JULY 28th report:
On Wednesday July 28th, 2010, with various other sister organizations, we were in front of the Haitian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (see the pictures, attached) to demonstrate our complete refusal of the occupation/tutorship that is oppressing the Haitian people. In our mobilization leaflet, we clearly explained our anti-imperialist stand, countering the many other political trends that took to the streets on the same day, protesting the Préval administration’s corruption or simply other technical aspects.
With some 100 people, we functioned in 3 teams: one, in front of the ministry with our signs and demands, another with banners, which stopped the traffic and took over this main road, with agitation. And the last that was distributing our leaflets and posters and spraying our demands.
At the last moment, we burnt a Brazilian flag which was intertwined with an American one (see the pictures), while that of our internationalist comrades, Conlutas, was paraded with us throughout the whole picket.
During the sit-in, a PNDPH (political party) walked by us. The worst occurred just after the very moment we had closed; an armed civilian clearly recognized as being linked to the government fired gunshots directly from his car, wounding one of these demonstrators, in front of the police that did not even attempt to arrest him. Just as we have been denouncing since a long time, the Papa/Baby Doc period is resurging! It’s up to us to know what we have to do.
On another hand, a march more specifically organized by Batay Ouvriye was held in Cap-Haitian too. With roughly 150 participants, the march paraded around the whole city with the same message, banners, leaflets and posters.
Both in Port-au-Prince and Cap-Haitian, as well as in other areas of the country, the distribution of these materials will continue during the rest of this week.
Finally, we will be receiving news and pictures of the many other demonstrations happening in the United States, Brazil and other Latin American countries.
THE STRUGGLE IS JUST BEGINNING!
Please see:
THE SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN IN SUPPORT FOR THE WORKERS, THE MOST HARD-HIT BY THE JANUARY 12th EARTHQUAKE CONTINUES. CLICK HERE TO READ OUR SOLIDARITY APPEAL AND CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED.
MARCH 12th, 2010- Address to the Camps
March 12th, 2010
FRIENDS AND COMRADES IN THE CAMPS!
While the government has finished showing how incapable it is and how it is perfectly inept to take us in charge;
While it remains constant to itself by seeking to consolidate its position along with the mafia-criminals it was putting in place;
While the crooked senators and representatives return to their usual scheming, to ensure their positions and continue their mandates that are already over;
While the imperialists, on the basis of the “help” they’ve come to “give” (of which the NGOs mainly profit, receiving three quarters of the money and invading our territory with army personnel, as if our country that the enslaved population has risen up to liberate now was up for sale);
While Préval and his government are opening the country to all those who wish to take advantage of the heightened exploitation in the factories and industries, to the point that working women are dying under this domination; as the bourgeois continue making their profits, taking advantage of the occasion to increase even more their exploitation in the businesses and factories…
While all the conservatives are collaborating by trying to creep closer to the power levels, and, thus, be a part of rehabilitating the rotten pre-existing structures….
WE, under the tents, under the tarpaulins, under old sheets, under cardboard… continue to endure the rains, the sufferance, the humiliations and even deaths, in a situation confronting us due to our misery; a misery due to the big landowners, big bourgeois, “big-eaters” and big foreign capitalists, with their armies and police forces.
Our Camp Committees
In many camps, Committees were set up to obtain the “assistance”, so we could live after the January 12th, 2010 disaster. Confronted with this natural catastrophe, some had sought to profit personally by misleading others to believe it was the result of a curse. The idea was to keep us continuing to wait, while at the same time dissimulating the role of the ruling classes with their reactionary state, to keep us where we were.
Indeed, there are many Committees; but many of them are frauds seeking to join with the big thieves to settle their personal business and later on sniggle into the “big-eater” club. Our own committees aren’t them. We have to be even more dynamic, but especially honest, serious, consequent, INDEPENDENT! They have to be able to represent the population. Later on, we’ll have to try to set up a correct COORDINATION amongst us, to have more strength. Within this collective movement, we’ll need to TRANSFORM ourselves, not only to be able to stand face to face with all the racketeers seeking to benefit of the situation personally, using us, but also and especially to counter the ruling classes’ and the State project of domination-exploitation that they’re prepared to unleash upon us once again.
We, confronting the ruling classes’ project of domination and exploitation
This domination and exploitation plan still exists, and EVEN WORSE. In fact, it’s on our backs, we workers, we popular masses that it’s seated, by forcing us to work for misery wages, while we’re the ones enduring, suffering, just as it’s always been. We have to be able to RESIST THIS PLAN. That’s why, starting from our Committees, we have to develop awareness, gain understanding of the situation facing us clearly, and then take measures to resist against the tribulations they’ve decided to submit us to again. So our Camp Committees have to be able to TURN INTO Committees that can CONFRONT all those opposing us, whether the little racketeers or the ruling classes’ domination-exploitation plan, especially. They’ve got to become BATTLE COMMITTEES. For this, our own interests, those of the workers, those of the popular masses, need to be placed before all else.
