[News] Haiti Rises - A Time for Solidarity

[Anti-Imperialist News]

*Haiti Rises**- A Time for Solidarity* **

by Nia Imara and Robert Roth*

“*/Reflecting on struggles everywhere, we came to the conclusion that a 
people can’t be sovereign if they don’t have the right to vote. No 
people can retain their dignity if their vote does not count/*.”

/From a Statement/ 
<http://www.haitisolidarity.net/downloads/Statement%20from%20Haitian%20popular%20movement.pdf>/Issued 
by 68 Haitian Grassroots Organizations on January 22, 2016/

The voice of Haiti’s popular movement at this critical period in the 
country’s history has never been clearer.  For the past several months, 
since the discredited legislative and presidential elections of last 
August and October, mass, vibrant protests for the right to a free and 
fair vote and against foreign intervention have been a relentless force, 
in the face of heavily-armed and well-financed adversaries and mounting 
repression.  The influx of articles and editorials in recent weeks by 
leading U.S. media outlets depicts the situation in Haiti as a confused, 
incomprehensible, morass of violence and dysfunction, with all sides 
being equally unreasonable in their demands.  This misleading portrayal 
of Haitian politics and culture—indeed, of Haitian people—by American 
mainstream media is not new. Rather, it is a continuation of a 
historical pattern of obfuscating the underlying reasons for the 
grievances of Haiti’s mass movement, which has consistently denounced 
foreign intervention and the suppression of Haiti’s sovereignty.

The popular revolt in Haiti has forced the postponement of the January 
24 presidential run-off election, to the dismay of the U.S. State 
Department and the current Haitian government of Michel Martelly, whose 
handpicked candidate had been declared the frontrunner.  And now, on 
February 7, it has forced the end of the rule of Martelly himself, who 
has had to step down rather than oversee the next stage of the electoral 
process.

These are major victories for the people’s movement in Haiti. But 
already there are signs that the next round will be just as difficult as 
the fight has been already.  The popular movement has made it clear that 
they have no interest in a top-down solution that excludes the 
participation and voices of the tens of thousands of Haitians who have 
risked their lives nearly every day in the fight for democracy. They 
have raised the fundamental question: How can elections proceed to a 
second round if the first round was hopelessly illegitimate 
<https://www.nlg.org/news/releases/nlg-and-iadl-election-observers-establish-flaws-haitis-october-25-vote-call>? 
How can elections move forward without a thorough investigation and 
repair of the fraud that already took place?  These are the critical 
issues being fought over today as Haitians celebrate the end of the 
Martelly dictatorship.

*Background to the Revolt: *

*Twelve Years Since the Coup, Twelve Years of Occupation*

The revolt in Haiti has not emerged overnight. It is now almost twelve 
years since the U.S.-orchestrated coup that overthrew the democratically 
elected government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and removed over 
8,000 elected officials, and exiled, jailed, raped and murdered 
thousands of supporters of the /Fanmi Lavalas/Party.  The coup was 
enforced by a United Nations military occupation that still exists 
today.  It has been five years since Michel Martelly, a supporter of the 
brutal Duvalier dictatorships and their death squads, was selected as 
president; only 17% of eligible Haitian voters turned out in an election 
that excluded the most popular political party, /Fanmi Lavalas/. Hillary 
Clinton, then the U.S. Secretary of State, flew to Haiti to dictate to 
Haitian officials 
<http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-us-haiti-story.html>that 
Martelly be placed in the election runoff after initial results had left 
him only in third place. His U.S.-backed reign has featured one 
corruption scandal after another, intimidation of the judicial system, 
the return of death squads, torture of political prisoners, selling off 
of oil and mineral rights to foreign corporations, and rule by decree.

Haitians have had enough of this.  As they watched this latest election 
being stolen and a Martelly minion emerge as the leading vote getter, 
they took to the streets by the tens of thousands. As they saw ballot 
boxes burned and “observers” with 900,000 government-issued credentials 
vote over and over again, they declared the election an “electoral 
coup.” As they were turned away from one polling place after another, 
and told that they were not eligible to vote, they declared fraud.

