NYC Rally Backs Rebellion in Haiti against U.S./UN Oppressors

NEW YORK CITY, December 17 — “Haitian rebels are under attack: what do we do?  Stand up, fight back!” “Clinton, Préval, you can’t hide: we charge you with genocide!” Chants from fifty angry demonstrators bounced off the walls of the Haitian consulate building in Manhattan, as crowds of workers passed by on their way home in the frigid night. Speakers and flyers explained why workers in Haiti were right to rebel in the streets in the face of UN armored troop carriers, as living conditions there grow absolutely intolerable.
Haiti has 1.3 million homeless, 70% unemployment, more than a million school-age children excluded from schooling, a raging cholera epidemic in which 650,000 people (6% of the population) are expected to fall ill in 2011. The promised earthquake aid money has failed to reach the people and reconstruction plans rebuild for profit, not for people. Compared to all this, a rigged election is the least of their worries.
We praised the rebels in Haiti for showing the way ahead for workers everywhere, as similar rebellions break out in Europe. As a black building worker we spoke to recently about racism against Latino immigrants told us: “The whole world is waiting for a revolutionary change!” The rally was coordinated with activist union and student friends in Haiti. They included a photo and a statement from our rally in their press conference at a demonstration against the military occupation by MINUSTAH (UN Mission to Stabilize Haiti) and for free public schools for all.
We handed out the CHALLENGE issue (12/15/10) with an article on this Haitian campaign for public schools, versus the plan of the Reconstruction Commission to rebuild mainly charter schools on the New Orleans post-Katrina model. The article pointed out, however, that even free public schools under capitalism will never fulfill the needs of workers’ children. In the same issue a student writer from Haiti explained how cholera in Haiti was most probably brought into the country by MINUSTAH troops. She condemned the entire structure of NGOs (non-governmental organizations like the Red Cross or Doctors without Borders) in Haiti as “business humanitarianism” secured by imperialist armed force.  
These small beginnings joining workers’ forces in Haiti and the U.S. hold out hope that the international solidarity which the old communist movement once built can be rebuilt, on an even stronger political foundation. The only hope in places like Haiti is the revival of communism led by PLP. The same is true in the imperialist heartland, the U.S. Rebellious workers of all countries need one another to fight a global system. “The workers, united, will never be defeated!” “¡Oberos, unidos, jamás serán vencidos!” “Les ouvriers, unis, ne seront jamais conquis!”