 “Down with the Occupation, Down with the Reconstruction Plan, Long Live a Socialist State.” Demonstrators march in 1990 on sixth anniversary of the occupation of Haiti by United Nations forces (MINUSTAH) on behalf of U.S. imperialism. |
Articles From  Haiti |
| Unite
with Dominican and U.S. Workers
to Defeat Imperialist Attack! Revolt in Haiti Against IMF-Dictated Austerity On July 6 while Haitians were glued to the TV sets watching the World Cup, the right-wing government announced that, effective the next day, it was raising fuel prices by up to 50%. In Haiti, a deeply impoverished country, that spelled disaster for several million people living on the edge of survival. And it was ordered straight from Washington. To no one’s surprise but that of Haiti’s rulers and their imperialist overlords in the U.S., the country exploded in protest. In less than 24 hours the government announced the “suspension” of the fuel price hike “until further notice.” But that didn’t stop the popular uprising, as a general strike shut down transportation nationwide. It was the biggest upheaval in Haiti in years. The July uprising staved off the imposition of the IMF-dictated fuel price hike … for now. But given the powerful array of forces determined to keep Haiti under the imperialist boot, the Haitian masses cannot win on their own. Building proletarian opposition in major industrial countries, from Brazil to the U.S., is how to stop the arrogant imperialist economists from foisting their “soak the poor” policies on Haiti. But such a class struggle requires revolutionary internationalist leadership. Revolt in Haiti Against IMF-Dictated Austerity (August 2018) |
| For
Workers Action
to Smash Trump
Racism, and to
Block the
Capitalist
Deportation
Machine Obama
Built LET HAITIANS STAY! Full Citizenship Rights for All Immigrants! Donald Trump’s racist smear of immigrants from Haiti and Africa as well as El Salvador, calling their homelands “shithole” countries, has enraged millions. His vile words are not just an insult, they are an expression of his criminal cancellation of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians, Salvadorans, Nicaraguans and soon Hondurans, leading to mass deportations of tens of thousands of immigrants. The racist rhetoric is tied to racist policies , and it’s not just the white supremacist in the White House who is an enemy of immigrants. Remember that Democrat Obama paved the way for Republican Trump by deporting a record 5+ million immigrants (over 8 million if you include the “voluntary departures”). The hated I.C.E. police are part of a bipartisan capitalist deportation machine. Class-conscious working people and defenders of democratic rights must not only denounce Trump’s blatant racism, but also call for mass worker/immigrant action to block deportations, to stop the attacks on TPS and DACA, and to demand full citizenship rights for all immigrants! LET HAITIANS STAY! (19 January 2018) |
| U.N. Get Out!
Unite with Dominican and U.S.
Workers to Smash Imperialism! Haitian Workers Brave Repression in Fight Against Starvation Wages On May 19, workers in several plants in the SONAPI industrial park in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince walked out demanding a raise of the minimum wage, presently around U.S. $5.50, to US$12.60 a day. More than doubling the present rate would not even remotely be enough to live on. But just to win such minimal demands and to combat the starvation wages imposed on Haitian workers by imperialist capitalism requires active solidarity by labor and working people in the United States. In 2009, the U.S. embassy mounted a major operation to roll back an attempt to raise the minimum wage. And when she was secretary of state, Hillary Clinton siphoned off millions in earthquake relief funds to fund construction of a sweatshop by a notorious South Korean wage-gouger and union-buster. Major retailers make superprofits based on the superexploitation of Haitian garment workers because Wall Street and Washington want it that way. Every turning point in Haiti’s history was the result of events in the imperialist centers, and it is there that crucial fights in the next Haitian revolution will be fought. The Internationalist Group and League for the Fourth International have paid particular attention to Haiti since our inception. In every struggle, we seek to lay the basis for revolutionary workers parties on both sides of the border that divides Haiti and the Dominican Republic, in the heart of U.S. imperialism and internationally. Haitian Workers Brave Repression in Fight Against Starvation Wages (26 June 2017) |
| Stop Exclusion and
