Friday, OCT. 7: DON’T OCCUPY HAITI! OCCUPY WALL STREET!
Cross the Brooklyn Bridge !
Show Solidarity with Occupy Wall Street Movement !
4 p.m. - Rally @ Cadman Plaza Park, Brooklyn
5 p.m. - March across the Brooklyn Bridge
6 p.m. - Rally with demonstrators at Liberty Plaza, Manhattan
To SHOW SOLIDARITY with the protestors of the OCCUPY WALL STREET movement,
the HAITIAN COMMUNITY will march across the Brooklyn Bridge to Liberty
Plaza.
The same BANKERS and CAPITALISTS who are driving North American working
people into poverty, debt and homelessness have IMPOVERISHED HAITI for
decades.
In APRIL 1990, OCTOBER 1991, AUGUST 1997 and MARCH 2000, Haitians have made
a TRADITION of
marching across the Brooklyn Bridge to protest racism, coup
d’états, and police brutality.
In 2011, the tradition will continue as the Haitian community shows
its solidarity with the thousands rising up against capitalist greed and
crisis.
END the UN military occupation of Haiti!
NO to reestablishing the coup-making Haitian
Army!
NO to Bill Clinton’s Interim Haiti Recovery Commission
!
Let the people OCCUPY WALL STREET !
For more information: 718-362-0763, 917-251-6057, or 718-421-0162
Sponsored by: Fanmi Lavalas (NY), International Support Haiti Network (ISHN)
& Konbit Ayisyen pou Kore Lakay (KAKOLA) (list in formation)
International Support Haiti Network (ISHN)
Friday Oct. 7, Haitians Will Cross Brooklyn Bridge to Join with Occupy Wall Street Movement
For Immediate Release:
October 4, 2011
New York’s Haitian community will march across the Brooklyn Bridge to Manhattan’s Liberty Plaza to show solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street protestors on Friday, October 7, 2011 at 5 p.m. The Haitian community will rally at Cadman Plaza Park at 4 p.m. and then walk across the bridge to arrive at Liberty Plaza at 6 p.m., where they will rally for one hour.
“For the past seven and a half years, UN troops have occupied Haiti, shoring up the 2004 coup d’état which Washington led against Haiti’s elected government and enforcing Wall Street’s austerity policies which are strangling our people,” said Ray Laforest of the International Support Haiti Network (ISHN). “Now Washington and Wall Street are trying to strangle the U.S. working class in the same way. But the people are standing up to carry out a counter-occupation. We Haitians are fighting the same battle as those demonstrating on Wall Street, so we are going to join forces.”
On April 20, 1990, over 100,000 Haitians poured across the Brooklyn Bridge and tied up downtown Manhattan to protest a Center for Disease Control (CDC) prohibition against Haitians donating blood because they were supposedly more at risk for HIV infection. Since then, Haitians and their supporters have reenacted the historic demonstration several times, with thousands marching in October 1991 to protest the Sep. 30, 1991 coup d’état against former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, in August 1997 to protest the police sexual brutalization of Abner Louima, and in April 2000 to protest the police killing of Patrick Dorismond.
The Haitians demonstrators will also be demanding an immediate end to the UN military occupation of Haiti, whose Security Council mandate expires on Oct. 15; a stop to Haitian President Michel Martelly’s moves to resurrect the repressive Haitian Army, which has been demobilized for over 16 years; and the take-over of the Bill Clinton-led Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC) by a governing council representing the Haitian people. The IHRC is deciding how to spend the $10 billion in earthquake recovery aid which Haiti will receive over the next three years.
“It’s time for the people of the world to link arms against this small cabal of billionaire bankers who are driving millions of people the world over into misery,” said Ray Laforest. “The Occupy Wall Street movement resonates with us Haitians and with decent, working people everywhere.”
The October 7 march across the Brooklyn Bridge has been initiated by a coalition of Haitian community groups and individuals including the Fanmi Lavalas New York chapter, the International Support Haiti Network (ISHN) and the Konbit Ayisyen pou Kore Lakay (KAKOLA), among others.
The last time Haitians crossed the bridge was in a candle-light march on the bitterly cold night of January 29, 2010. The demonstration, called by the Coalition to Stand With Haiti, was to honor the memory of those killed in Haiti’s January 10, 2010 earthquake and to show solidarity with the Haitian survivors struggling with hunger, disease, and homelessness.
