17834: Levy: Re: 17829: Kathleen Fw: 17818: lovehaiti: RE: 17591: NOAH: PRESS RELEASE - (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Mike Levy <mlhaiti@cornernet.com>

  Kathleen's request for people to assess peasant political support based on
a list of organizations said to be affiliated with the Group of 184 would be
one small but inconclusive step in an interesting discussion. Beyond
comparing lists of alleged supporters, it might be useful to inquire about
the aspirations and views of Haiti's peasants on a wide variety of topics.
Let us hope that all Haitian political players are doing so.

   It would probably be useful to distinguish between the positions held by
individual peasant organizations and the views of Haiti's millions of
peasants as a whole. It would also be useful to recognize that there may be
more than one point of view within a given peasant organization and more
than one point of view in any one section or department of the country.

  Another question is how then do we ascertain the views of Haitian
peasants.
   One way would be to travel throughout the country and listen to the views
of peasants on topics of greatest importance to them, including their views
on leadership of the country.
   Another would be to look at proceedings of meetings of as many
organizations, associations and movements of peasants as possible.
   A third would be to look at previously published statements by peasant
groups with the understanding that they may or may not reflect a broad
constituency.
   There are no doubt many other ways to learn the peasants' concerns.

   Then, it would be interesting to learn which of the present political
parties and organizations,  have best demonstrated genuine commitment to the
issues and concerns of the peasants. This would be a fascinating discussion.

   Finally, it might be useful to consider the role of peasants within
political parties and coalitions, which might follow from Kathleen's
comments on the groups said to be affiliated with the group of 184 based on
the list referred to in post 17818. One would assume that one would also
look at the presence of peasant voices within Fanmi Lavalas before
completing this exercise.

   Perhaps similar attention could be given to the aspirations and concerns
of workers, students, small shopkeepers, the skilled unemployed, the
unskilled unemployed, the various religious communities both at the grass
roots level and their hierarchies, and the many other sectors of haitian
life culimating in what would become a fascinating discussion in this
bicentennial year: a calm, thoughtful consideration of the perspectives,
aspirations and concerns of all sectors of Haitians.

   Mike Levy

on 1/10/04 3:10 PM, Bob Corbett at corbetre@webster.edu wrote:

>
> From: Kathleen <kathleenmb@adelphia.net>
>
> Dear list:  Several posts have quoted people as saying that Aristide still
> has peasant support.  Please look at item #4 on the 184 list - I started
> counting and stopped at 65 - these are tens of thousands of Haitians in some
> of these groups.  At least one of the organizations has been strong and
> pulsing since 1973.
>
> Kathleen Burke
>
>