Haitian leader declares:
Socialism is 'achievable and necessary'
Statement of Ben Dupuy, secretary general of the Haiti's
National Popular Party (PPN), to the Dec. 6-7 "Reviving the
Worldwide Struggle for Socialism" conference.
Friends and comrades,
On behalf of the Haitian people, I salute you and regret
that I could not be with you today. This conference is of great
importance. It is only through the establishment of worldwide
socialism that we can hope to rescue our fragile planet from
the grips of a small class of profiteers who are destroying our
environment, subverting sovereign governments, waging merciless
wars, and plunging billions of people into deeper misery and
despair.
Never before has socialism been so achiev able, and never
before so necessary.
Two hundred years ago today, our Haitian ancestors were also
ushering in a new society, preparing to declare Haiti's
independence on Jan. 1, 1804. They had just defeated Napoleon
Bonaparte's army at the Battle of Vertières on Nov. 18,
1803.
Ours was not just the only successful slave revolution in
history. Haiti was the first nation in the Western Hemisphere,
and indeed the world, where all men and women were truly free
and equal, regardless of race.
The European colonialist powers and the slave-owning United
States immediately ostracized and embargoed our new nation,
much as they have done to revolutionary Cuba in recent times.
Over these past two centuries, they have constantly attacked
our nation militarily and with lies.
This offensive continues to this day. Washington and Paris
are engaged in an all-out campaign to vilify and overthrow the
popularly elected government of President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide. The two wings of our ruling class-the big landowners
and the import-export bourgeoisie-have put aside their usual
feuding to assist imperialism in destabilizing Haiti. Their
representatives among the politicians and intellectuals have
vowed to boycott and undermine the celebration of Haiti's
bicentennial.
The essential elements of this campaign are an aid embargo,
media disinformation and vilification campaign, diplomatic
meddling, fomenting violence in Haiti's shantytowns, and a
contra-style guerrilla war. The campaign bears many
similarities to the secret wars waged against Allende's Chile,
the Sandinistas' Nicara gua, and today, Hugo Chavez's
Venezuela.
Despite tremendous hardships, the Hai tian people continue
to resist. Over the past two years, the National Popular Party
has held several giant marches to denounce imperialism's
offensive and to call on the Haitian government to more
vigorously defend the Haitian people's democratic gains. Over
10,000 people participated in PPN's march in the capital this
past Sept. 30, the 12th anniversary of the CIA-backed coup
d'état against Aristide.
Imperialism and its lackeys are trying to engineer another
coup and foreign military occupation of Haiti. This is the only
way they can hope to take back control of the country.
But just like Napoleon in 1803, their plans are doomed. The
Haitian people today refuse to return to the dictatorship we
experienced under the 1991-1994 coup and during the Duvalier
dictatorships, just as our ancestors refused to return into
slavery.
In Creole, we have an expression. "Yo byen konte, yo mal
kalkile." Imperialism has counted well, but calculated badly.
They have miscalculated the Haitian people's resolve in
defending our nation, our sovereignty and our bicentennial.
Long live the struggle of the Haitian people! Long live the
struggle for justice, peace and socialism!
Reprinted from the Dec. 25, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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