HAITI ON OUR MINDS

HAITI ON OUR MINDS
____________________________________________________________________

By Mumia Abu-Jamal
[Col. Writ. 3/7/04]
Source: Afrikan Frontline Network, nattyreb [at] comcast.net
- Sunday, 28 March 2004 -

...[T]he little community of Haiti, anchored in the Caribbean Sea, has had
her mission in the world, and a mission which the world had such need to
learn. She has taught the world the danger of slavery and the value of
liberty. In this respect she has been the greatest of all our modern
teachers. -- Frederick Douglass (1893)

The recent coup d'etat in Haiti, where the Americans spirited the
president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, out of power and out of his own country,
is just the latest event in 200 years of U.S. complicity and support of
repression in Haiti.

During the hard-fought Haitian Revolution, which occurred roughly a decade
after the U.S. Revolution, the government of George Washington, which
talked about 'liberty to all men', entered the conflict, but not on the
side of liberty. The Washington Administration authorized the grant of
$400,000 -- a vast sum in the 1800s -- not to support the forces of
freedom, but to the white planters. They sent money to the French for arms
and food to support their resistance to the uprising. America's secretary
of state, Thomas Jefferson, writer of the Constitution, did the actual
paperwork. When it came to slavery or freedom, the Americans, slaveowners
themselves, chose slavery to support.

By Jan. 1st, 1804, Haitian independence would be declared, and for the
first time in world history, a slave army bested imperial armies, and
freedom resulted.

How did the U.S. respond? Did they welcome them to the brotherhood of free
nations? The words of a U.S. congressman, said some 20 years after Haitian
independence, stated U.S. policy towards the Black Republic: "Our policy
with regards to Hayti is plain. We never can acknowledge her independence
... The peace and safety of a large part of our Union forbids us even to
discuss [it]." So said South Carolina Senator Robert Hayne in 1824. It
wasn't until 1862, when the Civil War was raging, that the U.S. recognized
its nearest free neighbor. They couldn't recognize it for almost 60 years
because they didn't want Blacks in the U.S. to see a free Black people, as
diplomats, and leaders of government, functioning in the U.S. The official
U.S. policy, was white supremacy.

From 1915 to 1934, the U.S. occupied Haiti, fighting a bitter guerrilla war
that left thousands dead. They murdered guerrilla leader Charlemagne
Peralte, in 1919, and then paraded his nearly naked, chained body, to try
to stifle the Cacos Rebellion.

They installed and supported the Duvalier regimes, and since the fall of
that dictatorship, have actively and secretly supported Duvalierist
elements in the army and the government.

Indeed, they trained many of the people who were the most repressive
elements in the army, and backed the FRAPH, which was an anti-democratic
terrorist army in Haiti.

They have always opposed Pere Aristide, for his support of the Lavalas
(Creole for 'the Flood', or the masses) movement.

Think of it this way; in the last century, how many times have you ever
seen the U.S. support anything in Latin America? How many times have they
trained, backed, armed the right-wing militaries? Even torturers, rapists,
and mass murderers?

Why would Haiti be any different?

The recent soft expulsion of Aristide opens the door to bring back
Duvalierist elements to the fore, to 'discipline' the riotous, rebellious
Haitian people, who've never forgotten their revolutionary origins. They
want Haiti 'stable' to perform as a docile labor force for the bourgeoisie,
both in Haiti, and the U.S.

The empire, based on dominance, control, and fear, cannot countenance the
Haitian example of people's power, of, yes, the barest fraction of
'democracy.' Thus, they use various means to achieve the same ends. Thus,
the removal, at gunpoint, of Aristide, 'for the good of the Haitian people.'

Let the Haitian people decide their own government! It isn't for the U.S.
to decide for them.

It's time to end this empire, for the good of the people of America, and
for the good of the people of the world.

We must demand it, and then work for it, to end this reign of madness.

Copyright 2004 Mumia Abu-Jamal. All rights reserved.

[Mr. Jamal has written widely about war and other issues. His latest work,
Faith of Our Fathers (Africa World Press, 2003) was named one of "The Most
Remarkable Books of 2003" by Black Issues Book Review (Nov/Dec '03).]

Check out Mumia's NEW book: "Faith of Our Fathers: An Examination of the
Spiritual Life of African and African-American People":
http://www.africanworld.com.

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