The political situation before January 20th, 2010, hasn’t changed a bit
The concrete political situation we had before us before the January 20th earthquake hasn’t changed a bit! It’s still the same people, even if presently the reactionaries, thieves and swindlers are talking about ‘change’. We’d already shown how violently we’re opposed to this situation: that’s why we remained distant from the fraudulous elections that were being prepared; that is why we’d begun to remobilize to defend our demands, to grab our rights from them. We mobilized to try to obtain the miserable 200 gourdes minimum daily wage: Préval blocked us! We mobilized to try to obtain wages they owed us since several months: the police repressed us! We mobilized against privatization, against the occupation: they ignored us! We mobilized to demand a different type of education, new forms of schooling, a different university: they blocked us, choked us with gases, arrested us! We mobilized against the rising famine: the police and the MINUSTAH UN forces shot upon us, even killed some! Preval congratulated them about this. And, finally, on the very January 12th, 2010, the reactionary forces began their assassinations!
Now, we’re hearing they want to “displace” us, send us to places we don’t know, where we won’t be able to live, where we’ll have to always depend on the “help” to “save” us: they’re taking advantage of the earthquake to kick us out. WE WON’T TAKE IT!
The political scene
We are mobilizing to defend our rights, FORCE OUR RIGHTS! For this, we have to DEFINITELY invade the POLITICAL SCENE! That’s where everything is being set up presently. We have to stop the little schemers, reactionaries and robber barons from uniquely having the speech up to now! We have to talk too, STRONGLY, all the time, with our interests upfront. WE HAVE TO MAKE THE POLITICAL ARENA BECOME OUR OWN! WE NEED TO PUT THE STREETS ONTO THE POLITICAL ARENA!
This State isn’t our own!
Before all of this, we need to be clear: the present State won’t represent us, the present State isn’t our State! Quite the contrary, it’s the racketeers’ state, the big-eaters’ State, the big bourgeois’ State, that of the big landowners, of imperialist States, of major transnational capital. To represent and defend our own interests truly and surely, we have to stand across the repression they’ll want to launch upon us, as we think, together, and work, together, on how to ESTABLISH A DIFFERENT STATE, with our interests before all, the only way for us to ensure our lives, our futures, together with our children. At Batay Ouvriye, that’s what we’re fighting for. Let’s link forces!
DOWN WITH THE DOMINATION-EXPLOITATION PLAN THE RULING CLASSES AND THEIR REACTIONARY STATE HAVE DECIDED TO IMPOSE UPON US, EVEN WORSE! DOWN WITH THE SWINDLING POLITICIANS, THE DEMAGOGUES, THE LIARS WHO’RE CONVINCED THAT THE POLITICAL ARENA IS THEIRS ALONE! DOWN WITH THE CORRUPT BIG-EATER STATE, THE MAFIA CRIMINALS DEFENDING THE BIG LANDOWNERS, BIG BOURGEOIS, MAJOR IMPERIALIST CAPITAL! DOWN WITH THE CRIMINAL DISPLACEMENTS THEY’RE TRYING TO FORCE UPON US PRESENTLY, ON TOP OF ALL THE MISERIES WE’RE ALREADY UNDERGOING!
FORWARD THE HAITIAN POPULAR MASSES’ STRUGGLES!
POSITION STATEMENT
After the January 12, 2010 Earthquake
Much has been said and much is happening. The situation is very grave. Very. This situation is maddening! The January 12th earthquake has devastated several cities in Haiti. There are several others that were struck but are not being talked about, because Port-au-Prince, Léogane, Ti Goave, and Jacmel have all been impacted so much. As everyone knows, many, many persons have died or disappeared, many have lost limbs, many houses have been destroyed, and many have been left homeless. Many who were working lost their lives, many workers perished at work in their factories, street vendors, public
sector employees, store employees, students, people in the streets and in popular neighborhoods… What a huge blow!
We must dispel from the very start any kind of divine interpretation of this disaster as an “Act of God”, a “malediction”… These considerations can only deter us and prevent us from understanding the real cause of the earthquake, which is completely natural and had been predicted by a few scientists. This trend of thought also increases our resignation, faced with a “divine intervention” and leaves us waiting helpless and alienated. On the other hand, these divine interpretations also mask the responsibility of the Haitian State, which had been forewarned and did nothing in terms of contingency planning to address some of these consequences.
Therefore, it’s important to stay level headed, to address the real problems, to think well, together, so that we can uncover the real solutions.
In doing so, we should be clear about:
· In what context, and in what conjuncture we were when the earthquake struck;
· Some of the perils we are facing;
· What we need to do to confront this challenge, and from which class interest.
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