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<h1 class="titles"><a
href="http://resumen-english.org/2016/01/what-is-happening-in-haiti-is-a-genuine-anti-imperialist-popular-revolt/"
title="Permanent Link to What is Happening in Haiti is a Genuine
Anti-imperialist Popular Revolt"> What is Happening in Haiti is
a Genuine Anti-imperialist Popular Revolt </a></h1>
<p>By Carlos Aznárez on January 23, 2016<br>
<b><small><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://resumen-english.org/2016/01/what-is-happening-in-haiti-is-a-genuine-anti-imperialist-popular-revolt/">http://resumen-english.org/2016/01/what-is-happening-in-haiti-is-a-genuine-anti-imperialist-popular-revolt/</a></small></small></small></b><br>
</p>
<p>Port-au-Prince and other Haitian cities are today the stage of
the largest popular uprising in decades of the suffering Haitian
nation. <span id="more-1964"></span>Tens of thousands of
demonstrators have taken to the street to show their revulsion
against the current government of Michell Martelly and his
decision, against the will of the vast majority of Haitians, to
hold elections on Sunday January 24. Opposition parties have
labeled the whole process as an “electoral masquerade”. A
Deafening scream has begun to rise from the poorest corners of the
cities that has even overflowed into the residential streets of
Petion-Ville with unusual ferocity. It is the people in full
force, resisting and honoring their independence and anti-slavery
origins of 1804. This wave of struggle has the potential to
generate an anti-imperialist offensive that will write a new
chapter in their own history as they stand up and say a huge; <strong>“Enough!”.</strong></p>
<p>-Enough of the use of Haiti as a laboratory of occupation by the
United States and its allies.</p>
<p>-Enough of the occupying troops of the so called United Nations
Stabilization Mission. (<em>MINUSTAH</em>) whose mission is
supposedly to bring humanitarian help to the Haitian people but
has done the exact opposite. The actions of the UN troops have
left a trail of repression and occupation including the raping and
the transmission of the cholera epidemic that has caused the
deaths of tens of thousands.</p>
<p>-Enough of Latin-American complicity with the invading United
Nations troops</p>
<p>-Enough of the international hypocrisy in the degrading and
shameful “aid missions” headed up by former US president Bill
Clinton whose real mission is to further the ties of dependency
and domination of the Haitian people.</p>
<p>It is for these reasons that during the last few weeks Haiti has
clearly become a pre-revolutionary scene; producing in these last
few days a truly massive popular uprising. They have faced up to
the criminal stubbornness of Martelly and his henchmen who are
trying to hijack the elections in the first place. There has been
some formal epistles against this from the opposition parties but
it has been the thousands of young people who decided to take the
future into their own hands by filling the streets; first
peacefully waving slogans against the Electoral Council and the
resignation of the president.</p>
<p>But when the brutal repression from the police and the troops of
Minustah began those who had mobilized began to exercise the
logical and necessary popular violence that arises in situations
like the one that the Haitian people are facing today. This
popular violence always produces repudiation and reaction by the
oligarchy and the petit bourgeoisie (including some sectors of the
left) because they cannot understand that the patience of the
people has clear limits.</p>
<p>In the last few hours there have been compelling examples of
class struggle as students, workers and fighters of all
generations crossed the La Saline Boulevard and stormed into the
Bel-Air neighborhood on route to Delmas, shouting <em>“Martelly
has to go. We are the Government.”</em> In the Saint-Pierre
square the police and some peacekeepers from Minustah attacked the
crowd with rubber bullets, and tear gas, but the young people did
not give up and began to lift barricades and set tires on fire in
the street. The Molotov cocktails, stones and other similar
objects were the answer to the violence of the military that in a
few minutes created pandemonium by making the air unbreathable due
to the gas. Cars were burned, and the local ruling party offices
destroyed. The word of mouth traveling on the street was <em>“nobody
leave the streets, we are the people’s power”.</em></p>
<p>When the bulk of protesters had invaded the upper class area of
Petion-Ville merchants quickly closed their doors. A youth being
beaten by members of Martelly’s party was rapidly defended by the
protestors fueling the magnitude of the people as they destroyed
vehicles and some official establishments.</p>
<p>It was at that very moment that the news spread like wildfire
that, “the Government has decided to cancel the elections on the
24th for security reasons”. The outbreak of joy rumbled throughout
the territory and slogans demanding that Martelly leave office
redoubled. “Until he resigns no one will go home”, was shouted
from the roof of a vehicle by one of the Haitian fighters. And
thousands of hands making the V for victory rose in the air.</p>
<p>So this is how the scene is at this time, despite the media
misrepresentation of the events, in a nation that Latin America
and the Caribbean owe so much to. Among many other things is that
the victory of the uprising of 1804 was the spark that lit up the
later struggles for independence throughout the hemisphere.</p>
<p>What is needed now from the international solidarity movement is
that in those Latin American countries that are involved in the
invasion and occupation of Haiti everything is done to end this
shameful situation. And that in return, the popular organizations
of the continent raise concrete solidarity with the people in the
streets who are fighting with all the means at their disposal for
ultimate independence.</p>
<p>Translated by the North America Bureau, Resumen Latinoamericano</p>
<p><a
href="http://www.resumenlatinoamericano.org/2016/01/23/lo-que-esta-ocurriendo-en-haiti-es-una-autentica-rebelion-popular-antiimperialista-por-carlos-aznarez/"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.resumenlatinoamericano.org/2016/01/23/lo-que-esta-ocurriendo-en-haiti-es-una-autentica-rebelion-popular-antiimperialista-por-carlos-aznarez/">http://www.resumenlatinoamericano.org/2016/01/23/lo-que-esta-ocurriendo-en-haiti-es-una-autentica-rebelion-popular-antiimperialista-por-carlos-aznarez/</a></a></p>
<p>Source: Resumen Latinoamericano</p>
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