opposition Party, the

Grenada National Party (GNP), was only two members, the NJM, though lacking seats in

the House of Representatives, had constituted an unofficial opposition and continued to

hold frequent meetings on a countrywide basis in the course of which it was organising

the workers into ‘cadres’, giving ideological training to the youth, and developing its own

trade union movement support.

Three developments took place towards the end of 1973 and at the beginning of 1974

which must be specifically mentioned here:

1 the arrest and brutal ill-treatment of six members of the NJM by the organised (and

disorganised) police personnel of the Government on 18 November 1973;

2 the announcement by the Government that independence was fixed for February

1974; and

3 demonstrations and marches by all sections of the community protesting against the

repression and corruption being practised by the Government.

It was the combined effect of the above mentioned developments that led Premier Gairy

to agree to the appointment of a high powered Commission of Enquiry to make diligent

enquiries into and report upon all the facts relating to the matters set out hereunder, viz:

(1) all the circumstances leading up to the arrest and charging of six persons on Sunday,

18 November 1973;

(2) the alleged brutality by the police and the alleged denial of prompt medical and legal

assistance to the arrested persons;

(3) the refusal by the magistrate to grant bail;

(4) the administration of justice in the State;

(5) to make specific recommendations upon:

(a) breaches of the Constitution as disclosed before the Commission,

and

(b) any evidence of a general breakdown of law and order within the State.

Commonwealth Caribbean Constitutional Law

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4 SI 1973/2155.

5 The NJM resulted from a merger of two political organisations, viz, Movement for Assemblies of the

People (MAP) and the Jewel, an acronym for Joint Endeavour for Welfare, Education and Liberation.