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Indybay Feature

San Francisco Protests U.S. Support for Haitian Death Squads

by Ben Terrall
Latortue regime, installed by Bush regime, intensifies terror campaign against Lavalas; San Francisco says no more!
on_the_way_to_bush_powell.jpg
Dozens of people gathered in downtown San Francisco at Powell and Market streets Thursday afternoon to protest U.S. support for the current murderous coup regime in Haiti. Given the key role Bush Administration officials, including Secretary of State Colin Powell, played in orchestrating the February 29, 2004 ouster of democratically-elected President Aristide, the explicit call of the action was for people to “take your anger to Bush and Powell.” The demonstration was organized by the S.F. Bay Area-based Haiti Action Committee and endorsed by Global Exchange, United for Peace and Justice, War Resisters League West, East Timor Action Network/San Francisco and Media Alliance.

Haiti Action Committee co-founder and respected local activist Pierre Labossiere described close ties that Bay Area churches and schools have had with projects in Haiti begun by peasant organizations under President Jean Bertrand Aristide. Now that the U.S.-backed death squads which forced President Aristide into exile have control over much of the country, many of the activists previously in close contact with friends in the Bay Area have either been killed or gone into hiding; Labossiere gave powerful descriptions of the heightened terror campaign against supporters of Aristide and his Lavalas Party, and pointed out that in Haiti, “Unless you vote for the elite or military thugs, it’s a crime, in effect to vote. Those who voted for Lavalas now have a death sentence over their heads.”

As demonstrators hoisted signs painted by local artist Miranda Bergman reading “End the occupation in Haiti, Iraq, Palestine and Everywhere,” “No U.S.Coup in Haiti, Bring Aristide Home,” and, on a vibrant, beautiful painting of a peasant under siege, “Haiti: The struggle continues,” East Bay educator Doug Spalding kicked off the march with bullhorn chants, starting with “U.S. Out of Haiti” and moving on to include Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and the Philippines, reflecting the spirit of international solidarity which animates Lavalas, Aristide’s political party. Demonstrators also carried cardboard coffins and crosses to symbolize the thousands of Haitians who have been killed by the U.S.-imposed government of “interim” Prime Minister Latortue.

As the march proceeded up Powell Street, the solidarity continued in stops to support locked out hotel workers at pickets in front of the Saint Francis, Crowne Plaza and the Grand Hyatt Hotels. Both hotel workers and Haiti solidarity activists were visibly charged up by the mutual support, and by the time the march approached the intersection of Bush and Powell, the march was around 100 strong.

After activists circled the intersection several times, pumping signs into the air to the appreciative honks of San Francisco drivers, Dominican Sister Stella Goodpasture, who recently visited Haiti as part of a human rights delegation, described last week’s arrest of activist priest Gerard Jean-Juste, who was beaten and dragged away from his church, where he was feeding hundreds of poor children. The lack of a warrant for the arrest did not prevent officers from shooting three children present at the church, including a boy who was shot in the head.

Brother Jahahara Amen-Ra Alkebulan-Ma'at, a longtime activist most recently with the American Friends Service Committee, also described his experiences in Haiti to the demonstrators amassed at the four corners of Bush and Powell. He noted that one of the rarely reported aspects of President Aristide’s last few years in office was his campaign to push France to pay $22 billion in restitution to Haiti. That sum is a calculation of the amount France stole from Haiti in the 1800s as “compensation” for giving up “property” (i.e. slaves who rebelled and founded the first independent black republic). Brother Jahahara recalled that the Haitian children who gave him a bookbag adorned with Aristide’s picture said they wanted their President back, adding that those children are also entitled to the full $22 billion France was willing to help oust Aristide to avoid paying.

This demonstration was part of a national campaign to restore democracy in Haiti and end the wave of state-sponsored repression of pro-Democracy leaders. Other actions were held this week in New York, Boston, Washington, Miami and Orlando.

See http://www.haitiaction.net for more information.
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Comments (Hide Comments)
by Kurt Austin Brown
Why worry about Haitian politics? Alabama and numerous other states do not allow us to vote, and Mobile Alabama rough handled me illegally and arrested me, an auditor, for trying to enter a meeting.

Of course in Los Angeles, they will force felonies upon their victims with federal assistance. The atrocities are everywhere by the regime in power.

What can be done about it? First, we must realize the regime and their echelons of baton carrying combatants are like the big bully on the block, and America is not about justice, but instead sunjugation and following the will of the bully.

The biggest thing about the bully is that his reputation precedes him. Therefore fear is often felt by those who actually could brink his legs, although no one fights without bruises.

Alliances is the best method to deal with bullies. Allie yourselves with whomever is a combatant and who will further your safety and your right to be free from abuse. Of course, the nature of the neighborhood is that when one bully falls, another arises.

La Cosa Nostra was the answer in Sicily. History will repeat itself. See Los Angeles street gangs. America is a battlefield and the media babbles on about the beauty and the unity. Bullshit.

Deal with the bully the old fashioned way.

Mobile Audit Club at your service. Collections and audits. If we can't get it, right. There is nothing left.

http://www.angelfire.com/zine2/democracyordeath/

The Sheriff of Mobile Alabama has been toppled but he was a small player who was stupid. The ignorant still block us from voting or government participation.

Beware of forced experiments and procedures by government doctors and agencies. The war has taken on a new dimension.

by Bobby Two Fingers
At the site linked to the story above, at their link
http://www.haitiaction.net/
it appears the Haitians blame the "Bush Regime" for their being jailed and the manipulation of their political system.

The two parties are in fact one regime and they prove that in the United States where millions can not vote, and where many more can not enter government meetings.

I once knew an illegal French Alien in Los Angeles who said that the French called their political system, Chapeau Blanc, Blanc Chapeau, or in English, Hat White, White Hat.

Democrats and Republicans are very rich groups who take turns emptying American's pockets and they have destroyed the constitution with no rights remaining.

Bush Sr. gave us the Savings and Loan Crisis. Clinton gave us changed accounting laws that violated all common sense guidelines including allowing CPA firms to act as corporate advisers and as accountants. Remember Enron? Dead accountants were found in their automobiles and the government in their usual coverups called it suicides.

Bush gave us war after war with a loss of rights and in my case, more exclusion from government and an attack on my life by most likely, the Union that should be disbanded, the Huge Megalith Union, the National Treasury Employees Union. See the Mobile Audit Club for the assassination attempt details.

I was an auditor and bank examiner for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation which is a federal banking regulator. I blew the whistle on corruption and I was attacked on the highway. My vehicle was almost flipped onto its side. If it had flipped I believe the federal associated assassins would have burned me alive in the vehicle.

Later I was forced to drive across country after being set up by the government. I had to tell the government every time I left California to visit my family out of state. I was attacked again in St. Louis. They missed again and did not come nearly as close to killing me that time as the first becaue I know now that the governments do not care if I die, including all police agencies. Call 911? Forget about it, hire some guns.

We are alone. We should form allies to deal with this situation and get a true democracy where everyone votes, where everyone can vote at home on a computer just like paying taxes, and where everyone can verify their vote online or by phone or a government office kios and where everyone can enter all government meetings.

Those rich bastards Bush and Kerry are on in the same. Someone tell the Haitians about the fake Hat Whites, as they know about the fake White Hats already.

Our alliances in the higher seats of government are dieing off. We must act or we and our families will continue to get more of the ax, including prisons, murder, and extortion by government.
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