Crisis In Haiti
24 Feb 2004 15:45 GMTIn the past week paramilitary groups in Haiti have continued to burn buildings and attack police stations, while the "opposition" continues to refuse negotiations and call for President Jean-Bertrand's Aristide's resignation, with the support of the US and Canadia n governments.
Meanwhile, the corporate media (and some "alternative media") have continues to ignore numerous aspects of the situation: US financial support of the opposition, previous US involvement in the region (including support of military dictators, the freezing of over $500 million in international aid and loans, and efforts to prevent the raising of the minimum wage). Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere, and has been used as a source of cheap labour by companies like Disney, Wal-Mart and KMart. Workers are paid as little as 11 cents per hour.
US and Canadian diplomats have placed the blame on Aristide, who has publically declared himself to be willing to negotiate with the opposition. The opposition consists of a collection of political parties supported by US funds, the Haitian media and the Haitian economic elite, whose popular support is estimated at between 8 and 12%.
Haiti has a long history of resistance:
The year 2004 marks 200 years of Haitian independence. In 1791, 400,000 Africans enslaved in Haiti rose up against French colonial rule. Jean-Jacques Dessalines declared Haiti a free nation in 1804, culminating the world's only successful revolution of enslaved people. From the beginning, Haiti found itself isolated and besieged. The United States led a worldwide boycott against Haiti and refused to recognize the new nation until 1864, fearing that its freedom would pose a danger to the U.S. system of slavery. In 1825, the Haitian people were forced to assume a debt to France of 90 million gold francs (equivalent to $21.7 billion today) as "reparations" to their former "owners", in return for diplomatic recognition and trade. To make the first payment, Haiti closed all its public schools in what has been called the hemisphere's first case of structural adjustment.IMC Coverage: [ Argentina ] [ Brasil ] [ Lille ] [Belgium ] [ FTAA IMC ]
This Past Week In Haiti:
Arrival of Louis-Jodel Chamblain on the scene.
Former leader of FRAPH [responsible for an estimated 5,000 civilian deaths in the early 1990's] described by former CIA employers as a"ruthless, coldblooded killer" . Chamblain fled Haiti to the Dominican Republic after he was sentenced to life imprisonment for his part in the Roboteau massacre of 1994, in which dozens were slaughtered. He returned to Haiti this week, well armed and equipped with SUVs, military fatigues, and a Spanish-speaking team of professional soldiers. Chamblain and his crew quickly began terrorizing Northen Haiti, and have joined the "Haitian National Liberation Front", led by Butter Metayer. This has largely been underreported, as the corporate media has instead focused on the arrival of...
Guy Phillipe:
He is a former soldier who was brought into the National Police after Aristide disbanded the Army in 1995, under a United Nations transition team. Phillipe was kicked out of the police force after it was alleged that he was dealing drugs and plotting a coup against Aristide; to avoid charges, he fled to the Dominican where, presumably, he met up with Chamblain.
International "high-level" delegation sent to mediate "political impasse" between Aristide and opposition:
Those making the trip included Roger Noriega, from the U.S. Department of State, Denis Corderre from Canada, and representatives from the OAS and CARICOM. According to the New York Times, "despite political arm-twisting...Noriega left Haiti without reaching a deal...[the] opposition refursed to budge, insisting that Mr. Aristide must resign immediately." The opposition has stated that it will announce its position on Monday, while President Aristide has repeated his commitment to the CARICOM proposal, which calls for the appointment of a new Prime Minister, new parliamentary elections, and the naming of a new cabinet, as well as the disbanding of gangs in support of Aristide.
The following continues to go unreported [or is otherwise distorted] by the corporate media. Primarily speaking [in Canada] this means the Associated Press, Reuters, and the Globe and Mail's Paul Knox, who is on the scene in Haiti:
Refusal of International Community to Condemn Involvement of Chamblain and Phillipe:
While official pronouncements by Colin Powell, the Departmemt of State, and Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs claim to be desiring a peaceful and democratic solution to the crisis, their ambivalence toward critical issues is contradictory. They know, for instance, that the opposition is tacitly supporting the rebels, lending them legitimacy. Reps. Maxine Waters and Barbara Lee [in addition to Congressional Black Caucas and Rev. Jesse Jackson] have released a number of press releases and direct appeals to Colin Powell and George Bush, demanding that this situation be dealt with. Waters specifically has questioned the involvement of Andre Apaid, Jr., who is commonly quoted by the corporate media, even though he is known to be a U.S. citizen and sweatshop owner who has no place fomenting an opposition to a democratically-elected leader.
