IBW21’s Delegation to Grenada October 19th Communique

The October 19th Communique

October 17 – 21, 2023, the Institute of the Black World 21st Century embarked on a journey to Grenada with a distinguished Delegation of civil rights/human rights and faith leaders, scholars and journalists to participate in the commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the martyrdom of Maurice Bishop, the visionary, courageous and inspirational leader of the New Jewel Movement and Prime Minister of the People’s Revolutionary Government.

On October 19th, 1983, a day that will live in infamy in the annals of the history of the Caribbean and the Pan African world, Maurice Bishop, this bright shining beacon of hope for Grenada, the Caribbean, the Black world, and humankind was assassinated along with members of his cabinet at the behest of the leaders of an attempted coup.

This heinous event was followed by an opportunistic invasion by the U.S. to crush the remnants of the People’s Revolutionary Government and to prevent the rise of what the CIA described as an “English-speaking version of Cuba in the Caribbean.” These tragic events left a wound in the soul of the nation that has festered unhealed for forty years.

But “truth crushed to earth will rise again.” In truth, the spirit of Maurice Bishop and the People’s Revolutionary Government has never died. It was simply buried just beneath the surface in the hearts, minds, and souls of generations of the Grenadian people. With the election of the Honorable Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell, a bright young visionary and his Government, the promise of hope and healing burst into the light; a promise of hope that the spirit of Maurice Bishop and the People’s Revolutionary Government will be resurrected to inspire a new generation to examine the strengths and weaknesses, obstacles and triumphs of Maurice Bishop and the People’s Revolutionary Government’s valiant endeavor to create a participatory, people-centered democracy in Grenada.

Encouraged by the leadership of PM Dickon Mitchell, the Institute of the Black World 21st Century invited him to attend State of the Black World Conference V in Baltimore this past April to deliver a Tribute to Maurice Bishop. Though he was unable to attend due to a last-minute conflict in his schedule, PM Mitchell recorded a powerful and inspirational tribute to Maurice Bishop in which he informed the Participants at this milestone global gathering of his intention to declare October 19th a National Holiday. As a result, the leadership of IBW pledged to incorporate organizing a delegation to attend the October 19th commemorative proceedings into the Baltimore Declaration, the official Action Agenda of State of the Black World Conference V.