Building international solidarity
Meeting hears about Haiti and MWM
By Brenda Sandburg
San Francisco
As the U.S. government tightens its tentacles around Haiti,
it is also striking out at working and unemployed people in
this country. And while the Haitian people fiercely resist the
occupation of their land, the people in this country are
standing up for their rights and for those of their brothers
and sisters around the world. A group of leading activists
discussed these two battlefronts--the struggle for Haiti's
independence and the upcoming Million Worker March--at a
meeting here Oct. 1.
The dynamic event, sponsored by the San Francisco AntiWar 4
the Million Worker March Committee, was taped by KPOO radio, a
local African American station.
Pierre Labossiere, co-founder of Haiti Action Committee,
told those gathered that the United States is responsible for
the death squads, murders and violence that have engulfed Haiti
since the U.S.-backed coup and kidnapping of President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide. On Sept. 30, he reported, about 15,000
people took to the streets in Port-au-Prince to call for
Aristide's return on the anniversary of the first coup against
him.
Labossiere noted that Aristide had instituted a hurricane
preparedness program that moved people to safer ground and
brought supplies to them. Since the coup, he said, many in
these teams have been killed, jailed or dispersed, so when the
recent hurricanes hit, there was no one to help people. That's
why so many died in the storms.
Others, he said, have been shot down by Haitian forces aided
by the U.S. military. "Armed civilians came out with the police
and shot into the crowd," Labossiere said. The exact death toll
is unknown because "some bodies were picked up so there was no
trace" of them.
Labossiere said the Haitian people compare the brutal
Duvalier regime of Papa Doc and Baby Doc to that of the two
Bush administrations. At the time of the first coup against
Aristide in 1991, "Papa Bush was in office and now Baby Bush"
is in charge, Labossiere said.
LeiLani Dowell, a member of Workers World Party running for
Congress in California, talked about what has happened in Haiti
since the "coup-napping"--the term Haitians use for the
kidnapping of Aristide by U.S. forces. Last month Dowell went
on a fact-finding delegation to Haiti led by former U.S.
Attorney General Ramsey Clark during which she met with about
35 political prisoners, including several members of Aristide's
government.
"There have been more beatings, forced exiles and rapes,
targeted mainly at supporters of Aristide's Lavalas Party,"
Dowell said. Many people have been arrested, released and
re-arrested several times, she noted.
U.S. human rights groups have helped perpetuate the
violations, while U.S. corporations have been complicit in
inflicting economic hardships on the Haitian people, she
stressed. "Aristide raised the minimum wage from $1 to $2.40
per day," Dowell said, while the new interim "prime minister"
is allowing corporations to skip paying taxes for three
years.
The next step in the struggle is not the Nov. 2 election in
the U.S., Dowell explained, but the Million Worker March. She
pointed out that youth are organizing for the march, and have
much to gain from it since 39 percent of the U.S. homeless
population is under the age of 18, youth of color accounted for
62 percent of juveniles in custody in 1991, and half of all new
AIDS infections worldwide are people under the age of 25.
The Million Worker March taking place in Washington, D.C.,
on Oct. 17 is calling on workers--organized and unorganized--to
open up an independent fight for everything from universal
health care to a living wage to an end to racism. It has also
joined forces with the anti-war movement, calling for an end to
the U.S. war against Iraq and the occupations of Iraq and
Haiti.
Trent Willis, co-chair of the Million Worker March Committee
in San Fran cisco and former business agent of Inter na tional
Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 10, which initiated the
march, said it is intended to bring solidarity to working
people around the world. "Making a change in the United States
will make it easier for change in Haiti and Iraq," he said.
Willis said the Million Worker March is being organized in
the spirit of the poor people's march that Martin Luther King
Jr. called for in 1968 before he was assassinated. "It's not
about an election but about a resurrection. It's not about a
candidate but a mandate," Willis emphasized. "We are demanding
that workers be represented and an end be put to repression
against unions, organizing and workers and the unemployed."
Willis said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney has told locals
that now is not the time to march on Washington and demand
workers' rights. Dowell recalled that in a letter from
Birmingham jail, Martin Luther King had answered people who
told him now was not the time to protest for civil rights.
Waiting, he said, "Most often means never."
Judy Greenspan of Workers World Party and California Prison
Focus chaired the meeting.
Reprinted from the Oct. 14, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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