Continued Silence on U.S. financial ties to Opposition:
Several independent sources, including the London-based Haiti Support Group, filmmaker and journalist Kevin Pina, Maxine Waters, Tom Reeves, and Kim Ives, have reported on U.S. efforts to "fund and organize an opposition to Aristide." According to Ives, between 1994 and 2002, $70 million has been funnelled from Washington to groups like the Democratic Convergence and Apaid's Group of 184. Specific agencies that are involved in funding the opposition are USAID, the International Republican Institute, and the National Endowment for Democracy. Also implicated is the Brookings Institution-connected Haiti Democracy Project, headed by James Morrell, formerly of the U.S. Department of State.
No Mention of Neoliberalism:
While this issue is at the heart of any realistic discussion regarding Haiti, given the overarching nature and extent of their current economic crisis, the corporate media does not include this vital context in its reports. While President Aristide has pursued many of the harsh structural adjustment programs as dictated to him by the World Bank and IMF, many feel that he has not pursued them vigorously enough. Amongst his most outspoken U.S. critics on this front is Roger Noriega, former chief of staff to Jesse Helms. Noriega has maintained Helms' policy of hatred toward left-leaning rulers, such as Aristide, Fidel Castro, and Hugo Chavez, and has pursued concomitant policies to undermine them. As Tom Reeves said in 2003, "A total or semi-total amnesia in regard to the historical role of U.S. foreign policy in creating Haiti's nightmare...only makes the situation more intractable."
Withheld Loans and Aid to Haiti:
This is another crucial contextual issue that is either not mentioned or improperly framed. Over $500 million in aid remains frozen by the U.S., dating back to 2000 and the disputed elections [see below]. An additional $140 million is still outstanding in World Bank loans. According to Michael Drohan, the Bush administration's policy has been designed to "make the population suffer by denying aid...pressuring agencies to deny loans, ensuring the collapse of infrastructure." Colin Powell was quoted in 2002 [Ives], stating, "We have to hold the Haitian government to the appropriate standards of democracy and representative government, and we have held up some of the aid trying to achieve that purpose."
Disputed 2000 elections, misleadingly framed:
It also continues to go without mention that Aristide did everything that was expected of him to make amends for the issues under dispute in the 2000 elections, according to international observers and the Council on Hemispheric Affairs. What has prevented elctions from moving forward is the oppositions persistent unwillingness to negotiate with Aristide. Many feel that this is due to the oppositions lack of popular support [calculated to be near a meagre 10 per cent], which would be revealed were they to agree to elections rather than demand Aristide's resignation.
Maquiladora-style "free trade zones" along Dominican-Haitian border:
This is an issue that has been developing for some time, under the direction of Dominican-based textile manufacturer 'Grupo M', the Dominican government, Haiti, and the U.S. Department of State. Having the lowest wages and most lax trade policies for foreign incestors in the hemisphere, Haiti is a prime target for Grupo M whose customers include American manufacturers, such as Tommy Hilfiger, Levi's, the Gap, Banana Republic, and Abercrombie and Fitch. Grupo M is desperate to expand into Haiti and exploit the numerous fiscal advantages, especially since the Dominican is at its limit in terms of export quotas to the U.S. "If the final stitching on Dominican Republic blue jeans and t-shirts is done across the border, the products can be labelled "Made in Haiti", and thus enter the U.S. under the unfulfilled Haiti quota."
'Other' Border Issues:
Humanitarian and aid groups are complaining that the closure of the Dominican border to delivery vehicles will cause starvation as crucial lines of access to Haiti are closed off. The justification offered for closing the border is to refuse Haitian rebels from entering the country. Humanitarian groups counter that the border, overall, is poorly defended and that if a rebel wished to enter the country there are numerous points along the border that one could do so. Keeping the border closed to the important delivery of crucial food and medical supplies will give rise to a humanitarian emergency.
