Fri Mar 29, 2024
March 29, 2024

We ara at home, we are in Cite Soleil

Yesterday, the road was flooded by a river after a storm. Eight hours more on the road and we are back in Port au Prince. Our faces show signs of fatigue. The last activity together with the Haitian workers is a very significant place: Cite Soleil, the greatest shanty town in Haiti. It is the most violent place in the city, where Minustah carried out several extremely tough raids. As usual the excuse is “repression of the bands”. Troops get in and shoot against the homes of the workers. During the latest invasion, a member of the regional BO tells us, they came with helicopters and tanks. he reckons that about 150 people died. This region has also been chosen to set up another free zone. Violent repression has an explicitly economic explanation.


 


We enter Cite. Marrom, leader of an occupation in Pinheirunho of Sao Jose dos Campos wants to know some hoses. He comes back impressed: they use rudimentary latrines and have tombs in their backyards. The bus stops in from of the school where the rally is to be held. The hall is large and about 250 people crowd into it in spite of the time: there was a football match Brazil against Chile.


 


The faces are congenial and kind and they welcome us with the usual camaraderie. A comrade of the BO greets us and asks us to feel at home. We actually do feel surrounded by friends, as if we were with Brazilian workers. I cannot help pondering on how the common struggle breaks the barriers: we are at home in Cite Soleil in a way that no other foreigner could ever be. The attendants are introduced in the customary way. Toninho speaks of the letter. In the middle of his speech he declares that he loves his country and his loves football and that he knows that so do the Haitians. But if they burned a Brazilian flag as a part of demonstration against the presence of the troops, we would all be in favour of that. There is an outburst of applause. Olair, a representative of the Sindef of Sao Paulo, about his black skin and of how he felt identified with the Haitian people. his voice denotes emotion and he passes this feeling to the rest of us.


 


In the audience there is a representation of Hanes, a leading American T-shirt producer. They have just dismissed 60 workers to close the plant here. Moreover, they refuse to pay indemnity. The workers came to the rally to discuss a joint plan of action with us, not only against the occupation but also against the company. One of the women workers speaks and her anger swells. She tells us of how they work 12 hour with no lunch break or permission to go to the bathroom for some 55 dollars a month. They chained the doors to prevent people from going to the bathroom. Now they are firing everybody and refuse to pay anything. She finishes with a fair comparison: “we are the modern slaves”. At the end of the rally we are all glad to have seen Cite the rebel. I can no longer seen signs of fatigue on the faces of the people.

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