Haitian people wil resist and overcome

The car is crossing Port au Prince and heading towards the airport. (.) I gaze once more, already with some longing. The poverty in the overcrowded streets in contradiction with the palaces on top of this hills. Unlike in Rio de Janeiro, the bourgeoisie liven on top of the hills here. In just a week our team did a lot: we spoke to the leading institutions of the country (the president, the Brazilian ambassador, the commander-in-chief of the Minustah); we were in close contact with the working class, their struggles and with the trade unions of Le Ca. We talked to peasants’ organisations, such as Heads Together and the organisation of Le Cap, where the two peasants were murdered. We spoke to sectors of the popular movement as in Cite Soleil. Se talked to students and human rights organisations. Apart from all that we even had a revealing contact with Haitian culture, with the architecture of the Citadel and with voodoo.

About 1200 people gathered with us. (.) It looks like we did stir up some ado and the reaction was already there. The Brazilian ambassador was very annoyed about the repercussions and told the Batay Ouvriye not to welcome us any more and suspended the meeting we had scheduled for yesterday with Latin American ambassadors. The Chilean ambassador, who disputes the command of the Minustah, kept the appointment with us. While we were talking to him the Brazilian ambassador turned up all of a sudden apparently to “control” the conversation.

This does not bother us, but there are other reactions: the evening we left Le cap, a group of armed men tried to invade the Batay Ouvriye office but were stopped by the workers of the region. Since very early yesterday a tank and another Minustah car parked in front of the BO office and stayed there the whole day in an evident attempt at intimidating them. At a press conference that ended our visit, we exposed these repressive manipulations. We made the Brazilian ambassador and president Preval personally responsible for any repression against BO (.)

The image we take with us of the Haitians belies the colonial ideology of the occupants. That is so, because the occupation has an economic strategy (the free zones and bio diesel) , a military phase (the Minustah) and an ideology: “It is necessary for the troops to stay, because these people do not know how to govern themselves”. There is nothing new about this. It is but an update of the colonial ideology meant to embellish slavery, because “Negroes are not fit” for anything except to submit themselves to the white. The Haitian elite and the multinationals do not fear the “bands” but they quake at the thought of a new rebellion that would now take the shape of a revolution. The history of these people has already shown that this is possible and may be replayed.

The farewell at the airport is moving. We have not only got to know a nation. We have made friends. Brazil once more crops up in our concern. The people of BO will make a statement of solidarity with eh people of the Morro del Aleman in Rio de Janeiro, where police killed at least 19 people. On the other hand, the Rio police say they are using the tactics that Brazilian troops have learned here. At the end of the day, Haiti is here. and there.