22821: radtimes: Boston: 'Lavalas is Haitian nation-building tool' (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: radtimes <resist@best.com>

Boston: 'Lavalas is Haitian nation-building tool'

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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the July 29, 2004
issue of Workers World newspaper
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BOSTON: "LAVALAS IS HAITIAN NATION-BUILDING TOOL"

On July 10, over 200 people heard leaders of Fanmi Lavalas, the Haitian
mass movement, at a fundraising rally. The audience was predominantly
Haitian along with supporters. The event was held at the union hall of
Steelworkers Local 8751, the Boston School Bus Drivers Union. The
program was chaired by Jesue Renaud of Fanmi Lavalas in Boston. Solidarity
statements came from Congress member Maxine Waters, who spoke by
phone hookup; Boston City Councilor Chuck Turner; Local 8751 President
Steve Gillis; and Stephanie Nichols of Workers World Party. The program
featured Farrah Juste, Fanmi Lavalas coordinator for Florida and the
Bahamas, who sang the Haitian national anthem and gave a stirring
account of the current struggle in Haiti. Juste explained how the U.S.-
led occupation is currently one big jail for Fanmi Lavalas supporters,
including Yvon Neptune, prime minister in the Aristide government, and
famous singer and Lavalas activist Annette Auguste (So Anne). Their
lives are now in danger. Haitian poet and lawyer Marguerite Laurent
expressed that Black means liberty, stillness, struggle and survival in
Haiti. Mario Dupuy, secretary of state of Fanmi Lavalas, spoke of the
Lavalas struggle to give priority to the poor, providing food for the
children, constructing schools, providing doctors and electricity, and
how this is being undone since the Feb. 29 U.S.-backed coup. Jonas
Petit, national representative of Fanmi Lavalas, described how Lavalas
is the tool the Haitian people have for building their nation. He spoke
of Aristide, the coup and the charter of Lavalas that calls for all
Haitians to develop in equality and dignity. The meeting was cosponsored
by Fanmi Lavalas, Local 8751, the New England Human Rights Organization
for Haiti, and the Boston chapter of Act Now to Stop War and End Racism
(ANSWER).

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