Why Are We In Grenada? Michael Harrington on U.S. Foreign Policy - Convention Reports by Barbara Ehrenreich, Jim Shoch and Maxine PhilliPs STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT, AND ClRCULATION Sale! (Act of Aul!Usl 12. 1970: Sectinn 3611.'i. Title 39. Unitdl Slalt'' Code) l. TnleofPublica1n1-0EMOCRATICLEFT 2. Dale ofFihnir. November 29. 1983 3. Frcqut>1wv of lssU<.. Monthlv, except Jul)·. Aui..'Usl and Sale! Ocl'lber 4. [.ocaL10n of lmu\\n nffkt' of pubficatKm: ll.'i.1 Broadway. Room 801. New York -.. Y 1000.'l. 5. Location of Lilt.> ht.-adquarters or l?l'ot'ral busiot'M of­ fices nf th<! Publisht-r 115.1 Broadwav. Room Ml. Nl'W Sale! York. N. Y Hl003. 6. Name• and addrl'sM's of Publishers. Editor and Man­ ~l(l n !( Editor: Dcmocratit' Socialists of Am.,rica. Mi.:hae-1 Harrington. Maxin.- Phillips. all of 8.5.1 Broadwa~·. Ne"' / KRAZY KARL'S RED HOT LIT SALE! York. N Y 10003. 7. Owner; O..mo<Tat1<· Soc 1~l i sts of Am1•nca. l\S.1 Rrnad­ wav, New Yolii. N Y. 10003. ~~- I 8. 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Berkele\' CA 94703. (415) 428- !3S4. Microfilm. Wisco~~in State Historical Soci­ YOUR NAME etv. 8Hi State St . M adison \\15..1703. Indexed m the Altemallve Press Index. P.O. Rox 7229. Bal­ ADDRESS timore MD 2121R. Stgnff) articles upress the opin­ CITY STATE ZIP I011S ofth t authors and not oj the 011lQnizaflim. D EMOCRATIC LEFT 2 Nov.-OEC. 1983 AGAINST INTERVENTION by Michael Harrington he United States never should ... have invaded Grenada. That act was morally and legally unconscionable-power pol­ itics at its worst, the Ameri- canT analogue to the "Brezhnev doctrine" that rationalized the Soviet invasions of Czecho­ slovakia and Afghanistan. It was politically stupid as well, a fact recognized not simply by Francois Mitterrand-hardly a softliner where Communist power is concerned-but even by Margaret Thatcher. This is all relatively easy to say, and by the time DEMOCRATIC LEFT reaches its sub­ scribers it will probably be standard liberal rhetoric. That is why I want to focus on some more difficult questions raised by the inva­ sion. Was it merely an aberration explained by the presence of John Wayne's spiritual heir in the White House? Or 1s it one more incident in a pattern related to the position of America in the world? Did it promote America's national secur­ ity? I ask this because we cannot allow the president to portray his critics as unilateralist pacifists who have no sense of the realities of the world in which we live and no concern for defending the freedoms we enjoy. And fi­ nally, what are the alternatives to this mad­ film it. More to the point, Reagan also at­ This is not to suggest that Grenada under ness? Can the experience help us mobilize tempted to organize a Chilean-type financial Maurice Bishop was perfect. It was not. Po­ opposition to an invasion, direct or indirect. blockade of the island, even going so far as to litical prisoners were held without formal of Nicaragua? Can it teach us in the longer fight hurricane relief for the Grenadians. charges and there was a general lack of pro­ run that there is a need for a democratic That last policy, The New Republic reports, cedural rights. A popular government re­ foreign policy that reaches out to the Third was so bad that even the Jamaican conserva­ fused to submit itself to a democratic electo­ World rather than regarding it as merely the tives complained about it. rate, and so on. I was particularly aware of scene of a Communist conspiracy? Here, I would suggest. is part of the these issues because I talked with Bishop The Gairy regime in Grenada, over­ pattern of American intervention in the Third and his colleagues about them. The New thrown by the New Jewel Movement, was a World. Reacting to any revolutionary move­ Jewel Movement is a member of the Socialist corrupt. terrorist regime that harassed op­ ment as if, in its very first phase. it is already International and the SI, while supporting ponents with its "Mongoose" squad and was pennanently committed to a Stalinist kind of Grenada against American attempts to de­ led by a man obsessed by flying saucers. regime, Washington then drives these move­ stabilize its government, urged Bishop to Needless to say, this undemocratic situation ments toward the Soviet Union. The Bay of move quickly toward democratic freedoms was not perceived as a political or moral Pigs invasion, it will be remembered, was and civil liberties. I had a long conversation problem in Washington. Our sensitivity to planned under Eisenhower (with the enthusi­ with part of the Grenadian delegation to the "terrorism" is, it is well known, selective. astic participation of Richard Nixon), i.e., it SJ Congress in Portugal last Apnl and we Not too long after the New Jewel Move­ was underway long before Castro decisively discussed these matters quite frankly. ment took over, the United States began turned toward Moscow and must have con­ At this writing it is still too early to recon­ attempts to destabilize it, in large measure vinced him to make the tum. Similarly, struct an authoritative account of the events because of its sinister plot to build an airport Washington's policies are the strongest argu­ that led to the murder of Bishop and his capable of landing wide-bodied jets. That ment for the Marxist-Leninist currents with­ comrades. But almost all versions agree that American concern reached heights of ab­ in the Nicaraguan movement today.