![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Ti-Gwav-10-28-22-1024x609.png\")
<\/a>Demonstration in Ti Gwav, Haiti, against US occupation, Oct. 2022.
(Photo by Haiti Information Project)<\/p><\/div>\n
In typical fashion, the US, which has supported Henry and supplied arms to violent gangs, now proposes a cynical response to the chaos it has unleashed:\u00a0 let the arsonists try to put out the fire by sending in more foreign military to suppress protest and keep Haitians under control, a move emphatically rejected by Haitians.<\/p>\n
Referring to the crisis in Ukraine, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell<\/a> showed the West\u2019s true colors recently, expounding arrogantly about Europe\u2019s privileged position as \u2018a garden of liberal democracy, good economic prospects and social solidarity\u2019 which is surrounded by \u2018the jungle\u2019.\u00a0 Well, welcome to the club, Russia.\u00a0 You\u2019re now part of \u2018the jungle\u2019, too, a condescending designation\u2014along with other choice vulgar monikers—that Western leaders have slapped on Haiti since its inception.<\/p>\n Haiti is not a poor country.\u00a0 It\u2019s a robbed country. Haiti\u2019s people and valuable natural resources have been exploited over the last 500 years by the effects of slavery, racism, colonialism, imperialism, anti-communist hysteria, militarism, kleptocracy, corporate globalization and free trade imposed by Western powers.\u00a0 If you\u2019ve ever marveled at the splendor of Paris with its magnificent palaces, imposing monuments and grand avenues, recall that these were financed through the blood, sweat and tears of enslaved people working the cane fields of Saint Domingue (now Haiti), in an early chapter of the global drug trade, the drug of choice at the time being heretofore scarce sugar.<\/p>\n The enslaved people\u2019s defiance and determination to assert their dignity led to the 1791-1804 Haitian Revolution culminating in the establishment of the first free republic in the Western hemisphere.\u00a0 Extortion, co-opting and sabotage by Western powers set in immediately, thwarting completion of the revolutionary vision, but Haitians have never stopped keeping their eyes on the prize.<\/p>\n In 1915 as the movement to cast off the yoke of corrupt elites under Western patronage grew, Woodrow Wilson sent in the US Marines to quell masses agitating for their rights.\u00a0 The US military occupied Haiti for 19 years, taking full control of the national treasury, re-writing the constitution, establishing an army to repress the people, and re-instituting slavery in the form of forced labor to build roads to serve military and commercial interests.\u00a0 During the \u201cred scare\u201d of the mid-20th<\/sup> century, the US handsomely rewarded the merciless Duvalier dictators for keeping \u201ccommunism\u201d at bay.<\/p>\n Class at the Aristide Foundation for Democracy in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, 2011.\u00a0 (Photo by M. Langlois)<\/p><\/div>\n The most recent blossoming of self-determination in Haiti followed the emergence of the Lavalas movement in the late 1980\u2019s. For several years between 1990 and 2004 (interrupted by the CIA-backed violent coup d\u2019\u00e9tat<\/em> of 1991 and ensuing severe repression), Haitians under Lavalas leadership made remarkable gains<\/a> in lifting up the poor in the areas of education, health care, increased wages, children\u2019s rights, status of women, infrastructure, justice and human rights, political democracy, freedom of religion, combating drug trafficking and corruption, and international relations.\u00a0 All this while the US waged relentless economic warfare, seeking to regain control of Haiti\u2019s workforce and natural resources.<\/p>\n Adding insult to injury, no sooner had Haitians turned out in unprecedented numbers to jubilantly celebrate their bicentennial on Jan. 1, 2004\u2014a pivotal event for all freedom loving people that was scandalously ignored by most media in the US\u2014than the US, France and Canada conspired to carry out the February 29, 2004 coup d\u2019\u00e9tat, kidnapping President Aristide and ushering in US marines, later replaced by multi-national UN forces, slamming the brakes on further implementation of the Lavalas vision of inclusion, participation and transparency.\u00a0 President Aristide often emphasized that the problem is exclusion and the solution is inclusion, where everyone has a seat at the table, moving people from misery to poverty with dignity and beyond.<\/p>\n The US appointed coup regime cast much of the population back into misery and violently repressed the Fanmi Lavalas party, as noted in their recent statement<\/a>:<\/p>\n \u201c…since the kidnapping\/<\/em>coup d\u2019\u00e9tat of February 29, 2004, the occupation of the country has caused more corruption, more massacres in the popular\/working-class neighborhoods, more impunity, more hunger, more misery, more actors in the economic sector who have allied themselves with gangs that are increasing the digging of graves daily. Many billions of dollars were spent for the occupation, and for what? The situation has continued to worsen, as we all can attest. This calamity is the result of the 2004 coup\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n And yet the Haitian people\u2019s resistance to exploitation continues, as seen in the growing mobilizations.