Deportation of Haitians! Full Citizenship Rights for All Immigrants! Haiti Hurricane Disaster: Workers Revolution the Answer On September 21, the Department of Homeland Security announced that it was resuming deportations of Haitians from the U.S. In response, the Internationalist Group and League for the Fourth International called for internationally coordinated protests. The resumption of deportations was a cynical election ploy to bolster the chances of Democrat Hillary Clinton, by heading off the spectre of an influx of Haitian immigrants that could be exploited by Republican Trump. In fact, both capitalist parties are enemies of immigrants. Ever since the birth of Haiti, U.S. imperialism has treated Haiti as a neo-colony, installing and removing presidents, using and disposing of Haitian workers as cheap labor, arming war lords and death squads and periodically invading, as it did in 2010 in the guise of disaster relief. Beyond the endless abuses and invasions by U.S. imperialism, the torment of Haiti is the result of the relentless workings of imperialist capitalism in its semi-colonies. The League for the Fourth International calls for Haitian-Dominican workers revolution in a voluntary socialist federation of the Caribbean. Haiti Hurricane Disaster: Workers Revolution the Answer (20 October 2016) |
| Protests in
U.S., Mexico and Brazil Demand: Stop Exclusion of Haitians! Stop All Deportations! Occupation Troops Out of Haiti! The Internationalist No. 45 (September-October 2016) |
| Down with the Racist
Dominican Nationality Law – For Haitian-Dominican Workers Solidarity Stop Expulsion of Haitians from the Dominican Republic In the U.S. and D.R.: Full Citizenship Rights for All! For Workers Mobilization Against Deportations and Racist Attacks Beginning this week, the government of the Dominican Republic intends to start mass expulsion of Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent. Based on a racist nationality law, hundreds of thousands of Dominicans have been deprived of their citizenship and are at risk of being seized on the street, at their workplace or in their homes in desperately poor bateyes (shantytowns), and dumped across the border in Haiti. An emergency protest was held on June 15 outside the Dominican Consulate in New York City where Internationalists called for workers action against the deportations, and for full citizenship rights for all living in the Dominican Republic ... and the United States. Dominican-Haitian tensions are fueled by U.S. imperialism, which set up the system of importing Haitian workers to toil on sugar plantations with no rights. Washington also set up the Dominican border police as part of militarization of U.S. borders. The struggle for Haitian-Dominican workers unity can begin in New York City where hundreds of thousands of Dominicans and Haitians are also subject to racist immigration laws. Stop Expulsion of Haitians from the Dominican Republic (16 June 2015) Bronx Protests Against the Deportations of Dominicans with Haitian ancestry and Haitian migrants (30 June 2015) |
| ¡Abajo la racista ley dominicana
de nacionalidad! ¡Solidaridad obrera haitiano-dominicana! ¡Alto a la expulsión de haitianos de la República Dominicana! En EE.UU. y en RD: Plenos derechos de ciudadanía para todos Movilización obrera contra las deportaciones y los ataques racistas A partir de esta semana, el gobierno de la República Dominicana pretende iniciar la expulsión en masa de haitianos y dominicanos de ascendencia haitiana. Sobre la base de una racista ley de nacionalidad, cientos de miles de dominicanos han sido despojados de su ciudadanía y corren el riesgo de ser detenidos en la calle, en sus centros de trabajo o en sus casas en los terriblemente pobres bateyes en que habitan, para ser arrojados al otro lado de la frontera con Haití. Una protesta de emergencia fue realizada el 15 de junio frente al consulado dominicano en Nueva York donde los internacionalistas llamamos a favor de acción obrera contra las deportaciones y exigimos plenos derechos de ciudadanía para todos los que residen en la República Dominicana ... y en Estados Unidos. Las tensiones entre dominicanos y haitianos son azuzadas por el imperialismo norteamericano, que erigió el sistema de importación de trabajadores haitianos para realizar las labores más duras en la República Dominicana, careciendo de derecho alguno. Asimismo, Washington estableció la policía fronteriza dominicana como parte de su empeño para militarizar las fronteras norteamericanas. La lucha por la solidaridad obrera haitiano-dominicana puede originarse es precisamente la ciudad de Nueva York, donde cientos de miles de inmigrantes dominicanos y haitianos carecen por igual de derechos en virtud de las racistas leyes migratorias. ¡Alto a la expulsión de haitianos de la República Dominicana! (16 de junio 2015) |
| Drive Out the MINUSTAH! Workers
