Andrew Sage

While all of this is going on, Grenada had a population of less than 100,000 people.

It had just become independent under Eric Gehry.

And Eric Gehry is an interesting fella because you'll see some aspects of him mirrored later on.

He came to power in 1951 with the wave of universal suffrage.

He was 29 years old at the time.

He had previously been a worker organizer in Aruba and was expelled from the island for that very reason.

He spent decades in politics as a champion of agricultural workers.

But younger generations were not as excited about him.

They recognized his financial corruption, his penchant for rigged elections, and of course his use of secret police that were repressive to the people.

So as Grenada is making steps towards becoming independent,

The people did not want him to be the leader of independence.

There were strikes against him even before the revolution.

But see, Gary was carrying on this tradition that was set up by the British, whether he knew it or not.

He may have had this radical start as a worker organizer, but he came to carry on colonial interests.

You know, he started off as a union man, but he turned against the workers.

And even the British at one point had been scared of him as an organizer and had trepidations about him as an independent leader.

But they still chose him and preferred him at the risk of maybe a more radical version of him leading an independent Grenada.

And then came the New Jewel movement.

Now, the New Jewel Movement is actually a combination of two groups.

You had the Movement for Assemblies of the People, which was founded by Maurice Bishop, a lawyer who had studied in Britain.