Further reading:
Haiti: Five Facts and One Appeal
Support Democracy in Haiti, Jesse Jackson Says
Still Up Against the Death Plan in Haiti, Tom Reeves
U.S. policy toward Haiti promotes Economic Instability, Kim Ives
Another U.S. War - on the poor in Haiti, Michael Drohan
Farmers forced out as global brands build Haiti free-trade area, Jacqui Goddard
See also Kevin Pina's extensive work at Black Commentator, and the Council on Hemispheric Affairs at COHA.org.
Beloved Haiti: A (Counter) Revolutionary Bicentennial, by Stan Goff
When Major Powers Stage a Coup, by Randall Robinson
This is the next CIA coup
dsa 24.Feb.2004 20:53
We have been awaiting this: bush, reich and the rest of the evil devils have begun. Next will come Chavez, Castro, Lula and maybe Krschner (unless he backs down and hails the antichrist - Bush - as chief). This will come on the heads of all amerikans and we will seek responsability for generations to come!
what about Aristide's Human Rights record?
flatulentelm 25.Feb.2004 19:03
Question for those reading out there:
So I've gathered that much of the independent media have rallied around Aristide in much the same way they did around Chavez, following the 2002 Carmona coup attempt. What's been pointed out is media disinformation, which focuses on a "disputed" election which has since been resolved, and was largely a smokescreen drummed up by the political opposition groups who lost the election. Okay, I'm convinced. But there still seems to be a tendency to ignore the connection of the Aristide government to para-military death squads who reportedly (Globe and Mail, Toronto) carried out assassinations against opposition political figures.
Haiti's CIA/Vatican eugenic depop.tests: poisoned communion wafers/water
related 26.Feb.2004 02:09
Haiti's eugenic depopulation tests: poisoned communion wafers/water
http://newswire.indymedia.org/en/newswire/2004/02/800478.shtml
Cathy O'Brien 26 Feb 2004 01:35 GMT
1980s: CIA "Plague...sprinkled like rain; serve communion, let God sort it out."
1980S: U.S. CIA ATTEMPTS TO MINIMIZE TOURISM BEFORE TESTING ITS JESUIT CATHOLIC ADMINISTERED PLAGE OF TAINTED WAFEERS AND HOLY WATER: Haiti's US/Vatican eugenic depop. tests:
congrats you are in the "need to know" basis now. How do you like it?
Haiti and Class Struggle
Connie White and Lil Joe 07.Mar.2004 17:40
March 3, 2004
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/Americas/03/01/aristide.claim)
http://www.haiti.org/aristide-bio.htm)
http://www.nathanielturner.com/kerryunrestinhaiti.htm
http://www.nathanielturner.com/spinonhaiti.htm)
http://www.nathanielturner.com/aristidekidnapped.htm
Haiti and Class Struggle
by Connie White and Lil Joe
The masses of Haitian workers and peasants have not been duped. Certainly not the class conscious workers who are witnessing and analyzing what is being reported about Haiti in the media.
"Former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide said Monday he was forced to leave Haiti in a 'coup d'etat' by the United States. 'I was told that to avoid bloodshed I'd better leave,' he said in an interview on CNN. (March 1, 2004, CNN.com -
The Associated Press reports that Aristide complained of being forced to leave Haiti, and said that "[A]gents were telling me that if I don’t leave they would start shooting and killing in a matter of time." (Eliott C. McLaughlin, Associated Press, March 1, 2004)
A coup d'etat is indigenous to the country in which one faction of the State (its government) illegally and unconstitutionally displaces another -- be it a civilian coup d'etat backed by the military officer corps, or by the officer corps itself. In September 1991, there was a coup d'etat in Haiti -- Aristide, who was legally elected to manage the government of the Haitian State, was overthrown. The civilian government in Haiti was displaced by a junta government.
As in most coup d'etat's, following the coup d'etat in Haiti in 1991, the bureaucratic-military State structurally remained the same with the same civilian State bureaucracy and military officer corps.
Aristide's initial successes in early 1990 and Presidential campaign brought hope to workers and peasants in Haiti. For the first time, they openly entered into the political life of the country -- they started to participate in voting, workers' organizations and associations were organized. The consequence of those workers and peasants engaging in self-organization politicized them in their class interests. This self-organization of the Haitian working class is what frightened the Haitian bourgeoisie and U.S. imperialism, not Aristide the individual. The result was a coup d'etat months after Aristide's initial electoral victory.