to Power! Haiti: Women Workers Strike Against Starvation Wages U.S. Unions Must Join the Battle This week the anger of workers in Haiti’s export garment industry over their miserable wages finally boiled over. On December 10, hundreds of workers gathered at the industrial park outside the capital to demand, as they have for months, a minimum wage of US$11.50 per day. They cannot live on their present pay of $5 a day. As the workers, mostly young women, marched into the city brandishing tree branches, their numbers swelled. The next day they were blocked by riot police when they tried to march on the upscale town where Haitian president Michel Martelly lives. On December 12, the bosses locked them out. The workers face bitter opposition not only from the profit-gouging factory owners, but also from Haiti’s bourgeois government, their imperialist patrons in the U.S. embassy and the MINUSTAH mercenary troops occupying the country since 2004. What’s needed is the mobilization of workers’ power in class struggle, but not just Haitian workers. To prevent manufacturers from simply shifting production to even lower-wage countries, it would require active support action by U.S. unions. Against the solid wall of capital, the only road out of grinding poverty for the Haitian masses is an international struggle for socialist revolution, together with Dominican workers and peasants next door and with workers in the U.S. imperialist heartland. Haiti: Women Workers Strike Against Starvation Wages (12 December 2013) |
| No to
Imperialist Occupation – U.S./U.N.
Forces Out! Haiti Earthquake: Capitalism, Occupation and Revolution The earthquake that wrecked the capital of Haiti and surrounding areas on January 12 produced human tragedy of almost unfathomable proportions. It has been termed “the most destructive natural disaster in modern times.” Five months later, Haiti is no longer in the headlines or on the nightly TV news, but for the hard-hit Haitian population the scene has hardly changed. Now a new disaster is in the making as the hurricane season begins. This was a calamity made by capitalism: the earthquake was predictable and was predicted; the inferior construction methods are the result of Haiti’s poverty, and the swollen slums were the result of U.S. policies that have destroyed Haitian agriculture, forcing peasants off the land. On top of everything, Haiti is under imperialist occupation: Washington makes sure it has ultimate control of the strategically placed island, as it has throughout the Cold War and since. Haiti's devastation is not the result of “natural” causes or even “neo-liberal” policies – it is the product of the oppression of this semi-colonial country by the imperial masters ever since black slaves rose up to abolish slavery and throw out the colonialists two centuries ago. No new “economic model” can resolve this: what’s required is a new Haitian Revolution, a workers revolution overthrowing capitalism throughout the Caribbean and extending into the heart of imperialism. Haiti Earthquake: Capitalism, Occupation and Revolution (2 July 2010) |
| Repentant Social Imperialists Open Letter from the Internationalist Group to the Spartacist League and ICL The Spartacist League/U.S. and the International Communist League it leads are in deep political trouble. On April 27, the International Executive Committee of the ICL issued a statement “Repudiating Our Position on Haiti Earthquake,” headlined “A Capitulation to U.S. Imperialism.” After three months of “zealous apologies for the U.S. imperialist military intervention” in the name of humanitarian aid, the ICL suddenly declared that this was a fundamental “betrayal” and the Internationalist Group had been right all along in demanding U.S./U.N. troops out. While agreeing with the IG’s characterization of the ICL’s policy as “social-imperialist” and calling for a “savage indictment” of its own line, the ICL’s explanation for this betrayal – failure to have a formal discussion – doesn’t answer how an entire organization which proclaims itself revolutionary Marxist and Trotskyist could swallow this support for imperialism for months. Its origins can be found in years of capitulation to U.S. imperialism, notably by abandoning the call for its defeat in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. The Open Letter by the Internationalist Group urges those in the ICL who do not wish to continue gyrating in centrist confusion to examine the real record of their organization’s adaptations and capitulations to “its own” bourgeoisie over the past years. Open Letter from the IG/LFI to the SL/ICL (8 May 2010) |
| No to the Imperialist
Occupation – U.S./U.N. Forces Out! U.S. Puts Haiti into Receivership (Under Gouverneur Bill Clinton) The Obama administration saw the Haiti earthquake as a golden opportunity to repair the U.S.’ image, badly tarnished by the imperialist war and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. The Democrats in power in Washington would pose as leaders of a people-friendly empire, in contrast to the Darth Vader-like Republican regime of George Bush II. But behind all the talk of “helping” Haiti, what they actually did was what Yankee imperialists always do: send paratroops to occupy the Haitian capital and “secure” the country against unrest. From its control of air traffic at the Port-au-Prince airport the U.S. military actively blocked aid from reaching the Haitian people, likely resulting in thousands of deaths. Longer term, the U.S. wants to tighten imperialist control of the strategically located country, occupied since 2004 at Washington’s behest by a United Nations mercenary force. At a March 31 “donors conference” at the U.N. , a Haiti Interim Reconstruction Committee (HIRC) was set up to be in charge of rebuilding the country, displacing the Haitian government. Former U.S. president William Jefferson Clinton will be the neocolonial gouverneur of Haiti on behalf of Washington and Wall Street. U.S. Puts Haiti into Receivership (11 April 2010) |
