[R-G] Worldwide protests: Haiti is not forgotten

[Anthony Fenton]

Worldwide protests: Haiti is not forgotten
Published Mar 6, 2008 9:43 PM
http://www.workers.org/2008/world/haiti_0313/

Feb. 29, New York City.

While the Third International Day of Solidarity with the Haitian  
People Feb. 29 was indeed international—with at least 56 actions in  
47 cities on four continents—the largest demonstration took place in  
Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, where 5,000 people came out to  
demand the return of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the end  
of the U.S.-U.N. occupation of Haiti, and the release of political  
prisoners still in jail even though they were imprisoned during the  
last coup against Aristide.

The National Cell for Reflection of the Lavalas Family Base Popular  
Organizations led the march, which began with a rally at St. Jean  
Bosco, the church where President Aristide used to preach. This  
grouping is a militant, activist section of Aristide’s Fanmi Lavalas  
movement.

In Berkeley, Calif., the demonstration was held in front of a Marine  
recruiting station to point out the role the Marines played in the  
occupation of Haiti and the coups against Aristide.

In New York City, a group of protesters gathered in front of the  
Haitian Consulate and for the next four hours they pointed out to the  
passers-by on foot and on the buses that crowd Madison Ave. that the  
top Haitian diplomats in the United States were appointed because  
they supported the coup against Aristide.

The New York chapter of the Lavalas Family party, the Haiti Support  
Network (HSN) and KAKOLA, which organized the New York demonstration,  
said in a press release, “We are calling for the firing of all the  
putschists and Macoutes who still run Haiti’s consulates and  
embassies around the world.”

Ryan Mena, a young Dominican activist, said at the New York protest:  
“The liberation of Haiti would mean the liberation of my country, the  
Dominican Republic, since we share the island of Hispaniola. We must  
demand the end of the U.S.-U.N. occupation of Haiti.” Another speaker  
pointed out, “This demonstration and the 50 others throughout the  
world show that the struggles of the Haitian people have broad,  
worldwide support.”

Haiti’s president, Rene Preval, who has the authority to dismiss  
these diplomats and appoint new ones, saw his prime minister, Jacques  
Edouard Alexi, survive a vote of no confidence Feb. 29. While the  
parliamentarians express concern with the lack of progress in  
improving people’s living conditions—hunger, disease, unemployment  
and poverty are growing rapidly—they don’t appear willing to buck the  
U.S., Canadian and French imperialists strongly backing the Preval/ 
Alexis team.

—Report and photo by G. Dunkel
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