Haiti: Capitalist-Made Disaster
The death, destruction and devastation suffered by the Haitian people cannot be blamed solely on the massive earthquake that struck January 12. For two centuries French then U.S. capitalism has plundered the wealth of Haiti—raping it, robbing it, occupying it and kidnapping it’s democratically elected leaders—ejecting them from their own country—and sending in an occupation force to maintain their right to continue their plunder. Most recently, the U.S.-installed UN occupation force has enforced this poverty on the Haitian people forcing them to live in unsafe structures piled on top of one-another; cook with open fires; mix mud with the little flour they have left to fill the distended bellies of their children. The occupation forces do nothing but keep the people from organizing to defend themselves and maintaining the status quo—that’s their job. The results of their occupation over the centuries have left Haiti the poorest nation in this hemisphere. The U.S.-imposed occupation has seen to it that there are no jobs, no decent housing, no independence, and no rights for the people of Haiti.
Meanwhile, the U.S. government under the Obama administration is spending trillions of dollars on never-ending wars and occupations and even more trillions on bailing out the corporations that profit from them and from the rape of Haiti.
We will be joining tens-of-thousands of people in the streets of Washington, DC, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, CA on March 20 demanding, Stop the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan! Bring all U.S. and NATO forces and private contractors home now! End U.S. aid to Israel now! Free Palestine now! End the foreign occupation of Haiti! Use the trillions spent on war and corporate bailouts to pay reparations to Haiti for the vast wealth that has been looted from the country. Use the trillions from war and criminal bailouts for jobs, housing, education, healthcare for all, not to maintain perpetual wars to protect the profits of the wealthiest one-tenth-of-one-percent at the top. The good of humanity as a whole supersedes the private accumulation of vast profits. This is a democratic and humanitarian right of working people and the poor across the globe.
It is this occupation that is responsible for these hundreds-of-thousands of deaths, injuries and losses that poverty exacerbates. But it is not only happening in Haiti. It is a disease spread around the world wherever capitalism has a foothold and an army to enforce it.
We endorse the statement by the ANSWER coalition posted below. And we encourage our readers to participate fully in the building of and participation in the March 20 march and rallies against the wars and occupations in Washington, DC; San Francisco; and Los Angeles, CA to demand OUT NOW.!