Haiti: Workers organize for reform and revolution

HAITI, April 28—In a small town, the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) is actively organizing among workers  to do what the local government is unable or unwilling to do in order to protect ourselves from the ravages of the coronavirus pandemic that is hitting the working class . It is a good example of how we would rely on workers under communism to share both abundance and privation. Of course, we are in the stage of sharing privation now because we live under the most racist, exploitative system the world has ever seen. This is how we are responding to the crisis.
We are creating groups in various neighborhoods to discuss and plan actions that respond to the needs of the local working class, in view of their strengths and weaknesses. With these neighborhood groups, our plan is to realize the following:
·Sew fabric masks with tailors and home sewers to be distributed locally.
·Set up hand-washing stations in various well-trafficked areas, to be financed through donations.
·Organize surveillance brigades at the entrance to neighborhoods who will be armed with information about how to protect ourselves from the virus.
·Organize a public awareness campaign about the existence and risks associated with coronavirus (so many people are not aware, and the rumor mill is in full operation!)
· In areas where there is medical personnel, we will work with them.
· Work with the local population to set up food banks in the most hard-hit areas.
· Set up a medical bank with vitamins, etc. to help those most in need of a nutritional boost.
·Organize regular cleaning of public markets and other spaces susceptible to contamination.  
At the moment, there are two neighborhoods in town and two rural communities that are involved. With donations from many individuals and one community organization, there are now 15 public hand-washing stations stocked with soap and disinfectant.
There will be a May Day march on May 1 in Port-au-Prince calling for better working conditions, treatment centers for and protection from coronavirus, lower prices for food and gasoline. We are trying to organize a sound truck to spread the revolutionary messages and raise the idea that the capitalist conditions led to this coronavirus pandemic. We will also call for communist revolution as the only solution.
The day before, there will be a sit-in at the General Hospital (only public hospital in the capital serving millions of workers) demanding better working conditions and wages for hospital workers, as well as the above. Onward to May Day!