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Showing posts with label natural disasters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label natural disasters. Show all posts
Sunday, November 10, 2013
The sickening first response of government to disaster
THE SICKENING FIRST RESPONSE OF GOVERNMENT TO DISASTER
Typhoon Haiyan is perhaps the most devastating weather event to ever hit land. More than 10,000 people have been killed, and the full details are still very much uncertain. The Philippines has had more than its share of natural disasters - and man-made ones as well. What I find particularly disturbing and unfortunately quite typical is the first priority of the Philippine government to the events. As quoted in today's report in Al Jazeera the President of the country used a photo-op visit to one of the areas affected to make the following "promise".
"We have around 300 policemen and soldiers who can rotate and restore peace here. Later tonight there will be several armoured vehicles from our army arriving to show the strength of the state and stop those who started the looting here"
Full stop ! This is not the abnormal reaction of some Third World state. The pattern was the same in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in the USA. To a government the first thing that it cares about is its own ability to rule. Secondly it cares about the property of the favoured classes. Humanitarian concerns rank a distant third.
In the aftermath of natural disasters the initiative of people on the ground and in nearby areas is far more important in relief than state-sponsored "help". This has been shown over and over. The statement from the Philippine President shows what the state is most concerned with. The so-called "looting" is an absolute necessity for people faced with hunger and other needs in the wake of tragedies. The first concern of the government is to hinder their ability to survive and to command that they will have to wait for the fullness of time when authority sanctioned aid may or may not arrive. The forces of authority will, however, arrive in a timely fashion.
The savage nature of government is laid open for all to see by such statements and actions.
Labels:
aid,
authority.,
current events,
government,
natural disasters,
Philippines
Tuesday, April 05, 2011
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INTERNATIONAL ANARCHIST MOVEMENT JAPAN:
JAPANESE ANARCHISTS CALL FOR INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PROTEST AGAINST NUCLEAR POWER:
Since the recent triple disaster in Japan Japanese anarchists have been active in both relief work and in furthering protest against the continued reliance on nuclear power. This April 10 th they are planning a major demonstration in Tokyo, and they hope others across the world will join them. Here is the appeal from the Asian Anarchist Network. Donations solicited at the demo will be forwarded to groups active in relief work in the affected area. The following has been slightly edited for English grammar and spelling.
NPNPNPNPNP
APRIL 10th "NO MORE FUKUSHIMA":
GLOBAL CALL FOR SOLIDARITY ACTIONS AGAINST NUCLEAR PLANTS
Dear all,
We are planning an anti-nuke demo in Koenji,Tokyo on 10th April, and we'd like to make it the day of global action. I hope you can contribute to this solidarity action. Actions are run up. More later. in solidarity, -------------------------
APRIL 10th "NO MORE FUKUSHIMA": GLOBAL CALL FOR SOLIDARITY ACTIONS AGAINST NUCLEAR PLANTS
We took a big risk depending on nuclear energy in exchange for creating "unlimited" prosperity. Now we are facing the dangers we assumed. Human beings seem to make wrong choices. We have to make sure. No more nuclear plants.
We individuals living in Tokyo are planning a demonstration against nuclear plants on the 10th of April in Koenji, Tokyo. We also would like to call for global solidarity actions on the same day. We believe that the global response and action will be a significant support for all disaster victims and movements against the current nuclear policy in general.
CALL FOR ACTION:
This is a global call for actions on 10th April. We sincerely hope that you will take any actions together on that day. Work with us in solidarity against all nuclear plants worldwide!
PLEASE SEND US:
Plans for actions and Records of actions.
Please send us the texts, documents, footage, images and/or anything else relating to your actions to: http://410nonuke.tumblr.com/
in strong solidarity,
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
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WORLD NEWS AND POLITICS:
PAKISTAN FLOODS IN PERSPECTIVE:
The slow moving disaster in Pakistan changes its numbers every day. As I write today there are an estimated 20 million people affected. The reported death rate of 1,600 seems to have its meter stuck. The reason is that calculating those effected is simple. Simply take the pre-flood population of areas now underwater if you want a measure of the affected. Death rates are much harder to estimate in a country where the means of communication have basically been cut off in the flooded areas and huge numbers of people are on the move. The figure of 1,600 is undoubtedly far lower than the actual toll by at least an order of magnitude ie 16,000 is probably a low estimate while 160,000 is probably too high. While this is not of the same magnitude as the 1938, 1931, and 1887 floods in the Huang He (Yellow) river basin in China even the probable lower number easily earns this flood a place amongst the worst floods in history. For more info on the largest floods in history see here, here and here.
Still, this is certainly the largest recorded flood in the country of Pakistan. Members of Winnipeg's Pakistani community have been fund raising for disaster relief since the beginning. This has mostly been done through the Association of Pakistani Canadians, 348 Ross Ave., Winnipeg, MB R3E 0L4. Phone # 204-943-6928. Get in touch with them if you would like to donate. The funds raised will go via the Red Cross (forwarded to the Pakistani Red Crescent), and Human Concern International. You might also donate via these organizations. The latter is particularly interesting as they claim that 95% of funds donated go directly to relief work, something that might give some pause in the case of other charities.
All that being said there is something quite disturbing about the response or lack thereof of the international community to the Pakistani floods. Molly reproduces below one anarchist comment on this from the website of the Irish Workers' Solidarity Movement. In actial fact the glaring contrasts between the response of international governments and their spending on what they consider important is far more glaring than the following suggests. I'll speak more about this at the end of this post.
PAPAPAPAPA
Response to Pakistan floods shows barbarism of system
Date: Tue, 2010-08-17 14:31
Radio, television and newspaper reports of the recent devastating floods in Pakistan are at last beginning to refer to the sheer scale of the problems faced by the victims. Figures for the number of people affected vary widely. According to the Irish Minister of State for Overseas Development Peter Power, reported in today’s (Tuesday) Irish Times, “the United Nations estimated that 40 million people had been left homeless; that eight million of those were in urgent need of immediate food and shelter; and that the combination of rising water and humidity had made a cholera epidemic a real danger”. RTE’s website says “Aid agencies are saying that the world does not fully understand the scale of the flooding disaster ….. One fifth of the country has been hit by severe flooding, with more than 20m people affected…..The UN believes up to 3.5m children are now at risk of contracting water-borne diseases….”.
Whatever the numbers, it is clear that the devastation caused is unprecedented. Apart from the immediate short-term needs in terms of shelter, food and clean water, the Pakistani poor and working class are facing food shortages, higher food prices and increased poverty and deprivation for considerable time to come. Already the price of vegetables has increased by about 100%, sugar has gone up by over 20%, and the price of other staple foodstuffs has rocketed. Transport prices too have soared as operators exploit the desperation of those trying to flee the devastated areas.
Caught between the authoritarianism of a corrupt government which spends huge amounts annually on its military - the defence budget for 2010/11 increased by 17% to 442.2billion rupees (over 4billion Euros) – and the authoritarianism of the Taliban ‘rebels’, the ordinary people of Pakistan face a seemingly hopeless situation. Protests have broken out across the country demanding much-needed aid and support for the victims.
The United Nations Secretary General has announced its biggest ever relief effort and made an appeal for $460million (€358million). The response of the world’s governments has been pathetically slow with less than a quarter of this amount pledged.
It’s worth stopping for a moment and considering a couple of figures – Pakistani government military spending this year at €4billion will be over 10 times the total flood relief pledged by the United Nations. The Irish government meanwhile will throw €24billion (do the maths – that’s over 60 times the total flood relief pledged by the United Nations!) down the Anglo Irish Bank black hole and into the pockets of wealthy speculators.
And they tell us that capitalism works!