While they joined the demonstrators in the streets, /Fanmi Lavalas/and 
its presidential candidate, Dr. Maryse Narcisse also filed a petition 
with the National Office of Electoral Litigation to challenge the 
results. All major opposition condemned the fraudulent elections and 
announced a boycott of the scheduled presidential run-off on January 
24.  As the demonstrations grew in size and scope, the Haitian 
government responded with increasing violence.  Police fired into 
peaceful protests, and beat and tear-gassed those in the streets.  Much 
of this has been met with silence by the international media.

When it comes to Haiti, the United States’ homegrown illness—racism—is 
cast outward.  Just as the voting rights of Black people have been 
abused throughout American history, the US Government, through financial 
and diplomatic coercion, abuses the voting rights of Haitians 
<http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2016/1/for-us-in-haiti-black-votes-dont-matter.html>.  
Just as the basic human rights of Black people—decent education, 
housing, healthcare, physical safety—are regularly undermined here, the 
US Government has directly and indirectly made efforts to extinguish 
fundamental civil and human rights in Haiti.  Just as the State of 
Michigan forced the majority Black population of Flint to drink 
contaminated water while the EPA did nothing, so did United Nations 
troops dump their excrement into Haiti’s water supply with impunity, 
bringing cholera to the country with no reparations.  The U.S. 
Government—from the Bush Administrations, to the Clinton and Obama 
Administrations—have routinely demonstrated, as a matter of policy, that 
Black lives matter in Haiti as little as they do in America.

*The State Department: Talking Democracy, Promoting Fraud*

The U.S. role throughout the electoral crisis is as predictable as it 
was after the 2010 earthquake, when the State Department sent then 
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to handpick a well-known misogynist 
and supporter of the Duvalier dictatorship, Michel Martelly, for 
president.  With one hand, the U.S. State Department denounces 
<http://www.reuters.com/article/us-haiti-election-usa-idUSKCN0V20XP>the 
“violence” surrounding the elections, while the other hand has never 
ceased stoking the fires of electoral fraud and corruption.  With one 
face, the US State Department encourages fair, free elections and 
discourages voter intimidation; with the other, it upholds electoral 
fraud and threatens the leadership of Haiti’s most popular movement.

The U.S. State Department has been the chief promoter of both the 
Martelly government and the fraudulent elections that Haitians have 
called an “electoral coup.”  It has maintained its pro-Martelly stance 
despite the reports of independent human rights investigators that 
Martelly’s PHTK Party intimidated voters, stole ballots, burned ballot 
boxes and attempted to terrorize voters and suppress voter turnout in 
both the August 9 and October 25 legislative and presidential elections.

Now that the popular movement has finally brought these fraudulent 
elections to a temporary halt, the State Department has made its 
displeasure even more clear. On January 24, it issued a warning to 
demonstrators in Haiti against “electoral intimidation, destruction of 
property, and violence,” saying this runs “counter to Haiti’s democratic 
principles.”  This is the same racist and paternalistic tone it has 
always used in Haiti—from the time of Haiti’s Revolution, to the U.S. 
invasion and occupation of Haiti from 1915-1934, to the two coups that 
overthrew the democratically elected Aristide administrations in 1991 
and 2004. This from the same State Department that was silent when 
peaceful protesters were killed, tear-gassed, beaten or arrested, or 
when Martelly’s agents terrorized voters and burned down polling places.

*Hidden From The Headlines: /Fanmi Lavalas/and Dr. Maryse Narcisse*

In addition, there has been near-silence about the remarkable campaign 
run by /Fanmi Lavalas/and its presidential candidate, Dr. Maryse 
Narcisse. A medical doctor and long-time /Lavalas/militant, Dr. Narcisse 
helped establish health clinics in rural communities. At the time of the 
1991 coup, like many Aristide supporters, she went into the streets to 
protest the military and was briefly forced into hiding. When President 
Aristide was reelected in 2000, she joined his administration.  Exiled 
after the 2004 coup, she returned in 2006 to help rebuild /Lavalas/and 
continues to serve as Aristide’s spokesperson.  Day after day throughout 
this campaign, she has been in the streets with the people. Her campaign 
has emphasized “dignity”—that the Haitian people cannot be bought or 
sold, that, as President Aristide has said, “If we don’t protect our 
dignity, our dignity will escape us.”