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Lavalas statement goes on to assert:<\/p>\n \u201cThe solution for Haiti is in the hands of Haitians\u2026\u00a0<\/em>the time has come to find together how we will stop the machine of insecurity that is spreading death everywhere in the country. Yes, it is not too late.\u00a0 The future of Haiti is in our own hands, Haitian People. Together, let us safeguard our dignity.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n To non-Haitians who ask, what can I do to help?\u00a0 If you live in the EU, Canada or US (as I do), educate your fellow countrymen and tell your leaders in no uncertain terms:<\/p>\n Stop viewing yourselves as more enlightened, more democratic, more able to solve problems, more deserving of material comforts than the people of Haiti.\u00a0 Let go of your compulsion to control others in the guise of pretending to \u201csave\u201d them.\u00a0 End the economic, political and military meddling in Haiti and elsewhere.\u00a0 Not in my name and not with my tax dollars.\u00a0 Accept that you can\u2019t always tell others what to do, and get used to respecting other nations and interacting with them collaboratively.<\/p>\n \u201cThe free black man will never break.\u201d Haiti, 2016 If you live in other parts of the world (aka \u2018the jungle\u2019), tell your leaders to reject US pressure to send your soldiers, dressed as gun-toting blue-helmeted \u2018peacekeepers\u2019, to Haiti.<\/p>\n Haitians need to be guaranteed the opportunity of full participation in shaping their own future.\u00a0 Haiti rejects assistance from the gun and does not need the \u201cgift\u201d of loans which create onerous debt.\u00a0 It does not need to be told what to plant, or for whom to provide sweatshop labor, or to whom its vast natural resources should be siphoned off. \u00a0Haitian children deserve to be nurtured and cared for, not orphaned and made destitute, ripe for trafficking. \u00a0Haiti must not be forced to fight for crumbs at the world\u2019s banquet table.\u00a0 Such injustice has lasted too long.<\/p>\n In my several visits to Haiti since the 2004 coup, I have seen Haitians come together to solve problems in the daily struggles of life.\u00a0 I witnessed their commitment to the true values of democracy.\u00a0 The Haitian people won their freedom 200 years ago, and they insist on shaping their own future.\u00a0 Now it is time for the global institutions to step aside and let Haiti enjoy the freedom for which its people have fought, died, and suffered so much.\u00a0 I was humbled to interact with so many people whose determination is still alive; people who refuse to give up their dream and vision of a Haiti in which everyone\u2019s basic needs are met and the human spirit can thrive.<\/p>\n As is all too clear, Western thievery and arrogance are not directed at Haiti alone.\u00a0 In the above paragraphs, substitute ethnic Russians in Donbass, Palestinians, Ethiopians, Eritreans, Congolese<\/a>, Yemenis, Syrians, Cubans, etc., for Haitians, and you\u2019ll connect<\/a> the dots.\u00a0 We must stand with the bulk of the human family on the receiving end in setting their greedy relatives straight.<\/p>\n ____________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n Western thievery and arrogance are not directed at Haiti alone.\u00a0 In the above paragraphs, substitute ethnic Russians in Donbass, Palestinians, Ethiopians, Eritreans, Congolese, Yemenis, Syrians, Cubans, etc., for Haitians, and you\u2019ll connect the dots.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[867,2642,417,2864,975,1126,1050,541,923,2137,70],"class_list":["post-223308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial","tag-anglo-america","tag-anti-imperialism","tag-bullying","tag-cultural-imperialism","tag-haiti","tag-hegemony","tag-imperialism","tag-latin-america-caribbean","tag-sanctions","tag-south-america","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223308\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Haiti-2011-AFD.png\")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Haiti-2016-VA-225x300.jpg\")
<\/a>
(Photo by M. Langlois)<\/p><\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Marilyn-Langlois-e1508246946670.jpg\")
<\/a> Marilyn Langlois is a member of TRANSCEND<\/a> USA West Coast. She is a volunteer community organizer and international solidarity activist based in Richmond, California.\u00a0 A co-founder of the Richmond Progressive Alliance<\/a>, member of Haiti Action Committee<\/a> and Board member of Task Force on the Americas<\/a>, she is retired from previous employment as a teacher, secretary, administrator, mediator and community advocate.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"