PAPAPAPAPA
Here are some facts that put what is happening in Pakistan and the world's response to it in perspective:
>>The article above mentions the yearly military budget for Pakistan. Right next door to this country the US military is waging what may turn out to be its longest war ever. In 2009 the USA spent $3.6 billion a month on this war. According to an article in USA Today the cost by February of this year had climbed to $6.7 billion a month, and by the end of 2010 the Afghan war will be costing $8.9 billion a month. The estimated cost in 2011 will be $9.75 billion a month. So far the USA has pledged (not delivered yet) $70 million. Take out your handy dandy calculators. That 70 million amounts to a little less than 4/5ths of one percent of what the US is presently spending per month on their operations in Pakistan's neighbour. I think this shows just how "seriously" the US takes the welfare of people in Pakistan.
>>To add injury to insult the USA has not even called at least a temporary halt to its remote controlled terrorism in Pakistan. Just last Saturday US missiles fired from a drone killed 12 people in the village of Issori in North Waziristan.
>>Meanwhile each and every US military helicopter that arrives in Pakistan is sure to get its own golden glowing press release. At the same time as its missiles were raining down on Issori last Saturday a "wonderful" total of 2 came to flood aid. On Monday this was doubled to an "astounding" total of four. I wonder how many US helicopters are in Afghanistan. Surely the US military could at least slow down on its attacks on wedding parties and other such things to divert a few more of them to Pakistan. There'll still be crowds of Afghans left over to attack later after all.
>>Finally, in perhaps the starkest light, the pledged US aid to Pakistan is almost exactly the same as another sum that was recently in the news. The 70 or 76 million dollars is about the same sum that Madonna recently paid in a divorce settlement to be able to ditch her latest husband. That says it all.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
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INTERNATIONAL ANARCHIST MOVEMENT-CHILE:
CALL FOR SUPPORT FROM CHILEAN ANARCHISTS:
The recent earthquake in Chile disrupted many things in that country, and the Chilean anarchist movement is no exception. Over the past few years the Chilean anarchists have been growing in numbers and sophistication, and now they need help to recover from teh recent disaster and grow even further. the following appeal is from the Anarkismo web site.
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CALL FOR INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY WITH CHILEAN COMRADES
CALL FOR INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY WITH CHILEAN COMRADES:
CALL FOR INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY WITH CHILEAN COMRADES:
Dear comrades,
The situation in this region called Chile is already known, thus we believe more details about the recent earthquake are not necessary, as the Internet offers a lot of information about what took place.
The group of individuals that make up the Productora de Comunicación Social* escaped physical damage, even though during the earthquake a couple of comrades from our organization were in Concepción, one of the most devastated regions - leaving the site where they were pretty much uninhabitable and losing some equipment used for the work of the organization.
In Santiago, our main workplace and where meetings were held, also home to a couple of our comrades - the Casa Volnitza - was partially destroyed. Currently, we are looking into repairing the site, since neither the Productora nor the Sociedad de Resistencia Santiago**, with whom we share the space, have another place to go to. Fortunately, we had no other substantial material losses, but the structural collapse that occurred in the Casa Volnitza was indeed major.
We have had constant contact with some organizations in southern Chile. The comrades that were near the epicenter were able to communicate directly with us about the help they need. There are social center and sister organizations in poblaciones, or working class neighborhoods, that were heavily damaged by the earthquake and also by actions taken by the police, the army, mass media and the government.
Given the circumstances, we are asking for help from our comrades from different parts of the world. Here in Santiago, businesses are up and running, so one can even buy food and basic items that are not reaching us via the government. We have already sent some help to the southern region with what we have here in Santiago, even though we too have been affected.
In our space, the Sociedad de Resistancia Santiago is helping to collect items to send to the most affected area where there are still no basic services, or wherever organizations are requesting help.
As the Productora we would like to request monetary support from all organizations that know our work and trust us. These contributions will be used to recover lost material and equipment, possible restorations or an alternative space and to send aid to the Southern organizations. Obviously no institutional channels work to help the direct work of anti-authoritarian organizations, so we reach out to you.
All persons or organizations interested in providing some sort of collaboration, contact us as quickly as possible at our e-mail: productoradecomunicacionsocial@gmail.com
See you soon.
Reconstructing the social movement,
Health, bread and freedom!
Productora de Comunicación Social.
Videorevista – Sin(a)psis***"
comunicando acción en la construcción del movimiento social"
Valparaíso - Santiago - Valdivia - Temuco - Antofagasta - Concepción – and beyond
Translator Note:
*The Productora de Comunicación Social, or Social Communication Production, are the production collectives that publish the Chilean video-magazine Sin(a)psis***, an independent publication in DVD format covering the praxis of anarchist organizing in that region and beyond. More info at: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=196759735730&index=1#!/pages/Chile/SINAPSIS-la-video-revista/161436684301
**The Sociedad de Resistencia Santiago groups the working, the unemployed and students into anti-authoritarian initiatives to generate collective solutions for immediate needs, be they economic, social and/or cultural without leaving behind the purpose of collective liberation. More info at: http://sociedadresistencia.blogspot.com/
You can also donate to other autonomous, anarchist and radical community based organizations by emailing or clicking on the links below.
Fondo Alquimia
for the Comunidad Lésbica La Teta Insurgente (lesbian anarcho-feminists in Concepción)http://www.fondoalquimia.org/Earthquake-in-Chile-Women-....html
Solo el Pueblo Ayuda al Pueblo- Campana de Solidaridad Popular
Only the People can help the People- Popular Solidarity Campaign
(a coalition of various organizations and individuals, including anti-authoritarians)http://soloelpuebloayudaaelpueblo.blogspot.com/
For news and updates in Spanish check out:
Monday, March 08, 2010
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INTERNATIONAL POLITICS-CHILE:
A DIFFERENT SORT OF LOOTING:
Since the recent earthquake in Chile the media have been full of reports of looting, especially in the city of Concepcion. It might be true, but it may also be quite exaggerated. One wonders if the various news media merely copy the one or two reporters who are actually in the city and whether they end up copying each other as well. Newsworthy I guess.
There is, however, another form of looting that has been going on for centuries. Here, from the Anarkismo website is a call to end that much more serious theft.
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
Stop the looting in Chile
by José Antonio Gutiérrez D.
[Castellano]
Stop the looting in Chile
Stop the looting in Chile
by José Antonio Gutiérrez D.
[Castellano]
Stop the looting in Chile
Following the earthquake, Chile is facing a huge, difficult task. It is estimated that the country's reconstruction will cost about US$30 billion - such a huge figure that President Bachelet has raised the need to seek credit from the World Bank. But before diving into a new vicious cycle of debt to the international finance organizations, where we are likely to end up paying ten times the original amounts borrowed as a result of their exorbitant interest rates, it is imperative we consider whether the country is able to meet these costs itself and avoid the financial bondage we would otherwise be risking. If there is no such capacity, it is essential we study ways to ensure that most of the funds for reconstruction are found within the country, so as to minimize dependence on foreign loans and credit as much as possible.
I believe that it is important in these times of turmoil, to pay attention to the role that copper can play in rebuilding Chile. This mineral has already provided a reserve fund of US$18 billion which can be used in emergency and reconstruction tasks.
For this reason I enthusiastically join the campaign against looting that, more and more every day, is being stirred up by the media (feeding the collective hysteria of the masses) and by the more snobbish members of the local establishment: but instead of all this ado about the looting of supermarkets and shops, what we really should be doing is examining the systematic and multi-million looting of a "cornerstone" of the Chilean economy - copper mining - that is being quietly carried on by the large mining companies.
The contribution to domestic production of copper from CODELCO [1] was only 28% in 2007. Yet this company has contributed over US$21 billion to the Treasury since 2005. But the contribution from all the other corporations who control the bulk of production, however, goes no higher than a measly US$5 billion! What is this, if not looting on a grand scale from under the noses of the whole people, with the collusion of businessmen and politicians?
Over the period of the Bachelet government alone, the multinational copper-mining corporations have made off with US$70 billion thanks to all sorts of tricks to avoid paying duties and only a few years ago were forced to start paying royalties, though the amounts involved are laughable. For decades the Chilean people have had their main resource - copper - stolen without any shame. These are the thieves that worry me and these are the looters who are really screwing the whole country [2].
