THE only people to mourn the passing of the Gairy regime in Grenada will be the international capitalists.
Sir Eric Gairy may have been presented as a rather comic figure he is best internationally for his championship of UFOs peopic or grenada ne was no joke.
His Grenada United Labour Party only held power in the 1976 general election because of widespread intimidation and electoral malpractice. state-controlled media were put at the government's disposal and the opposition excluded.
The movement against the regime, which culminated in a virtual general strike in January 1974, was repressed by Gairy's Mongoose Gang, para-police force similar to the known Ton Tons Macoutes in Haiti.
In recent weeks the Gair! - but for the actively management of Barclay's Bank in an attempt to defeat struggle for union recognition and improved conditions. democratic New Jewel MoveThe ment used its parliamentary status to workers. The tensions caused by this strike may well have ST.MAARTE private ST. KITTS, NEVIS MONTSERRAT GARIBBEAN helped the SEA wages and The campaign for the ANGUILLA BARBUD •ANTIGUA 9 DOMINICA → MARTINIQUE ST. LUCIA g BARBADOS ST. VINCENT effective TOBAGO been an immediate cause of the NJM's seizure of power.
The unpopularity and repres sive record of the Gairy regime explains the ease with which the NJM has been able to establish Is rule. but i would be wel advised to organise new and democratic elections immediately and not to revert to it former alliance with right-wing anti-Gairy forces.
This will be most way of popular support against imperialism. Gairy is in New York trying to organise mercenaries to put him back in power. He is allied with the most reactionary regimes in South America, including the Chilean.
British military expeditions to Anguilla and Belize show that imperialism still thinks that the Caribbean is its back yard and that it is free to re-establish its control as pleases. Solidarity with the people of Grenada may yet become a priority for British labour movement.
*Caribbean Labour Solidarity is holding a meeting on Grenada on Sunday 1 April, Ham, Abeng Centre, Brixton.