August 01, 2004

Slavery Never Dies: The Real Story Behind the Haitian Fight for Independence

By Charlie Hinton

Between 100,000 and 1 million Haitians gather for Feb. 7 a demonstration in support of President Aristide finishing his five year term. Photo: (c) 2004 Haiti Information Project

A freed man once wrote: "Have they not hung up men with heads downward, drowned them in sacks, crucified them on planks, buried them alive, crushed them in mortars? Have they not forced them to eat shit? And, after having flayed them with the lash, have they not cast them alive to be devoured by worms, or onto anthills, or lashed them to stakes in the swamp to be devoured by mosquitoes? Have they not thrown them into boiling cauldrons of cane syrup?" From these conditions spring the bitterness of class relations that exist to this day in Haiti.

Haiti freed itself from France in late 1803, defeating Napoleon's army in a brutal 13-year war of independence - the world's only successful revolution of enslaved people. France didn't want to lose Haiti, the world's richest colony at the time, so it sold the land known as the "Louisiana Territory" to the United States for a mere $15 million to raise money in its unsuccessful attempt to suppress Haiti's slave rebellion. By 1789, Haiti supplied 3/4 of the world's sugar, one-third of France's foreign trade, and produced more revenue than England received from all 13 US colonies.

Lavalas youth in the Belair neighborhood, flashing the five-finger sign that means President Aristide must serve out his five-year term. Photo: (c) 2004 Haiti Information Project

The conditions of French enslavement defy pretensions of "civilization."

Within ten years of Haiti's independence, France sought to punish Haiti for its humiliating military defeat and to guarantee French economic domination over Haiti. In 1825, French gunboats, laden with cannon, sailed into the harbor of Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince. The commanders (supported by other slave-owning powers) threatened re-enslavement and destruction of the city unless Haiti agreed to pay 150 million gold francs as "reparations" to its former "owners."

To make the first payment, Haiti closed its public schools in what has been called the hemisphere's first case of "structural adjustment" (current IMF/World Bank policy). It took Haiti 122 years (until 1947) to finish payment on its consolidated debt, the whole process bleeding Haiti dry, and underpinning the development of French capitalism. Thus the origin of Haiti standing as the "poorest country in the hemisphere."

Several were killed or wounded on March 11 when, 30 seconds after they fired tear gas as a "warning," police fired bullets into the crowd of Lavalas demonstrators. Photo: (c) 2004 Haiti Information Project

In 1990 Jean-Bertrand Aristide became the first democratically elected president in Haiti's almost 200-year history, overwhelmingly defeating the US choice for President, former World Bank official Mark Bazin. Re-elected in 2000, Mr. Aristide, a former "liberation theology" Catholic priest, came from the people. He defended the interests of the poor and developed his economic and social programs for their benefit. He made Haitian Creole an official language, which means the majority who don't speak French can now participate in Haiti's legal and official life. Here is a man who asks no more than to raise his people up "from misery to poverty with dignity."

In 2002 President Aristide announced that, alongside the celebration of the bicentennial of Haiti's independence, the year 2004 would be marked by restitution and reparation. Five months later he officially announced that Haiti would seek restitution from France for the money extorted between 1825 and 1947, $21.7 BILLION in today's currency.

France rejected the request and joined the United States in backing a destabilization campaign against the Aristide government that culminated with the military coup on February 29, 2004. Haiti cannot be free. It cannot be allowed to pursue any policy that deviates from that dictated by the US State Department, the World Bank and the IMF, and it cannot raise the issue of restitution and reparations.

To undermine Aristide's Fanmi Lavalas party, the US first spent tens of millions of dollars to bankroll phony "opposition" groups, like the "Democratic Convergence" and the "Group of 184." A world-wide media campaign demonizing Aristide followed, that succeeded in circulating misinformation not only through corporate media, but also "progressive" sources like, The Nation, In These Times, truthout.org, and Free Speech Radio News. Then in December 2002, the International Republican Institute (part of a Reagan administration program to "advance world democracy") sponsored a 5-day meeting of Haitian opposition groups in the Dominican Republic to develop strategies to destabilize Haiti. A coup attempt ensued almost immediately, led by Guy Phillipe, an officer in the old army disbanded by Aristide, and one of the current coup-makers.

