ALERT !

Batay Ouvriye is informing the public in general and concerned friends, in particular, of a bloodbath in the making once again in the country. This time, it is in the 5^th communal section of Arcahaie that a bloody plot is being prepared.

Indeed, after having dismissed the past mayor for all of the stealing he committed, a new one was installed: Wilbert Casséus, supposedly to resolve the situation. But this was actually adding fuel to fire!

All over the Arcahaie plain and even further, because of the soil’s excellent quality and the illegal and archaic sharecropping practices still prevalent in production, this area has always been highly violent, with large scale conflicts. We can just remember Piatre, where houses were burnt down, blood flowed and people died or had to flee the region… we can just recall Fond Batiste where, at harvest times each year, fatal strife erupts, even police died last year. And these land conflicts always oppose the archaic big landlords with the poor peasants who, for their part, have to work hard as they can, alone, ameliorating the land, and have to face, alone, any sort of problem arising from nature, when it isn’t Dominican bananas that the government allows to invade the market.

In the fifth communal section of Arcahaie, there is a land conflict opposing a large landowner named Klébert with the poor working peasants. The situation had more or less stabilized, until the mayor Casséus, a Klébert crony, arrived. And, in fact, right from the start he received funds from Klébert to supposedly establish a “rural police”. But this “rural police” has a single goal, that of intervening, armed and “in the name of the law”, in the Klébert conflict with the impoverished peasants. They’ve already obtained the help of Judge Claudy, of the Arcahaie district, who, himself, is directly attempting to “legalize” the massacre they are preparing. Judge Claudy is Klébert’s brother-in-law! He’s already issued a number of arrest warrants against all small peasants opposed to Klébert’s archaic exploitation system. The areas especially singled out are Bois-Neuf, Dupuy and Michel. Already, three peasants have been arrested, one in Bois-Neuf and two in Michel. Now they’re demanding 125,000 gourdes (over four thousand US dollars!!!) to release each! Several peasants, fearing “the State”, have begun to flee the region to avoid being arrested, even though they don’t know why they should be. But others stand steadfast on their demands that they know to be just, in a country! And they aren’t decided to let Klébert, nor the mayor Casséus with their “judge” Claudy come to murder them in this way.

The population at large stands with the peasants. Not only because they know these are the ones in their right but also because they also are familiar with Klébert’s regular abuses in the region. They even formed a crowd and blocked a meeting certain members of the supposed “rural police” had organized to settle down in the area.

So, as we can see, it is a new bloody conflict that is taking shape in the region. The archaic landowners who feel they are seated in “their” power now with the reactionary government currently in place, are seeking to take advantage of the situation to carry out all sorts of exactions and even massacres to block the workers’ demands, the rights of those who carry the country on their backs without ever obtaining the slightest benefit from the fruit of their labor.

Alert! Batay Ouvriye once again is declaring: alert!

We’ve already noticed since a long time, this government, aside from the U.S. agenda, the occupation and the bourgeoisie, isn’t decided to pay attention or even hear anyone. That’s why it is the population and all consequent progressives we’re addressing today.

Alert!!! We say! As we’ve always announced: another bloodbath is in the making!