click
here to read a new Statement of the Committee
News and Analysis
from a Grassroots Perspective
ligned
against the people of Haiti are the forces of privilege and empire,
and 500 years of depredation and bad government. Today, in spite
of the hype about elections and the Constitution, about aid packages
and
international conferences, Haiti is facing the worst crisis of
its existence. The depletion of its environment coupled with local
and international plunder (neoliberalism) have brought the country
to the
point of collapse. Meanwhile, the progressive and popular movement
inside Haiti (the forces of change) is at low ebb, and the U.S. solidarity
movement is in the
midst of confusion caused by ideological weaknesses and misguided allegiances.
Our newly formed Grassroots Haiti Solidarity Committee brings together
a number of Haitian and North American activists whose work around
Haiti stretches over the last two decades. We are concerned by
the misinformation
around Haiti, both in the mainstream media and in the alternative press.
We are particularly concerned with the peculiar slant that ties the
future of the country to the political fortune of one man, former
president
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, whose populist and corrupt regime bears a great
deal of responsibility for the worsening crisis and the current occupation
of Haiti.
Aristide and his bourgeois opposition were equally corrupt; both
had called for US intervention in early 2004. The Haitian oligarchy
in
taking the lead against Aristide could not therefore be part of the
solution
to the country's problems. Although seldom mentioned in the mainstream
and alternative media, popular sentiment against the populist Lavalas
regime had already overtaken the limited opposition of the 184 Group,
and had begun to spread like wild fire across the country. Indeed,
it is partly to circumvent the uncompromising outlook of this growing
popular
resistance that the US resolved to remove Aristide on Feb. 29, 2004.
This grassroots movement is now leading the opposition against the
occupation, and against the neoliberal agenda typified by the Latortue
transitional
government and the sham elections it purports to organize.
Our primary objective is to build support for a radical transformation
of Haitian society, a struggle that has not stopped even one day
in spite of the repression and confusion of the last fifty years.
We unequivocally
oppose all forms of foreign domination of Haiti, military and economic.
We will work tirelessly to bring an end to the current occupation
and to the imperialist rape of that country under the guise of
globalization.
Using the technological advances in communication available to
us, and on a non-sectarian basis, we intend to bring out the
voices of
the movement
in Haiti in its many components: labor, peasant, youth, women,
etc. Also on a non-sectarian basis, we intend to provide a platform
where
Haitian
and solidarity activists can come together to disseminate information
about Haiti, and to build concrete support for a powerful resurgence
of the popular and revolutionary movement there.
We urge all activists and groups committed to the liberation
of Haiti to make common cause with us. Please invite others
to visit our website for news from the frontline
in Haiti, or write to us at info@GrassrootsHaiti.org for the latest
on
our
campaigns
and actions.
NO TO FOREIGN OCCUPATION!
YES TO PEOPLE-TO-PEOPLE SOLIDARITY!
POWER
TO THE PEOPLE!
NO TO SAVIOR POLITICS!
A BETTER
WORLD IS NOT ONLY POSSIBLE, IT IS DOWNRIGHT NECESSARY!
21 Apr 2005