The progressive achievements and agenda of /Lavalas/—setting up health 
clinics in poor urban and rural communities, advancing the fight against 
HIV/AIDS, promoting equality for women, literacy education for all 
Haitians, living wage employment, taxing the rich, and abolishing the 
Haitian Army—have made it the party of the poor majority in Haiti.  The 
organized collective of dozens of grassroots organizations that compose 
/Fanmi Lavalas/make it much different from the elite political parties 
we are familiar with in the U.S. /Fanmi Lavalas/grew out of a nationwide 
mass movement to force out the American-backed dictator, Jean Claude 
“Baby Doc” Duvalier, and to instill truly participatory democracy after 
years of rule by the elite and foreign intervention.  In 1986, after 
decades of sacrifice and struggle against repressive regimes, Haitians 
succeeded in forcing out Duvalier and bringing about the nation’s first 
democratic elections. It was a hard-fought, hard-won victory when the 
great majority voted into presidential office Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 
1990.

Since then, the US organized two coup d’états against the Aristide 
administration, which again received an overwhelming mandate in 2000. 
  Following each coup—in 1991 and 2004—the US Government helped to 
install a military occupation to suppress resistance, namely, 
/Lavalas/.  In 1991, the US lent its support to paramilitary groups, 
many of whom were part of the Duvalier military—since disbanded by 
/Lavalas/—and the Haitian police.  In 2004, the US, with the support of 
France and Canada, threw its full weight behind the United Nations, 
which, in Haiti, is an occupying force, not a peacekeeping mission. Over 
the last 12 years, that occupation, known as MINUSTAH, has overseen the 
attempt to destroy Haiti’s popular movement.

Lavalas still has a target on its back. In an article published by 
Reuters 
<http://www.reuters.com/article/us-haiti-election-aristide-idUSKCN0V42TV>on 
January 26, 2016 an unnamed Congressional source told the news agency 
that, “The Obama Administration would be worried if he [Aristide] were 
playing an important role. They’re not thrilled with Aristide’s forces 
coming back.”  This should be no surprise, given the leading role 
Lavalas has played in the democratic movement. After all, in 2011, it 
was President Obama who made a phone call 
<http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/mar/17/jean-bertrand-aristide-haiti-return>to 
South African President Jacob Zuma, warning him not to allow President 
Aristide and his family to board a South African plane and come back to 
Haiti. When Aristide returned, he was greeted by thousands of people at 
the airport and then at his home.  Once again, Haitians—and in this case 
the people of South Africa—did not obey.

*What Next? A Time For Solidarity*

During this campaign, Dr. Narcisse emerged as a formidable candidate.  
If there is a full investigation of the last bogus election, as 
/Lavalas/and grassroots organizations are demanding, the abundance of 
popular support for Dr. Narcisse is certain to manifest in the ballot 
box.  If she ends up winning, she would be the first elected woman 
president in Haiti’s history.

That will only be possible if a transparent and credible process takes 
place over these next months.  The “electoral coup,” after all, stole 
votes from candidates who represented popular organizations and parties. 
Any new election that repeats this process will be a new form of theft. 
With U.S. officials already decrying the “violence” of demonstrators and 
warning against new protests, and reports circulating of “solutions” 
that leave out the representatives of the very grassroots organizations 
and parties that have been at the forefront of the fight for free and 
fair elections, this is a moment for vigilance in Haiti.  In their 
recent statement, 68 grassroots organizations in Haiti state their 
position very clearly:

*“*/We say NO, WE WILL NOT OBEY ILLEGITIMATE OFFICIALS. Self-defense is 
a legitimate universal law. Civil-Disobedience is an accepted universal 
right when a people confronts an illegal regime. The right to elect a 
government is universally accepted as a way for people to protect its 
existence. Today, confronted by the danger presented by local and 
international colonialists, the Haitian people have started a RESISTANCE 
FOR EXISTENCE movement. They ask for people to people solidarity from 
everywhere on the planet.”/


*We should heed their call*.

*Nia Imara is a member of Haiti Action Committee, a San Francisco Bay 
Area based organization.  Robert Roth is a co-founder of the Haiti 
Action Committee, and teaches high school in San Francisco.

Haiti Action Committee on FACEBOOK and @HaitiAction1
The website of HAC is www.haitisolidarity.net 
<http://www.haitisolidarity.net/>


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