Take Action | Urgent Appeal from OGANIZASYON FANM VANYAN – OFAV (Brave Women’s Organization)

Dear Friends,

Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his wife and colleague Mildred Trouillot and their children are due to return back to Haiti this week. Women in Haiti, and the Haitian grassroots generally, have been calling for their return for seven long years, but obstacles are still being thrown in their way.

Please sign TODAY in support of the right of the Haitian people to the leadership of their choice. All women and men are welcome to sign.

To Mark International Women’s Month 2011
AN APPEAL FROM HAITIAN GRASSROOTS WOMEN
FOR THE RETURN OF JEAN-BERTRAND AND MILDRED ARISTIDE

On March 8th 2011, the centenary of International Women’s Day, thousands of Haitian women ‘reflected on this day’, once again calling for the return of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his wife Mildred Trouillot. They said:

WOMEN ARE THE MAIN PILLARS

In Haiti, we see how women are despised, without resources and structures for our well-being.

Since 2004, women have been facing increasing hardship, terrible living conditions, verbal abuse, lack of shelter, and then a devastating earthquake and no assistance from the government.

We women have decided that we have to come out from behind the curtain because we are the main pillars of society and without us nothing works. Yet they take away all our rights: 1) our right to housing; 2) our right to send our children to school; 3) our right to work; 4) our right to vote.

That’s why we, the women of OFAV, declare that others cannot choose for us. We have to make our own choices through just and fair elections, not through an undemocratic fraudulent selection process designed to put in power whoever those already in power happen to like.

Sisters, we have had to manage for many years without Titid, without Mildred and without Senator Mirlande Liberus. We need them now so that together we can look for solutions.

We, the women in tent cities, the women in sweatshops, the market women and small vendors, join our voices to thank you for your support and solidarity.

Women are the main pillars.

Women are the source of life.

Women are the salt of the communal meal.

OGANIZASYON FANM VANYAN – OFAV (Brave Women’s Organization)

As the Aristide family, which has been in forced exile in South Africa for seven years, gets ready to return to Haiti, the US State Department issued another statement pressuring the South African government to stop them from returning. It reads:

“We would urge former President Aristide to delay his return until after the electoral process has concluded, to permit the Haitian people to cast their ballots in a peaceful atmosphere. A return prior to the election may potentially be destabilizing to the political process. The government of South Africa has generously hosted former President Aristide and his family since he voluntary departed Haiti in 2004. We encourage the South African government, as a committed partner to Haiti’s stability, to urge former President Aristide to delay his return until after the elections.”

This is how Hillary Clinton responds to the demands of the women of Haiti. This is how she dismisses their democratic vote cast overwhelmingly for President Aristide in 2000. This is how she endorses George Bush’s coup which removed President Aristide in 2004. Her intervention does a disservice to women and to pro-democracy people everywhere.

We support the right of Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his family to return to Haiti immediately, the right of the women who have called for their return to welcome the Aristides home, and the right of the sovereign government of South Africa to respect the wishes of the Haitian people.
Andaiye, Red Thread, Guyana
Selma James, Global Women’s Strike (GWS), UK
Nina López, Global Women’s Strike, UK
Margaret Prescod, Women of Clolor/GWS, US

We the undersigned support this call from
OGANIZASYON FANM VANYAN – OFAV (Brave Women’s Organization)

Name	Organization (if any)	Email/Phone	City/Country

Call issued by OGANIZASYON FANM VANYAN – OFAV (Brave Women’s Organization)

Endorsement call issued by: Global Women Strike (GWS) and Women of Color in the GWS
www.globalwomenstrike.net

Email: la@crossroadswomen.net Tel: 323-276-9833

Information: www.haitisolidarity.net Email: info@haitiaction.org