But they are not the only ones who are stealing what belongs to the whole people. The army, now posing as guardians of the common good, have been robbing the country for decades through the 10% tax on sales of copper that goes directly to their coffers. This privilege should be done away with as soon as possible so that these funds can be used in ways that benefit the people.
When you look at these figures, you can see who the real thieves in Chile are. If we stop this looting, the country will have enough money to rebuild without having to borrow from loan-sharks who would then go on plundering the people of Chile through the debt.
For this reason it is important that popular organizations apply pressure on the Chilean State for two pressing measures that the ruling classes in this country will never introduce of their own accord, since they either benefit from this plunder or have no interest in stopping it:
1. Re-nationalize copper2. Cancel the 10% tax on sales of copper for the benefit of the Armed Forces.We therefore spread this invitation to stop the shameless looting in Chile. It is a task that involves the whole people.
José Antonio Gutiérrez D.5 March 2010
Translation by FdCA-International Relations Office.
Notes:
1. CODELCO (Corporación Nacional del Cobre de Chile - National Copper Corporation of Chile) is the State's copper-mining company. It was founded after foreign-owned companies were nationalized in 1971.
2. These figures, and more besides, are available on the website of the Comité de Defensa del Cobre (http://www.defensadelcobre.info/).
Saturday, January 23, 2010
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INTERNATIONAL POLITICS:
HAITI AND AID:
While it is hardly a major subject of conversation on the television news, being as it can't be reduced to a ten second sound bite, the idea that the aid that is being provided to the Haitian people by the international community is chaotic and very much ineffective is beginning to become more and more obvious. The fact that the death toll has been so high and the aid efforts have been so hampered very much because of previous "aid" is also beginning to show up more and more, even in the mainstream press. Haiti hardly needs the sort of "aid" that created the preconditions for the recent tragedy.
Here are four articles, each of them exploring a different aspect of this question. First of all, from the most recent edition of the medical journal The Lancet, a source hardly noted for being salivating radicals.
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Growth of aid and the decline of humanitarianism:
Original TextThe Lancet
Picture the situation in Haiti: families living on top of sewage-contaminated rubbish dumps, with no reliable sources of food and water and virtually no access to health care. This scenario depicts the situation in Haiti before the earthquake that catapulted this impoverished and conflict-ridden country into the international headlines. Now the latest target of humanitarian relief, international organisations, national governments, and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are rightly mobilising, but also jostling for position, each claiming that they are doing the most for earthquake survivors. Some agencies even claim that they are “spearheading” the relief effort. In fact, as we only too clearly see, the situation in Haiti is chaotic, devastating, and anything but coordinated.
Much is being said elsewhere about the performance and progress of relief efforts in Haiti. It is crucial that the immediate needs of the Haitian people are urgently met. But it is scandalous that it took a seismic shift in tectonic plates for Haiti to earn its place in the international spotlight. Political rhetoric is familiar: domestic and international point-scoring during times of crisis and disaster is a common game played by many governments and politicians. But this dangerous and immoral play has many losers, especially since the rules include judging the needs of desperate people according to subjective perceptions of worth.
For example, just think back 5 years to the dismal international response to the catastrophic earthquake in Pakistan. Additionally, over the past 2 weeks alone, flooding has displaced 30 000 people in Kenya and 4000 people in Albania, and in Yemen, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Somalia hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced by further fighting. All international agencies, including the World Food Programme, have recently withdrawn from Somalia—one of the most violent countries in the world with a population size similar to Haiti. It is unimaginable that international agencies and national governments might one day compete for attention in leading a Somali humanitarian relief effort. The reasons for their current inaction are most un-humanitarian.
We have repeatedly drawn attention to the fact that when viewed through the distorted lens of politics, economics, religion, and history, some lives are judged more important than others—a situation not helped by the influence of news media, including ourselves. This regrettable situation has resulted in an implicit hierarchy of crisis situations further influenced by artificial criteria, such as whether disasters are natural or man-made. As this week's special issue on violent conflict and health shows,* the health needs of people affected by conflict are repeatedly neglected.
Politicians and the media make easy targets for criticism. But there is another group involved in disaster relief, which has largely escaped public scrutiny—the aid sector, now undoubtedly an industry in its own right. Aid agencies and humanitarian organisations do exceptional work in difficult circumstances. But some large charities could make their good work even better. The Lancet has been observing aid agencies and NGOs for several years and has also spoken with staff members working for major charities. Several themes have emerged from these conversations. Large aid agencies and humanitarian organisations are often highly competitive with each other. Polluted by the internal power politics and the unsavoury characteristics seen in many big corporations, large aid agencies can be obsessed with raising money through their own appeal efforts. Media coverage as an end in itself is too often an aim of their activities. Marketing and branding have too high a profile. Perhaps worst of all, relief efforts in the field are sometimes competitive with little collaboration between agencies, including smaller, grass-roots charities that may have have better networks in affected counties and so are well placed to immediately implement emergency relief.
Given the ongoing crisis in Haiti, it may seem unpalatable to scrutinise and criticise the motives and activities of humanitarian organisations. But just like any other industry, the aid industry must be examined, not just financially as is current practice, but also in how it operates from headquarter level to field level. It seems increasingly obvious that many aid agencies sometimes act according to their own best interests rather than in the interests of individuals whom they claim to help. Although many aid agencies do important work, humanitarianism is no longer the ethos for many organisations within the aid industry. For the people of Haiti and those living in parallel situations of destruction, humanitarianism remains the most crucial motivation and means for intervention.
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Here is a view from Haiti itself of what has to be done in the short and medium term. Once more perception is important. One can read articles in the mainstream press about the urgent need to "rebuild the government of Haiti". Other articles will point out that "this is the last thing that Haitians need", given the fact that government in Haiti has usually, at best, been an inefficient kleptocracy and at worst positively murderous in the service of foreign interests. Aside from the brief reign of Aristide, overthrown with US connivance, there hasn't been a reform minded government in that country for over a century.
Perception ! What is greatly reported are outbreaks of violence. What is greatly underreported were the great efforts of ordinary Haitians in the hours and days after the quake to self-organize and provide shelter and what few provisions that could be found to each other, a job that the international forces weren't doing. What was truly horrifying was to see and hear of the remains of the Haitian police (probably working under private contracts) protecting property from so-called "looters" ie those scavenging in the ruins for anything that might be of use to the traumatized citizenry. Food and water were not being dropped from the skies. The only source of such was the ruins that these so-called "looters" were searching in. It is horrifying enough to thing that someone might be killed by the mercenaries for a case of bottled water. It is even more horrifying to see the media glorify the murderers and slander the scavengers.
The following is originally from the Grassroots International Network. The following version comes from the Anarkismo website.
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Relief and Solidarity -views from the progressive sector in Haiti:
by Camille Chalmers - PAPDA
Note- The following views expressed by Camille Chalmers of the Plateforme Haïtienne de Plaidoyer pour un Développement Alternatif (PAPDA) in our opinion represent a good starting point to think of a comprehensive strategy of solidarity with the Haitian people, now suffering terribly by the earthquake and the completely inefficient relief thus provided, that has translated more than anything in a deeper occupation and militarization of Haiti.
Translation of correspondence from Camille Chambers of the Haitian Platform to Advocate Alternative Development (PAPDA) - courtesy Grassroots International.
[PAPDA is a coalition of nine Haitian popular and non-governmental organizations which work with the Haitian popular movement to develop alternatives to the neo-liberal model of economic globalization]
January 15, 2010
Communication has been very difficult.
I inform you that my partner, children, and I are alive. My house and everything we had were totally destroyed, and personally the most serious [loss] is that my wife’s mother died in the catastrophe.
The situation is dramatic. Three million homeless. An entire country crying. Over 100,000 dead. Hundreds of thousands injured and dead bodies everywhere. The entire population is sleeping in the streets and waiting for replies to their pleas and more blows…
The response from the State is very weak, almost absent. The 9,000 UN troops are not doing anything to help people. The majority of people have been without medical assistance for 48 hours because the largest hospitals in the capital were also damaged and are not functional. Firefighters are also completely powerless because their station is buried and they are overwhelmed by the scale of the catastrophe.
