Aktionen

Von: "ILC" < ilcinfo@earthlink.net >

Betreff: Urgent Haiti Appeal --

from International Liaison

Committee (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);

Kontakt- & Diskussionsmöglichkeit