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Setting the Record Straight

Grassroots Haiti Solidarity Committee

May 2005

For about a year and a half now, there has been a concerted effort by some to misrepresent the situation in Haiti in an attempt to bolster support for the ousted Lavalas government. In some cases, some of that government’s former critics within progressive circles have come to be its most ardent supporters. In so doing they have chosen not only to put aside their own criticisms of the Lavalas government, but also to label those who have remained consistent in their analysis of the Haitian political scene as supporters of imperialism and supporters of Aristide’s ouster. This deserves careful consideration, because that is not an accusation that we take lightly.
We do not want to fall prey to the same kind of reductionist or simplistic logic that others have chosen to use. So we will first start out by highlighting the areas where we think there is some concurrence between the positions that this committee as a whole endorses and those of some of the pro-Lavalas currents claiming to be in support of popular mass struggles.
- We denounce and oppose the imperialist intervention involved in the ouster of the Lavalas government, as manifested in the incursion of the so-called “rebel” troops from the DR and the overt support that the US gave to right wing groups such as 184, the Democratic Convergence etc…, and as manifested in the ensuing military occupation.
- We denounce and oppose the current government in Haiti and the current UN mandated multi-national occupation.
At first look, it would seem that the main area of divergence is how one should gage the Lavalas government. Should we or shouldn’t we call for Aristide’s reinstatement? But we think the differences go much deeper.
Indeed, the call for Aristide’s return, the call for the reinstatement of the “constitutionally elected government” seems to be a recurring theme in Haitian politics. In 1994, Aristide chose to hinge his return on a US/UN military intervention. We could not and did not support that process, notwithstanding Aristide’s popularity at the time. Indeed we denounced the intervention as well as Aristide’s sell-out to US imperialist policies.
From 1994 to 2004, Lavalas governments established a long record of implementing various aspects of the imperialist neo-liberal agenda in Haiti such as privatizations, Free Trade Zones, monetary devaluation, reductions in State services and subsidies, attempts to revoke the autonomy of the State University, maintaining the lowest minimum wage in the Western Hemisphere, repressing labor organizing and workers rights campaigns by jailing, beating, burning down houses and killing workers and organizers, granting complete impunity to factory owners and agro-landlords who systematically violated workers rights, building an autocratic State apparatus bent on consolidating the power of Aristide and associating itself with gangs and drug trafficking operations, embroiling themselves in various corruption schemes such as state endorsed pyramid schemes, rice scandals etc…. In fact, so many scandals that Lavalas officials became known in popular circles as “gran manjè” meaning “big eaters” litter ally, and Lavalas goon squads became known as “chimè” or hysterics. Throughout that period, Lavalas governments adopted policies which significantly weakened Haiti’s sovereignty by granting various international institutions as well as foreign governments the right to intervene or have oversight into affairs of the Haitian state. The US embassy in Port-au-Prince was and is still, a parallel government.
Largely because of this record, the Lavalas government alienated itself from a significant sector of the Haitian ruling classes (by pursuing its campaign of consolidating Aristide’s autocratic rule) and also alienated itself from a significant sector of the popular masses which had previously supported it. In the Spring of 2004, Aristide’s government was besieged by popular mobilizations against it and also by reactionary right wing forces, particularly through the armed incursions of so-called rebels, former members of the Haitian Army invading Haiti from the DR. Because these popular mobilizations were largely spontaneous, they were at times co-opted by right wing reactionary movements such as 184. This contributed to the confusion of that period.
One should ask, if the Lavalas government had any legitimate claim to popular support, how could an armed band of about 200 mercenaries march through the country virtually unopposed and lay siege to Port-au-Prince and force the ouster of Aristide?
In light of these facts, which are all well documented, one should ask: Why should the people’s camp be asked to bring back a corrupt and repressive government, a government bent on restoring dictatorship and repressing worker’s movements, a government which it was mobilizing to overthrow.
If the logic in framing our position is to be reduced to simply siding with whoever US imperialism is targeting, that would imply that there are no significant internal contradictions in the reactionary camp. We know that to be untrue.
Indeed, from the standpoint of US imperialism, the Lavalas government fell out of favor and was replaced by more compliant more reactionary faction of the ruling classes, but the Lavalas government as a whole was just another lackey, itself calling for US, OAS or UN intervention till the very end in the hope of saving its own skin.
We hope that these clarifications will help steer this debate away from futile, misled or inaccurate stands. Let us instead focus on the people’s camp, the strategies which can be used to enhance our forces strengthen our struggles. Let’s build solidarity with the autonomous struggle of the popular masses.