a2000: This Week in Haiti 20:8 5/8/2002 (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: "[iso-8859-1] Haiti Progrès" <editor@haiti-progres.com>

"This Week in Haiti" is the English section of HAITI PROGRES
newsweekly. For the complete edition with other news in French
and Creole, please contact the paper at (tel) 718-434-8100,
(fax) 718-434-5551 or e-mail at <editor@haitiprogres.com>.
Also visit our website at <www.haitiprogres.com>.

                           HAITI PROGRES
              "Le journal qui offre une alternative"

                      * THIS WEEK IN HAITI *

                         May 8 - 14, 2002
                          Vol. 20, No. 8

IN MAY DAY MARCH, PPN OFFERS AN ALTERNATIVE

For the past two years, Haiti has been paralyzed by a power
struggle between the ruling Lavalas Family party (FL) of
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and the Democratic Convergence
(CD), a Washington-backed opposition front of 14 tiny parties.
Despite the constant comings and goings of diplomatic "mediators"
from Washington and the Organization of American States (OAS),
endless rounds of negotiations have gone nowhere.

Hoping to appease Washington, the FL has moved steadily to the
right, abandoning all the principles articulated by the broader
Lavalas movement when it burst onto the world scene in 1990. One
movement slogan then was "Haiti is not for sale, either retail or
wholesale." Today, the FL is selling some of Haiti's most fertile
farmland to Dominican capitalists who are setting up a "free
trade zones" along the border between the two countries. Precious
state enterprises, particularly the phone company, electric
authority, and airport, are also on the auction block.

Another cardinal rule in 1990 was "Macoutes are not included,"
meaning the new popular government should not incorporate
politicians who collaborated with the Duvalier dictatorships
(1957-1986). Today, the FL has integrated Duvalierists and
supporters of the neo-Duvalierist coup (1991-1994) into its ranks
and the government in some of the most key positions.

Meanwhile, the FL-dominated Parliament has distinguished itself
above all in corruption and chronic dereliction of duty, except
when they gather to facilitate neoliberal reform, obstruction of
justice, or the trampling of national sovereignty.

Hunger and misery have deepened to unthinkable levels, as schools
disintegrate, state workers go unpaid, and garbage piles up. This
is because Aristide and the FL, just like their counterparts in
the Convergence, see Washington's "manna" as the country's only
salvation. Aristide's countless promises have foundered since he
took office 15 months ago because his government has been blocked
from collecting a half-billion dollars in pledged international
aid, a treasure which the Bush administration clearly intends to
never let him have.

The FL's deluded obsession of obtaining the aid has wasted
precious time and millions of dollars to Washington lobbyists. In
an effort to prostrate himself even further, Aristide agreed in
March to allow a new OAS mission to be deployed in Haiti, with
the power to enter any office, seize any document, and
interrogate any official.

The FL's betrayal of founding Lavalas principles has sown
confusion, discouragement, and demobilization throughout Haiti
and its diaspora. Now other progressive currents who were part of
the original Lavalas uprising are fed up with the FL and are
looking for an alternative to fulfill the democratic nationalist
project aspired to in 1990.

On International Workers Day, May 1, the National Popular Party
(PPN) organized a march of some 4000 of its militants and
sympathizers through downtown Port-au-Prince, offering itself as
just such an alternative.

Founded as front of grassroots organizations at Port-au-Prince's
St. Jean Bosco church in 1987, the National Popular Assembly
(APN) was a leading popular organization throughout the turbulent
years following Duvalier's fall until it established itself as a
party in 1999. It supported the generally anti-neoliberal
platform of Aristide's presidential candidacy in 2000 and
defended the FL when the OAS meddled in Haiti's electoral
process, trying to undo FL victories.

But the PPN began to move away from the FL after Aristide's
inauguration on Feb. 7, 2001 as he placed Duvalierists in high
government posts, reneged on campaign promises, and embraced
neoliberal reforms.

For years, the PPN has focused its work in the Haitian
countryside, where 80% of Haiti's population lives. Therefore,
most of those in PPN's May Day march were peasants from all
corners of Haiti demanding agrarian reform. They wore straw hats
and a white T-shirts emblazoned with the PPN's logo and the
slogan: "National production = agrarian reform."

The marchers carried signs calling for "Justice for Peasants" in
Bokozel, Piatre, and Jean Rabel, the sites of Haiti's three most
notorious peasant massacres since 1986. "The Free Trade Zone Plot
Will Not Succeed" and "Lafanmi and Convergence Are Twins" were
also among the placards.

PPN demands also called for OAS to stop meddling in Haiti and an
end to corruption and to neoliberal reforms.


The march started at the Place d'Italie, near the capital's
waterfront, and marched up through the city to a warm reception
from onlookers. Although the marchers carried a long rope around
their perimeter to prevent infiltration by provocateurs, many
people managed to join the march anyway.

The action had been announced to the public only two days before.
The PPN organized the march in near secrecy, suspecting that the
government would attempt to sabotage it.

The march had planned to terminate on the Champ de Mars square in
front of the National Palace. But when the PPN marchers arrived
there, they found the square barricaded and several dozen
belligerent pro-FL demonstrators occupying their rally site.

Although the PPN had notified the police of their march as
required by law, the police were conspicuously absent throughout
the demonstration and were nowhere to be seen as the two groups
of demonstrators faced each other. A jeep-load of anti-riot
police made a pass through the square but did not stick around.

Meanwhile, the powerful sound system which the PPN had rented was
turned off. The technician claimed that he was fearful it might
be damaged by the pro-FL demonstrators and that he was told to
shut down by authorities.

After a one-hour stand-off, the PPN chose to avoid a
confrontation at the rally site, although the pro-FL
demonstrators were largely young teens and vastly outnumbered.

"We know they will try to divide us," said PPN Secretary General
as he addressed the crowd with a megaphone as it rallied on the
edge of the square. "They have managed to have one peasant raise
his machete against another in the past, but that's not going to
happen here today."

He went on to summarize the PPN's differences with FL and the CD
and why it was now necessary to offer an alternative. "They have
given the peasants many promises, but we see that those promises
have not been kept," Dupuy said. "On the contrary, peasants
demanded an agrarian reform, but we see the agrarian reform
[started by President René Préval] has been stopped... We see on
the Marie Bahoux plain [in the Northeast] they want to take good
land and turn it into assembly sweatshops so that the big
capitalists on the other side of the border can make more money
on the backs of the poor."

The rally closed without incident, but the large and successful
march sent shockwaves throughout the Haitian political
establishment. It was the largest demonstration organized in
Port-au-Prince since the mobilization for the funeral of
journalist Jean Dominique two years ago. The message was clear: a
new force, composed of Haiti's laboring masses and progressive
militants, is emerging to challenge the feuding opportunists of
the Convergence and FL.

All articles copyrighted Haiti Progres, Inc. REPRINTS ENCOURAGED.
Please credit Haiti Progres.

                               -30-