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NYC Forum Reports on ‘Haiti After
Aristide’
by Marty Goodman / June 2005 issue of Socialist Action
NEW YORK—On May 21, the Grassroots Haiti Solidarity Committee (GHSC)
sponsored a forum on the crisis in Haiti, co-sponsored by the Batay Ouvriye
Solidarity Network, the Haitian Information Center, the Nicaragua
Solidarity Network, N.Y. CISPES, Socialist Action, and the Brooklyn
Greens.
The forum was a departure from the middle-class politics of supporters
of ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, an elected leader who
once
described himself as a socialist.
Aristide was ousted in February 2004 by U.S.-backed right-wing forces
and a U.S.-led UN military occupation. Aristide, now in exile, had in fact
called for the U.S./UN intervention and the 1994 U.S./UN occupation as
well.
During his presidency Aristide pursued a World Bank economic policy,
which included agreements to operate “free-trade zone” sweatshops (see
April 2005 Socialist Action). Aristide also renewed agreements
permitting slave labor in the DR, often refusing to protest abuses.
Within Haiti, the left opposed Aristide, except for forces in
support of the Brooklyn-based Haiti Progres newspaper. In the U.S.,
Aristide supporters include the non-profit Pacifica Radio, Workers World
Party, and members of the Congressional Black Caucus of the Democratic
Party.
The meeting began with the reading of a statement in response to
slanders directed at the GHSC by Aristide supporters: “We denounce and
oppose the imperialist intervention involved in the ouster of the Lavalas [Aristide’s
movement] government [and] the incursion of the so-called rebel troops from
the DR and the overt support that the U.S. government gave to the
right-wing groups such as the ‘the Democratic Convergence.’ We
denounce and oppose the current government in Haiti and the current
UN-mandated
multi-national occupation.
“From 1994 to 2004 the Lavalas established a long record of implementing
various aspects of the imperialist neo-liberal agenda in Haiti. They
maintained the lowest minimum wage in the Western Hemisphere,
repressed labor organizing and workers’ rights complaints by jailing,
beating and burning down houses, granting complete impunity to factory
owners and agro-landlords who systematically violate workers rights.
“In the spring of 2004 the Aristide [regime] was besieged both by
popular mobilizations and also reactionary forces, particularly through the
armed
insurgence of the so-called rebels, former members of the Haitian
army invading from the DR. Because these mobilizations were largely
spontaneous they were at times co-opted by right-wing forces.
“Why should the people’s camp be asked to bring back a corrupt and
repressive government which the people’s camp was mobilized to overthrow?”
The forum’s first speaker was Sandra Quintela, a Brazilian activist
who was a member of the International Fact Finding and Solidarity Mission (headed
by Nobel Peace Laureate Adolfo Perez Esquivel), which visited Haiti in
April. She is also a member of the Brazilian Campaign Against the Debt, the
FTAA and Militarization and of Jubilee South.
Quintela referred to the fact that some 1200 Brazilian troops are
now heading the U.S./UN occupation in Haiti, after the withdrawal of most
U.S. forces. A
week before the forum Brazilian troops shot, for the first time, a
demonstrator protesting rising gasoline prices and poverty in the country.
The troops were
sent by the government of the Brazilian Workers Party, headed by
President “Lula” da Silva, in an act of betrayal of working-class
solidarity.
Quintela reported that the intervention was protested by left
organizations in Brazil, but some “left” deputies voted for it.
During her stay in Haiti, Quintela said, “We met with the [puppet
Haitian] president and 60 organizations.
The perspective of the people in the non-governmental agencies, the
schools, in the hospitals, and in the streets was that they were absolutely
opposed to the military occupation, which increased the violence in the
country.”
Most intervention officials showed their contempt for Haitians, said
Quintela: “We asked the president of the Organization of American States
about sexual abuse by international troops against the Haitian population.
He replied, ‘If this happens every day amongst Haitians then what’s the big
deal?’”
On the economy, said Quintela, “There is this ‘Interim Cooperation
Framework’ (CCI) economic plan for Haiti made in DC. Sixty-eight percent of
Haitians are living in the rural areas, and agriculture is not even mentioned
by the CCI. The CCI is seen by the people as a way to impose a neoliberal
policy.
“The exact economic plan that the Aristide government was imposing
is the same plan that is being taken up by the government now. The one
billion dollars that was to go to reconstructing Haiti—as of April, Haiti hasn’t
seen a cent of it.”
A written report and a video documentary of the Fact Finding mission
will soon be available. Contact the GHSC at (718) 284-0889 for details.
The second speaker was Paul Philome, a representative of Batay
Ouvriye (Worker’s Fight), a respected organization of labor organizers,
particularly of
sweatshop workers in Haiti (www.batayouvriye.org).
Said Philome, “In 2004, Haiti
celebrated 200 years of independence. 200 years after independence Haiti is
under occupation. This is a very cruel reality.”
Philome then traced the evolution of Haiti’s ruling class. Philome
catagorized the recent Lavalas regime as a corrupt government of the
“petite bourgeoisie,”
i.e., small businessmen and professionals—with a large base amongst
the urban unemployed, often organized in street gangs. The U.S.
imperialists, said Philome, recognized the government’s inability to
efficiently organize an economy geared to the corporate World Bank agenda
and replaced it with a more capable—but no less corrupt—regime of
exploiters.
Philome also described the destruction of Haiti’s important sugar
and coffee export industry by U.S. corporations in the 1990s. This drove
masses of
peasants out of rural areas into overcrowded urban centers seeking
jobs, where long-term unemployment is about 80 percent.
Haiti’s main asset for multi-national corporations is the lowest
wage in the Western Hemisphere. Philome spoke of a recent “trade fair” in
Indianapolis in
which Haiti’s wage was promoted as being only $1.62 per day!
The recent protest against the hike in gas prices and the shooting
was the first sign of “a new polarization based on class,” not one
individual politician, said
Philome.
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