[News] Global Solidarity on Haiti's Flag Day to Stop Foreign Intervention!

[Anti-Imperialist News]

*Global Solidarity on Haiti’s Flag Day to Stop Foreign Intervention*

by Haiti Action Committee

May 18 marked Haitian Flag Day, commemorating the day in 1804 when 
Jean-Jacques Dessalines declared independence and restored the country’s 
native name - Ayiti. Flag Day signifies Haitian sovereignty and 
commemorates ancestors and other loved ones who have died fighting for 
freedom.


Haiti Action Committee called for an International Day of Solidarity 
with Haiti on May 18 toprotest the impending arrival in Haiti of more 
foreign occupation troops. We send a salute and heartfelt thanks to the 
many individuals and organizations who took part. From Atlanta to 
Philadelphia to Guyana, Belize and Los Angeles, from Santa Rosa to 
Oakland to San Francisco in the California Bay Area, solidarity 
activists turned out to demand an end to US/UN intervention in Haiti. 
Our great respect goes to revered Guyanese elder Eusi Kwayana for his 
24-hour hunger strike in solidarity with Haiti and Palestine. Thanks to 
the many organizations who endorsed the call to action, who helped 
spread the word and for their expressions of

solidarity with the Haitian people’s struggle for liberation. Thanks to 
Eastside Arts Alliance for inviting our co-founder, Pierre Labossiere, 
to speak about Haiti at the Malcolm X Jazz Festival. And thanks to the 
teams of activists who bannered across the Bay Area!

The root cause of the current crisis in Haiti goes back to the 
U.S.-orchestrated 2004 coup that overthrew President Jean-Bertrand 
Aristide, who was elected in 2000 by a huge majority in a free and fair 
election. Aristide’s goal was to raise Haitians from a condition of 
misery to “poverty with dignity” through government policy to support 
the vast majority of Haitians, and not just transnational capital and 
Haiti’s ruling elite. His government constructed schools, health care 
centers and a hospital, and mapped Haiti’s vast natural resources, 
committing itself to use them in service to the Haitian people. He also 
demanded that France repay $21+ billion dollars as restitution for money 
extorted by France from 1826-1947 as “reparations” to the French

enslavers for “lost property.”

The coup brought with it a UN occupation force led by Brazil that 
ushered in a period of extreme repression, cholera, massacres, rapes, 
and rigged elections, and in 2011 brought to power Michel Martelly and 
his fascist PHTK party, which controlled executive power through a 
series of rigged elections and terror.  PHTK collaborated and 
coordinated activities with the Haitian police, the army, and the 
paramilitary death squads that have created what Haitians call a hell on 
earth in Haiti. During this year alone, more than 1500 Haitians have 
been killed as a result of paramilitary violence. Journalists, clergy, 
peasant-farmers, students, workers, market women vendors, and others 
raising their voices in protest have been met with beatings, 
incarceration, rape, assassinations and mass killings.

Now, once again, the US and the UN are pushing for a new foreign 
invasion, this time fronted by troops from Kenya, Benin and the 
Caribbean. Contractors are already being flown into Haiti to construct a 
base for the foreign troops. The Biden Administration is providing $300 
million for the invasion, including weapons and equipment in the form of 
80 humvees, sniper rifles, riot control gear and more. The notoriously 
repressive Kenyan police are expected to arrive in Haiti any day now.


Without a trace of irony, the same foreign powers responsible for the 
disastrous state of affairs in Haiti are asking Haitians to believe that 
more foreign intervention masked by a UN Security Council resolution 
will resolve the crisis.


Haitian grassroots organizations have long demanded a people’s 
transitional government composed of honest and democratic individuals 
and organizations, but the US has corrupted the process and seen to it 
that this transitional council is composed almost entirely of people 
loyal to US interests. While the Fanmi Lavalas Party of President 
Aristide is participating in this council, as one of the few democratic 
forces represented there, it is relying on grassroots people power to 
create fundamental and lasting change.


As the U.S. organizes a new invasion and as the paramilitary death 
squads continue to unleash terror, we demand:


** Stop using US tax dollars to fund the brutal Haitian police and 
affiliated death squads *

*• Stop the flow of weapons from the US to death squads in Haiti*

*• No more foreign intervention - End the occupation*

*• Stop attacking and deporting Haitian refugees*

*• Sovereignty and self-determination for Haiti*

For an excellent update on the current situation, please listen to Haiti 
Action Committee co- founders Pierre Labossiere and Robert Roth on 
Pacifica/KPFA’s Flashpoints with Dennis Bernstein

https://kpfa.org/archives/2024/5/21/


-- 
Haiti Action Committee
PO Box 2040
Berkeley,CA 94702
Website <https://haitisolidarity.net>
YouTube <https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjujXAgb681TkRNdEo1hh5Q>
Facebook <https://www.facebook.com/HaitiActionCommittee>
Twitter <https://twitter.com/HaitiAction1>

33 years of solidarity with the anti-colonial grassroots struggle for 
dignity, democracy and self-determination of the Haitian people!


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