In Solidarity with the Haitian People: Statement of New York May 1 Coalition for Worker and Immigrant Rights

January 22, 2010

Haiti has suffered a terrible natural disaster at the cost of hundreds of thousands of precious lives. This natural disaster however, has been bitterly aggravated by racism and imperialist domination.

The May 1st Coalition for Worker and Immigrant Rights extends its solidarity and condolence to the Haitian people for their losses, and demands that the dignity and autonomy of the Haitian people be respected.

The cynical approach of the US government, offering nothing but an eighteen month extension of stay to undocumented Haitian nationals here, is not only an insult, it is a symptom of the opportunism with which the US government is treating this disaster. The United States government has, from the outset, treated the earthquake as a military opportunity to occupy Haiti and to enforce the power and control of the United States and of Haitian corporate and ruling classes, such as the sweatshop bosses who comprise the 'Group of 184'.

This is not new; the US has been enforcing its control, exploiting, occupying and oppressing the Haitian people for a long time.

The Pentagon has taken control of “rescue” operations, controlling the airport, and determining who shall be allowed to land. But the only ones who have been rescued have been wealthy individuals, and the U.S. military has denied landing rights to Doctors Without Borders, to Cuba, CARICOM countries, Venezuela, and Argentina.

The US operations are military and political, not humanitarian. As Haiti Liberté newspaper has noted, the “already submissive Haitian government has given up the control of the national airport and is delinquent in performing even the most basic duties of a sovereign country." United States State Department and the Pentagon are “using this disaster to promote the construction of commercial enterprises to 'rebuild' Haiti, enforced by a muscular American military presence and subservient UN and Haitian police forces.”

The Obama administration has said that undocumented Haitian immigrants in the U.S. may have a stay of deportation for eighteen months. But the United States Department of Homeland Security is planning on construction of private detention centers - prisons - for the Haitian immigrants who remain in the United States. This will make the immigrants who register to stay the eighteen months vulnerable to both arrest and deportation. If the US government’s handling of the Hurricane Katrina disaster is any indication, there will not be any rapid reconstruction of civilian infrastructure in Port au Prince, Carfour, or any of the towns which have been devastated, so this eighteen month “offer” is designed to further criminalize and marginalize Haitian people in the United States.

Meanwhile ships from the US Coast Guard are swarming around Haiti preventing Haitians from leaving. The US government is preparing the concentration camp that is Guantanamo for Haitian refugees.

The New York May 1 Coalition for Worker and Immigrant Rights calls for the right of all Haitian refugees to remain in the United States, free of any concern for document status. We demand that the Haitian people be given the right, if they so choose, of immediate dual citizenship of Haiti and the United States.

The New York May 1 Coalition for Worker and Immigrant Rights calls for the end of US military occupation of Haiti. We also call on the right of return for President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to Haiti, who because of U.S. intervention, was never allowed to complete his term, much like the case of President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras.

The New York May 1 Coalition for Worker and Immigrant Rights demands that the Haitian people be allowed to control their own destinies, whether staying in their homeland or immigrating to the United States.

Haitians have the right to develop their own National Popular Plan for reconstruction. They have the right to ask any nation on earth to assist them in their reconstruction, and to reject any nation that attempts to use the disaster of an earthquake to occupy and oppress their nation.

We also demand the immediate release of Jean Montrevil, a Haitian immigrant currently being unjustly detained. We join with the call of many in demanding his release and no deportation. For more information on the case of Jean Montrevil, visit http://www.familiesforfreedom.org/httpdocs/our_families/jean_jani.html