Haiti: Sketch of Comradeship

HAITI, Sept 7—Solidarity must be at the heart of what it means to be a communist. Communism is not only a political and economic system, it is also a way of life. Building an international revolutionary communist party means breaking the boundaries of racism, sexism, social division of labor and economic inequalities fueling the life of workers-all barriers created by capitalism to divide and alienate the working class.
Therefore, communists must develop our line through our everyday lives, along with developing trust between communists and the working class. This summer, PLP here continued to experience and develop that solidarity with North American communists and friends and relatives.
We relied on our friends to help overcome some logistical difficulties. A young friend drove our visitors to the lodging. He had a drink with us and joined in a lively discussion about the current level of class struggle in Haiti. We accompanied the U.S. comrades everywhere: tired, a comrade felt a cold coming on; right away, a friend brought her leaves and honey to prepare a cure.
On a short journey out of town, a doctor friend drove and stayed overnight with us, and we ate and drank together, talking late into the night, strengthening our ties. For other visits, we traveled in a pickup other friends provided for us. Together we visited a retired worker from the U.S.  trying to build a social service center in a small rural community. We shared the comforts and discomforts (Some had to ride in the back of the truck). For several days, we traveled  together, sharing food, drink, music, and talk, talk, talk! Three to four people shared a dish or a bottle of water.
During our journey we became friendly with many people we met on the road. When we were told that the mother of a new comrade had just passed away,  we even shared gifts: on arrival, the U.S. comrades brought some dried fish (a specialty from another region of Haiti that had been visited) to the mother of one comrade and she gave them some casave, a specialty from her town, to them on their departure; they also gave books and textbooks for the daughter of the friend who drove for us, and for another girl in her family.
For the last two days we cooked together, struggled with one another on the daily work of the Party, strengthening our ideological understanding of racism, sexism, armed struggle, poverty, the class struggle and the prospects for building our Party.
In our Party, we want to build lives together in free and full solidarity today without any form of inequality among our ranks. Join us! Long live communism, long live the PLP.