U.S. - Hands Off Haiti!!

{Draft of article for submission to Change-Links}

U.S. Hands Off Haiti!!
By Barry Schier

        A century ago, a time when it didn't feel obligated to deny 
interventionist intentions, Washington declared the Caribbean and 
Central America to be the "backyard" of the U.S.  Whenever it feared 
the reality or possibility that a country would have a popular leader 
or a populist movement, the U.S. would dispatch the Armed Forces 
(mostly Marines) to intervene, often occupying the country for years 
afterwards.  The U.S. occupied Haiti from 1915 to 1934.  
        Realizing the political and monetary price of such a policy, 
the U.S. government changed its means, but not its ends.   Instead of 
occupation and direct rule, it used proxy presidents.  Generally, 
instead of sending troops abroad, Washington sent bullets and "aid" 
to its murderous marionettes. FDR commented candidly about 
Nicaragua's Somoza (first in a dynasty of dictators): "He may be a 
son of a bitch, but at least he's our son of a bitch."  
        Less than a decade after the revolution in Nicaragua which 
ousted the Somoza dynasty, an upsurge in Haiti ousted "Baby Doc," who 
fled to France aboard a U.S. Air Force jet. Promising changes, Jean-
Bertrand Aristide was elected President in 1990.   While Haiti's 
having the lowest living standards in the hemisphere (e.g., about 50% 
illiteracy, less than 52 year life expectancy) has meant misery and 
poverty to the populace, it has meant megaprofits for millionaires in 
U.S. (destination of 83% of Haiti's exports), Canada, France, and 
elsewhere. Every baseball that crossed Major League plates had been 
made in sweatshops by Haitians who couldn't put enough food on their 
plates ? and those were the "lucky" ones who had a job in a country 
of 70% unemployment.   
        In 1994, 20,000 U.S. troops invaded Haiti on the pretext of 
restoring Aristide as President.  As a result, Aristide came daily to 
his seat in the presidential palace, but the power and the policies 
came from Washington.  The "new" "peace plan" is old poison in new 
bottles: the post without the power. He implemented an austerity 
program slashing social programs and nationalizing state-owned 
companies was implemented as part of in a vain attempt to pay the 
interest on Haiti's foreign debt (which, on a per capita basis, is 
about 1-1/2 times of a Haitian's annual income). 
        However even these measures did not satisfy the U.S. 
government's craving for a puppet in Port-au-Prince; despite an 
overwhelming electoral victory for Aristide's Lavalas party in 2000 
legislative elections, the U.S. protested and organized forces to 
protest those elections, many of which are now the core of the Group 
of 184 groups leading the current revolt attempting to oust 
Aristide.   Yet, the U.S. government poses itself as Aristide's would-
be rescuer.  (According to a Feb. 21 Associated Press 
dispatch, "President Jean-Bertrand Aristide agreed [Feb. 20] to a 
U.S.-backed peace plan to share power with political opponents, but 
his rivals resisted, saying he must step down for there to be peace 
in Haiti."  Aristide has agreed to a new prime minister and new 
elections.)   
        There was nary a whimper or whine about elections (still 
less "fraudulent" ones) during the decades when Haitian generals 
approved or vetoed election results by threatened or actual coups nor 
did it  object to the Tonton Macoutes (paramilitary thugs and death 
squads who served its servants, Haitian "President-for-Life" 
Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier and his son and successor, "Baby Doc"), 
but organized and funded them.
        The U.S. imposition of sanctions against Haiti after the 2000 
elections (made into U.S.-E.U. sanctions under Washington's pressure) 
is part of the same destabilization strategy of attempting to 
economically destabilize a country through funding "opposition 
groups" as a prelude for a coup which has used in its campaign to 
oust Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's populist president (who, like Aristide, 
has incurred Washington's wrath by insisting on pursuing an 
independent foreign policy and by hosting hundreds of Cuban volunteer 
doctors who have been invited to the country to alleviate the lack of 
medical services).    
        One lesson is that offering concessions to opponents funded 
by and accountable to Washington, instead of appeasing them, 
emboldens and strengthens their campaign.  "Cuba is an irritant in 
relations between the United States and Venezuela because some see 
this as a signal of the direction that Chavez is taking.  But if you 
look at what he does and not what he says, you see a very different 
story,' ? Chavez has upheld the rights of foreign investors ?," 
according a Feb. 15 L.A. Times article quoting an investment banker.  
        U.S  ? Hands Off Haiti!




------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark
Printer at MyInks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada.
http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511
http://us.click.yahoo.com/mOAaAA/3exGAA/qnsNAA/B140lB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

"[C]apital comes dripping from head to foot, from every pore, with blood and 
dirt."
--Marx, Capital, Vol. 1, Chapter 31

Community email addresses:
  Post message: marxist@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
  Subscribe:    marxist-subscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
  Unsubscribe:  marxist-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
  List owner:  Hunter Gray <hunterbadbear@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Shortcut URL to this page:
  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/marxist

Also take our one-question survey at
  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/marxist/polls 
Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
     http://groups.yahoo.com/group/marxist/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
     marxist-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
     http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/