[News] Stand with Haiti! A Call for Solidarity

[Anti-Imperialist News]

https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/04/13/stand-with-haiti-a-call-for-solidarity/ 
<https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/04/13/stand-with-haiti-a-call-for-solidarity/> 



  Stand with Haiti! A Call for Solidarity

by Haiti Action Committee 
<https://www.counterpunch.org/author/haiti-action-committee/> - April 
13, 2021
------------------------------------------------------------------------

This statement, written by Haiti Action Committee and signed by over 60 
organizations, commemorates the 10th anniversary of the return to Haiti 
of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and First Lady Mildred 
Aristide. It calls for support of the resistance by the Haitian people 
to the US-backed dictatorship of Jovenel Moise, and provides concrete 
ways for progressive-minded people to take action in solidarity with Haiti.

Ten years ago on March 18, 2011, former president Jean-Bertrand 
Aristide, his wife and colleague, Mildred Trouillot Aristide, and their 
two children, returned from forced exile in South Africa. Tens of 
thousands of people lined the streets of Port-au-Prince and poured into 
the courtyard of their home to greet them, seeing in their return a 
renewal of hope for a democratic and just Haiti.

In honor of that day and to demonstrate our resolve to support the 
people’s movement in Haiti, we the undersigned organizations join with 
Haiti Action Committee to call for a /Day of Solidarity With Haiti/ on 
March 18, 2021.

Over the last month, hundreds of thousands of Haitians have put their 
lives on the line to demand an end to the dictatorship of Jovenel Moise. 
The demonstrations have involved the breadth of Haitian society, from 
residents of the poorest neighborhoods to students, women’s 
organizations, nurses, doctors and lawyers — all of whom have 
experienced the terror unleashed by the Moise regime.  The popular 
movement in Haiti is calling for a transition government, a government 
of public safety (/Sali Piblik/) that promotes the security and welfare 
of the Haitian people, that ends the repression against popular 
organizations, and that moves the country peacefully towards genuine 
free and fair elections.

Moise and his right-wing PHTK party have been ruling by decree for over 
a year, and are pushing to enact illegitimate constitutional reforms 
that would give him even more authority. Even though his official term 
of office ended on February 7th, he has announced his intention to 
remain in power for one more year.

The Moise regime represents a continuation of the U.S.-orchestrated 2004 
/coup/ that ousted the government of President Aristide, Haiti’s first 
democratically elected president.   The /coup/ aimed at restoring the 
power of the tiny Haitian elite that was threatened by Aristide’s 
progressive policies and his attempt to bring about a new Haiti — one 
in which the majority would rise from “misery to poverty with 
dignity,” and in which the phrase “/Tout Moun Se Moun/” (Every 
person is a human being) would become a reality.

 From the very beginning, the Moise regime has been illegitimate. He 
first came to power through a U.S.-U.N. organized fraudulent election 
that was annulled only after widespread protests. The next round was 
also replete with fraud and voter suppression and was denounced widely 
in Haiti as an “electoral coup.” In protest, Haitians staged over 60 
straight days of� massive demonstrations and mounted legal challenges 
that were cut short by occupation authorities. In the end, the U.S., 
U.N. and the OAS imposed Moise as president, leading to the crisis in 
Haiti today.

In November, 2018, as Moise consolidated his power, Fanmi Lavalas 
Political Organization, the party founded by Aristide that has long 
represented the interests of Haiti’s poor majority, issued a statement 
titled /Crisis And Resolution/, demanding an end to the dictatorship. It 
read, in part:

“The population is rejecting the usurpers who have derived their power 
from the fraudulent elections and who have discredited themselves with 
multiple scandals involving corruption and impunity. Our people are 
facing savage repression that continues to create victims among the 
disadvantaged masses, and that is heightening the insecurity that is 
poisoning daily life for the majority. Fanmi Lavalas Political 
Organization continues to stand firmly with the Haitian people to 
“/chavire chodyè a/” (overturn the cauldron). No cosmetic solution 
will bring an effective and lasting solution to the crisis in which we 
are plunged. This system has run its course. It cannot be patched up. It 
must be changed.”

These words ring even more true today. Moise’s rule reminds Haitians 
of the terrible days of the Duvalier dictatorships. It has been marred 
by repeated acts of blatant corruption and repression. Billions of 
dollars in funds designated for social programs and infrastructure 
development, provided through Venezuela’s Petrocaribe program, instead 
went into the pockets of government officials. U.S. and U.N.-trained 
Haitian police and affiliated gangs or death squads have carried out 
massacres in one opposition neighborhood after another, with the backing 
of high government officials.

Community residents protesting the lack of basic services have seen 
their homes burned to the ground, as happened in the Port-au-Prince 
neighborhoods of Lasalin, Tokyo, Site Vensan, and Bele among others. 
Kidnappings and gang rapes have become the order of the day, as 
government-affiliated gangs prey on the population. No one is safe, 
including street vendors and market women with little to no funds.