In such extreme cases there are three important elements:
-Coordinated emergency assistance
-Rehabilitation
-Structural solidarity
1) Drinking water, food, clothing, temporary shelter, basic medical supplies. Treat the wounded in make-shift hospitals that would hopefully be established in all the neighborhoods. Get people out from underneath the remains of buildings. Fight epidemics and the risk of epidemics and disease due to the presence of piles of corpses.
2) Credible mechanisms for coordination, a crisis committee for scientific assessment and monitoring of the situation, and coordination of aid and its distribution with intelligence and transparency to ensure that victims receive help as quickly as possible. Be in permanent communication with the population about instructions as to what to do.
3) Rehabilitation: recover and repair communications and all infra-structure, especially transportation within and between cities.
4) Structural solidarity: activities and investments that will allow people to rebuild their lives in better conditions. It is time for a great wave of solidarity brigades with the people of Haiti other than the misery and characteristic aggression represented by MINUSTAH (the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti). Instead, we need a broad movement of solidarity between peoples that makes it possible to:
a) Overcome illiteracy (45% of the population)
b) Build an effective public school system that is free and that respects the history, culture, and ecosystem of our country
c) Overcome the environmental crisis and rebuild Haiti’s 30 watersheds with the massive participation of young people and international volunteers
d) Construct a new public health system which brings together modern and traditional medicine and offers quality, affordable primary services to 100% of the population to overcome child mortality, malnutrition, and maternal mortality (currently 630 women per 100,000 live births)e) Reconstruct a new city based on different logic: humane and balanced urbanization, respect for workers and the real wealth creators, privileging public transportation, parks that maximize our biodiversity, scientific research, urban agriculture, handicrafts and the popular arts.
f) Construct food sovereignty based on comprehensive agrarian reform, prioritizing agricultural investments that respect ecosystems, biodiversity, and the needs and culture of the majority.
g) Destroy the dependency ties with Washington, the European Union, and other forms of imperialism. Abandon policies issued by different versions of the Washington Consensus. Cut ties with the International Financial Institutions and their plans: structural adjustment, the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers, Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, and Post-Conflict Countries.
h) Expel MINUSTAH and build solidarity people to people brigades.
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As was said above the roots of why the disaster was so overwhelming go deep into the history of Haiti. Here's an article from the Grassroots International that explores some of this question.
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Haiti: Roots of Liberty -- Roots of Disaster:
By Nikhil Aziz
January 21st, 2010
Grassroots International ally Food First's executive director Eric Holt-Jimenez wrote recently -- on HuffPost -- on the long roots of the disaster in Haiti. His point about the "historic bleeding of Haiti's economy and the systematic undermining of its political institutions" being at the root of the disaster as much as the "tectonics that leveled Port-au-Prince" is right on the mark. Grassroots' partners and allies in Haiti have long struggled against that bleeding and undermining, and fought for better Haitian and international policies on agriculture, trade, and food that would sustain their people, and their land. Their current and long-term efforts for relief and rebuilding continue to be infused by that vision and those strategies.
"In overthrowing me, you have cut down in Saint-Domingue only the tree of liberty. It will spring up again by the roots for they are numerous and deep." Toussaint L'Ouverture
The leader of Haiti's historic slave rebellion probably had a good idea of just how vicious the colonial powers could be. He knew they would use all of their political and military muscle to kill the roots of the modern world's first black republic. But L'Ouverture could never have imagined the chain of human tragedies that would follow these vengeful acts of political and economic terrorism. He would never have imagined the national disaster following last week's devastating earthquake.
This is an important point: the disaster, in which hundreds of thousands of Haitians may eventually perish, was unleashed by the 7.0 earthquake. An earthquake is simply a natural hazard that in and of itself may or may not result in disaster. A disaster is a phenomenon in waiting that explodes on the scene when a hazard overwhelms people's ability to anticipate, cope, resist, and recover from a natural hazard because of their high level of vulnerability. When vulnerability is low, a hazard has little or no effect. When it is high, disasters are severe. The mounting death toll in Haiti--due to the exceptionally high level of vulnerability of its people--is a tragic testament to the historic bleeding of Haiti's economy and the systematic undermining of its political institutions, These factors--just as much as the tectonics that leveled Port-au-Prince--are the roots of the disaster.
At a time when governments and international relief organizations are desperately attempting to provide rescue, medical care, water, food and shelter to earthquake victims it would seem inappropriate to ask how the country ever became so vulnerable. However, for relief and recovery efforts to be truly effective and sustainable, they must be sure not to reproduce the same vulnerable conditions that contributed to the horrific magnitude of the disaster in the first place.
This week's media reports were interspersed with references to the devastating and interminable reparations imposed on Haiti by France for the loss of "property" following the successful rebellion that drove French slave-owners from the island in 1804. Some stories go so far as to follow Haiti's chronic debt straight through the U.S. military occupation of 1915-1934 into the 30-year Duvalier kleptocracy. A few even trace the debt trail right up to the Structural Adjustment Programs imposed by the International Monetary Fund in the mid-1980s and continuing through the 1990s, implemented by the Haitian government of Preval until the time of the earthquake.
This is where the telling tends to diffuse into the blogosphere... Because while it is safe to assume that no more economic reparations will be extorted from Haiti for having become the second republic in the hemisphere (they finally paid the French off in 1947 to the tune of $2.7 billion in current dollars), it is not safe to say that Haitian reconstruction will be free from the current machinations of the IMF, the World Bank and northern corporations that may see in the Haitian earthquake an investment opportunity.
Remember the global food riots of 2008? They started in Haiti when people were surviving on mud cookies while abundant (but expensive) food stocked the shelves. They angrily rebelled against an unjust food system and threw the prime minister out of office. This food rebellion was a direct result of the IMF's programs--implemented under U.S. tutelage--that slashed tariffs, closed state-owned industries, opened the agricultural market to U.S. producers and cut spending on agriculture by 30% in Haiti's fertile, rice-producing Artibonite Valley. Rice and other imports, particularly highly subsidized U.S. agricultural products, immediately flooded the Haitian market. In 1987, Haiti met 75% of its rice needs through domestic production. Today, of the 400,000 tons of rice consumed in Haiti each year, three-quarters consists of "Miami Rice"--the Haitian nickname for the cheap U.S. taxper subsidized rice sold at half the price of local grain.
In 1991 Haiti's first democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was removed in a military coup. As a condition for supporting his return, the U.S., IMF and World Bank required that he further open up the Haitian economy to foreign trade. Haitian tariffs on rice were reduced from 35% to 3%, the lowest in the Caribbean region, and government funding was diverted away from agricultural development to servicing the nation's foreign debt. Without government support or protection, Haitian farmers were in no position to compete with their highly subsidized U.S. counterparts. Subsidies for rice producers in the U.S. totaled approximately $1.3 billion in 2003 alone, amounting to more than double Haiti's entire budget for that year.¹
Haiti's economy was to be predicated on a shift from agriculture to manufacturing. Since the 1980s, the economic strategy pursued by USAID and the international financial institutions has been to capitalize on Haiti's cheap labor to increase exports in manufactured goods and agricultural "dessert" products like mangoes and coffee. The idea was to generate revenue to service Haiti's unpayable debt. This strategy flopped. Instead, Haiti experienced massive rural to urban migration, blinding poverty, unemployment and an explosion of urban slums. It is precisely the people living in these slums that have borne the brunt of the disaster. This is the man-made result of massive, unplanned and reckless urbanization.
Reports are that droves of people are leaving Port-au-Prince for the countryside in search of food and shelter. Though damage was not as extensive in Haiti's rural communities, many houses have fallen and some roads are un-passable. Little or no aid is reaching people outside Port-au Prince, so Haiti's local organizations and networks, like the Haitian Platform to Advocate Alternative Development (PAPDA) , the National Congress of Papaye Peasant Movement (MPNKP), the Kordinasyon Rejyonal Oganysasyon Sides (KROS),Tèt Kole Ti Peyizan Ayisyen (TK), and the Peasant Movement of Papaye (MPP) have stepped forward providing first aid, water, food and shelter. These are the same grassroots development organizations that came together to support reconstruction after Haiti's disastrous 2008 hurricane season.
