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<div class="entry-date">Weekend Edition Feb 28-Mar 02, 2014
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<div class="subheadlinestyle"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/02/28/63893/">http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/02/28/63893/</a></div>
<h1 class="article-title">Looking Back on the Overthrow of
Jean-Bertrand Aristide</h1>
<div class="mainauthorstyle"><big><big>by YVES ENGLER</big></big></div>
<div class="main-text"><big><big> </big></big>
<p><big><big><em>This is the third in a series leading up to the 10th
anniversary of the February 29 2004 overthrow of Jean-Bertrand
Aristide’s government in Haiti.</em><em> Read Part One <a
href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/01/31/remembering-the-overthrow-of-haitis-jean-bertrand-aristide/">here</a>, Part
Two <a
href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/02/07/the-haiti-occupation-continues/">here</a> and
Part Three <a
href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/02/21/remembering-the-overthrow-of-jean-bertrand-aristide/"
target="_blank">here</a>. – YE</em></big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>Why did Canada help overthrow Haiti’s elected government?
That’s a question I heard over and over when speaking about <a
href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1552661687/counterpunchmaga"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.amazon.com']);"
target="_blank"><i>Canada in Haiti: Waging War on the Poor Majority</i></a>,
a book I co-authored with Anthony Fenton. Most people had difficulty
understanding why their country — and the U.S. to some extent — would
intervene in a country so poor, so seemingly marginal to world affairs.
Why would they bother?</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>I would answer that Canada participated in the coup as a
way to make good with Washington, especially after (officially)
declining the Bush administration’s invitation (order) to join the
“coalition of the willing” that invaded Iraq in 2003. Former Foreign
Affairs Minister Bill Graham explained: “Foreign Affairs view was there
is a limit to how much we can constantly say no to the political
masters in Washington. All we had was Afghanistan to wave. On every
other file we were offside. Eventually we came on side on Haiti, so we
got another arrow in our quiver.”</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>It is also worth noting that at the start of 2003 the
Haitian minimum wage was 36 gourdes ($1) a day, which was nearly
doubled to 70 gourdes by the Aristide government. Of course, this was
opposed by domestic and international capital, which used Haiti’s
lowest wages in the hemisphere as a way to beat back workers’ demands
in other countries. Canadian capital was especially hostile to raising
the minimum wage. One of the largest blank T-shirt maker in the world,
Montréal-based Gildan Activewear was the country’s largest employer
after the state, employing up to 8,000 Haitians (directly and
indirectly) in Port-au-Prince’s assembly sector by 2007. Most of
Gildan’s work was subcontracted to Andy Apaid, who led the Group 184
domestic “civil society” that opposed Aristide’s government.
Coincidentally, two days after the coup, Foreign Affairs stated “some
Canadian companies are looking to shift garment production to Haiti.”</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>It is also clear that some Canadian mining companies saw
better opportunities with a post-Aristide government. In 2007, reported
the <i>Toronto Star</i>, “Another Canadian-backed company recently
resumed prospecting in Haiti after abandoning its claims a decade ago.
Steve Lachapelle — a Québec lawyer who is now chair of the board of the
company, called St. Genevieve Haiti — says employees were threatened at
gunpoint by partisans of ex-president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.”</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>Another reason for the intervention came out of the
contempt, heightened during the country’s 200-year anniversary of
independence, directed at Haiti ever since the country’s 1791-1804
revolution dealt a crushing blow to slavery, colonialism and white
supremacy. The threat of a good example — particularly worrisome for
the powers that be, since Haiti is so poor — contributed to the
motivation for the coup. Aristide was perceived as a barrier to a
thorough implementation of the free market agenda, particularly because
of his opposition to the privatization of the country’s five remaining
state-owned companies. The attitude seems to have been, “if we can’t
force our way in Haiti, where can we?”</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>But one must look at the history of Canadian foreign
policy to fully understand why Canada helped overthrow the elected
Haitian government.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>The Canadian government, from its beginning, was part of
the command and control apparatus of the world economic system. At
first Canada served as an arm of the British Empire, but given the
country’s location as well as racial and economic makeup, it quickly
became intertwined with the USA. Canada’s role over the past six
decades, as assigned by the dominant power, has typically been some
sort of “policing” operation, usually called peacekeeping. Since Canada
has primarily been a “policing” rather than “military” power one must
look to the language of policing to discover the motivations for our
Haitian policy.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>Over the past decade there has been much discussion of
something called “pulling our weight” in external affairs. In laymen’s
terms this means spending more of the country’s resources on defending
and expanding the ability of Canadian capitalists in particular, but
also for the system in general, to make a profit around the world.
While the less sophisticated neoconservatives simply call for more
military spending and a pro-U.S. foreign policy, the more liberal
Canadian supporters of capitalism have been busy creating an
ideological mask, called the “responsibility to protect” that will
accomplish the same end.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>The “responsibility to protect” is essentially a
justification for imperialism using the dialect of policing instead of
the old language of empire and militarism. It says there are “failed
states” that must be overthrown because they do not provide adequately
for their own citizens and because they threaten world order. This is
the international equivalent of the “zero tolerance” (also called the
“broken window”) strategy of the New York City police department. The
policy is to aggressively police petty crimes in order to create an
environment that discourages more serious law breaking. In the same
fashion, the international community should go after “failed states”
not because they threaten other countries with invasion but since they
create an environment where “crime” may thrive. (Noam Chomsky has used
the Mafia analogy to explain the less sophisticated, older imperialist
version of this policy. Any and all challenges, even minor ones, must
be met with violence until “order” is established. The “responsibility
to protect” differs in form but not in substance.)</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>The coup in Haiti was a Canadian-managed experiment in the
use of the “responsibility to protect” doctrine. Aristide was
overthrown precisely because Haiti is so unimportant to the world
economic system and because cracking down on it is the international
economic equivalent of the New York City police cracking down on
graffiti writers. Once again Haiti was an example to the rest of the
world, a message from the world’s rich and powerful: “We, the 0.01%,
run the world in our interests and you better listen to what we say.”</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big><i><strong>Yves Engler’s</strong> the author of Canada and
Israel: building apartheid. His latest </i><i>co-authored </i><i>book </i><i>is the New
Commune-ist Manifesto — Workers of the World It Really is Time to
Unite. For more information go to<a href="http://www.newcommuneist.com/"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.newcommuneist.com']);">www.newcommuneist.com</a></i></big></big></p>
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