| Trying to Justify
Support for U.S. Invasion SL Twists and Turns on Haiti In the wake of the earthquake that devastated Haiti’s capital, as Washington sent thousands of U.S. combat troops and a naval armada to secure the country, the Spartacist League ostentatiously declared it was not calling for withdrawal of U.S. and U.N. military forces. The SL claimed they were essential to distributing aid when in fact the U.S. military was actively blocking relief flights and refusing to release aid. While peddling the Pentagon's cover story for U.S. reoccupation of the country, in four successive articles the SL hysterically denounced the Internationalist Group for demanding that the U.S./U.N. occupation forces get out of Haiti. After trying for weeks to depict the 82nd Airborne paratroopers as humanitarian aid workers, the SL now calls for U.S. troops out now -- but not then, when it was necessary to combat illusions in the imperialist occupiers. We systematically take apart the SL's amalgams, straw men, baits, non sequiturs and smokescreens. Its grotesque apology for U.S. imperialism reflects the politics of Max Shachtman, not Leon Trotsky. SL Twists and Turns on Haiti (9 April 2010) |
| Spartacist
League Backs U.S. Imperialist
Invasion of Haiti The latest issue of Workers Vanguard, newspaper of the Spartacist League, has a front-page story that supports the presence of United States and UnitedNations occupation troops in Haiti. WV buys the U.S. rulers’ cover story for their latest invasion as supposedly aiding the desperate Haitian masses left homeless, hungry and in dire need of medical attention in the wake of the devastating earthquake. The article ends with an apoplectic attack on the Internationalist Group for exposing the imperialist lies and demanding “U.S./U.N. Forces Get Out!” This is a deeply significant step for the SL, marking the point at which they have gone over from bending under pressure from the ruling class to outright apology for imperialism. Spartacist League Backs U.S. Imperialist Invasion of Haiti (30 January 2010) |
| Kick
U.N., U.S. and Brazilian Occupation
Troops Out of Haiti! LQB Says: Workers Solidarity, Yes! Military Occupation, No! The Liga Quarta Internacionalista do Brasil, section of the League for the Fourth International, has published a special issue of its newspaper Vanguarda Oper?ria devoted to Haiti and the LQB's fight for the expulsion of the Brazilian expeditionary force commanding the U.N. troops occupying the Caribbean island nation on behalf of U.S. imperialism. In the introduction (translated here) to this collection of articles, the LQB notes that “left-wing” bourgeois Latin American governments headed by Lula in Brazil, Morales in Bolivia and Correa in Ecuador have been collaborating with imperialism as its flunkeys and “capit?es de mato” (slave catchers), in repressing the combative Haitian population. LQB Says: Workers Solidarity, Yes! Military Occupation, No! (26 January 2010) |
| Washington
Exploits Earthquake to Reoccupy the
Country Haiti: Workers Solidarity, Yes! Imperialist Occupation, No! Stop Blocking Aid to Haitian People – U.S./U.N. Forces Get Out! The January 12 earthquake in Haiti that devastated the capital city, leaving well over 100,000 dead and a million homeless, was one of the worst geological calamities of modern times. The earthquake was a natural disaster, but the horrendous death toll and monumental destruction were caused by capitalism and imperialism. Now the human suffering has been enormously compounded by to the militarization of the relief effort and reoccupation of Haiti by the United States. More than a dozen flights by aid groups, carrying rescue squads, tons of medical supplies and entire field hospitals, were refused permission to land at the Port-au-Prince airport by U.S. military air controllers who are now in charge. Food was already stocked in warehouses, but agencies refused to distribute it for fear of “riots.” The media blitz is a propaganda war to embellish the image of U.S. imperialism. This phony humanitarianism are being used to disguise a new U.S. occupation of Haiti. We demand an end to the imperialist occupation, U.S./U.N. forces get out of Haiti and stop blocking entry of Haitian refugees. Haiti:Workers Solidarity, Yes! Imperialist Occupation, No! (20 January 2010) Haïti:
Solidarité
ouvrière, oui! Occupation
impérialiste, non! (20 janvier
2010)
Hait?: ?Solidaridad obrera, s?! ?Ocupaci?n imperialista, no! (20 de enero de 2010) |
| Drive Out the MINUSTAH!