With a shift in development strategies, Haiti's farmers could feed and provide employment to scores of displaced people. Mobilizing and organizing even in the midst of their own shock and suffering, the energy, compassion and creativity of the Haitians themselves shows us what it will take to successfully implement relief and reduce Haiti's grinding vulnerability. The history of foreign intervention in Haiti has created a dangerous dependence on the global market. The success of relief and reconstruction efforts in Haiti will depend in the short and long term on rebuilding its food system as an engine for local economic development. This task requires a commitment to food sovereignty, the democratization of the food system in favor of the poor.
Aid can nourish the roots of disaster or the roots of liberty. The future of Haiti's brave but beleaguered people depends on making sure it does the latter.
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Finally, here's an even more extensive exploration of the roots of Haiti's present crisis, once more from the Anarkismo website, including more on the tasks ahead of how to rebuild the country-the right way this time.
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The reconstruction of Haiti:
The missionaries of the rifle and the chequebook:
“The geography
In Chicago, there is nobody that is not black. In midwinter, in New York the sun fries even the stones. In Brooklyn, the people who are alive at the age of 30 deserve a statue. The best houses in Miami are made of rubbish. Pursued by rats, Mickey flees Hollywood. Chicago, New York, Brooklyn, Miami and Hollywood are the names of some of the neighbourhoods in Cité Soleil , the most miserable shantytown of Haiti’s capital.”( Eduardo Galeano )
The “Civilizing Mission” of the U.S in Haiti
“The gangs are in control now” say the sensationalist headlines of some newspapers on the desperate situation in Haiti, the country that completely collapsed last week. [1] While the mass media feeds us a diet of hysterical news about a country supposedly at the mercy of criminal gangs who are terrorising the poor citizens and threatening the humanitarian aid efforts of the West, the reality appears to be quite different. It is true that some 3,000 prisoners have escaped from prison in Port-au-Prince after its collapse, many of whom are quite dangerous, having been trained in the school of gangs in the US suburbs. It is also true that there have been some clashes with elements of the security forces and the UN due to the natural exasperation of the people who see the help blocked by a network of inefficiency and indolence [2]. These clashes, however, appear to have been rather bounded and restricted, and aside from being perfectly understandable in the context of absolute abandonment in which the population have found themselves, they have been magnified by the media: the feeling that seems to prevail in the population is Solidarity [3].
I do not think, personally, that this media frenzy is so innocent or a case of mere sensationalism. Precisely at a time when these articles occupy the front pages of American and European press, hordes of U.S troops were beginning to arrive, as part of a contingent of 10,000 personnel from the U.S military Southern Command that Obama has decided to deploy to Haiti, allegedly as part of the humanitarian efforts of the “international community”. However, after stepping on Haitian soil on Saturday 16th January, they have come to realise that their role will go beyond purely humanitarian work and that, after heeding the call of Haitians, the can take charge of security. The U.S role in “security” has been openly accepted and it has assumed control of the airport in Port-au-Prince, released by the puppet government of Préval. It would not be surprising if this was the first step in the occupation of ports and other strategic centres of communication.
Obviously, all of this seems to be done as part of an international humanitarian effort and that a measure of force is necessary in order to discipline the savages who kill each other for a packet of rice. The truth is that all imperialist interventions have always shown a humanitarian garb. Never has an imperialist government occupied, looted or bombed a country arguing merely the rights of the strong. Haiti is on the threshold of Florida and the heart of Uncle Sam was moved to see so much barbarism on his own back door. This is not something new: In 1915 Haiti was also gripped in chaos and the “Northern benefactor” had to intervene to spread a bit of civilization to the enraged people. That other "humanitarian" intervention occurred because during one of the frequent rebellions, Haitian dictator Jean Vilbrun Guillaume Sam had to take refuge at the French consulate. But he was taken by a crazed mob that lynched and dismembered him, carrying the remains of his body in a macabre procession across the capital. Faced with the horror, the United States were called upon to fulfil its "civilizing" mission, after which they proceeded to occupy the country from the day after the lynching until ... 1934!
Digging a little at the surface of this “official” story there are many elements that do not match up with the official version of this “humanitarian” occupation. It is rarely mentioned that the lynched dictator was a close ally of the U.S, where in the context of the First World War he sought to reinforce U.S interests against Germany, since the latter had opened itself and important space in Haiti to control much of Haiti’s wealth (trade and financial transactions etc.). Neither did it mention the geo-strategic interest of the U.S to consolidate its "backyard" after achieving absolute hegemony after the Spanish - American war of 1898. Much less is mentioned of the fact that the dictator had ordered, the day before he was killed, the slaughter of 167 political prisoners. Neither did it mention that among the measures taken in this “civilising” process (ie. occupation), was the control over the Haitian banking system and customs, the imposition of the 1919 Constitution, which allowed foreigners to acquire land in Haiti and other measures favourable to the interests of big business –thus paving the way for the US agribusiness. We don’t hear either that in other to build infrastructure to favour these big businesses the US introduced a form of slavery in the form of corvée, or forced labour. We don’t hear either of the effects of this occupation: the birth of an army that since the US left formally the island until 1995, when it was dissolved, they didn’t do anything but slaughter civilians and promote dictatorial governments; an extremely atrophied economic structure, modelled upon the narrowest interests of imperialist capitalism; the creation of a centralist autocratic State that paved the way for the later Duvalier dictatorship [7].
All this, of course, was done in the name of restoring "peace and order." Now, once again, the U.S feels called upon to carry out their "civilising mission". U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, reminds us that their work is not intended to supplant the Haitian government but to support it. However, arbitrary decisions taken by the U.S. occupation forces in command of the airport, are delaying the humanitarian aid rather than speeding up distribution, which has already caused more than one protest from other international aid agencies [8]. Incidentally, while the planes carrying medical aid are delayed, no military flights have been delayed, which gives an approximation to the idea of "help" managed by the U.S.. Either way, this crisis allows the U.S. to strengthen its military presence in the Caribbean region precisely at a moment when they have reactivated the Fourth Fleet and turned Colombia into a hemispheric military platform.
Moreover it is not only the U.S who feels called upon to civilise Haiti. For some time now, many nations have seen it as their right to carry out this task. Some people tell military occupations in a somewhat Manichaean way, between “good” occupations like that of the U.N and “bad” occupations like that of the U.S. We can not forget that Haiti is a country that is under military occupation since 2004, under a mission of blue helmets known as MINUSTAH, whose supposed goal was to stabilize Haiti after the coup against President Jean Bertrand Aristide [9]. The UN mission has failed to "stabilize" Haiti, but has been quite successful in consolidating the absolute predominance of a tiny neo-Duvalierist oligarchy [10], established itself as the de facto army of the dictatorship post-coup, to murder opponents of the regime, terrorise any form of protest and engage in all sorts of abuses against the local population, including many cases of sexual abuse [11]. Also this mission has proven to be quite inefficient when carrying out humanitarian tasks, as demonstrated by the last hurricane season [12]. It is unknown to us then how it could be of any “help” to Haitian people when Ban Ki Moon announces that he is sending a further 3,500 new troops (2000 soldiers and 1500 police officers) of MINUSTAH to Haiti [13]. With a hunger for bread, it seems a diet of lead would be good. The “international community” keeps treating the Haitian people like a rabid dog to be kept at bay.
