=?x-unknown?q?13942=3A__Slavin=3A_Declaration_of_Enstiti_=5Bi?==?x-unknown?q?so-8859-1=5D_Kiltir=E8l_Kal_Lev=E8k_=3F_ICKL_an?==?x-unknown?q?d_3_other_NGOs_=28fwd=29?=

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: PSlavin@unicefusa.org

translated from the Creole:

                   The Position of Several Institutions*
        in the Democratic and Popular Sector on the Current Crisis
Dec. 2, 2002


Struggle?, we must eliminate Lavalas, but we must remain watchful?

February 7, 1986, the mobilization of the popular masses and several other
elements in the international conjuncture caused Jean Claude Duvalier to
fall. The fundamental demands of the 1986 movement were for peasants to
benefit from a true land reform, in other words for them to receive land
and the means to work it; for justice for all; for a society where all
children go to school; all people receive health care; all people have
jobs, and for a society where the liberty to organize and to speak freely
are respected. It was for those ideals that the peasants of Jean Rabel, of
Piate, of Bocozel, and the poor of Cite Soleil and of St. Jean Bosco, fell.

Since 1990, Lavalas has betrayed the masses, it has put a brake on the
popular movement. Impunity, reconciliation with thieving criminals and drug
dealers are the compass which guide Aristide and Lavalas. Lavalas has
established, once again, fear, repression and censorship in Haiti. It
assassinated Jean Dominique and Brignol Lindor, it put Rosemond Jean in
prison, it is persecuting professor Josue Merilien, it shot at young people
in Petit-Goave and Gonaives, it beat students at the state university,
without mentioning many other victims.  All that because they spoke out,
they organized, they made their demands heard. Thugs and thieves are
holding the entire population hostage. Lavalas tramples on the country and
its institutions.

Lavalas is corrupt, without decorum, it steals state land, it makes money
of the misery of the Haitian people. Lavalas has ignored all of the
struggles of the popular movement against the International Monetary Fund
and neoliberal policies. Lavalas sells the country for a song. It
liquidates state enterprises, it practically gives away peasants' land to
make a free trade zone. It has abandoned the population. The country is
losing all sense of sovereignty.

These last few days, a wind of mobilization has begun to blow. The popular
masses, through young people, high school and university students, are
saying ENOUGH, they are tired. Today, the popular movement has more reasons
that all other actors on the scene to say: Aristide, resign, Let the people
live!

But at the same time as everyone stands up to reject Lavalas and Aristide,
not everyone has the same reason. Because, since 1986, the popular movement
has always struggled against any government which is subservient to the
imperialists, any government which sells off the country, which takes
people's money, which borrows money on the people's back to enrich itself
and the families of those in power, and to buy weapons which are used to
crush the people.

The struggle of the popular and democratic movement is one for a sovereign
government, which does not answer to any foreign country, a government
which carries out a real, national land reform without demagogy, which
judges all criminals and thieves of the state, a government which builds
schools and hospitals of the same quality all over the country, a
government which respects the rights of workers.

This time, we must make sure we continue our struggle for a more just
society which is autonomous, which fights to eliminate misery, a country
based on liberty, respect and justice for all. It is true that the struggle
will be a long one, we have had some failures, but we have no other choice:
We must continue to fight without stopping, against the enemies of
yesterday and the enemies of today.

Declaration made in Port-au-Prince, December 2, 2002.

March Arthur Fils-Aime
Carl Leveque Cultural Institute
(Enstiti Kiltirèl Kal Levèk ? ICKL)

Carl-Henry Boucher
Program for an Alternative Justice
(Pwogram pou yon Altènatif Jistis ? PAJ)

Joseph Georges
Society for the Animation of Social Communication
(Sosyete Animasyon Kominikasyon Sosyal ? SAKS)\

Willard Vancol
Institute for Technology and Animation
(Enstiti Teknoloji ak Animasyon ? ITEKA)



* The first two institutions work in the areas of human rights and popular
education, the third in the area of popular communication, and the fourth
in the area of popular education and training especially with peasants. All
four have been working with and have been actors in Haiti's democratic and
popular movement for over ten years.
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