14085: Ives replies to Durban (14049) re U.S. Policy (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: K. M. Ives <kives@toast.net>

>Durban: "...investment in Haitian coffee growing has been negative for
years and Haitian sugar production has all but ceased so it is hard to see
how this has been a boon for U.S. and European food multinationals."

Gee, Lance, I don't see what's so hard to understand. Coffee and sugar
production in Haiti have declined in the past three decades precisely
because of the glut of and depressed price for these commodities on the
world market. This is one reason companies like Nestlé's and Starbuck's
make a bundle. And this is why Colombian farmers have turned from growing
coffee to growing coca, and why Cuba is closing half of its sugar mills.
(Sugar's decline is also linked to the shift by U.S. food processors to
corn syrup.)

As for cacao, that too is down from decades past, and despite periodic
spikes, it's production remains essentially flat in recent years. Haiti's
projected cacao exports of. $5.3 million for 2002 are down from $5.69
million in 1995.

>Durban: "To my knowledge there have been NO new U.S. assembly factories in
recent years."

Exactly, and that's precisely the point. Not just no new factories, many
have left. The assembly industries are essentially fly-by-night. If another
nation can do it more cheaply, or is more politically stable, they pull up
stakes and head there. They leave nothing behind but a cinder-block shell.
Only the labor comes from and stays in Haiti.

>Durban: "If you are critical of policy recommendations to increase
agricultural production (and employment) but don't want to see those nasty
old factories set up to employ Haitians either, what do you want Haitian
people to do for a living?  Are you suggesting that maybe everyone should
simply go down to the port and wait until the foreign aid ship docks with
surplus American farm products?"

C'mon, Lance. Who in the world is against agricultural production,
employment, and factories? The question is *what type* of agriculture and
industry one has and *in what framework.* Washington funds, promotes, and
dictates production oriented to satisfying the needs of its OWN economy,
draped in a "world market" logic. Its prescriptions to Haiti - a cash-crop
economy and assembly industries -- are completely dependent on the whims of
external forces, whether it be the world market or some balding mid-level
manager at J.C. Penney.

Haiti needs agriculture which can feed its people so they aren't waiting
for the "ship with surplus American farm products," the dumping of which in
Haiti is also U.S. policy and has buried Haitian agriculture, particularly
rice production.

Of course, one must also grow foods for export, but, as has been suggested
at South-South conferences, Haiti should band together with other producers
to form cartels, which can defend the price of products like coffee.
Needless to say, the U.S. and WTO oppose such notions.

As for factories, Haiti, like the rest of the third world, needs *organic
development*, factories which provide Haitians with goods and technology,
not just a sweat-shop wage.

Haiti faces the dilemma of most Third World countries. Having been
appendages of Northern metropoles, these former colonies have had no
appreciable primitive accumulation of capital, which was amassed in the
U.S., for example, by stealing gold and land from the Native Americans and
slave labor from Africans.

Haiti has further been isolated and demonized, penalized with the 150
million gold franc ransom to France, and experienced periodic raids by the
U.S. on its treasury.

Put it like this, Lance. If the U.S. really wants development in Haiti, it
should transfer wealth back INTO the country, not OUT. Help the country
develop or reinforce state industries in strategic sectors, like
electricity, telecommunications, sugar, essential oils, cement, and flour
production. Make a one-way no-strings-attached transfer of capital and
jealously-guarded technology for real industrial development as well as
huge investments in education, health, sanitation, housing, and water so
that the population can take part. Reparations for slavery, support of
coups and dictators, and past plunder would also be nice.

Kim Ives