PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI, November 15 — “Mr. Martelly (the president of Haiti) is a fascist, no doubt about it.”
“Haiti is becoming more and more fascist every day.”
“Look at what happened to G, a small vendor jailed and moved from one prison to another one even worse, just for talking back to the son of a Tonton Macoute [the armed paramilitary organized under the Duvaliers’ dictatorship, 1957-1986]. That’s fascism!”
“Or, comrade C here, head of his union at the General Hospital. He and three other leaders were suspended from work without trial and charged with ‘presumed’ acts of vandalism after a long strike for back pay for nurses. They’re just trying to crush the unions.”
“This is not 1957. If Martelly dreams of being a fascist, we will show that we don’t agree.”
These were some of the comments made by a dozen rank-and-filers, private- and public-sector union leaders, and university students at a chita-pale (literally, “sit down and talk”) in a union confederation office. The subject at hand was whether Haiti was turning fascist and what the workers’ response should be. The consensus was clear about the political situation. A lively debate followed about what to do.
Today’s Student, Tomorrow’s Worker
One worker, enthusiastic about building a worker-student alliance, noted that today’s student is tomorrow’s worker. In that spirit, a student suggested that the hospital union leaders now under attack not rely solely on a legal defense. He proposed that workers be mobilized to take many forms of action, from a press conference to a sit-in at the Ministry of Public Health to demand an end to repression at the hospital.
This action could be built not only inside the hospital among workers and doctors, but also among students at nearby campuses of the public university and the patient population. In that spirit, hospital workers have consistently included demands for improved medical care as part of their struggle.
One worker said he thought we should wait until a meeting could be held with the new Minister of Public Health, who was not in office at the time of the strike and original charges. A student responded that if a sit-in were held first, it would increase the pressure on the minister to drop the charges. In any case, it would provide a useful experience in organizing workers in the face of growing fascism.
Fascism: The Rulers’ Escape Plan
Michel Martelly is certainly a gutter fascist with a long history of supporting his Tonton Macoute friends and currently building George Racine’s MSTK (Mouvman Sosyal Tèt Kale), a group of street thugs at the center of Martelly’s murderous “Pink Militia.” Fascism, however, is more than the desire of a particular individual to carve a place for himself. Fascism is the rulers’ escape plan, their attempt to contain the periodic crises of capitalism by both intensifying their oppression of the working class and keeping sections of their own class in line. This is not business as usual for the bosses, and so workers must respond in kind.
The chita-pale group also discussed the growth of fascism in the U.S., especially the attacks against Occupy demonstrators in various cities. The workers were stunned to hear about 500 armed cops violently attacking the encampment at Occupy Oakland. They saw immediately the connection between the struggle against finance capital in the U.S. and their own struggle for jobs, housing, and clean water. They know that the same banks that rule the U.S. also rule in Haiti.
More than half the members of Bill Clinton’s Interim Committee for the Reconstruction of Haiti are bankers; Haitian education reconstruction is in the hands of the Inter-American Development Bank. The workers and students quickly drafted a message of support to be read at the Occupy Wall Street demonstration on November 17.