Urgent Haiti-Appeal from International Liaison Committee

– 15. Januar 2010Eingestellt unter: Linke (internationale) Solidarität
Von: „ILC“ < ilcinfo@earthlink.net >
Betreff: Urgent Haiti Appeal –from International LiaisonCommittee (Jan. 15, 2010)
Datum: Mittwoch, 20. Januar 2010 22:33
International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples
87 rue du Faubourg St Denis – 75010 Paris (France)
Urgent Haiti Appeal!
The International Liaison Committee of Workers
and Peoples (ILC) is publishing below excerpts
from the appeal issued by the Association of
Workers and Peoples of the Caribbean (ATPC) for
the information of working people the world over
who are appalled by the horrendous situation once
again facing the people of Haiti.
* * * * *
SOLIDARITY WITH THE WORKERS AND PEOPLE OF HAITI
(excerpts)
The Association of Workers and Peoples of the
Caribbean (ATPC) declares its full solidarity
with the Haitian people who have been battered
once more, this time by a major earthquake that
has just struck the country. …
The ATPC notes that the wreckage, the countless
deaths, and the growing tragedy that have
engulfed Haiti are the consequences of the
blatant lack of infrastructure, the decrepit
state of the existing infrastructure and housing,
the more than 60% unemployment in the workforce
and the miserably inadequate wages (less than 2
euros a day) — while, every week, the Haitian
government pays over US$1 million to the
international financial institutions in repayment
of the so-called foreign debt.
The ATPC calls on the peoples of Guadeloupe, of
the Caribbean to protest this situation;
The ATPC calls on the workers and peoples of the
Caribbean to respond to the actions of solidarity
with the Haitian people, especially those
organized by the ATPC.
The ATPC reaffirms that the present situation in
Haiti is not due to fate, nor to an evil curse —
but rather to over-exploitation, to the
oppression imposed by the Western powers —
especially by France and the United States — on
the Haitian people and the Haitian nation, the
first Black Republic in the world, who fought and
vanquished the troops of Napoleon 1st in his
attempt to re-establish slavery in Guadeloupe in
1802.
— ATPC, Guadeloupe, January 13, 2010
* * * * *
Today, 72 hours after the earthquake, the
unspeakable chaos in which millions of Haitian
people are trying to survive makes this appeal
all the more urgent:
„Without a functioning State and in the wake of
the UN’s lack of efficiency, the Haitian people
have been left to fend for themselves,“ is what a
Brazilian academic on a mission to Haiti, on the
spot at the time of the tremor, declared to the
Brazilian press. He added: „The Haitian people
are tired of all the promises of those who claim
to represent ‚the international community‘. All
told, why are they here? After six years of
occupation by the MINUSTAH ‚peace-keeping‘ force,
prior to the earthquake, the hospitals, roads,
and schools were already in ruins.“ (La Folha de
Sao Paulo, January 14)
– The U.S. government’s response has been to send
in 10,000 Marines! U.S. parachutists have
occupied the airport. The U.S. Army today
controls every strategic point on the island. A
U.S. nuclear aircraft carrier is occupying the
ravaged harbor, a Coast Guard ship is patrolling
off the shores of Port-au-Prince, another one is
on its way. Haiti is being cordoned off from the
world; it is becoming tightly encircled.
– Meanwhile, the U.S. government has maintained
the ban on entry into U.S. territory for all
Haitian citizens and has appointed G.W Bush as
the co-chair of the „Haiti Relief Fund.“ This is
the very same man who waged the destructive war
on Iraq and Afghanistan; the one who, as
president of the United States, did not lift a
finger to rescue the hundreds of thousands –
mostly Black – victims of Hurricane Katrina in
New Orleans.
– The IMF, through its president, Mr. Strauss
Kahn, has declared that it is ready to put
several millions of dollars into aid for Haiti —
but it continues to demand total repayment of
Haiti’s foreign debt, which has for years been
draining the life-blood of the Haitian nation.
– The first reaction of the French Minister of
Foreign Affairs, Mr. Kouchner, barely a few hours
after the catastrophe — and with thousands of
Haitian people buried under the rubble, and when
the count of the dead and homeless already in the
millions — was as follows: „Law and order must
be maintained, looting should be prevented and
properties should be made secure“! Celso Amorin,
Brazil’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, went even
further: „This tragedy requires special attention
concerning order and security — especially
inasmuch as the prisons have been destroyed“. (O
Estado, January 14)
True, it cannot be denied that this was a natural
catastrophe that resulted from the shift of the
tectonic plates along a known fault line.
But the 50,000 to 100,000 deaths due to the
faulty construction of buildings and houses —
that is, built without any anti-seismic standards
(not to mention the overcrowded slums) — and the
hundreds of thousands of additional deaths that
will inevitably occur because even prior to the
tremor there were no longer any hospitals, no
means of transportation, no State infrastructure,
no public services … this is not „natural“; it
results from a deliberate policy implemented
years ago under the orders of the IMF and of the
„big powers“ that have imposed in Haiti the
destruction of public services, the payment of an
illegitimate debt and all the other measures
demanded by the IMF. These are the same „big
powers“ that supported the dictatorship of the
Duvaliers until 1981, and that later organized
the coup d’etat that ousted President Aristide in
2004 and set up the present government upheld by
the bayonets of the MINUSTAH occupation forces.
The blame here lies with the overall policies of
the governments which, for years, have pushed
Haiti and the Haitian people, the poorest among
the poor, toward the abyss of misery into which
an earthquake has now crushed them. These are the
governments that are now shedding crocodile tears
over the fate of the Haitian people.
What has really ravaged Haiti is a social,
political and economic catastrophe engineered by
those governments and none other.
Yes, what is needed is Solidarity with the people, the workers of Haiti!
Therefore, it must be made clear that the first requirements are:
– An immediate cancellation of the external debt!
– The restoration of full sovereignty to the
Haitian people, and the end of military
occupation! What Haiti needs is doctors, nurses
and engineers — not troops!
– An opening of all the borders of all those
countries to which Haitian citizens wish to go!
Haiti’s‘ trade union and community organizations
(*) which, in December 2008, organized a
„Continental Conference for the Sovereignty of
Haiti“ have called for international labor
solidarity.
The Association of Workers and Peoples of the
Caribbean (ATPC) and the International Liaison
Committee of Workers and Peoples (ILC) join this
appeal.
Please send your donations to the
CMO (specify: Haiti Fund) to the following address:
87 rue du Faubourg St Denis – 75010 Paris (France)
and these funds will be forwarded to the Haitian
organizations that have participated in the
conferences and campaigns of the ATPC and ILC.
Paris, January 15, 2010
—–
Endnote:
(*) Among these organizations are the CATH
(Autonomous Confederation of Haitian Workers),
CTSP, (Confederation of Public Sector Workers);
ADFEMTRAH, (Association of CATH Women); POS
(Haitian Socialist Workers‘ Party); Konfédorazyon
Travayé Haisyen; Union of Haitian Unionized
Workers; CISN, (Independent Confederation
National Trade Union); FOS, (Federation of
Unionized Workers);