Haiti 1986
Author: Harvey McArthur;
First Published: March 10, 1986;
Source: Intercontinental Press, Vol.24, No.5 p.133;
Transcribed: for Marxist.org by Amaury Rodriguez, 2019.
Transcriber’s note: This article appeared in Intercontinental Press (IP), a weekly magazine published in New York on behalf on the Fourth International from 1963 to 1986. This document highlights the role of the Haitian Left during the post-Duvalier period, and the role of the Sandinista revolution in fostering Latin America and Caribbean solidarity with the Haitian people. The document also captures the close ties and camaraderie that existed among revolutionaries from Haiti, Puerto Rico, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic during the Cold War era. I thank Pathfinder Press for granting me permission to post this article.
MANAGUA – “We opened this meeting of Latin American political parties by listening to the message of a people who just expelled the Duvalier dictatorship,” declared Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega [1] in his opening speech to the Conference of Political Parties of Latin America and the Caribbean here.
Gérald Pierre-Charles, [2] a well-known Haitian historian and leader of the United Haitian Communist Party, was a keynote speaker at the opening ceremony. He shared the platform with Ortega and Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP) leader Rubén Berríos. [3] “I bring you a message of joy and dignity,” said Pierre-Charles. “The people of Haiti have liberated themselves from one of the most horrendous dictatorships in the world.
“Tomorrow, it will be Chile and the day after, Paraguay,” he added. Pierre-Charles paid tribute to the “extraordinary, quiet, difficult, and heroic struggle of the Haitian people.” He also pointed to the example set by the Nicaraguan revolution. “I tell you that Sandino is ours,” he explained. “The Sandinista revolution has inspired the Haitian youth who defied and finally defeated the [Duvalier] dictatorship.”
The United Haitian Communist Party (PUCH), the Haitian Workers Party (PTH), and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Haiti (FPLH) had delegations at the Managua conference.
The overthrow of Duvalier, the character of the current military junta, the future course of the Haitian struggle, and the role of U.S. intervention in Haiti were the topics of many discussions at the conference.
All the Haitian delegates condemned the newly installed military junta and characterized it as an attempt to continue the old regime without Duvalier. They pointed out that four of the six members are officers of the Duvalierist army.
“The Haitian people have not struggled, have not invested so many human lives, so that a military junta would be installed in power,” said Pierre-Charles.
“The struggle has been for an advanced democracy, and while the accomplishments so far represent a big advance, we know that the Haitian revolution has many demands and has barely begun. It is a question of resolving the problems of a country with 85 percent illiteracy, resolving problems of misery and malnutrition, problems of the most oppressed, the poorest country in Latin America.”
The Haitian delegates also agreed that a key test of the new government would be whether it allowed the unconditional return of all political exiles. This will be important for the development of the revolutionary movement in Haiti, according to a delegate of the FPLH.
Many leaders have been forced to live in exile for years, some since the early days of the Duvalier regime in the late 1950s. The junta has said it will allow the return of exiles, but only according to current legal restrictions set up by Duvalier, according to PUCH General-Secretary René Théodore. [4] This means exiles will have to apply for visas from the Haitian government. A Duvalierist law outlawing the Communist Party is still in effect, and this would be used against any opponent the junta does not approve of, said Théodore.
Antonio Polo, [5] a leader of the Union of Patriotic and Democratic Forces of Haiti (of which the PTH is a component), explained to this reporter that the U.S. government had decided Duvalier was no longer able to control the Haitian people and defend U.S. business interests. With the outbreak of massive protests last year, the United States decided it was time to change the Haitian government, he said.
The junta and its U.S. backers are attempting to shift all the blame for the bloody repression suffered under Duvalier onto the hated Tontons Macoutes, said Polo. This political police force backed up Duvalier’s rule through violence and terror. Members of the Tontons Macoutes stole land from peasants and robbed workers and merchants. They have been the targets of popular anger since Duvalier’s overthrow, and some have been executed by angry crowds. On February 10, the junta announced that the Tontons Macoutes had been dissolved.