"On September 30, 1991, when the Haitian military violently overthrew the democratic government. Aristide was forced into exile, and the military unleashed an unprecedented campaign of terror and violence taking the lives of more that 5000 Haitians over the next three years, hundreds of thousands were forced into hiding, and tens of thousands more fled their homeland by boat. (Haiti.org; Profile of H.E. Mr. Jean-Bertrand Aristide, President of the Republic of Haiti, at
It was not until the junta in Haiti had suppressed the workers and peasants that the Haitian bourgeoisie, and U.S. imperialism, sought to placate Haitian workers and peasants by returning Aristide to power -- three years after the coup d'etat. Even if Aristide wanted to undertake radical economic reform -- which should only mean factory expropriations by the working class, and land expropriations by the peasantry -- he would not have been able to achieve it because the workers' and peasants' organizations had been destroyed by the junta.
The junta became self-centered and refused to leave government. Subsequently, the Haitian bourgeoisie and transnational corporations -- represented by U.S. imperialism -- found it necessary to have the U.S. President Bill Clinton deploy American troops to Haiti to force the junta to stand down. Aristide was restored to the Presidency by a U.S. invasion. The Aristide government was now militarily and, thus, politically dependent upon U.S. imperialism.
The government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide was reinstated by U.S. troops in 1994 after the coup d'etat. Aristide disbanded the military, assumedly so they could not again accomplish a coup d'etat against him. His "special bodies of armed men" was concretized in the police force. It's interesting to note that recently, in the face of the rebelling Haitian population, the "special bodies of armed men," i.e., the police in Haiti "munitinied" -- this time they refused to kill the armed Haitian population.
We ask the question: what is the difference between the quisling government in, let's say, Iraq, and the quisling government in Haiti that was lead by Jean-Bertrand Aristide? The logic being presented today by the so-called "Left" regarding Jean-Bertrand Aristide is inconsistent -- to wit: when the U.S. installs someone it likes, that is good. But, when the U.S. installs someone it does not like, that is evil imperialism. The underlying premise in accepting Clinton's installation of Aristide is to support the U.S. political strategy of installing governments that are friendly to U.S. economic and/or political interests.
The statistics show that one percent of the Haitian population owns fifty-nine percent of Haiti's wealth. Transnational investors and financial lending institutions continue to parasitically prey on the Haitian workers and poor peasants. The impoverished Haitian workers and peasants were not better off with Aristide in power. The individual who is prime minister or president is just one man. On the other hand, the State is a bureaucratic-military machine, which is, for the most part, on autopilot. The bureaucratic-military state represents the class interests of the economically dominant class. The management strategy of the State relies on interconnecting individuals who follow orders by chain of command, and act on their own in the interest of the institution, and in the interest of the wealth it protects.
In January/February 2004, the Haitian people hit the streets in rebellion. Yes, we believe that the rebellion in Haiti is a mass rebellion. All the indicators seem to support such. For example, twenty or even one hundred so-called "rebels" could not capture and hold power in the two largest cities in Haiti -- Cap-Haitien and Port-au-Prince -- amid cheering crowds of the Haitian population in those cities without the popular support of the masses of Haitian people. This is notwithstanding the fact that Jean-Bertrand Aristide was once popularly elected.
Furthermore, what is very problematic is that the U.S. quisling, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, called on the Western imperialist troops (i.e., the U.S. military) to "save" him from his own people. Even though Aristide was "popularly" re-elected by those who voted -- the masses boycotted the election by not voting -- calling on the murderous U.S. military to come into Haiti to reinforce his political position is an aberration! The U.S. military has no interest in preserving life or observing so-called human rights in Haiti. They will come in to occupy, kill and destroy based on the interests of the U.S. government.
Objectively, as head of State in Haiti, enforcing laws that protect bourgeois wealth, Jean-Bertrand Aristide is in bed with the Haitian aristocracy of wealth. Together with the U.S. government, Aristide was politically protecting aristocratic wealth in Haiti, and protecting transnational capitalist class interests.
