In Obama’s State of the Union address, he grossly insulted the earthquake-stricken working class of U.S.-occupied Haiti. He talked for over an hour, mainly about domestic issues, concentrating on restoring U.S. bosses’ profits amid workers’ misery, while completely ignoring the more than 200,000 deaths — a toll vastly multiplied by the poverty U.S. capitalism forces on Haiti. (See CHALLENGE, 2/3) He passed over the millions more now suffering injuries, disease, homelessness and hunger under the guns of well-cared-for U.S. troops.
This attitude mirrors the racism that U.S. imperialism spreads worldwide, having super-exploited the overwhelmingly black population of Haiti for over a century, making it the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere.
The fact is, each dollar of U.S. government assistance includes “33 cents for U.S. military aid,” but only “nine cents for food.” (Associated Press, 1/27/10) This paltry “aid” fronts for stepped-up coercion. While the quake has Haiti’s workers down, U.S. bosses step on their backs. This lays bare capitalism’s utter unwillingness to relieve distressed workers.
Obama, however, did note an opportunity to convert the catastrophe into building U.S. imperialism. He praised “Americans who’ve dropped everything to go someplace they’ve never been and pull people they’ve never known from the rubble, prompting chants of “U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A! from people in Haiti. Obama and his ruling-class masters hope their half-baked aid can legitimize a full-fledged military presence.
U.S. Rulers Seek To Rescue Image, Not Haitian Workers
Some U.S. “relief” workers are openly patriotic and paramilitary like the NYPD-FDNY team that put in a brief, highly-publicized appearance in Haiti. But the most committed volunteers are genuinely compassionate people in groups like Doctors Without Borders (DWB). These sincere doctors are being mis-led by war-making bosses with an imperialist agenda. Unfortunately, all these groups ultimately serve the same U.S.-flag-waving purpose.
DWB’s actual leaders plan and carry out even greater assaults on the working class that would disgust most DWB doctors, if they were aware of them. DWB’s advisory (financial, that is) board boasts heavyweight U.S. imperialist credentials. (See box, page 2)
New York City’s police commissioner Ray Kelley, who sent in the cops and firefighters, is continuing his career in making Haiti a pro-U.S. police state. In 1994-1995, Kelley was training Haiti’s police as Director of the International Police Monitors of the multi-national force in Haiti. For this, then President Clinton awarded him a commendation for “exceptionally meritorious service.”
No Honor Among Thieves — U.S. Uses Disaster to Beat Rival
Capitalists and Trash
International ‘Law’
Obama & Co. pounced on Haiti to execute unilateral military action under humanitarian cover, infuriating French-, Russian- and Chinese-allied Venezuelan competitors for cheap Haitian labor. Led by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), (see box at right) liberal U.S. strategists have been cooking up such an operation for some time. An October 2009 CFR report, “Interventions to Stop Mass Atrocities and Genocide” called for the U.S. to “break the law” regarding national sovereignty and UN strictures, when overriding U.S. imperialist interests demand.
The paper cited war zones Kosovo, Rwanda and Darfur. But U.S. rulers grafted the phony humanitarian rationale onto Haiti. It read in part: “Force or threat of force may be used in cases of genocide and mass atrocities to, among other things, protect vulnerable populations, guard relief efforts, degrade perpetrators’ capacity for repression, and signal a willingness to escalate further if necessary.”
The U.S. has even invented Haitian “perpetrators” in the form of thugs hoarding relief supplies. But, to the contrary, workers in Haiti are collectively organizing food distribution. Even the NY Times reported (1/26) that, “New rules of hunger etiquette are emerging. Stealing food, it is widely known, might get you killed....No matter what is found, or how hungry the forager, everything must be shared.” This working-class “communal rationing” contradicts the media’s demonization of young workers in Haiti. (See
article below). The main hoarders are, in fact, the U.S. military, who — wielding police power — effectively control the bulk of supplies.
We must unite with Haiti’s workers and report their class solidarity in our shops, unions, barracks, community organizations, churches and schools, while organizing direct working-class relief, as best we can, to the workers on Haiti’s streets, by-passing the U.S. imperialists who have looted the country for over 100 years.
The profit system not only magnifies natural disasters’ effects on workers but uses them to further exploit our class. Our Party’s long-term goal is the earthquake of communist revolution that will bury the murderous billionaire class in the rubble of capitalism once and for all.