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<b><font size="4">Stand with the People's Uprising in Haiti</font></b><b><font
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Saturday, March 2, 3-5 pm</font></b><br>
Eastside Arts Alliance, 2277 International Blvd, Oakland<br>
$10-20 no one turned away<br clear="all">
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<div style="text-align:center"><font size="4"><u>Haiti
Action Committee Statement in</u><br>
<u>Solidarity With the Popular Uprising In Haiti</u></font><br>
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On November 15, 2018, in the midst of mass demonstrations
taking place across the length and breadth of Haiti, Fanmi
Lavalas Political Organization, the party of Haiti’s poor
majority, issued a statement titled <a
href="https://haitisolidarity.net/crisis-and-resolution/"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">Crisis and
Resolution</a>. In the statement, Fanmi Lavalas denounced
the regime of president Jovenel Moise and prime minister
Jean-Henri Ceant as corrupt and dictatorial, and called for
a transitional government for a period of three years to
address the needs of the population and to set the stage for
new elections for an inclusive and democratic government.
The statement closes with the following:<br>
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<i>“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.”</i><br>
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In the months since the statement was released, Haiti’s
population has been in the streets without let up, risking
their lives each and every day as they attempt to oust the
Moise-Ceant government. The Petro Caribe scandal, in which
some $4.2 billion worth of funds made available through a
Venezuelan government program and targeted for
infrastructure and social services, was pocketed by Haitian
government officials and their business cronies, has proven
to be the tipping point -- just like the rise in fuel prices
last July that led to an earlier massive rebellion. <br>
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<div>But the roots of the crisis go much deeper than rising
fuel prices or a corruption scandal. The current Haitian
government has no legitimacy; it is a classic puppet regime,
there to do the bidding of its international sponsors in the
UN headquarters in New York, in Washington, Ontario and
Paris. It is selling off the country’s mineral wealth,
grabbing land from farmers, stealing money, and sacrificing
Haiti’s sovereignty in its search for profits and power.
There can be no resolution without a fundamental change in
governance and the social order.</div>
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<div>This February marks the 15th anniversary of the 2004 <i>coup
d’état</i> that ousted the democratically elected
government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. In these
fifteen years, the Haitian popular movement has refused to
be silenced, in spite of the kidnapping and forced exile of
President Aristide and his wife and colleague, Mildred
Trouillot Aristide, a subsequent UN military occupation,
continuous and deadly repression against peaceful
protestors, and a rigged electoral system. In 2015 and 2016,
a series of stolen elections financed by the U.S.
government--called an “electoral coup” by Fanmi Lavalas -
resulted in the installation of Jovenel Moise, who is now
desperately hanging on to power in the face of overwhelming
opposition. While Fanmi Lavalas and other opposition parties
produced detailed evidence of fraud and voter suppression,
the U.S. State Department countered by calling the election
“free and fair.” <br>
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<div>The Moise government has most recently shown how beholden
it is to the Trump regime by voting with the U.S. to
recognize Guaido’s self-proclaimed government in Venezuela.
The same State Department that has attempted to convince
Haitians that a stolen election = democracy is currently
railing against Venezuela’s legitimate elected government
and attempting to lay the groundwork for yet another coup in
the Americas. What hypocrisy. <br>
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<div>The consequences of Haiti’s electoral coup in 2016 can be
seen today in the dramatic footage of Haitians standing up
to heavily armed police, carrying the bodies of their dead
relatives, and turning their grief into more determined
resistance. Denied free and fair elections, Haitians are now
voting in the streets.<br>
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<div>The uprising in Haiti is a powerful statement in favor of
democracy and inclusion. This is what threatens the small
elite that now rules Haiti. And they are striking out in
the most brutal ways. In one particularly grim episode in
November 2018, heavily armed police and criminal gang
members recruited by the police and given police uniforms,
unleashed a horrific massacre in the community of Lasalin, a
center of the Lavalas movement. Well over 70 people were
killed as the police and their armed agents went door to
door, slaughtering whole families, gang-raping women,
burning homes, and terrorizing the community. As a final
assault, they fed some of the dead bodies to pigs -- a
message sent to dramatize the utter disregard with which
this current government views the Haitian people. <br>
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<div>Just last week, it was revealed that 7 heavily armed U.S.
mercenaries had been arrested in Haiti while, in their
words, “working for the government.” What were they doing
there? And why were they whisked out of the country so
quickly with no consequence? What was their relationship to
the Haitian government and to its repressive actions?
Clearly, this is only the tip of the iceberg. <br>
From mainstream news media, we have been subjected to the
usual racialized commentary about Haiti - “mobs in the
streets”, “police outgunned”, “looters”, “riots.” And from
far too many progressives, there has been complete silence.
What is acknowledged as revolutionary social movement in
other areas of the world is somehow dismissed as chaos in
Haiti. Yet what we are seeing today in Haiti is the latest
chapter in an unending struggle for democracy, dignity and
justice. <br>
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<div>In this time of rebellion, crisis and repression, we send
our support to the people of Haiti, to the grassroots
movement, and to the people’s party, Fanmi Lavalas. It is a
time for our voices to be heard, for the silence around
Haiti to be broken, and for a dramatic increase in
solidarity - something that should be on all of our agenda.<br>
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For more information, go to <a
href="http://www.haitisolidarity.net" target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true">www.haitisolidarity.net</a><br>
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<div>sent by Haiti Action Committee<br>
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<a href="http://www.haitisolidarity.net"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">www.haitisolidarity.net</a><br>
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<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://freedomarchives.org/">https://freedomarchives.org/</a>
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