[Peace-discuss] Haitian disaster preceded earthquakes, debts, troops

Fri Jan 22 09:32:41 CST 2010

On the front page of this morning's N-G was a photo of a Haitian boy running around crying, bleeding from the head ... because he was beaten (by whom the caption does not say, but it does mention that evil of Katrina fame: looting).

Ricky

"Speak your mind even if your voice shakes." - Maggie Kuhn

--- On Thu, 1/21/10, ILC <ilcinfo at earthlink.net> wrote:

From: ILC <ilcinfo at earthlink.net>
Subject: Urgent Haiti Appeal -- from International Liaison Committee (Jan. 15, 2010)
To: 
Date: Thursday, January 21, 2010, 5:26 PM

Urgent Haiti Appeal -- from International Liaison
CommitteInternational
Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples
87 rue du Faubourg
St Denis - 75010 Paris (France)

Urgent Haiti
Appeal!

The International
Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples (ILC) is publishing below
excerpts from the appeal issued by the Association of Workers and
Peoples of the Caribbean (ATPC) for the information of working people
the world over who are appalled by the horrendous situation once again
facing the people of Haiti.

* * * *
*

SOLIDARITY WITH THE WORKERS AND PEOPLE OF HAITI
(excerpts)

The Association of
Workers and Peoples of the Caribbean (ATPC) declares its full
solidarity with the Haitian people who have been battered once more,
this time by a major earthquake that has just struck the country.
...

The ATPC
notes that the wreckage, the countless deaths, and the growing
tragedy that have engulfed Haiti are the consequences of the blatant
lack of infrastructure, the decrepit state of the existing
infrastructure and housing, the more than 60% unemployment in the
workforce and the miserably inadequate wages (less than 2 euros a day)
-- while, every week, the Haitian government pays over US$1 million to
the international financial institutions in repayment of the so-called
foreign debt.

The ATPC
calls on the peoples of Guadeloupe, of the Caribbean to protest
this situation;

The ATPC calls
on the workers and peoples of the Caribbean to respond to the
actions of solidarity with the Haitian people, especially those
organized by the ATPC.

The ATPC
reaffirms that the present situation in Haiti is not due to fate,
nor to an evil curse -- but rather to over-exploitation, to the
oppression imposed by the Western powers -- especially by France and
the United States -- on the Haitian people and the Haitian nation, the
first Black Republic in the world, who fought and vanquished the
troops of Napoleon 1st in his attempt to re-establish slavery in
Guadeloupe in 1802.

-- ATPC,
Guadeloupe, January 13, 2010

* * * *
*

Today, 72 hours
after the earthquake, the unspeakable chaos in which millions of
Haitian people are trying to survive makes this appeal all the more
urgent:

"Without a
functioning State and in the wake of the UN's lack of efficiency,
the Haitian people have been left to fend for themselves," is
what a Brazilian academic on a mission to Haiti, on the spot at the
time of the tremor, declared to the Brazilian press. He added:
"The Haitian people are tired of all the promises of those who claim
to represent 'the international community'. All told, why are
they here? After six years of occupation by the MINUSTAH
'peace-keeping' force, prior to the earthquake, the hospitals, roads,
and schools were already in ruins." (La Folha de Sao
Paulo, January 14)

- The U.S.
government's response has been to send in 10,000 Marines! U..S.
parachutists have occupied the airport. The U.S. Army today controls
every strategic point on the island. A U.S. nuclear aircraft carrier
is occupying the ravaged harbor, a Coast Guard ship is patrolling off
the shores of Port-au-Prince, another one is on its way. Haiti is
being cordoned off from the world; it is becoming tightly
encircled.

- Meanwhile, the
U.S. government has maintained the ban on entry into U.S. territory
for all Haitian citizens and has appointed G.W Bush as the co-chair of
the "Haiti Relief Fund." This is the very same man who waged
the destructive war on Iraq and Afghanistan; the one who, as president
of the United States, did not lift a finger to rescue the hundreds of
thousands - mostly Black - victims of Hurricane Katrina in New
Orleans.

- The IMF, through
its president, Mr. Strauss Kahn, has declared that it is ready to put
several millions of dollars into aid for Haiti -- but it continues to
demand total repayment of Haiti's foreign debt, which has for years
been draining the life-blood of the Haitian nation.

- The first reaction
of the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Kouchner, barely a few
hours after the catastrophe -- and with thousands of Haitian people
buried under the rubble, and when the count of the dead and homeless
already in the millions -- was as follows: "Law and order must be
maintained, looting should be prevented and properties should be made
secure"! Celso Amorin, Brazil's Minister of Foreign Affairs,
went even further: "This tragedy requires special attention
concerning order and security -- especially inasmuch as the prisons
have been destroyed". (O Estado, January 14)

True, it cannot be
denied that this was a natural catastrophe that resulted from the
shift  of the tectonic plates along a known fault
line..

But the 50,000 to
100,000 deaths due to the faulty construction of buildings and houses
-- that is, built without any anti-seismic standards (not to mention
the overcrowded slums) -- and the hundreds of thousands of additional
deaths that will inevitably occur because even prior to the tremor
there were no longer any hospitals, no means of transportation, no
State infrastructure, no public services ... this is not
"natural"; it results from a deliberate policy implemented years ago
under the orders of the IMF and of the "big powers" that have
imposed in Haiti the destruction of public services, the payment of an
illegitimate debt and all the other measures demanded by the IMF.
These are the same "big powers" that supported the dictatorship of
the Duvaliers until 1981, and that later organized the coup d'etat
that ousted President Aristide in 2004 and set up the present
government upheld by the bayonets of the MINUSTAH occupation
forces.

The blame here lies
with the overall policies of the governments which, for years, have
pushed Haiti and the Haitian people, the poorest among the poor,
toward the abyss of  misery into which an earthquake has now
crushed them. These are the governments that are now shedding
crocodile tears over the fate of the Haitian people.

What has really ravaged Haiti is a social, political and economic
catastrophe engineered by those governments and none other.

Yes, what is needed
is Solidarity with the people, the workers of Haiti!

Therefore, it must be made clear that the first requirements
are:

- An immediate cancellation of the external debt!

- The restoration
of full sovereignty to the Haitian people, and the end of military
occupation! What Haiti needs is doctors, nurses and engineers -- not
troops!

- An opening of
all the borders of all those countries to which Haitian citizens wish
to go!

Haiti's' trade union
and community organizations (*) which, in December 2008, organized a
"Continental Conference for the Sovereignty of Haiti" have called
for international labor solidarity.

The Association of
Workers and Peoples of the Caribbean (ATPC) and the International
Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples (ILC) join this
appeal.

Please send your
donations to the CMO (specify: Haiti Fund) to the following address:
87 rue du Faubourg St Denis - 75010 Paris (France) and these funds
will be forwarded to the Haitian organizations that have participated
in the conferences and campaigns of the ATPC and ILC..

Paris, January 15,
2010

-----

Endnote:

(*) Among these
organizations are the CATH (Autonomous Confederation of Haitian
Workers), CTSP, (Confederation of Public Sector Workers); ADFEMTRAH,
(Association of CATH Women); POS (Haitian Socialist Workers' Party);
Konfédorazyon Travayé Haisyen; Union of Haitian Unionized Workers;
CISN, (Independent Confederation National Trade Union); FOS,
(Federation of Unionized Workers);

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