The "humanitarian mission" of international financial organizations in Haiti
Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said it would supply U.S. $ 100,000,000 to Haiti [14], with words we are led to believe that they also feel to be in sort of “mission” to Haiti. But (and with these things there's always a but) these funds would be added to the debt that has already accumulated in Haiti and the IMF are not yet clear on the conditions to be imposed on Haiti in exchange for this loan, which in the past have included freezing public sector wages, austerity programs as a means of controlling inflation and price increases of services like electricity, among others [15]. It is absolutely unacceptable to use this tragedy in one of the poorest countries in the world to force anti-popular policies or to further increase its foreign debt, which is a lucrative business which for centuries has extorted the Haitian people: Remember that between 1825-1947 Haiti was forced through the imposing of an embargo and diplomatic blockade lead by France , Britain and the U.S , to pay indemnities of 90 million francs to France, which at the end of the 19th century was a slice of no less than 80% of Haiti’s national budget. This indemnity would cover the cost of the French military campaign and the losses of the slave owners who were deprived not only of their property ( ie. their slaves), but also the possibility of profit at their expense [16]. When in April 2003 Aristide demanded that France return the money stolen shamelessly, he faced hostility and ridicule by the French government then led by Chirac. It is time to take this claim seriously.
These world powers do have a huge debt with Haiti, after three centuries of colonialism and post-colonialism the have left the country bankrupt. Considering this history, France's call to cancel Haiti's debt with the Paris Club, is clearly insufficient [17]. Not only is it not enough to simply cancel this extortionists’ debt, it is also important to make an act of historical justice and demand that France return the money fraudulently obtained by this indemnification. We must, for our part, demand absolute and unconditional cancellation of Haiti's external debt in all its forms, be it from the IMF, the Inter-American Development bank (IDB) or any other international financial institution (totalling about $ 1,000,000,000). This cancellation must be done without imposing any kind of economic or political conditions on Haiti: remember that this country has already qualified for the HIPC Initiative to reduce external debt of highly indebted developing countries, but this has not been effective because it calls for a series of neo-liberal measures which they already have not been able to meet [18]. A minimal sense of justice also demands that the powers and organisations that have caused the ruin of Haiti should be committed to effective assistance, without ulterior motives, transparent and based on grants, not new loans. We are not so deluded as to think that this will be achieved simply by appeals to the goodwill of the powerful. Therefore it is of paramount importance that we mobilise effective solidarity with Haiti, which lend a hand to Haitian grassroots organisations in the field, fighting for a new order as they remain vigilant so that this tragedy does not become a new mechanism to further deepen dependency and neo-colonialism.
What kind of Haiti do we build?
For an Ayiti built from below and suitable for living with dignity
Haiti is in ruins. But it has been in ruins long before the earthquake. Already the "international community" had advanced this process of impoverishment through a deadly combination of economic sanctions, political blackmail in the form of loans and open looting, coupled with the MINUSTAH occupation. Haiti is nothing but the most dramatic result of a criminal model which has been implemented globally.
Already there are voices warning that Haiti should openly become a protectorate [19]. We refuse to believe that this should necessarily be the fate of Haiti. We refuse to believe that the fate of a brave, intelligent and fully able people should be that of charity, neo-colonialism or subhuman misery.
Haiti must be reconstructed from the rubble-and that requires not only mechanical shovels or financial assistance but political vision. It is on the latter that a dispute is being waged between two ideological projects in Haiti, two which have been living in a situation of declared combat for almost 50 years now: it is between those who want a Haiti built for the people, and those who want a Haiti built for rapacious capitalism, represented by their national and trans-national agents.The Haitian people and those who stand in solidarity with them, have to confront those who want who use this tragedy to rebuild the Haiti of the military occupation, the Haiti of the sweatshops and desolate fields, a Haiti where people starve and eat mud-cookies or a Haiti where makoutes[20] are still masters of the streets in the major cities. We do not want to rebuild the Haiti of the sex tourism industry, or the Haiti of the neo-Duvalierist oligarchy, or a Haiti of chronic illiteracy. Nor are we interested in re-building a Haiti where children die before they are men or women from all sorts of preventable diseases. That is the Haiti which the missionaries of the rifle and the chequebook want to build. That Haiti, the Haiti described by Eduardo Galeano through his insane “geography” will hopefully remain buried forever. The Haiti that we want to build with the people of Haiti should meet the conditions laid out by comrade Camille Chalmers of the Plateforme Haïtienne de Plaidoyer pour un Développement Alternatif ( The Haitian Platform for the Defence of an Alternative Development , PAPDA):
"a) Overcome illiteracy (45% of the population)
b) Build an effective public school system that is free and that respects the history, culture, and ecosystem of our country
c) Overcome the environmental crisis and rebuild Haiti’s 30 watersheds with the massive participation of young people and international volunteers
d) Construct a new public health system which brings together modern and traditional medicine and offers quality, affordable primary services to 100% of the population to overcome child mortality, malnutrition, and maternal mortality (currently 630 women per 100,000 live births)e) Reconstruct a new city based on different logic: humane and balanced urbanization, respect for workers and the real wealth creators, privileging public transportation, parks that maximize our biodiversity, scientific research, urban agriculture, handicrafts and the popular arts.
f) Construct food sovereignty based on comprehensive agrarian reform, prioritizing agricultural investments that respect ecosystems, biodiversity, and the needs and culture of the majority.
g) Destroy the dependency ties with Washington, the European Union, and other forms of imperialism. Abandon policies issued by different versions of the Washington Consensus. Cut ties with the International Financial Institutions and their plans: structural adjustment, the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers, Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, and Post-Conflict Countries.
h) Expel MINUSTAH and build solidarity people to people brigades." [21]
This is not too much to ask, and Haitians deserve this and much more. In order to obtain this, the Haitian popular movement must decide openly and without sectarianism on a platform for a common and inclusive struggle. The liberation of the Haitian people will be conquered by the Haitian people themselves, thus building a better future, a new Ayiti* from below and for the people, not for capitalists. And we in the international solidarity movement, we are always willing to support them with our own solidarity.
José Antonio Gutiérrez D.
18th January 2010
Translation C. Fitzpatrick
* Ayiti is the name of Haiti in the language of the Haitians, kreyole.
[1] See for instance, http://www.infobae.com/mundo/495896-101275-0-La-violenc...ayuda There are thousands of articles as this.
[2] http://www.anarkismo.net/article/15538
[3] http://www.anarkismo.net/article/15546
[4] http://www.cjad.com/news/56/1052027
[5] “US Troops to Help Haiti’s Security, Aid Flows in” Andrew Cawthorne & Catherine Bremen, Reuters, 18 de Enero, 2010.
[6] http://www.anarkismo.net/article/15539
[7] See Renda, Mary, "Taking Haiti", University of North Carolina Press, 2001, p.10; See also Trouillot, Michel-Rolph, "Haiti: State Against Nation", MR Press, 1990, pp.100-101 y Dupuy, Alex "Haiti in the World Economics", Westview Press, 1989, pp.131-133.
[8] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralameric....html
[9] For further information pleace check http://www.anarkismo.net/article/1063 and http://www.anarkismo.net/article/4651
[10] The Duvaliers where a dynasty of dictators that ruled Haiti from 1957-1986.
[11] http://www.anarkismo.net/article/7616
[12] http://www.anarkismo.net/article/9797
[13] “Haiti Aid Security Boosted as Looters Swarm”, Andrew Cawthorne & Catherine Bremer, Reuters, 18 de Enero, 2010.
[14] http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1420120920100114
[15] http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion/517494/
[16] Ver Dupuy, op.cit., p.94
[17] http://www.rfi.fr/actuen/articles/121/article_6531.asp
[18] http://www.jubileeusa.org/haiti/food/statement.html
[19] http://www.anarkismo.net/article/15557
[20] Makoutes were the secret agents of the Duvaliers.
