Haitian Revolution's impact after 200 years
"Haiti, a Slave Revolution"
International Action Center
223 pp.; index, bibliography, timeline
$19.95 (see leftbooks.com for special
discount price)
By Deirdre Griswold
In time for the 200th anniversary of the
Haitian Revolution, the International Action Center has issued
a book of essays, both historical and contemporary, about this
Black nation in the Caribbean. They will be appreciated by all
who oppose the institution of slavery, not just in the past but
in its present form as the super-exploitation of oppressed
nations.
The editors have compiled writings from a broad range of
thinkers and fighters who have recognized Haiti's great
significance for the freedom struggles of the last two
centuries.
After the Civil War the great abolitionist Frederick
Douglass became U.S. Minister to the Republic of Haiti--as he
described it, "the only self-made Black Republic in the world."
In an 1893 lecture reprinted here, he chastised the United
States for not having "forgiven Haiti for being black. ...
[A]fter Haiti had shaken off the fetters of bondage, and long
after her freedom and independence had been recognized by all
other civilized nations, we continued to refuse to acknowledge
the fact and treated her as outside the sisterhood of
nations."
What had Haiti done to be treated like this? As Sara
Flounders writes in "Cuba, Haiti and John Brown: to Rebel Is
Justified," during most of the 19th century Haiti was "the only
liberated territory--in a region where chattel slavery was
still the dominant social relation."
The territory the French called St. Domingue got its
liberation through a great revolutionary struggle that
triumphed on Jan. 1, 1804. Before that, it was France's most
lucrative colony for over a century. More than half a million
Africans slaved to produce sugar, rum, cotton, tobacco and
indigo.
When they rose up and demanded their freedom, and then
defeated Napoleon's vaunted army, "President George Wash ing
ton and Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, both slave owners,
supported France in its efforts to suppress the slaves," writes
IAC founder Ramsey Clark in his essay, "Haiti's Agonies and
Exaltations."
Greg Dunkel explains why the voodoo religion of the slaves
is still hated by white racists. "It gave them the solidarity
they needed to organize a mass uprising of enslaved people
under the noses of the slave owners. ... The slaves in the
north of St. Domingue ... organized for weeks beginning in
early July, using the cover of the voodoo ceremonies that were
held every weekend." In this essay, "Haiti's Impact on the
United States," Dunkel points out that the term "voodoo" is
still used with scorn by the ruling class here, as in the
phrase "voodoo economics."
Pat Chin traces U.S. economic sanctions against Haiti and
points out that its intense poverty today is because, as the
title of her essay says, "Haiti Needs Reparations, Not
Sanctions."
A very important section of the book deals with how the U.S.
government has used the threat of military coups and the
paramilitary thugs the Tonton Macoutes to subvert and/or hijack
the government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Aristide, to the
surprise of the United States, was elected president by an
overwhelming popular majority in 1990. Articles from the
newspaper Haïti-Progrès and by Ben Dupuy trace the
maneuvers of U.S. presidents like Jimmy Carter, George H.W.
Bush and Bill Clinton that set the stage for U.S. military
intervention in 1994. The continuing struggle in Haiti is
brought up to date by Kim Ives in "Class Analysis of a
Crisis."
The book also covers the struggles of Haitian workers in the
United States and Haitian refugees held in U.S. detention
centers. It includes a 1991 Workers World article by Sam Marcy
on the failure of U.S. rhetoric to drown out the revolutionary
consciousness of the Haitian masses.
There's a fascinating photo section that starts with
portraits of the leaders of the 1804 Revolution and moves on to
the progressive activists, women and men, in the United States
and in Haiti, who carry on their work today. The revolution's
impact on Haitian culture is conveyed by contemporary poets
whose words add passion and humor to this deeply informative
book.
Reprinted from the Dec. 25, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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