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haitiVolume One solidarityAugust 2014 Number Four The newsletter of Haiti Action Committee. $3 haitisolidarity The newsletter of Haiti Action Committee. Writers & Contributors Nia Imara, Leslie Mullin Robert Roth, Charlie Hinton Seth Donnelly Dave Welsh Akinyele Omowale Umoja Judith Mirkinson Arlene Eisen Haiti Action Committee www haitisolidarity net action haiti@gmail com (510) 483-7481 IN THIS ISSUE Cover art: “Free Palestine / Free Haiti” (Arabic) - Nia Imara Editorial - Haiti Action Committee 3 Solidarity with El Salvador - Haiti Action Committee 3 Ten Years Since the 2004 Coup - Dave Welsh 4 The Fiftieth Anniversary of Freedom Summer - Akinyele Umoja 6 Haiti: Where Will the Poor Go? - Seth Donnelly 8 Shameless Racism in the Venezuelan Counter-Revolution - Arlene Eisen 12 Oscar Lopez Rivera: 33 Years is Enough - Judith Mirkinson 16 Want to support the work of HAITI ACTION COMMITTEE? All donations go toward supporting the grassroots efforts of the committee—an all-volunteer organization—and to Haitian grassroots organizations. Checks can be made out and sent to: HAITI ACTION COMMITTEE PO Box 2040 Berkeley, CA 94702 To order previous issues of Haiti Solidarity, write to the above address or email [email protected]. 2 haiti solidarity | august 2014 * Dear reader, please do not redistribute articles or cover art without the permission of the authors or of Haiti Action Committee. free palestine! free haiti! s we go to press, Israel is waging a criminal Haiti Solidarity includes the following articles: Hai- air and ground assault against Gaza that has ti Action Committee member Seth Donnelly’s analysis claimed nearly 2,000 Palestinian lives—over- of land takeovers and resistance in Haiti, based on a trip Awhelmingly civilians, including hundreds of children he took there in July; HAC member Dave Welsh’s report The daily, mind-numbing images of bombed schools on events held internationally in solidarity with Haiti and residential buildings with whole families killed on the tenth anniversary of the February 2004 coup; are horrific This brutal war, financed and supported Arlene Eisen’s account of racism in the anti-Chavez by the United States, has movement in Venezuela; an become a central human article by Judith Mirkinson rights issue of our time We dedicate this one-year about Puerto Rican political We stand in solidarity with prisoner Oscar Lopez, who the people of Gaza and— anniversary issue of Haiti Solidarity has served over 33 years in like people around the to Lovinsky Pierre Antoine. US prisons; an article by world—demand an end to Professor Akinyele Umoja the Israeli occupation about the 50th anniversary of This issue of Haiti Solidarity has a number of arti- Freedom Summer and the continuing fight to bring real cles on struggles throughout the Caribbean and the rest people’s government to Jackson, Mississippi; and a Haiti of Latin America Haiti Action Committee participates Action solidarity statement upon the inauguration of in the Bay Area Latin American Solidarity Coalition former FMLN guerrilla leader Salvador Sanchez Cerén (BALASC), which works to develop a broad picture of as president of El Salvador themes that apply to the whole region and the impe- As always, we welcome your feedback rial role of the United States Haitians call themselves We dedicate this one-year anniversary issue of Haiti “the laboratory” for US policy in the Americas, and Solidarity to Lovinsky Pierre Antoine, the courageous the suppression of democracy and ongoing occupation Haitian freedom fighter who was disappeared in his in Haiti provides a case in point for Venezuela, Nica- own country on August 12, 2007 ragua, El Salvador, Bolivia, and other Latin American No one is free until all of us are free Free Palestine governments who work to support the majority of their A luta continua i populations Solidarity with the People of El Salvador aiti Action Committee congratulates President by US-sponsored military coups both times Now they have Salvador Sanchez Cerén, the FMLN, and all those suffered under a United Nations occupation for more than in El Salvador and internationally who have fought ten years, and the Lavalas Family Party of President Aris- Hfor so many years to achieve this great victory This elec- tide is not allowed to run candidates in so-called elections, tion demonstrates what hard work, determination, wisdom, because they would win compassion and sacrifice can accomplish The goals of the majority of Salvadorans in electing the We also stand in solidarity with Salvadorans as they FMLN mirror the goals of the majority of Haitians who resist the destabilization efforts of the international ruling elected Lavalas—to serve the huge majority of the people elites to undermine their democracy Haitians