[21] http://www.anarkismo.net/article/15559
Friday, January 15, 2010
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20231124101845im_/https://2.bp.blogspot.com/_SFDPcITcycc/S1FUmnDspYI/AAAAAAAAIHQ/v3_doRjAssU/s400/haiti2.bmp)
INTERNATIONAL LABOUR-HAITI:
SUPPORT FOR HAITIAN WORKERS/SOUTIEN AUX TRAVAILLEURS HAÏTIENS:
The following appeal for solidarity with the workers of Batay Ouvriye, a Haitian union sympathetic to syndicalism, originated with Miami Autonomy and Solidarity. The English version that follows is from the Ontario platformist organization Common Cause. La version française du Voix De Faits suit ci-dessus.Call for Solidarity and Funds for the Working People of Haiti!:
Joint statement from Miami autonomy and solidarity and the Batay Ouvriye Haiti Solidarity Network
Send money to Batay Ouvriye using paypal
01/14/09- A natural disaster has descended upon Haiti whose scope we only are seeing the surface of at this time. The Haitian people will be struggling to rebuild their lives and their home possibly for decades in light of unprecedented collapse, both physical and social. Yet despite the unpredictability of earthquakes, this disaster is unnatural, a monstrosity of our time. The extent of the damage of the earthquake is part of the cost of unrestrained exploitation which at every step put profit above the health, safety, and well being of the Haitian people. While the world watches on ready to help, power is being dealt an opportunity. The Haitian workers and peasants have been fighting for their rights to even the most basic level of existence for decades, while the UN-occupying force, the state, and the ruling elites maintain the social misery without relenting. Now as Port-Au-Prince is in rubble, new opportunities arise for rulers to rebuild Haiti in their own interests, and likewise for the Haitian workers and peasants to assert their right to their own Haiti, one where they will be not be forced to live in dangerous buildings, and work merely to fill the pockets of elites, foreign or domestic.
Joint statement from Miami autonomy and solidarity and the Batay Ouvriye Haiti Solidarity Network
Send money to Batay Ouvriye using paypal
01/14/09- A natural disaster has descended upon Haiti whose scope we only are seeing the surface of at this time. The Haitian people will be struggling to rebuild their lives and their home possibly for decades in light of unprecedented collapse, both physical and social. Yet despite the unpredictability of earthquakes, this disaster is unnatural, a monstrosity of our time. The extent of the damage of the earthquake is part of the cost of unrestrained exploitation which at every step put profit above the health, safety, and well being of the Haitian people. While the world watches on ready to help, power is being dealt an opportunity. The Haitian workers and peasants have been fighting for their rights to even the most basic level of existence for decades, while the UN-occupying force, the state, and the ruling elites maintain the social misery without relenting. Now as Port-Au-Prince is in rubble, new opportunities arise for rulers to rebuild Haiti in their own interests, and likewise for the Haitian workers and peasants to assert their right to their own Haiti, one where they will be not be forced to live in dangerous buildings, and work merely to fill the pockets of elites, foreign or domestic.
As we move from watching in horror to taking decisive action, progressives can offer an alternative. There is a strong and beautiful desire to do something, to help others in this time of need. Our actions are strongest when we organize ourselves, and make a concerted effort in unity. Right now we can have the deepest impact by committing ourselves to act in solidarity with the autonomous social movements of Haiti directly. They present the best possible option for the Haitian people, and are in the greatest need. At the same time, we are in the best position to help them out our common interest as people engaged in struggling against a system that works to exploit us all. We are calling for solidarity people-to-people engaged in common struggle. It is not only a question of money for AID but also an autonomous and independent act of international solidarity that illuminates the bankruptcy of the occupying forces, multinational corporations, and Haitian elites that are primarily responsible for the decayed state of Haiti. There will be aid flowing and money given as a form of charity until the next disaster. Our act of solidarity should, in no shape or form, be solely an act of humanitarian aid. It should not be an apolitical act, and we shouldn't give the green light to those that wish to capitalize on the suffering of others. It should be an act of solidarity to the struggling people of Haiti and their organizations while at the same time rejecting the totally inept Haitian elites and their state apparatus for bankrupting Haiti. The earthquake is a natural disaster, but the state of Haiti, the abject poverty of the masses and the vile injustice of the social order, are unnatural.
We have a relationship with one organization, Batay Ouvriye, and are putting our resources and time into helping Batay Ouvriye to help rebuild from the catastrophe and maintain the struggle for a better Haiti and a better world. Batay Ouvriye is a combative grassroots worker and peasant's organization in Haiti with workers organized all over Haiti, especially in the Industrial sweatshops and Free Trade Zones.
We have set up a means to send money to Batay Ourviye. Send money to Batay Ouvriye using paypal or email: miamiautonomyandsolidarity@yahoo.com
Money Orders/checks: Payable to Miami Workers Center (in memo write MAS) Miami Workers Center 6127 Northwest 7th AvenueMiami, FL, USA 33127-1111
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Appel à la solidarité et à l’envoi de fonds pour les travailleurs d'Haïti !:
Une catastrophe naturelle vient de s'abattre sur Haïti, dont nous n’entrevoyons encore que la surface. Les haitiens vont devoir lutter pour reconstruire leur vie et leurs maisons, et ce vraisemblablement pour des décennies considérant cet effondrement sans précédent, à la fois physique et social.
Une catastrophe naturelle vient de s'abattre sur Haïti, dont nous n’entrevoyons encore que la surface. Les haitiens vont devoir lutter pour reconstruire leur vie et leurs maisons, et ce vraisemblablement pour des décennies considérant cet effondrement sans précédent, à la fois physique et social.
Pourtant, malgré les l'imprévisibilité des tremblements de terre, ce désastre est contre nature, une monstruosité de notre temps. L'ampleur des dégâts du tremblement de terre fait partie du coût de l'exploitation effrénée qui, à chaque moment, met le profit devant la santé, devant la sécurité et devant le bien être du peuple de Haïti.
Alors que le monde observe - prêt à aider, le pouvoir voit l’occasion de traiter une opportunité. Les travailleurs et paysans de Haïti ont lutté pendant des décennies pour leurs droits aux plus basiques niveaux de l’existence, tandis que les forces d’occupation de l’ONU, l’Etat et les élites dirigeantes maintenaient la misère sociale, sans fléchir. Maintenant que Port-Au-Prince n’est plus que gravât, de nouvelles opportunités s’offrent pour les dirigeants de reconstruire Haïti dans leurs seuls intérêts propres.
Mais de la même façon, les travailleurs et paysans haïtiens pourraient affirmer leur droit à leur Haïti ; un où ils ne seraient pas contraints de vivre dans des immeubles dangereux, ni de travailler uniquement pour remplir les poches des élites, étrangère ou locale.
Quand nous cessons de regarder l’horreur pour prendre des actions décisives, les progressistes nous pouvons offrir une alternative. Il ya un désir fort et beau de faire quelque chose, pour aider les autres en ce temps de besoin. Nos actions sont plus fortes lorsque nous nous organiser nous mêmes, et que nous faisons un effort concerté dans l'unité. Maintenant même, nous pouvons avoir l'impact le plus profond en nous engageant à agir en solidarité avec les mouvements sociaux autonomes d'Haïti directement. Ils représentent la meilleure option possible pour le peuple haïtien, et sont dans le plus grand besoin.
Dans le même temps, nous sommes les mieux placés pour les aider, en tant que personnes engagées à lutter contre un système qui fonctionne à nous exploiter tous. Nous appelons à la solidarité des individus pour les individus engagés dans une lutte commune.
Ce n'est pas seulement une question d'argent pour aider mais aussi et surtout un acte autonome et indépendant de solidarité internationale qui illumine la faillite des forces d'occupation, des sociétés multinationales, et des élites haïtiennes qui sont les premiers responsables de l'état démembré de Haïti.
Il va couler des flots d’aide et de monnaie donnés comme forme de charité. Jusqu’à la prochaine catastrophe. Notre action de solidarité ne devrait, sous aucune forme que ce soit, être exclusivement un acte d'aide humanitaire. Il ne devrait pas être un acte a-politique, et nous ne devrions pas donner le feu vert à ceux qui souhaitent capitaliser sur les souffrance des autres.
Cela devrait être un acte de solidarité avec la population en lutte de Haïti et leurs organisations, tout en rejetant dans le même temps la élites haïtiennes totalement ineptes et leur appareil d'État qui a entraîné Haïti dans la faillite. Le tremblement de terre est une catastrophe naturelle, mais l'état de Haïti, l’abjecte pauvreté des masses et l’ignoble injustice de l’ordre social ne sont pas naturels.
