The ongoing protest movement on the streets of Haiti, which began in February, escalated in June and July. What started as street protests has evolved into mass strikes and roadblocks, effectively paralysing the country for days at a time. The thousands of demonstrators have been met with violent, lethal repression by state forces, who have killed at least nine people so far and injured dozens more. JACOB DEXTER reports.
A rebellion against corruption and poverty
Widespread demonstrations began on 7 February due to anger over government corruption. The state reacted immediately to February’s protests with a violent crackdown by police. On 12 February citizens in the town of Aquin assisted in a prison break which freed all 78 inmates. This, along with the targeting of affluent Haitians’ property, prompted a response from Haiti’s president: ‘I, Jovenel Moïse, head of state, will not give the country up to armed gangs and drug traffickers.’ The brutality of the Haitian state forces was on display when on 22 February, during a funeral procession for a man who was killed in the protests, police fired tear gas at the amassed crowd of 200 mourners.
The Haitian Senate received a new report on government corruption on 31 May, causing the movement on the streets to erupt with renewed force. Marches made up of thousands of people have flooded the capital city of Port-au-Prince in June and July.
The main demand of the movement is the resignation of President Jovenel Moïse. The corruption report says that he is central to a 2017 plot that embezzled money from Venezuela’s PetroCaribe programme that was supposed to be used to fund social programs and infrastructure repairs. PetroCaribe started under the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. The project sells oil to Caribbean and Latin American countries via very cheap loans, allowing them to sell the oil on and use the money to help their people. It is believed that at least $2bn (almost a quarter of Haiti’s total GDP for 2017) went missing. In March 2019 it emerged that a group of mercenaries from the US had been arrested in Port-au-Prince shortly after the February protests began. They had been hired to assist the presidential aide, Fritz Jean-Louis, to steal a further $80m from the PetroCaribe fund and transfer it directly to President Moïse’s bank account (The Intercept, 10 March 2019). Since 25 July, Haitians have been assembling in front of the US embassy to condemn continued US support for Moïse. The words ‘[US] Ambassador M. Sison supporting this corrupt government of Haiti is racist’ are written on their placards and posters.
The protesters understand Venezuela’s contribution to their social programmes. Photos from the marches showed Venezuelan flags being flown as people chanted: ‘Aba Jovenel, Viv Maduro!’ (Down with Jovenel, Long live Maduro!). Working-class Haitians were already angered by Haitian government’s endorsement of the Washington-sponsored coup attempt against Venezuela’s PSUV government in January.
At the state level, opposition politicians have seized upon this opportunity to oust President Moïse. Heading up the opposition forces is Jean-Charles Moïse (no relation to the incumbent president). The opposition, like the protesters, is calling for the resignation of the President but with the added caveat of a transitional government being used to organise another election. The general strikes that have been central to the recent escalation of protest activity were in part called for by the Haitian opposition.
Imperialist domination and interference
The uprising is a reaction to conditions which have been created by imperialism: stagnant development and poverty, prolonged by corrupt government. 13% of Haitians are unemployed, life expectancy is just 63, 50% of Haitians earn less than $3.10 per day (classified as working poor by the UN) and 24% of the population makes less than $2 per day. Haiti has been dominated by foreign powers for centuries, including as a key slave colony before its 1791-1804 slave-led revolution. Today, it is an important strategic asset for imperialist forces in the region; a neo-colony of the United States and France.
In 2004 the progressive government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide was removed from power by an imperialist coup backed by the United States and France. Aristide’s government had managed to make some small improvements to the lives of poor Haitians by, among other things, investing in agriculture, schools and healthcare. On 7 February 2004, Aristide defied the International Monetary Fund’s plans for the country and doubled the minimum wage. This was the last straw for imperialist interests in Haiti. A minority of ruling class Haitians instigated a coup d’état with US support. United States, Canadian and French marines invaded the country to oversee the transfer of power. Aristide was ousted from the country and fled to the Central African Republic.
In 2010 the country was hit with a Richter scale 7 earthquake. Around 200,000 people died and in the capital 500,000 people were forced into camps after losing their homes. Afraid that these conditions would ignite defiance, US President Obama sent troops into the country in the name of ‘disaster relief’. Whilst Cuba once again proved to the world that it was committed to internationalism by sending hundreds of doctors to treat those who were affected by the disaster and train new medical staff in Haiti, the US sent soldiers who trapped people in camps, held back attempts by other countries and NGOs to provide aid and slowly doled out their own aid. The money embezzled from PetroCaribe was needed to repair lasting damage from the disaster, as by 2017 there were still 2.5 million in need of humanitarian assistance and 55,000 displaced people remained in camps.
Since the coup in 2004 Haiti has been a ‘protectorate state’ (as defined by the UN) with UN soldiers stationed all over the country. From the beginning of their presence in the country the UN’s forces have been accused of multiple human rights abuses, including the allegation of systemic sexual abuse and rape of Haitian citizens. In the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake, the UN oversaw the November 2010 election, in which Aristide’s party was banned from participating and only 22% of the electorate turned out to vote. The new President Michel Martelly oversaw the reversal of Aristide’s progressive reforms (See FRFI 213).
In spite of all the obstacles they face and their ongoing oppression, the Haitian people continue to show the global working class a great example of defiance.