In requesting that the U.S. military "rescue" him politically and personally, Aristide should have known that the U.S. military does not care about loss of human life, but about U.S. political and economic interests in Haiti. The U.S. has had a bloody history of murder and occupation -- Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Vietnam, Korea, Serbia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and on. While the American "Left" shouts "Coup!" "Coup!," the "U.S. Marines have 'kidnapped' Aristide!," the Pentagon has deployed troops to Haiti to disarm the rebellious workers. Just as the U.S. bombed wedding parties in Afghanistan, and the Afghan and Iraqi children, women and men in Middle-Asia, they will bomb, kill with sanctions, and otherwise murder and destroy whenever it sees it as in its interests. The armed workers in Haiti are being isolated from the international working class by the Democratic Party and Western media "spin." Aristide, the individual, is being presented by this same Democratic Party and Western media as a "Catholic Christ," while the workers and peasants in Haiti that oppose Aristide are presented as "Judas."
In unison with the Democratic Party, the American "Left" is calling the worker insurrectionists in Haiti "thugs" who are liberating "hardened criminals" from jail. Furthermore and also in unison with the Democratic Party, the American "Left" supports the OAS or UN sending troops to suppress these Haitian "thugs." It appears that the American "Left" has been manipulated by the Democratic Party through its Congressional Black Caucus operatives, and the news media. Meanwhile, the thousands of workers and peasants in rebellion in the streets of Haiti are presented as "right wing thugs" and "agents of imperialism." Therefore, the international atmosphere has been created for accepting U.S. invasion and occupation of Haiti, as well as the U.S. military's use of repressive force to quell the armed uprising.
Meanwhile, the real "Judases" of the rebellion in Haiti are the so-called "leaders" who have been placed there by the Haitian and transnational bourgeoisie and/or their political and military operatives. Maybe they have been bought off by offers of money, property and/or political position in the next bourgeois government in Haiti. Of course, the lesson that the quisling Aristide has learned is that you remain in the quisling position as long as you can keep a lid on mass rebellion of the Haitian people. Otherwise, you are removed, and the Haitian people are subject to military occupation, attack and murder.
Nevertheless and notwithstanding the obvious rebellion of the Haitian impoverished working-class and peasantry, much of the international community -- and, surprisingly, the international "Left" -- are playing into and being manipulated by American election year politics, and blaming Bush foreign policy for abandoning Aristide. They parrot the American Democratic Party's position related to Haiti:
"HIGHLAND HILLS, Ohio, Feb. 24 — Senator John Kerry accused the Bush administration on Tuesday of helping foster the political instability in Haiti that has given rise to the armed rebellion threatening to overthrow the government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. ***** 'I think the administration has missed a lot of opportunities, in fact has exacerbated the situation over the last few years with its cutoff of humanitarian assistance and its attitude towards the Aristide administration,' Mr. Kerry said. 'So they sort of created the environment within which the insurgency could grow, take root. And now they're trying to manage it, I think.' ***** He also questioned whether the administration had been playing 'a duplicitous game': publicly encouraging Mr. Aristide but declining to assert itself in his behalf with the insurgents. ***** 'They hate Aristide,' Mr. Kerry said of administration officials at a morning meeting with editors and reporters of The New York Times, as he sought endorsements in New York's Democratic presidential primary next week. He then flew to Ohio, another Super Tuesday state, to campaign near Youngstown and in this Cleveland suburb. . . . (
"President George Bush's foreign policy team came into office intent on toppling Mr. Aristide, and their efforts were apparently consummated on Sunday. Mr. Aristide was long reviled by powerful US conservatives such as former senator Jesse Helms, who obsessively saw him as another Fidel Castro in the Caribbean. Such critics fulminated when President Bill Clinton restored Mr. Aristide to power in 1994, and they succeeded in forcing the withdrawal of US troops from Haiti soon afterwards, well before the situation in the country could be stabilised. In terms of help to rebuild Haiti, the US Marines left behind about 8 miles of paved roads in Port-au-Prince and essentially little else." (Financial Times, 29 February 2004, "Don't Fall for Washington's Spin on Haiti" by Jeffrey Sachs, posted to Chickenbones: A Literary Journal at
"It would now seem that the Bush Administration decided at some point to violate international law in the interest of known anti-democratic criminals and murders who have a long history of bloodshed against the Haitian People." (Source: Friends of Haiti) ("Aristide Kidnapped by US Marines, According to Maxine Waters and Randall Robinson, Chickenbones: A Literary Journal at
The Message from the Democrats and their "Left"-wing ideologues is clear: the Haitian workers' and peasants' revolt against "our man" Aristide is terrible. We placed him in power in 1994 backed by thousands of U.S. troops, and Bush's Republican policy has uprooted "our man," Aristide. The present mess in Haiti is the fault of Bush changing the Democratic Party's management policy in Haiti.
