Listen to the Haitian people! No US troops!

Speech by Andrew Josefchak, Anti-War Committee member, given on 10/25/2022 at Haiti Solidarity Protest in front of Senator Klobuchar’s office

US forces are preparing to deploy to Haiti in order to crush the popular movements of the Haitian people, who have led the way forward in the Americas in the struggle against colonialism, imperialism, and slavery going back some 200 years. But this isn’t the first time the US has tried to turn back the clock on the Haitian Revolution! Ever since the Revolution ended slavery in 1804, Haiti has faced US financial bullying as well as outright invasions. France and the US forced Haitians to pay $30 billion in reparations for their own freedom from their former slave masters! We’re never taught in our schools that a long US invasion and occupation from 1915 to 1934 reinstated slavery on the island. Years later, the US-backed Duvalier family dictatorships ruled from 1957 to 1986. Another US invasion happened as recently as 1994. These invasions and economic coercion have kept the Haitian people from the full self-determination that all people are entitled to by right, and another invasion will only make things worse.

The Haitian people have been protesting in the streets constantly for the last 4 years demanding real solutions to the political and economic crises that make life extremely difficult for the poor majority. Living in a country that has been held down by imperialism, kept the poorest country in the Americas, tens of thousands have taken to the streets to demand the resignation of the US-backed Acting-President Ariel Henry (himself a politico straight out of DC), a $15 a day minimum wage, and many other basic demands, including an end to US financial domination. Previously, in 2009, the Haitian parliament tried to increase minimum wages on the island to $5 per day, but the US government intervened on behalf of GAP, Hanes, Fruit of the Loom, and other multinational apparel brands to block the bill.

Henry’s presidency represents an erosion of the democratic norms the people expect following the 1986 revolutionary movement that ousted “President-for-Life” Jean-Claude Duvalier and drafted a new democratic constitution. In response to this popular movement, Henry has recently requested a military intervention in Haiti at the UN. The US as well as allied OAS and Canada have signaled a willingness to do so, although China and other UN countries have voiced serious concerns about another imperialist intervention by the US on the island.

Following the devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti – and US coups in 1991 and 2004 – US disaster capitalists swooped in, setting up the style of government that remains to this day. Around 300,000 Haitians lost their lives, only to have their country’s democracy attacked by grifters and ill-meaning “non-profit” NGOs. Both Clinton and Bush families were sent by President Obama, with the idea of opening up the market for cruise lines and sweatshops in order to, as Bill said, ‘create more jobs by lowering the cost of doing business’. In one stunning scandal, the Red Cross raised half a billion dollars in hurricane relief donations and ended up building just 6 homes. The NFL, Michelle Obama, and other celebrities begged for donations to the Red Cross, but where did the money go? Red Cross refuses to say. 

Right-wing think tank The Heritage Foundation swooped in, too, with an agenda that included countering the influence of socialists like Hugo Chávez in the region and preventing illegal Haitian immigration to the US. Land, for the last decade, has thus been emptied of the people and sold off to international companies like Coca-Cola, sweatshops for JCPenny, factories, oligarchs, and false promises of shared prosperity. In order to facilitate this and deal with massive popular protests, the US and other countries have supplied Haitian police with weapons and armor. It seems the US political establishment and its billionaire funders won’t be happy unless Haitians are back in chains under yet another US-backed dictator.

Haitian people clearly understand and oppose further US imperial intervention, having faced a US invasion less than 30 years ago. They have a right to dignity and self-determination, not more US control and starvation. As Americans who know the cruel history of US invasions and control of the island, we must stand in opposition to the current US war designs! Hands Off Haiti!

Listen to the Haitian people! No US troops!