Gas prices fuel 1-day strike in Haiti

On Aug. 8, the Association of Owners and Drivers of Haiti (APCH) held a countrywide, one-day strike over a sharp, unannounced increase in fuel prices. Jean Winston Bazile, spokesperson for APCH, said, “This is a warning strike, asking for the collaboration of the people. Our next step will be to park all our minivans in front of the offices of the Ministry of Com merce and the National Palace. Because we cannot continue to function this way.”

Changeux Méhu, president of APCH, added, “We are determined and we cannot continue to enrich rulers who take no consideration of the precarious life of the poorest sectors of Haitian society. It is necessary that this change; we can’t tolerate such acts.”

The people who use the APCH minivans, which supply the only mass transit available throughout Haiti, supported the strike, even though it forced them to walk to work. “We have had enough. We can’t accept such a situation, which increases our misery,” was a typical response of those interviewed. (Haïti-Progrès, Aug. 10)

On July 28, the National Popular Party (PPN) and Fanmi Lavalas held a major demonstration in Cap-Haitien, the second-largest city in Haiti. It demanded an end to the military occupation by UN troops, which are in Haiti under orders of the imperialist-controlled Security Coun cil, and the return of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the popularly elected president who was kidnapped and forced into exile in February 2004 by U.S. troops. The date was chosen to mark the 90th anniversary of the first U.S. occupation of Haiti.

The march gathered in Rond-Point Samori, a poor neighborhood, and proceed ed to Notre-Dame Square without incident.

Another, similar demonstration was held in Valières, a small city in northeast Haiti.

While the people’s struggle continues, however, some politicians who claim to speak for Fanmi Lavalas, the party created by Aristide, have registered it in the fall elections and intricate political maneuvering fills the fancy hotels of Port-au-Prince.

The PPN released a statement on July 28 on the situation inside Haiti: “Today, despite massacres and genocides perpetrated by George Bush, in Iraq, Afghan istan, Palestine, Haiti, he believes he can call progressives ‘terrorists.’ But the world has never known a terrorist of such a horrible character as George Bush. They call militants who peacefully resist against the coup-napping of Feb. 29 [2004] bandits, while the biggest gangster in the country, Andy Apaid [Haiti’s richest businessman], has given arms and money to the Labanière gang to kill people living in Cité Soleil. Why don’t they arrest him? ...

“Has Venezuela sent arms and soldiers to kill us? No. Has Cuba sent arms and soldiers to kill us? No. We say, Long live Venezuela! Long live Cuba! Long live the International Tribunal on Haiti.

“The PPN declares that ... it is not ready to sell its conscience, that it has just one destiny, to fight for the total liberation of our country.”