HAITI SUPPORT NETWORK UPDATE

Below is a reprint of the Haiti Support Network (HSN) newsletter released in December, 1996.

For more information on the HSN, please see the article on our February 1997 Emergency Worker's Rights Delegation and the HSN Statement of Unity.

Winter 1996/1997

Dear Friend,

What have you heard about Haiti in the past several months? Not much, right?

This is not because the country is quiet. Far from it. In recent months, strikes by unpaid workers have paralyzed several government ministries and public utilities. Former soldiers and paramilitary thugs continue to unleash waves of crime and political violence. Large demonstrations occur weekly to demand justice for the thousands of Haitians killed during the coup and relief from the soaring cost of living. Indeed, the political turbulence of the last year shows all signs of growing in 1997.

But for Washington, the Haitian government is on the right road: privatizing state enterprises, lowering tariff walls, repressing strikes and demonstrations, and, most importantly, diverting the countrys meager revenues to pay the interest on the countrys ballooning debt to super-rich international banks, both private and multilateral. In Haiti, as in the US, the rich are getting richer because the poor are getting poorer.

This "New World Order" in Haiti is enforced by a continuing military occupation of Haiti, now in its third year. Many Americans are unaware that hundred of U.S. soldiers are still deployed in Haiti.

But there is resistance. The National Popular Assembly (APN), one of the countrys oldest and largest popular organizations, continues to lead opposition to neo-liberal reforms and the continued foreign military presence. As it has for almost a decade, APN remains at the forefront of Haiti's struggle for justice, democracy and independence.

September 1995, the Haiti Support Network (HSN), a coalition of groups and individuals, was formed to raise consciousness about the situation in Haiti and support for the grassroots struggle and the work of the APN. This bulletin is a summary of our activities over the past year and our plans for the next.

Please take a moment to read it. We hope you will agree, our work is important not only for bringing justice in Haiti, but also in the U.S. We need your support.

In solidarity,

Kim Ives
for the Haiti Support Network

Watch Out!

The HSN began the year with a gala premiere presentation of the Haitian feature film The Man by the Shore by Raoul Peck (currently Haitis Minister of Culture). Celebrities Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Michael Moore, and Mayor David Dinkins joined about 150 other guests at the Mark Goodson Theatre in Manhattan to watch the sensitive political thriller, which went on to have a very successful theatrical run in New York in the spring.

Following the showing, there was an elegant reception with the filmmaker. Several Haitian restaurants and chefs donated a buffet of Haitian cuisine. The event was a tremendous success, and the HSN netted close to $6000 in ticket sales and donations, all of which went to support organizing work of the APN in Haiti.

Photo ID: Michael Moore, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Former Attorney General Ramsey Clark, Mayor David Dinkins and filmmaker Raoul Peck join the HSN for the fundraiser premiere of "Man by the Shore." PHOTO NOT AVAILABLE YET

Speak Out!

During the year the HSN was both a guest and a host of several public meetings and educational gatherings on Haiti.

In May, we organized two major programs on Haiti featuring Captain Lawrence Rockwood, whom the US Army court-martialed for attempting to defend the human rights of Haitian prisoners; Ramsey Clark, former US Attorney General and Rockwoods lawyer; Ben Dupuy, co-director of Haiti Progrs newspaper and a founding member of the APN; Charles Kernaghan and Barbara Briggs of the National Labor Committee (NLC); and Tod Ensign of Citizen Soldier.

We participated in numerous other meetings and events on Haiti at churches, schools, colleges, museums, and auditoriums in New York City, Westchester, Rockland, Long Island, and Miami, Florida.

Stand Up!

The members of the HSN participated in and helped organize numerous demonstrations for justice and sovereignty in Haiti.

For example, the HSN took the lead in organizing a protest against the US governments harboring of the death-squad leader Emmanuel Toto Constant in Queens, New York. The Haitian government has a long-standing request for Constants extradition back to Haiti to stand trial for murder.Washington has refused to honor the request. The demonstration, which was held in front of the U.S. Federal Building in Manhattan, also called on Washington to return to Haiti 160,000 pages of documents seized by US soldiers from both Haitian Army and the paramilitary death-squads headquarters. These documents contain crucial evidence for trials of coup criminals. Well keep the pressure on as long as Toto Constant remains free and savoring impunity in the New York City area or anywhere else.

HSN members also participated in demonstrations to protest the miserable wages and deplorable conditions of workers in Haitian factories producing items for the multinational Disney Corporation. Haitian workers, mostly women, remain at the bottom of the wage scale throughout the hemisphere.

We also took part in demonstrations and leafletting as part of the campaign to free Patrick Elie, a former Aristide government official whom the US government imprisoned for seven months without bail on trumped-up charges. Thanks to community mobilization and solidarity, Elie was freed in late November pending his trial in January. We will continue to follow his case closely.

Photo ID: Workers in Haiti's assembly industries earn as little as 12 cents per hour. (Photo: Carol Halebian) PHOTO NOT AVAILABLE YET

Help Out!

In April, the APN was the victim of harsh repression in Haitis north. The former Duvalierist mayor of Le Borgne organized bands of thugs to attack APN peasant organizers and members. About 40 APN militants had to flee to Port-au-Prince, where they required food and shelter. On behalf of the APN, the HSN made an urgent and broad appeal for assistance to help the organization respond to the crisis. Through mailings and phone banking, we raised about $1000 in three weeks. We want to once again thank all of those who responded to this drive.

Throughout the year, the HSN pooled its honorariums, collections, and donations to keep a small but steady stream of support going to the APN.

Photo ID: May 1, 1996: Popular organizations demonstrate in Port-au-Prince against privatisation of state industries.

Look Out!

Over the next year, in addition to our continuing general support for the APN, we are planning a number of special projects to respond to the needs of Haitis grassroots struggle.

We have one priority project right now. In response to an urgent appeal by a number of Haitis unions, the HSN has been asked to send an send an Emergency Workers Rights Delegation to Haiti in January. We will be joined by representatives from several labor unions here in the U.S., and we hope to establish worker-to-worker links which will develop into a support base for the fight against the privatising of Haitis state enterprises. We need your support to help cover delegation expenses.

We also have plans for a speaking tour, film showings, public meetings and producing a video. To carry out these projects in the year ahead, we must count on you. By supporting the APN, you are helping one of the most vital and dynamic popular movements in the hemisphere.

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