While the country descends into state-sponsored terror, impunity remains 
the order of the day. Well-known perpetrators with arrest warrants such 
as G-9 death squad leader Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier, wanted in 
connection with the massacre at� Lasalin 
<https://haitisolidarity.net/in-the-news/human-rights-report-on-the-lasalin-massacre/> in 
2018, go about freely and even receive police protection. In a 
disgraceful statement, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on 
October 20, 2020 credited the G-9 with reducing homicides — while the 
G-9 was murdering residents of Bele and burning their homes — thus 
giving a U.N. seal of approval to these crimes.

Without the support of the U.N., U.S., E.U. and the OAS — the 
so-called Core Group that exercises control over Haiti — the Moise 
government would fall. That is why the first action of the Biden 
Administration in relation to Haiti was so appalling. State Department 
spokesperson Ned Price announced in February that the U.S. government 
would support Moise remaining in power until February 7th, 2022, giving 
Moise another year to attempt to dismantle all opposition.  Millions of 
US dollars have already been provided to the Moise dictatorship to fund 
his murderous security forces as he ratchets up repression in his 
efforts to keep his PHTK party in power.

As Haitians rise up once again to demand democratic governance, security 
and economic and social justice, we echo their call.

*Please continue emails, tweets and phone calls to U.S. representatives, 
demanding:*

*1. End U.S. recognition and support for the dictatorship of Jovenel 
Moise� *

*2. End U.S. funding of the criminal Haitian police and security forces*

*3. End the U.N./U.S. occupation of Haiti*

*4. Support the Haitian people’s movement for democracy and 
self-determination*

*Direct these demands to the following officials and to your 
Congressional Representative and Senators:*

*US Representative Gregory W. Meeks, Senior Member, House Foreign 
Relations Committee: tweet @RepGregoryMeeks; ph: 202-225-3461
;*

*Secretary of State Antony Blinken: tweet @SecBlinken; ph: 202-647-4000; 
email **https://register.state.gov/contactus/contactusform* 
<https://register.state.gov/contactus/contactusform>*;� *

*President Joseph Biden: tweet at POTUS; email 
**https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact* <https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact>

*#SolidaritywithHaiti #StandwithHaiti #SupportdemocracyinHaiti 
#humanrights #Blacklivesmatter #Haitianlivesmatter #Aristide #Lavalas 
#stopmassacresinHaiti #USstopfundingdictatorshipinHaiti 
#USstopfundingpoliceterrorinHaiti 
#US/UN/CoreGroupStopSupportingDictatorshipinHaiti 
#US/UN/CoreGroupOutofHaiti!*

*For more information, please contact: Haiti Action Committee at 
**www.haitisolidarity.net* <http://www.haitisolidarity.net/>

Initiated by Haiti Action Committee

Signed:

Advancing the Research

AFRICANS DESERVE REPARATIONS NOW!

Afrikan Children’s Advanced Learning Center

All-African People’s Revolutionary Party

ANSWER-Act Now to Stop War & End Racism-Bay Area

Arab Resource and Organizing Center

Avotcja & Modúpue

BAYAN-USA

Bay Area Alliance for a Sustainable Puerto Rico

Bay Area CISPES

Bay Area Youth Arts

Black Alliance for Peace – Bay Area

Caminante Cultural Foundation

Center for Political Education

Chiapas Support Committee (Los Angeles – College Students)

Chiapas Support Committee Oakland

Code Pink

Comité en Pro del Pueblo de Chiapas

Communist Workers League

Cuba and Venezuela Solidarity Committee

Destiny Muhammad Project

EastSide Arts Alliance Collective

East Bay Sanctuary Covenant

Ecumenical Peace Institute/Clergy and Laity Concerned

End Solitary Santa Cruz County [California, USA]

Four Nations Solidarity Coalition

Freedom Archives

GABRIELA USA

Global Exchange

Global Women’s Strike

Haiti Emergency Relief Fund

Hastings-to-Haiti Partnership

Human Agenda

International Action Center

International Committee of the National Lawyers Guild

International Committee for Peace, Justice and Dignity

International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network

John George Democratic Club

Justice Vanguard

Kemet Foundation

Malcolm X Grassroots Movement

Marcus BookStores

National Boricua Human Rights Network

National Lawyers Guild

National Lawyers Guild – SF Bay Area

New Afrikan People’s Organization

Nicaragua Center for Community Action

Pan-African Peoples’ Organization

Pax Christi Northern California

Peninsula Peace and Justice Center

People’s Alliance

PEOPLE’S EYE PHOTOGRAPHY

Phavia Kujichagulia N Maat

The Puerto Rican Cultural Center

San Francisco Bayview National Black Newspaper

San Jose Peace and Justice Center

Sisters of St. Francis, Alameda, CA

Students for Haiti Solidarity

Task Force on the Americas

Trinity Fellowship of Berkeley

Venceremos Brigade – Bay Area

Veterans for Peace Chapter 69 – San Francisco

Western States Legal Foundation

Women of Color in the Global Women’s Strike

Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom US

Workers World Party

#SolidaritywithHaiti #StandwithHaiti #SupportdemocracyinHaiti 
#humanrights #Blacklivesmatter #Haitianlivesmatter #Aristide #Lavalas 
#stopmassacresinHaiti #USstopfundingdictatorshipinHaiti 
#USstopfundingpoliceterrorinHaiti 
#US/UN/CoreGroupStopSupportingDictatorshipinHaiti 
#US/UN/CoreGroupOutofHaiti!

-- 
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