In 2010 a terrible earthquake killed 3,000 workers in Haiti. After years of U.S.,Canadian, French and other foreign corporations exploit Haiti’s resources, the workers of Haiti were left vulnerable to this capitalist-made disaster. Every year since then the Haitian non-profit FEDASE, along with members of our church, have been organizing an annual fundraising dinner to support the efforts of grassroots organizers in Haiti.
Planting the seeds of communism through class struggle
The money collected during this multiracial evening will go towards planting trees in Haiti. A decision was made to plant fruit trees because there is less incentive for workers to cut them down to make charcoal, which is a source of income for the them. If the trees bear fruit, the fruit can be sold and/or eaten. As these trees grow and bear fruit, let’s make sure that revolutionary communist ideas also grow.
We need the workers in Haiti who are organizing collectively without any government aid to become the future organizers of a communist world.Our ties with the Haitian organizers are strong and the evening is always one of music, food, and good feeling. Everyone participates in the singing of songs in Kreyol and English. Photos from the work on the ground in Haiti are shown in a slide show while music from Haiti and other places is enjoyed.
This year a poem was read in two languages, Kreyol and English,by a member of the church and a member of FEDASE. A member of the Haitian group wrote the poem, which talks of struggle and comradeship against imperialism and exploitation.
The evening was followed by an after church discussion on reforestation in Haiti. The discussion opened with a history of the exploitative reparations imposed on the workers of Haiti by the French after the first successful revolution against slavery and imperialism in the world in 1804.
The French demanded payment for the Haitian people’s freedom, because they were now deprived of the lucrative profits of slavery. Ever since then corrupt governments dominated by imperialist powers have worked to keep the workers of Haiti without resources while super-exploiting their labor. One such exploiter is the Clinton Foundation, which built a low-wage garment factory, which by 2016 produced only 8,000 of the 100,000 jobs they promised.
Bosses destroy, workers create
As one example of the vicious exploitation of Haiti’s natural resources, multinational corporations have cut down most of the natural hardwood forests. As a result of this theft,there is now only two percent of the tree coverage that existed previously. Lack of trees and plants exacerbate the mountainous terrain and leads to soil loss and mudslides endangering all residents.
FEDASE is working with students to plant trees and fund their schooling in an effort to combat this problem. Working together with these workers and their students we must build a communist world through collectivity and multi-racial unity, without corrupt governments that serve the capitalists. Power to the workers!