Workers to Power! Haiti: Battle Over Starvation Wages and Neocolonial Occupation Haiti, home of the first successful slave revolution in history, has for most of its independent history been condemned by the workings of the capitalist system to a threadbare existence of grinding poverty. For years, the only images of Haiti have been of sheer desperation. But Haiti does have a working class, and in August these workers fought an important battle against starvation wages. In the end, the Haitian parliament rejected the call for a US$5 daily minimum wage in the face of opposition by the president and industrialists. It was a bitter defeat for the first major working-class mobilization under the U.N. occupation. But workers confronted the “peacekeeping” troops of the MINUSTAH who act as mercenaries for U.S. imperialism. The Brazilian military has carried out massacres in Haiti with the same “counterinsurgency” tactics it uses in the slums of Rio de Janeiro. Meanwhile, in the neighboring Dominican Republic, racist violence against Haitians is mounting, including lynchings. The U.S. and Brazilian sections of the League for the Fourth International have been active defending Haitian workers in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Haiti: Battle Over Starvation Wages and Neocolonial Occupation (October 2009) |
| Initiative for
Haitian-Dominican Solidarity Against
Deportations New York Protest Against Persecution of Haitian Workers in the Dominican Republic On August 7, more than 75 people joined in an emergency picket in New York City, organized by an Initiative for Haitian-Dominican Solidarity Against Deportations. This was the first time in recent years that groups representing immigrants from both sides of the Caribbean island and other defenders of immigrants rights joined together in protest against the racist treatment of Haitians in the Dominican Republic. For decades, the Dominican ruling class has extracted superprofits from the near-slave labor of Haitian workers. Then after viciously exploiting them, the Dominican bosses call in the military to dump them back across the border. The protest was sparked by statements to the press by the Dominican director of immigration that Haitian immigration had become “unbearable,” that recent immigrants should “return to Haiti” and that Dominican president Leonel Fernández should make this a priority in his third term, beginning August 16. The protesters declared that everyone, in the U.S. as well as the D.R. should have equal rights. The Internationalist Group has regularly participated in monthly protests initiated by Grassroots Haiti in front of the Dominican consulate, and in organizing the August 7 united-front initiative. The protest received prominent coverage in Dominican and Puerto Rican newspapers. NYC Protest Against Persecution of Haitian Workers in Dominican Republic (August 2008) |
 Imperialist Occupation: Massacres and Sham Elections Kick the U.N. Out of Haiti! Forge a Revolutionary Workers Party! On February 7, Haitians went massively to the polls in an election that the United Nations occupation forces hoped would bring stability to the turbulent country. The leading candidate in the presidential race is René Préval, supported by the Lavalas movement of ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was hustled out of Haiti by U.S. invaders two years ago. Préval ran on the Lespwa (Hope) ticket, yet the Haitian masses’ hopes in him will be in vain. Indeed, U.S. and U.N. officials asked him to run in order to entice Lavalas supporters into the “political process.” No elections are going to provide “stability” for Haiti or resolve any fundamental issue. Despite all the hoopla about “democracy” and illusions in Préval, the president will only be a front-man for colonial occupation, beholden to the U.S. and the rapacious Haitian bourgeoisie, and will not raise the Haitian masses out of desperate poverty. Haitian working people and the poor should join with their allies around the world to drive the imperialist occupation forces in U.N. blue helmets out of Haiti. A permanent revolution is required extending to the Dominican Republic next door and ultimately to the imperialist heartland. Kick the U.N. Out of Haiti! (10 February 2006) |