However, Polo emphasized, the army and regular police were also used to repress the Haitian people. The Leopards, an elite army unit trained by the U.S. Army at bases in Panama, was especially brutal in attacking demonstrations. Many government and military officials were responsible for the massive corruption in Haiti. In May 1984, for example, demonstrations broke out in Cap-Haitien and Gonaives against officials who had taken food donated by relief organizations. They sold it instead of distributing it to hungry people. Thus, by putting all the blame on the Tontons Macoutes, the new regime hopes to keep the army, police, and old government structure intact, said Polo. They would serve to stabilize the new regime, repressing any popular challenge to it.
“The people are demanding land, work, and freedom,” said Polo. “Freedom means freedom to organize unions and peasant, student, and women’s organizations. Without these organizations, there can be no guarantee of freedom.”
The Haitian delegates at the conference strongly supported the perspective of united action by Haitian left organizations. These groups are small, and most exist mainly in exile, although some, including the PUCH, PTH, and FPLH, also have underground organizations inside Haiti.
“The Haitian struggle lacks a fundamental element, as we have learned from the Sandinista revolution,” said Pierre-Charles. “[It lacks] a political-military vanguard that can take power.” Antonio Polo said that the return of the exiles would be crucial to building a united revolutionary movement. “We need concrete projects of unification,” he said, “but it is not clear what these could be now.” The parties that exist clandestinely in Haiti are small and have little experience working with each other, he noted.
“A common demand we can unite around now is for the unconditional return of all the exiles,” explained Polo. “Then we will see what other common actions we can take. That will give us a chance to sit down together and discuss political perspectives.”
Delegates at the conference reported that the struggle in Haiti has had a big impact in the Dominican Republic. Haiti and the Dominican Republic are the two countries that share the large Caribbean island of Hispaniola. Hundreds of thousands of Haitians live in the Dominican Republic, including tens of thousands of seasonal workers who cut sugar cane.
The impact on the Dominican Republic has been extraordinary, Rafael “Fafa” Taveras, [6] general secretary of the Socialist Bloc (BS) and a leader of the Dominican Left Front (FID), said.
“The situation in Haiti has brought forth the immense sympathy and solidarity the Dominicans have for the Haitian people,” he said. This has undercut the traditional racist, anti-Haitian prejudices fostered in the Dominican Republic and will have “tremendous repercussions” for the struggles in both countries, he added.
Taveras is also president of the Anti-Imperialist Organizations of Central America and the Caribbean. Parties and movements from 19 countries met at a plenary of the Anti-Imperialist Organizations immediately before the Conference of Latin American Political Parties. They issued a declaration to the conference that saluted “the courage of the Haitian people” as an inspiration for other Caribbean peoples.
The Anti-Imperialist Organizations also “solidarized with the struggle for a true democracy in Haiti” and opposed any U.S. military intervention there.
Taveras reported that a large solidarity rally with Haiti had been held in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic, on February 8. Any U.S. invasion to crush the popular rebellion in Haiti, he said, would be seen as an attack on the Dominican people. There would be mass support for Haiti and contingents of Dominicans would go to Haiti to fight the invasion, he concluded.
1. Daniel Ortega, from the formerly left-wing Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), was a member of the Junta of National Reconstruction that ruled Nicaragua after the fall of the Somoza dictatorship from 1979 to 1985. Ortega became president after the November 1984 elections.
2. Gérald-Pierre Charles (1935-2004) was an author, economist and former leader of the Parti unifié des communistes haïtiens (Haitian Unified Communist Party-PUCH).
3. Rubén Ángel Berríos Martínez (1939) is a Puerto Rican pro-independence politician and leader of the Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño (Puerto Rican Independent Party-PIP).
4. René Théodore (1941-2003) was an educator and former leader of the Parti unifié des communistes haïtiens (Haitian Unified Communist Party-PUCH).
5. Antonio Polo might have been a pseudonym of a leading revolutionary militant from Haiti as no information about his life surfaced during the transcription of this document.
6. Rafael “Fafa” Taveras (1938) is one of the historical leaders of the 1965 April revolution in the Dominican Republic. From the 1960s to the 1980s, Taveras was a leading member in several revolutionary organizations: The Movimiento 14 de Junio (14 of June Movement-1J4), Movimiento Popular Dominicano (Dominican Popular Movement-MPD), Bloque Socialista (Socialist Bloc-SC) and the Frente de Izquierda Dominicana (Dominican Left Front-FID).