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

Fri Jan 22 10:35:04 CST 2010

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/01/21-9

"We need to banish the word "looting" from the English language. It incites madness and obscures realities."

________________________________
From: Ricky Baldwin <baldwinricky at yahoo.com>
To: socialist forum core <sf-core at yahoogroups.com>; peace discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
Sent: Fri, January 22, 2010 9:32:41 AM
Subject: [Peace-discuss] Haitian disaster preceded earthquakes, debts, troops

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
>
>
>International 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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