`The Marines Have Captured Grenada'

Oh, say can you see?
The ships on the sea
And an island so small is surrounded
And paratroopers land
With guns in their hands:
The Marines have captured Grenada.

Jets attack from the sky
A sovereign country
Destroying hospitals with bombs
The radio station
Will not speak again:
The Marines have captured Grenada.

Like Nazis they came
Six thousand Marines and Rangers
To start an occupation
To crush democracy
With heavy artillery:
The Marines have captured Grenada.

To cover their war crimes
They broadcast many lies
And people who resist they do slaughter
International law
They choose to ignore:
The Marines have captured Grenada.

The bully of the world
He has struck again
Like Hitler, he fears all revolt
To keep their empire
They’ll do it again:
The Marines have captured Grenada.

But Grenada fights on
With selfless Cubans
And resists deep inside the mountains
And Nicaragua
Will not surrender:
The Marines have captured Grenada.

The Fascists again
Imperialist Uncle Sam
Have used War to smash Revolution
But people now see
What free enterprise means:
The Marines have captured Grenada.


To listen to "The Marines Have Captured Grenada" folk song, you can click on following music site link:

http://www.last.fm/music/Bob+A.+Feldman/Protest+Folk+Songs/The+Marines+Have+Captured+Greneda

This protest folk song was written shortly after the Pentagon’s October 1983 invasion of Grenada following the death of Grenadian revolutionary leader Maurice Bishop.

In his introduction to In Nobody’s Backyard: Maurice Bishop’s Speeches 1979-1983 [Memorial Volume], former Grenada Attorney General Richard Hart wrote:

“…To what extent the American Central Intelligence Agency participated in the events leading up to the killing of Bishop is not yet clear. That `agents provocateurs’ were at work in Grenada is evident from the crowd of…placards. Some read `C is for Coard, Cuba, Communism.’ The involvement of the CIA in the removal of political leaders disliked by the U.S. government is too well established for the probability that its agents had a hand in the events leading to Bishop’s death to be discounted…”

On April 17, 1982 Grenadian revolutionary leader Bishop had noted that “we know that the CIA has direct access to over 200 newspapers” and “we also know that it puts out its Bi-Weekly Propaganda Guidance to radio stations right through our continent..” A month before the Pentagon’s October 1983 invasion of Grenada, Bishop also observed:

“In February this year…the Washington Post carried this long article disclosing a CIA plot against us under Carter and again under Reagan. It seems that Carter approved propaganda, Reagan approved economic aggressions, and on top of the propaganda also added what they called certain unusual and unspecified components. I assume it means assassinations, etc….” (Downtown 10/26/94)

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