know it’s not instead of transnational capital and billionaires Freedom enough just to win elections They overwhelmingly elected is a constant struggle Hasta la victoria siempre! The people Jean-Bertrand Aristide twice, only to see him overthrown united will never be defeated i august 2014 | haiti solidarity 3 30events in 22 cities in 7 countries support Haiti’s popular movement 10 YEARS SINCE THE 2004 COUP By aiti marked the tenth anniversary of Dave Welsh the February 29, 2004 coup d’état with large street demonstrations—demanding the ouster of the il- Hlegal coup regime that still rules Haiti today, and an end to the US/United Nations military occupation Meanwhile, friends of Haiti organized at least 30 events in 22 cities in seven countries, as part of the 2014 Interna- tional Days in Solidarity with the Haitian People, raising similar demands A statement by the Haiti Action Committee read: This is the 210th year of Haiti’s 1804 Revolution, as well as the tenth anniversary of the February 29, 2004 coup, en- gineered by the US, France, and Canada, which left a brutal legacy of pain and destruction. The actions of US-imposed President Martelly and his ally Jean-Claude Duvalier clearly 2014 International Days in Solidarity demonstrate what the 2004 coup was all about. The Haitian people are outraged by the step-by-step with the Haitian People return of Duvalierism and its embrace by the fraudulently elected Martelly government—which threatens to bring back Haiti the hated military ... which organizes sweeps of market wom- Throngs of people took the streets of Port-au-Prince on en and midnight raids on the camps of earthquake survivors February 27, marching from the burned-out ruins of Father ... which continues its repressive vendetta against members of Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s St Jean Bosco church (inspirational the majority Lavalas movement. home of the mass movement to overthrow “Baby Doc” Du- We support the Haitian people’s demand that Haiti’s sov- valier in the late 1980s), continuing through popular neigh- ereignty be respected and that the 2004 coup must be reversed. borhoods to the Champs de Mars, near the National Palace That would mean: Among the marchers was an all-women rara band, which also performed at the eighteenth anniversary of the Aristide • Free and fair elections in which all parties can run candi- Foundation on March 8, International Women’s Day In a dates. separate event marking the 2004 coup, a film showing was • Putting an end to the repression and the US/UN military organized in a poor working class community in the capital, occupation. screening the Kreyol-language filmAchievements of the Aris- • Rebuilding Haiti the way the Haitian 99 percent want tide Government Resistance to the Martelly puppet regime it built: Paying a living wage in the factories instead of was not confined to the capital city In late February, resi- sweatshop wages … Restoring farming self-sufficiency dents of the pastoral southern island of Ile a Vache marched so Haiti can feed itself again … Real Haitian control of to resist the announced land grab and dispossession of the mineral resources and aid funds … Schools, housing and islanders by outside tourist companies, a move backed by health care for the people. the Martelly regime The protest faced heavy repression by the US-backed authorities 4 haiti solidarity | august 2014 London, England sachusetts, where community college teachers engaged the Global Women’s Strike put on a benefit concert for the student body and passed out informational literature about grassroots movement in Haiti, honoring the resistance since the 2004 coup in Haiti At University of California, Santa the 2004 coup Headliner at the event was Linton Kwesi Cruz, the Haiti Action Committee addressed hundreds of Johnson, the Jamaican-born dub poet based in the UK students, putting the coup in the context of long years of Global Women’s Strike also organized Haiti benefit concerts resistance by the Haitian people against French and US in Philadelphia and at MacArthur Park in Los Angeles domination The Americas Africa A Garifuna community in the southern part of the Through the wonders of modern media, in early March Central American country Belize organized workshops in millions of viewers and listeners were able to hear the mes- early March to study the Haitian Revolution of 1804 and the sage of the 2014 International Days in Solidarity with Haiti, kidnapping coup 200 years later, using materials provided with radio and TV interviews in many cities From Johan- by the Haiti Action Committee The Garifuna residents are nesburg an hour-long report about the situation in Haiti was engaged in local food production, “building autonomy and broadcast in English on a radio network that reaches many organizing