Haiti Fights Back: From the Masses, To the Masses

HAITI, August 27—“Why don’t those delinquent politicians like you? The people agree with you and take part in your march,” a worker watching a PLP-led demonstration in the south of Haiti asked a comrade. Our comrade replied, “Our struggle is the struggle of the masses for the masses, not for a single individual who wants power in order to get rich on their backs.” The struggle against capitalism continues in Haiti! More than 650 workers, students and youth, professionals and unemployed workers demonstrated today against hunger, poverty, the high cost of living and mass unemployment.
The Progressive Labor Party is building class-consciousness, organizing and mobilizing the masses around the intrinsic problems of capitalism. Hundreds of people marched for miles with signs, banners and tree branches in hand. Symbolically alluding to hunger, drought and the inaccessibility of water, people came with pots, plates, spoons, glasses and other makeshift instruments to animate the march.
Strike While Iron is Hot!
After the demonstration on July 28 (see CHALLENGE 9/2), marking the 100th anniversary of the first U.S. invasion of Haiti, our comrades and close friends worked for a month to organize a second big action against hunger and poverty, as demanded by our base. After an evaluation of the first march, PLP members and close friends met several times to  discuss how to move forward. Together we planned the next action, which was held today. As communists, we are developing a sense of how to organize class struggle. For a month, posters were put up throughout the area, hundreds of leaflets distributed, banners posted, and statements distributed to media both locally and in the capital. We mobilized door-to-door so everyone knew the plan. Our comrades dug in to discuss the source of the hunger, poverty and unemployment that workers here are facing. Using megaphones and a local radio station, we got our message out in all the neighborhoods.
Workers are developing confidence in the Party’s ideas, and are engaging with us. One close friend lent his motorcycle to a comrade for a full week. Artists and calligraphers are writing banners without charge on materials we provide. One young man lent his family’s generator for sound; a woman donated gas for it. Another friend guaranteed the sound system. Some friends made sure there was water for all the demonstrators in the stultifying heat of a summer day in Haiti. During the demonstration, a former militant mass leader and other community leaders put forward useful ideas and helped guarantee security.
Confidence in the Workers
From the beginning, the police had wanted to stop the march. But all the workers stood firm alongside the comrades of PLP. When the march crossed a major highway, local residents lined the route. Drivers and travelers who received leaflets and CHALLENGEs voiced their solidarity with the struggle. One worker pointed out how this march, disciplined and with a clear political line, was the exact opposite of the free-for-alls organized by politicians during this election season. We then denounced the elections as part of the bosses’ plan to keep power in the hands of those few who have created the misery that faces working people here.
With two demonstrations in the space of one month, some workers were worried about the absence of the capitalist media, whose representatives wanted to be paid to cover our action. That’s capitalism: trying to smother the shouts of the working class. But thanks to some forward thinking by our comrades, the message got out anyway, including some live coverage by a young journalist. The workers are committed to getting our message out ourselves—not relying on the bosses’ media, but on our own initiatives.
Onward to Building a Mass PLP!
Today’s demonstration is part of a long-range plan to develop class consciousness, including conferences on hunger, poverty, documentaries, permanent posters and banners in the streets, and an open letter to the political misleaders. We are organizing study/action groups and freedom schools to understand and act against the sources of workers’ oppression, using local radio stations to agitate. We will also participate in existing mass organizations of  city and farm workers, students and professionals to put forward our politics and win others to join PLP. Our goal is to train masses of new communist leaders.
In this continuing struggle, PLP is proving that we are honest and serious, and can win the masses with our politics instead of material incentives. We are challenging the capitalist politicians. Workers here are being inspired to fight capitalism and build for communist revolution. The PLP, our international communist party, is engaged in class struggle throughout the world. Wherever PLP is fighting back, revolutionary consciousness is growing and the masses will become more and more confident of victory!