Striking Teacher-Student March Roars Through Haiti

PORT-AU-PRINCE, November 13 — Up to 15,000 students and striking teachers marched through the capital today, their battle cry, “The  only solution is revolution”  filling the streets.

The march stopped at over a dozen public and private schools, with students and teachers swelling the ranks at each one. At many schools, large metal gates locked by administrators to keep students inside and marchers out were forced open by persistent students banging on and climbing the gates, signaling to the students and teachers inside that the strike was here to pick them up. Soon the gates were flung open and a flood of students poured out into the march. The demonstration was carried along on the energy and vitality of students chanting: “Schoolchildren today, university students tomorrow.”

Strike Spreads

In the militant march, tires were set afire and eventually the police shot into the crowd, essentially made up of schoolchildren, while the UN force MINUSTAH lobbed tear gas into the march for hours, including at the public hospital. Several students were arrested, several hospitalized for tear gas inhalation, and one injured when the police shot into the crowd. Strikes and walkouts also took place in other cities — St. Marc (where 2,000 marched), Gonaïves, Jeremie and elsewhere. 

This mass mobilization in Haiti, in the tradition of the only slave revolt ever to end slavery in the western hemisphere and establish a state, was called by UNNOH, a union of many public school teachers who struck against the horrendous conditions in the schools.

Three days before the strike university student Damaël D’Haïti was murdered by an off-duty cop (see CHALLENGE, 11/28,) and the rage of an entire community fueled the march, swelling the numbers of youth. UNNOH denounced the murder and took on the struggle of the youth as its own.

A multiracial group of PLP communists and friends participated and gave crucial leadership to the militant demonstration. Hundreds of copies of DEFI (the local edition of CHALLENGE) and an independent PLP flyer analyzing the limits of reformism and calling for communist revolution were distributed. More students stepped forward to provide leadership. Several will become DEFI readers and will be asked to join a Party study-action group.  

Capitalism Can’t Be Reformed

Before the march some students discussed the strike movement with PL’ers. The students were rightfully disillusioned by how often unions and reform movements fail, and by the fact that even when they succeed in extracting a few crumbs from the bosses’ table their success is often short-lived. As long as the system which profits from the exploitation of working people still exists, these ills will persist and reform struggles will continue endlessly. PL’ers spelled out the need to destroy the very capitalist system that’s responsible. A Party flyer explained how strikes can become schools for revolution, when PLP can lead our class to take state power. 

 As CHALLENGE has indicated previously, amid capitalism’s global crisis, workers’ living conditions in Haiti are worse than the already intolerable conditions of workers in the U.S., France and other imperialist countries. In Haiti, the imperialists control half the national budget. They are, in fact, responsible for the 70% unemployment rate; for the mere 10% of schools being publicly funded; for the classrooms crowded with up to 250 students; and for the pittance teachers receive as salary.

The international bosses’ plans are for war, not for alleviating the suffering of millions of workers in Haiti and worldwide.  The racist violence against the working class in Haiti, the UN troops in MINUSTAH, killer cops, union-busting and the cholera epidemic are all only a taste of the ugly reality that capitalism offers our entire class. Reform is not on their agenda. Meanwhile, imperialist “aid” organizations pour workers’ donations into luxury hotels like the one built by the Red Cross.

The Potential of United Workers

The strike and mobilization did succeed, however, in forcing the government’s Minister of Education to negotiate with the teachers’ unions, with talks scheduled to open November 23. Still, no demands have been granted. UNNOH vowed to maintain the pressure and put teachers on the alert if the talks did not quickly produce real results. Their two-day strike, supported by student and worker groups, showed what potential workers have when they’re united.

Demands include a living wage of $1,250 a month (they now average about $150, while rent for a small apartment in Port-au-Prince exceeds $100 a month); back pay (some teachers are unpaid for years and only come to work because of their dedication to their students); better conditions for students; hot meals for students and teachers; vaccination against cholera in all schools and colleges; and repeal of the 2% supplementary tax levied only on workers’ income, not on the bosses’.

Greater efforts are needed to spread such militant demands and strike action to other groups of workers in Haiti who unfortunately did not appear in large numbers to support the UNNOH strike.  That includes workers in the sub-contractor textile plants in free-trade zones like the one being built in Caracol in Haiti’s north. These zones are hailed by Hillary and Bill Clinton and the Haitian ruling class, but in reality use aid funds for the profits of the factory owners.

International Support

This strike had an international dimension. UNNOH thanked other teacher unions and their members from North America who supported the strike by sending letters, funds and organizers to Haiti. PLP members and friends helped build this support.  The international delegation on the march was protected from the police and MINUSTAH by comrades and friends.

Workers and students crossed borders during the months of organizing together, going from school to school throughout the country in recent weeks, building strike committees and winning student support. Workers’ struggles transcend all borders. Rebuilding international solidarity, in the great tradition of the communist movement, is an important step towards communist revolution. These modest efforts demonstrate that as we build internationalism in workers’ mass organizations, PLP is truly becoming an international Party.