HAITIANS: a political and class-conscious people
Dec. 24, 1998
Maude LeBlanc
Excerpts from a talk given by Maude LeBlanc, co-director of Haïti Progrès newspaper, at a conference Dec. 5, 1998
U.S. imperialism is very upset with how things have been going in Haiti. Despite sending troops and investing close to $3 billion to overhaul the country along neoliberal lines, they have not achieved their goal. Thus the title of a New York Times piece a couple of weeks ago: "Political Feuds Rack Haiti: So Much for Its High Hopes."
The article complains that the "hopes for an era of prosperity and stability have evaporated" because of a "16-month political squabble between [former president] Aristide and other leaders of the fracturing Lavalas coalition." According to the Times, this "squabble" is leaving "Haiti's foreign allies disillusioned and exasperated."
Of course they are disillusioned and exasperated. The Haitian people are not going along with their plans. They are resisting the dictates of Washington and the under-the-table deals of the Haitian ruling class. This has people like U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright addressing the Haitian government of President René Préval quite undiplomatically. "The Haitian people deserve a democratic form of government and they deserve the ability to have the fruits that the international community is trying to give them," she said.
Isn't that nice? They are trying to give us democracy. They are trying to gives us fruits. What is the matter with us?
Well, the fact of the matter is that we, the Haitian people, are very political and class conscious, and understand that the only democracy they respect is the one they control and the only fruits they are interested in are the ones they can steal from us. As you all know, Haiti is home to the only successful slave revolution in history, so we don't take kindly to being enslaved. Aristide, who at one time may have been going along with or pretending to go along with the American plan, is now one of its fiercest opponents. And if the imperialists hate anyone, it is someone who they thought they had bought as their lackey who then double-crosses them.
Aristide thinks he can reconcile with the Haitian bourgeoisie and imperialism and come to power through elections. The National Popular Assembly (APN) feels such a program is based on illusions. Furthermore, the APN aims to go beyond a mere redistribution of wealth; it calls for the redistribution of property--land to the peasants and factories to the workers. But at this time, the APN doesn't have the strength and full trust of the masses to carry such a program forward. This is where Marxism is so critical. It allows a working-class party to identify class allies on the road to liberation. In Haiti today, our principal ally is Aristide and the Lavalas Family.
This alliance is very disturbing to the Haitian ruling class and to Washington. Most recently, the APN and Lavalas launched nationwide demonstrations throughout Haiti on Sept. 30, 1998, the seventh anniversary of the 1991 coup d'état. Tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets. We have no illusions about the difficulty of the struggle before us. However, inspired by the example of our ancestors who fought against the greatest military power of their epoch, Napoleon's France, and by our heroic and resourceful neighbor to the west, Cuba, we are determined to continue our struggle. Surrender and resignation are not options.
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Go to: Haiti: A Slave Revolution 200 years after 1804 Table of Contents
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