[News] For Biden Administration, Black Lives Don't Matter in Haiti!
Anti-Imperialist News
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Sat Feb 13 13:39:47 EST 2021
https://blackallianceforpeace.com/bapstatements/bidendoesntcareabouthaiti
<https://blackallianceforpeace.com/bapstatements/bidendoesntcareabouthaiti>
For Biden Administration, Black Lives Don't Matter in Haiti!
February 12, 2021
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The people of Haiti have been demanding freedom from the succession of
U.S.-imposed dictators for decades. One such dictator, Jovenel Moïse,
refused to leave office February 7, which marked the end of his term
four years after an illegal election. This move catapulted yet another
intense episode in the historic struggle of the Haitian masses against
colonial intervention. Tens of thousands of Haitians went to the streets
demanding democracy and an end to dictatorship. And what was the
response from the U.S. puppet regime? Bullets, paramilitary terror,
curfews, house raids, beatings and the imprisonment of opposition leaders.
With the election of U.S. President Joe Biden, folks believed this
so-called “champion” of fair elections and the rule of law—who had
expressed a commitment that “Black Lives Matter”—would rally to the side
of Haitians and end U.S. support for the dictatorship.
But that did not happen.
When Moïse announced he would stay in office past February 7, and
continue to rule by decree, the Biden administration signaled it
supported that decision. Moïse’s rule by decree was made possible
because elections were postponed in 2019, which allowed the mandates of
most of the representatives to the National Assembly—Haiti’s
parliament—to expire.
It did not matter that Moïse ruled by decree, that he violated the
rights of his people and that the majority of the people wanted him
gone. What mattered to the Biden administration was the purpose Moïse
served in U.S. plans for the Caribbean and Latin American region.
In other words, the people must be sacrificed for the larger interests
of the U.S. imperial project. These interests that could not be bothered
with the trifle concerns about democracy, legitimacy or the rights of
the people. Those rhetorical terms are only evoked as expressions of the
United States’ so-called “values” when directed at an adversary like
Russia, Venezuela, China or any other country the United States is
actively attempting to destabilize. But those values cannot be allowed
to complicate U.S. interests in Haiti or even in the occupied Black and
Brown communities within the United States.
We ask Joe Biden and his supporters, who claim Biden cares about
African/Black people: Why does it seem like the lives of African/Black
people in Haiti do not matter? Is it that Black lives only matter when
they are supporting U.S. and European colonial white power?
In the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP), we know the answer to that
rhetorical question. Both parties and the U.S. state have demonstrated
the lives of non-Europeans mean extraordinarily little. And the values
that the United States and Western Europeans pretend to uphold—like
democracy and human rights—are dead letters when it comes to the
fundamental human rights of the peoples of the global South.
The United States and the United Nations armed and trained Haitian
police. Moïse has the full support of these armed paramilitary forces,
who are committed to upholding the rule of the Haitian ruling class that
serves international capital. That is why the Biden administration
supports Moïse. Therefore, Moïse has no legitimacy.
Haiti emerged as a free society in the greatest revolution in human
history in 1804, when the people of Haiti established the first Black
Republic after fighting and defeating first the Spanish and then the
French, at the time the greatest military power on the planet. Since
then, the West has tried to destroy Haiti.
Invasions, occupations, death squads, economic plunder, attacks on their
culture, political isolation and U.S.-backed dictatorships have exacted
a severe price on the people of Haiti. Yet, they have never surrendered.
That spirit of resistance is on display today in the streets of Haiti.
We, in the Black Alliance for Peace, will continue to support those
efforts by organizing actions throughout the United States in solidarity
with the Haitian people.
We are not confused. There is nothing exceptional about the United
States, except perhaps its hypocrisy. Declarations made by
white-supremacist politicians and heads of imperialist corporations that
“Black Lives Matter” have rung hollow, opportunistic and completely in
contradiction to the lived experiences of African/Black people in the
United States from 1619 to the present.
Stripped of the veneer of liberal-rights discourse, the true core values
of the U.S. settler-colonial project are obvious: Glorification of
violence, white supremacy, patriarchy, social Darwinism, materialism and
extreme individualism. These core values facilitated the land theft that
allowed for the creation of the United States, enslavement and the most
rapacious forms of capitalist accumulation on the planet.
The abandonment of the people of Haiti affirms once again the United
States is committed to white power. Subversion, war and brutal sanctions
are just some of the instruments employed to maintain the structures of
white colonial-capitalist power.
So, our appeal is not to the conscience of Biden and the neoliberal
imperialist Democrats—they only have objective interests. Instead, we
call on the people of the United States to demand an alteration both in
U.S. policies regarding Haiti and in its relationship with Haiti as well
as with all nations that currently find themselves in the crosshairs of
U.S. imperialist reaction.
However, we understand our commitment to peace and People(s)-Centered
Human Rights, social justice, democracy and self-determination cannot be
realized without an organized people who are struggling for power.
The people of Haiti are fighting for power, for the ability to determine
their own destiny. Stand with them. Stand with us. Fight for freedom and
for a new reality in Haiti and the world.
No Compromise, No Retreat!
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