Solidarity with the Haitian people! No to militarisation!

The earthquake that shook Haiti on January 12th, also shook the consciousness and the heart of people all over the world, in whose eyes Haiti once again existed. It also shook our memory, since in between the press releases on this natural catastrophe, there have been leaks of the “social” catastrophes that have been suffered by the Haitian people and which are never taught at school. US and UN military occupations, bloody dictatorships backed by the Pentagon, embargoes and sanctions imposed by French and US imperialism, all of which have been as devastating as the earthquake. [Castellano] [Français] [Italiano]

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Solidarity with the Haitian people! No to militarisation!

The earthquake that shook Haiti on January 12th, also shook the consciousness and the heart of people all over the world, in whose eyes Haiti once again existed. It also shook our memory, since in between the press releases on this natural catastrophe, there have been leaks of the “social” catastrophes that have been suffered by the Haitian people and which are never taught at school. US and UN military occupations, bloody dictatorships backed by the Pentagon, embargoes and sanctions imposed by French and US imperialism, all of which have been as devastating as the earthquake.

In the face of such a terrible tragedy, the response of the international community has been extremely clumsy, late and negligent, save a few noteworthy exceptions. Thousands of lives had been sacrificed by the delay in the delivery of the humanitarian aid since the dominant logic was that of militarisation of Haiti. Anyone could think that what happened in Haiti was a civil war instead of an earthquake: there are more than 20,000 foreign troops at the moment occupying the country. It is obvious that this militarisation does not have any humanitarian purpose whatsoever, but it is the result of the geopolitical interest of the US, trying to strengthen their military presence in Latin America as a mechanism to re-establish their hegemony in the region: the military base in Curacao, the coup in Honduras, the military bases in Colombia and the re-activation of the IV Fleet are all part of this strategy, where the occupation of Haiti is but a key element they could take advantage of thanks to this tragedy.

Those who subscribe to this statement declare our solidarity with the Haitian people, while we insist that true solidarity should be support for the Haitian people’s movement so it can become a decisive factor in the building of the country, so Haiti is never again drowning in the most abject misery we can imagine.

We demand the establishment of civil solidarity brigades, not military ones. It is food and medicine what we need, not guns.

We call all of the Haitian people to leave behind sectarianism in order to make possible the work of all those forces that oppose the occupation in a reconstruction plan that places the interest of the people at the centre.

We propose, in the face of the crisis of an intrinsically corrupt, bankrupt and pro-imperialist State, to create a broad coalition of grassroots social movement in order to develop a programme, from and for the people, to overcome the Haitian crisis.

We demand the immediate and unconditional cancellation of the external debts in every form.

We call for the implementation of a deep agrarian reform that guarantees food self-sufficiency for Haiti.

We call to reject all anti-popular trade agreements, the structural adjustment programmes and other measures that drowned Haiti in extreme poverty and that will not help in the future to alleviate the misery of the masses.

We demand that the reconstruction of Haiti prioritise the construction of basic social services such as hospitals, schools, roads and housing, through a balanced urbanisation and infrastructure that does not offend human dignity.

We reject the double military occupation, by MINUSTAH (UN) and the US, since these occupations aim at keeping the Haitian people in line, so as to make easier the plunder of their country by national and imperialist capitalists.

We don’t accept as the destiny of Haiti to be once again bound to imperialism and its financial tentacles –we defend an independent, autonomous development, determined by the very Haitian people from its grassroots.

We insist on our solidarity with the Haitian people and on our commitment to walk side by side with them in the construction of a free, dignified and just Haiti. We call all of the anti-imperialist organisations to strengthen and form international solidarity committees with Haiti, and to coordinate international protests against the military occupation of Haiti on the last week of February and the first week of March.

- COMITÉ DEMOCRÁTICO HAITIANO EN ARGENTINA (CDH-A, ARGENTINA)
- ASSOSYASYON INIVÈSITE AK INVESTISÈ DESALINIEN (ASID, HAITÍ)
- KOODINASYON REZISTANS GRANDANS (KOREGA, HAITÍ)
- SENDIKA TRAVAYÈ ANSEYAN INIVÈSITÈ AYITI (STAIA, HAITÍ)
- PLATEFORME HAITIENNE DE PLAIDOYER POUR UN DÉVELOPPMENT ALTERNATIF (PAPDA, HAITI)
- REVISTA HOMBRE Y SOCIEDAD (HyS, CHILE)
- ESTRATEGIA LIBERTARIA (EL, CHILE)
- HIJOS DEL PUEBLO (HdP, ECUADOR)
- LATIN AMERICAN SOLIDARITY CENTRE ( LASC , IRELAND )
- HAITI SOLIDARITY IRELAND ( HSI , IRELAND )
- GRÚPA FRÉAMHACHA, GRUPO RAÍCES (IRELAND)