ABSTRACT
The island of Grenada lies in the Caribbean about 100 miles north of the Venezuelan coast. In 1833, Grenada became a part of the British Windward Islands Administration and, in 1855, became its headquarters. On February 7, 1974, Grenada was granted its independence from Great Britain thereby becoming a state within the Commonwealth of Nations with a parliamentary form of government. In 1977, Eric M. Gairy invited the General Assembly of the Organization of American States to hold its meeting in Grenada, using the opportunity to obtain economic assistance for his island. Grenada achieved a budget surplus the first year after the revolution and the economy grew by two percent. Efforts to improve the standard of living began to pay off as unemployment and Illiteracy declined. Mass mobilization was used to encourage the people to increase their productivity and to raise their "social consciousness."
