Solidarity with the People of Haiti

The Socialist Party stands in solidarity with the people of Haiti after the
devastating earthquake that hit the island. Estimates of the dead are more than
one hundred thousand and significant parts of the capital city
Port-Au-Prince’s infrastructure have been destroyed. The full extent of the
damage will not be known for days and the country seems certain to be thrust
into a humanitarian crisis even more serious than the one that exists on a
daily basis.

While this disaster has natural origins, it occurred within a nation that had
already been ravaged by capitalism. Haiti is a model case for the failure of
the neoliberal economic model and the negative legacies of US militarism in the
region.

After coming out of the vicious dictatorship of 'Baby Doc' Duvalier in the late
1980s, the country was saddled by massive debt payments to the IMF and World
Bank. When the “people’s priest” Jean Bertran-Aristide was elected to the
presidency in 1990 new hopes for change were raised. Aristide promised to move
beyond a government of the elites and to challenge the IMF free-market model.
His administration was then brought down by a violent military coup backed by
the US military. After a direct US military occupation, Aristide returned to
office, agreed to implement the IMF plans and was again removed by a military
coup. The already weak Haitian economy spiraled, creating mass unemployment and
suffering.

As multinational companies exited the country, they left behind ecological and
economic devastation. Large swaths of the countryside have been de-forested
rendering them useless for cultivation. Even before the earthquake, the urban
infrastructure was in decay, suffering from a lack of investment for decades.
In a final humiliation, a few months before the earthquake, a group of
multinational investors assembled in Port-Au-Prince to create a plan to return
to exploiting the population.

Despite all of this, the Haitian people have continued to struggle for justice.
In their trade unions, cooperatives and women organizations, poor and working
Haitians have kept alive the legacy of struggle born in the great Haitian
Revolution of the 18th century. Such grassroots democratic struggles offer the
best hope for the future of the island.

The Socialist Party USA encourages everyone to get involved
with efforts to provide relief to earthquake victims. There are many
organizations engaged in this effort including the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund
which has supported grassroots democratic struggles in Haiti since 2004. The
history of Haiti offers a reminder of why democratic socialism offers a
vision that transcends national borders in order to create a global society
based on solidarity, compassion and justice, not the private profit of the few at the expense of many.