In reality, Haiti is being shaken by class war in the streets, and all the nations of Latin America are watching the deployment of American and French troops to Haiti. Politically and economically, Haiti is closely interconnected with France (EU) and the United States. The United States and the European Union (EU) are economic and political rivals. The U.S. is like the old bully on the global block who is being challenged by the new kid on the block, the EU.
But, among this backdrop of U.S./EU political rivalry, the international working class has been testing the waters. There have been numerous and continuing general strikes in France, Germany, Italy, and working class rebellions in Argentina, Venezuela, and now Haiti. The Argentine and Haitian workers observed the successful opening stages of international, armed peasant's uprisings in Chiapas, Zimbabwe and Bolivia. We posit that instinctively the Argentine and Haitian workers are now testing the waters of open class war. Argentina's historical, political and cultural ties are interlocked with Spain -- Haiti's with France.
The Great French bourgeois-democratic Revolution was known in Haiti. Amidst this conflict, the Haitian petty-bourgeoisie started an independence movement that was transformed by the entry of the Haitian slaves. Haiti's history is that of the only successful slave revolution.
With the backdrop of peasant uprisings and land seizures in Zimbabwe, and the workers' rebellion in Argentina, the Haitian workers took to the streets four weeks ago -- releasing prisoners, and driving away the police. The Haitian masses in the streets were freeing the captives and burning down police stations.
Furthermore, the historical and political backdrop of the Haitian rebellion in 2004 is one of a class struggle for social power in France and Germany -- the Socialist and Communist parties in power betrayed the working classes of France and Germany, and those working classes have responded with numerous general strikes. The lesson to which the Haitian rebellion is heir: winning the battle of democracy is only a reality when the national wealth is transferred from capitalist private property to the trade unions to be managed by the working class.
The workers in revolt in the cities of Haiti can only be a rebellion suppressed, unless the French, German, and Italian workers support the Haitian rebellion with strikes -- like the French did in May and June 1968 in solidarity with the Vietnamese workers and peasants.
In America, there are class-conscious workers who think for themselves, and know exactly what is going on in Haiti. Just like the class-conscious workers in France and Canada, there are rising numbers of workers in the United States who recognize the rebellious workers in the streets of Haiti who are chasing police from cities, setting the captive free from prison, and declaring an acceptable day for cosmopolitan proletarian revolution!
Every worker revolt that originates in solidarity with workers internationally is a political struggle for workers' power everywhere.
The revolutionary working class does not stop at "state power," but recognizes the need to secure ownership of the means of social production. So long as the capitalist class remains the monopoly owner of the means of social production and finance, any political party that manages government will only be the executive of national bourgeois wealth.
The workers have to take the productive forces or else time and again be manipulated by capitalists and labor bureaucrats.
Today, the workers' rebellion in Haiti has the potential of becoming a proletarian revolution IF, for example, the French students and workers strike in solidarity with the Haitian workers in rebellion -- the way they did in May/June 1968 in solidarity with the workers and peasants in Vietnam. This time around, when the workers occupy factories and work site locations in France, the French working classes should refuse co-optation and manipulation by labor bureaucrats in the Socialist, Communist, or Green parties.
In order to bring workers' general strikes or rebellions, or peasant uprisings, to a revolutionary conclusion, we must capture ownership of the productive forces to be managed by the working class.
. . . la lucha continua.
[Connie White and Lil Joe are working class revolutionary theorists whose focus and organizing efforts have been centered on building a labor party in the United States. Both Connie and Lil Joe have been long-time political theorists and activists in the United States, as well as internationally. Their interests are focused on working class politics, and working class ownership of the productive forces.]