| Attempted
Election
Theft in Haiti A week after Haiti’s presidential elections, no victor has been proclaimed and the Haitian masses are rising up in protest. On February 11 and 12, hundreds of thousands of people poured out of the slums to march on the presidential palace. Barricades went up in cities and on main roads around the country. U.N. occupation troops opened fire on a crowd, killing at least one demonstrator. There is no doubt that the vote counting has been rigged. With open confrontation in the streets over the attempt by right-wing reactionaries to steal the election, revolutionary Marxists stand on the side of the vast mass of poor black Haitians against the occupation forces and police on the other side of the barricades, while giving no political support to Préval and Aristide. What is needed is a class mobilization of the workers to lead the urban and rural poor against their exploiters and oppressors. Attempted Election Theft in Haiti (14 February 2006) |
|
How
the U.S. Orchestrated Haiti Death Squad Coup
Stop Persecution of Haitian Workers in the Dominican Republic! Since last May, a wave of racist and xenophobic (anti-foreigner) violence has swept over the Dominican Republic, instigated by the Dominican government, targeting Haitian immigrant workers as well as dark-skinned Dominicans of Haitian descent. At least 20,000 men, women and children were rounded up by soldiers and summarily deported to Haiti. In addition, at least a score of blacks have been murdered by lynch mobs. Since early January, the anti-Haitian persecution has intensified with Dominican troops lining the border, more deportations and mob violence. While the Dominican and Haitian left are mired in nationalism, class-conscious Dominican workers should take the lead in defending Haitians against this chauvinist onslaught. Stop Persecution of Haitian Workers in the Dominican Republic! (31 January 2006) |
| Imperialist-Engineered
Coup Backed by the U.N. U.S. and France Impose New Colonial Occupation Throw the Imperialists Out of Haiti! At dawn on Sunday, February 29, Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide was forced from office under intense pressure from Washington, bundled aboard a U.S. plane and removed from Haiti, not knowing where he was being taken. Shortly after, the first U.S. Marines arrived, seconded by soldiers brought in from France’s Caribbean colonies. The U.N. Security Council gave its blessing to the Franco-American condominium. This episode opened a “new chapter” in Haiti’s relations with the imperialist powers , as U.S. president Bush put it, namely a joint occupation by its former colonial masters. Gone are the tactical differences between the imperialist rivals over the Iraq invasion, and the Haitian masses will pay the price. In the guise of “peacekeeping,”a new “death squad democracy” has been installed. But resistance by the Haitian working people and working-class action against the occupation in the U.S. and Europe could turn Haiti into a tropical hell for the imperialists. Throw the Imperialists Out of Haiti! (1 March 2004) |
| Combat
the Coup Plotters – No Political Support to
Aristide! Organize Worker-Led Resistance Against Death Squad Invaders! Over the last three weeks, murderous right-wing rebels have launched an armed coup d’état against the Aristide government, once backed by the Democratic Clinton administration. The armed plotters are allied with a “democratic” opposition, covertly financed by the Republican Bush regime. Meanwhile, the impoverished population has been ground down by Aristide’s anti-worker austerity and privatization policies, carried out on orders from the International Monetary Fund. Working people should not politically support either side in the dispute between a threadbare imperialist-installed populist regime and a squalid imperialist-backed unpopular-front opposition. What is urgently needed is class-struggle workers action, in both Haiti and the neighboring Dominican Republic, and building revolutionary workers parties opposed to all the bourgeois parties of the U.S. puppet regimes. Organize Workers Resistance Against Death Squad Invaders! (28 February 2004) |
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