FRFI 178 April / May 2004
Haiti is Cuba’s closest neighbour in the Caribbean. The two countries share a common history of sugar plantations, slavery and colonial exploitation. Both have had wars and revolutions to overthrow their colonial masters. The revolution in Haiti in 1804 against the French established the world’s first black republic. In Cuba the 19th century wars of liberation against the Spanish colonialists finally culminated in the revolution of 1959 that threw out the US imperialists and their puppets who had usurped the Spanish role. Yet the paths then taken by the two countries have been very different, as JIM CRAVEN reports.
In the late 1950s, conditions for the vast majority of both the Cuban and the Haitian people were appalling. Infant mortality in Haiti was 170 deaths per 1,000 live births and life expectancy was just 47 years. Cubans were marginally better off, with infant mortality at 60 and life expectancy 59 years. Only 3% of rural Cubans had running water; only 4% had meat to eat; health and education services were virtually non-existent.
Development or destitution
Nearly 50 years later, Haiti is now the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and the fourth poorest in the world. According to UNICEF, 80% of the population live in poverty and 48% in absolute poverty. More than two-thirds of the workforce do not have proper jobs. By 2002 life expectancy had risen to just 49 years and infant mortality stood at 79 deaths per 1,000 live births. Meanwhile, in the same year Cuban life expectancy had risen to 77 years and infant mortality had fallen to less than seven per 1,000, comparable to the richest countries in the world. These indices are partly a product of Cuba’s outstanding childcare system. In Cuba a doctor or midwife attends every birth and every child is inoculated against at least 13 diseases. In Haiti less than 25% of deliveries have skilled healthcare at hand and only about half the children receive any inoculations at all. Cuba has one doctor for every 195 people: the best ratio in the world. According to UNICEF, Haiti has one doctor for every 1,250 people (some sources say one per 4,000!) and 90% of these are in the cities. Only 16% of the Haitian rural population have adequate sanitation and fewer than a third of the total population have access to safe drinking water.
In Haiti primary school attendance is little better than 50% and secondary enrolment is only 20%. As a consequence barely half the Haitian population is in any sense literate. Cuba on the other hand has one of the most successful education systems in the world. It is presently aiming to ensure higher education is available for the whole population.
The combined effect of lack of public health, hygiene and education is tragically illustrated by the extent of HIV/AIDS infection in Haiti. Over 6% of the Haitian population are infected, including at least 12,000 children. Over 200,000 children in Haiti have been orphaned through their parents dying from AIDS. In Cuba, thanks to early intervention, high quality health care and public awareness, the infection rate is less than 0.03%.
Cuban internationalism
There are 332 Cuban doctors working in Haiti alongside 200 other health workers. They work in every area of the country and have around three-quarters of the Haitian people under their care. In these areas infant mortality rates have dropped from 80 to 28. The Cubans have attended 45,000 births, carried out 59,000 operations and vaccinated 370,000 people. It has been estimated that the Cuban health workers have saved nearly 86,000 Haitian lives. There are 247 young Haitians studying at a School of Medicine created by the Cubans in Haiti and another 372 studying on free scholarships in Cuba. The Cubans have also been assisting the Haitians with a radio based literacy programme that has so far taught 110,000 Haitians to read and write, with food, agriculture and veterinary programmes and with technical help for the sugar industry.
Similar countries – different revolutions
How did two countries so similar end up with such starkly different prospects of life for their people? The answer, of course, lies in their economic and social systems. After throwing out the French colonialists in 1804, Haiti was unable to make the transition to an independent state, given the development of economic and social forces at that time. In 1825 the French threatened to invade the country unless the Haitians paid them $125 million. It has been estimated by Dr Francis St Hubert of the Haiti Restitution Committee that repaying that ransom has deprived the Haitian economy of $21 billion at today’s values. By such means, Haiti became a neo-colony of France and, more recently, of the United States. The imperialists have relied on a brutal Haitian elite to maintain their interest. This elite, which accounts for less than 1% of the population, owns more than half the country’s wealth. Together they have continuously extorted wealth from Haiti and the Haitian people and prevented them building any society that even partly catered for the needs of the poor majority. In fact, despite tremendous US opposition, the Aristide government in Haiti did manage to make some improvements for the poor. Now even these small gains have been swept away by the US/French/Canadian-backed imperialist coup.
The lessons of history
At the time of the Cuban revolution many middle class members of the revolutionary movement felt it was enough to rid Cuba of the Batista dictatorship and establish an independent capitalist state free of imperialist influence. In the face of US threats, these people argued for compromise. It was the communist revolutionaries such as Che Guevara, Fidel and Raul Castro who understood there can be no compromise with imperialism. That way inevitably leads to renewed oppression and exploitation. The only way to defend the gains of the national revolution and ensure independence and social development for the people was to destroy imperialism and build socialism. That is what the Cuban people have been doing ever since.