In early 2004 Guy Phillipe returned, along with Jodel-Chamblain, a leader of the FRAPH death squads from the early 1990's. Armed to the teeth with US-made weapons, their forces quickly overwhelmed many cities in the northern part of the country, as the US prevented the arrival of any reinforcements to defend Haitian democracy. (Philippe says the historical figures he respects most are the Chilean dictator, Augusto Pinochet, and Ronald Reagan.) Finally on February 29, US Special Forces kidnapped President Aristide and flew him to the Central African Republic, where he was held virtually incommunicado for two weeks, before being allowed to fly to Jamaica to the great displeasure of the Bush Administration and Haiti's occupation government. On May 31, he flew to his current exile in South Africa.

The US occupation government (blessed by Kofi Annan and the United Nations) recognized Gerard Latortue, a wealthy Haitian exile who hadn't set foot in the country for years, as prime minister. Latortue subsequently called the death squad coup leaders "freedom fighters." Attacks on Lavalas members, who comprised the heart of local civil defense organizations, left the government totally unprepared to cope with the floods in May and the devastation of Tropical Storm Jeanne in September.

When Latortue and appointed president Bonifaz Alexandre traveled recently to Gonaives, the center of tropical storm destruction, local residents forced them out of town, pelting them with rocks. Latortue says there may be elections someday, although supporters of Lavalas, more than 60% of the population, say they will refuse to participate, because they already have an elected president.

Since September 30, street battles have raged daily in Port-au-Prince, with the police desperately trying to suppress demonstrations calling for Aristide's return. Police and paramilitary forces attack Lavalas supporters with impunity, protected by UN forces. They have murdered more than 3000 people (often disappearing the bodies, which prevents an accurate count), and thousands more live in hiding, separated from home and family. But Haitians don't submit. Courageous supporters of Haitian democracy continue to shelter those in hiding and to organize clandestinely, even while facing threats of death and torture.

This coup culminates a two centuries-long assault on the world's first Black Republic in its efforts to free itself fully from slavery. It becomes one more example of the repression faced by Africans worldwide post-enslavement. Although European and North American chattel slavery has mostly been defeated, the racist, barbaric impulse behind it never really died - it has only transformed itself into other forms of conquest and exploitation.

In the United States slavery converted into Jim Crow and the prison system, with black chain-gang labor used to rebuild the South after the Civil War. In Africa it converted into colonialism and the carving up of the continent for resources and hegemony. And in Haiti, people who fight only for enough food on the table and education for their children must hide in the mountains and slums to avoid being killed. From the time of the European conquest to the present, Black Africans, the world's first human beings, from which ALL human beings descend, have never been allowed to be free and self-determined, either in Africa or in the Diaspora. The most recent example is the coup against President Aristide and Haitian democracy.

You will not hear Gerard Latortue and the other new colonial rulers of Haiti celebrate the 200th anniversary of the overthrow of the French. You will not hear them talk of restitution to Haiti and reparations to Africans worldwide for their enslavement and the rape of their continent. The new masters want to continue 200 years of exploitation, racism, and privilege.

Let us declare the 21st century "the African Century." Let us finally overturn all vestiges of slavery and acknowledge the world's debt to the Mother Continent and her peoples for their wisdom, compassion, and contributions to humankind. If we are all descendents of Africa, then racism against Africans is really a form of self-hatred, and it's killing the world, harming ourselves, and destroying the body politic. Restore President Aristide as the legitimate president of Haiti. Investigate and punish those behind the coup. France, pay your debt to Haiti. Then perhaps 200 years of independence will begin to mean just that.

Charlie Hinton is a member of the Haiti Action Committee, www.haitiaction.net, and GCIU Local 388M. He works at Inkworks Press, a worker-owned and managed union printing company in Berkeley, CA. This is his first feature for whatchusay.com

Posted at August 1, 2004 02:05 PM

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