Nous sommes en contact avec une de ces organisations, Batay Ouvriye, et nous mettons nos moyens et notre temps à les soutenir, pour aider à la reconstruction après la catastrophe et pour maintenir la lutte pour un meilleur Haïti et un meilleur monde.
Batay Ouvriye est une organisation ouvrière et paysanne combative et de base, avec des travailleurs organisés partout à Haïti mais plus spécialement dans zones d’extrême exploitation que sont les ateliers clandestins (où l’on gagne « le salaire de la sueur ») et les zones franches. Le groupe « Miami Autonomie et Solidarité » a mis en place une caisse de solidarité et un moyen d’envoyer de l’argent pour Batay Ouvriye.
Si d’autres veulent également leur envoyer de l’argent, qu’ils se mettent en rapport en envoyant un mail à : miamiautonomyandsolidarity@yahoo.com
Miami Autonomie et Solidarité et Réseau de Solidarité Haïti Batay Ouvriye
(Traduction : CNT AIT Paris - contact@cnt-ait.info )
Lien:
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Wednesday, March 05, 2008
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SOCIAL ORGANIZATION:
THE MINISTRY OF ANARCHY ???
Every once in awhile those in authority suffer from an attack of either conscience or absent-mindedness. In other words they get around to admitting the obvious. The latest example that I have seen is in the March 10 edition of Time Magazine which just recently plunked down in Molly's mailbox. You can read the full article online at the website above. The article entitled 'Citizen Soldiers', under the 'Briefing' section of the magazine hardly lives up to its title. It has nothing whatsoever to do with any military adventures. rather it concerns a belated recognition on the part of at least the State of California that their "official" disaster planning actually provides only a tiny fraction of the help that comes forward during times of natural disaster. The article reports about how Governor Schwarzenegger was "impressed" by the fact that the majority of help in recent disasters in that state was provided unofficially by ad-hoc groups and individuals who responded outside of the State's response system.
The article goes on to say why this is true, though it hardly mentions the efforts of government to hide this fact in the past. As they say...
"After Hurricane Katrina, the secret was out that government alone would never be able to manage big disasters. first responders like firefighters and police make up less than 1% of the population. They cannot be everywhere-or even most (!!!-MOLLY) places. So the vast majority (!!!-MOLLY) of rescues are done by regular people. "
It is nice that the Governor has recognized this obvious fact. His response, however, is hardly productive. His decision is to establish a "cabinet level post to manage volunteers". Yes !!! As if voluntary actions of mutual aid can be centralized and controlled. On the ground the record of recent natural disasters in the USA has been that agents of the government have very often impeded ad-hoc voluntary efforts rather than assisted them. the same was demonstrated here in Winnipeg some years ago during the flood of 1997. The natural response of those who enforce authority is to confront those who seem to be acting outside of that authority.
The very nature of such mutual aid responses says that they are ad-hoc and cannot be planned, despite the illusions of governmentalists that they can. In normal times such government initiatives will result, at best, in minor improvements such as a slightly elevated rate of people taking first aid courses. The great majority of people who suddenly spring into action during crisis periods will simply ignore the propaganda of a state agency to sign up and be directed for an hypothetical future emergency. many will be (justly) suspicious of such an attempt to register them and keep track of them. Given how government has impeded voluntary efforts in the recent past such suspicion is fully justified. But even without this it should be obvious to anyone who thinks for a minute (rather than "thinking magically" that passing a law solves a problem) that the great, great, great majority of people who do respond in emergencies will simply respond with apathy to such a "Ministry of Anarchy".
But there is an even more serious objection that one can raise to such efforts to "officialize" such volunteer initiatives. They may be not just useless, or close to it. They may in fact be destructive. Molly refers the interested reader to an academic paper here: 'Social Resiliance: The Forgotten Dimension of Disaster Risk Reduction' (the reference is to a pdf by one Guy Sapirstein). This makes pretty well the same points that Molly will give below, in different language of course:
1)The "resilience" of a society is determined by its "redundancy". In other words when a social order breaks down there are other groups that can step into the breach. When the state attempts to exert its control over such groups it undermines the vitality of such groups by making them dependent on state direction. No doubt the state, and many believers in statism, think that there is no better way to order things than via government. Even if this was true, however, pruning the "second best" options makes a society less resilient in conditions of disaster. Trying to subsume them under a central plan is one way that such "pruning" is accomplished.
2)The "resilience" of a society is also determined by the proportion of people in that society who have experience of actually "initiating" action on their own rather than existing in a dependency relationship where they "wait for help from others". In normal times such "help" comes in its usual dribs and drabs, following its usual bureaucratic rules. In times of disaster such help is unavailable. Fostering relations of and expectations of dependency inhibits the unofficial responses that people have to adopt when systems break down
3)The relationship of "dependency" is a two way street. Not only do "victims" wait until someone else comes to their aid and not initiate actions themselves. "Helpers" are also trained by bureaucratic structures to "wait for orders", thinking that someone else will be responsible for their altruism. Bureaucratizing the mutual aid impulses of people very much goes against everything that evolutionary psychology has discovered about human behavior. It is a recipe for reducing such altruism rather than increasing it.
How does this differ from an anarchist response ? First of all there are many types of anarchism. There are those such as the primitivists and "post-leftists" whose vision of society resembles ground zero after a nuclear bomb, denuded of all the rich social interactions and organization that humans naturally build up. To say the least this is an unrealistic, totalitarian, and naturally unstable vision, resembling a religious cult more than it does traditional anarchism. The vast majority of anarchists, however, have favoured a much more pluralistic vision where society is actually organized in a much richer sense than it is under our present system. It will be covered by networks of union federations, local communes, coops, cultural and practical organizations that would provide for human needs in a much more rational way (informed by better information because such organizations would be immediate and democratically controlled) than statist or corporate bureaucracies can achieve, no matter what technology they depend upon to acquire such information.
Yes, many rational anarchists have too often become entranced by a "single vision". Anarchist communists, advocates of the "commune", anarcho-syndicalists, advocates of the "union federation", individualists, advocates of "market anarchism", mutualists, advocates of the "cooperative" have often spoken as if they could march on one leg, by hopping along with only one way of organizing society. Yet, in its broadest majoritarian sense anarchism has always gravitated to a "pluralistic vision" where the variety of social organization is superior to the state for the simple reason of its variety. Yes, this will inevitably involve conflict as different groups content for their own ideas and interests. Anarchy is not an utopia. It is not a changeless society wrapped in an eternal harmony resembling death more than life. It is a practical alternative that is different from any ideological vision whether it be "left-wing" or merely our present superstitious dependence on government and law. The anarchist alternative is naturally more resilient because its very nature decentralizes power and increases the number of groups that are social actors. Such a society would be far better able to handle disaster than our present society can.
In recent years anarchism has finally achieved the weight of numbers to begin to put its ideas into practice. These practical efforts have been, so far, baby steps, but they hold great promise for the future if the movement isn't diverted by anti-organizational totalitarians or by romantic true-believers in militancy and violence. For instance the Food Not Bombs group organized great efforts at providing meals to victims of Hurricane Katrina. Their efforts were so effective that the Red Cross and government agencies were forced to refer people in need to them even as the local authorities attempted to chase them out of the places where they set up their meal distribution. Food Not Bombs has great potential providing it can overcome its ideological preconceptions about "veganism" and other subcultural irrelevancies and become what its detractors have often called it: the anarchist soup-kitchen. Many people in the network have made this transition already. To a large extent it is merely a matter of maturity as activists shed subcultural mores and become ordinary people themselves. Speaking of maturity, the Northeast Anarchist Network in the USA has a speakers' bureau, and one of the topics on which they are able to provide facilitators/speakers is 'Grassroots Disaster Relief'.
As I said, all these are baby steps. as anarchism continues to grow such initiatives will undoubtedly become more and more common. By themselves they don't substitute for an active and self-governing citizenry, but they do show the way forward in contrast to attempts of government to destroy the initiative of ordinary people during disasters by attempting to control it.
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