One more time, Préval and his government have deceived the Haitian popular masses.

north america / mexico | imperialism / war | opinion / analysis Wednesday April 16, 2008 17:14 by Komite Otonòm Pwogresis Ayisyen - KOPA Miami

One more time, Préval and his government have deceived the Haitian popular masses. He invited himself to the protest marches against the high cost of living. The Haitian popular masses went to pick him up. He was a no show. Instead, he called the occupation forces (the replacement of the anti-popular, anti-national Haitian Army) and the national police, who opened fire on the demonstrators. Let’s not forget, the popular masses voted for Préval. History will judge him for that! [ Kreyol ]

One more time, Préval and his government have deceived the Haitian popular masses. He invited himself to the protest marches against the high cost of living. The Haitian popular masses went to pick him up. He was a no show. Instead, he called the occupation forces (the replacement of the anti-popular, anti-national Haitian Army) and the national police, who opened fire on the demonstrators. Let’s not forget, the popular masses voted for Préval. History will judge him for that!

Préval’s speech clearly proves to us that he is acting only in the interest of the Haitian dominant classes, mainly the bourgeoisie. The Haitian bourgeoisie, totally dependent on imperialism, is the architect of this chronic economic crisis facing Haiti. At the same time, they are the ones ripping benefits from this current situation. They are, with the complicity of the State Apparatus, under the guidance of neo-liberal policies, destroying Haiti’s national economy. For the past 50 years, if not even more, in implementing the policies the dominant classes and the state apparatus, they have totally destroyed the economy. With the help of Lavalas, they imposed an embargo that made Haiti even more dependent. They took arable farmland to build factories in a free trade zone instead of promoting agricultural development. Préval and his government are protecting the real culprits, the real criminals that put Haiti in shambles. They are the real criminals. They know nothing of the high cost of living or its consequences and they are responsible for the crumbling of Haitian society.

Préval himself, under Duvalier and the provisional governments, used to call on the people to rise up. Today, he’s left the popular camp. He has gone to the other side. Along with the Haitian dominant classes and organizations such as the Chamber of Commerce, he is treating the popular masses as criminals: because we dare to stand up, because we dare to take the streets, because we no longer can stand this chronic hunger, because we dare to identify, in our own interest, the real criminals.

Préval is trying to buy time with his speeches. He is trying to pacify us in the interest of the dominant classes. He knows that nothing good, no solution in our interest, will come by protecting the real criminals. But he shows no interest whatsoever in addressing the crisis in our interest. Otherwise, he would have introduced legislation in support of a real minimum wage hike and demanded that the dominant classes, the real criminals, pay their taxes as required by the 1987 constitution, and he would have taken measures to lower the cost of living. This is the reason we always stress that they have no solution.

The crisis is not endemic to Haiti alone. It is an international crisis. Many of our brothers and sisters are facing the same problems and many of them are STANDING UP. It is an international crisis created by an inhumane capitalist political economy. In the US, the high cost of living is rapidly creeping up and knocking at our doorstep. The price of gas and food are going up rapidly. The petty-bourgeoisie and some sectors of the working class are losing their most valuable investment, their homes. It is becoming more difficult for capitalism to recycle finance capital. But just like in Haiti, the capitalist state apparatus is trying to resolve this crisis in the interest of the Capitalist class. Here in the U.S they have no solutions in our interest. We need to develop our capacity to wage our own autonomous struggle.

This crisis is international. It affects us here and also affects us in relation to Haiti. We, immigrants who are in the people’s camp, need to participate in building a working people’s camp to further our demands and struggles.

Expectedly, petty-bourgeois activists will put forth demands that accommodate the bourgeois class while at the same time giving a false sense of addressing popular demands. In the crisis facing Haiti, a melting pot of pseudo progressive and outright reactionary forces will ask for urgent humanitarian aid. It must be clear that this crisis did not just land on Haiti. For years, genuine progressives and revolutionary alike have consistently pointed out that danger. Asking for help without denouncing and exposing the Haitian dominant classes, the state apparatus and imperialism, is serving their interest.

Asking for urgent humanitarian help without putting forth demands for a fair minimum wage hike, for measures to lower the cost of living and for measures to promote employment, is to objectively protect the bourgeoisie.

Even if urgent help landed in Haiti, the mobilization needs to continue. In the US, we know this sector is going to ask us to support the Democratic Party. The high cost of living and our diminishing real salaries are hurting us, but if we do not build our own autonomous forces, we are leaving ourselves at their mercy and we are doomed to fall for their false promises.