LETTERS of Feburary 16

Duvalier ‘Return’ Part of Latest Subjugation of Haiti

The return of the fascist dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier provoked these comments from friends in Haiti:

1. Hello comrades: This bizarre apparition is not just a surprise but also a trap set for most Haitians. It’s not a “return,” as they pretend, but rather a ruse to create a political diversion. In all the tap-taps [informal taxis] since his return, it’s the only subject of conversation. Why this injection of a troubling factor into the worsening crisis?  What does the future hold for the people? These are questions to ask and to answer.  We might say that it’s a bit of theater, directed by the international community and the government in power, to further confuse the political situation

2. Duvalier’s return is certainly put in place by president René Préval, with an eye to distracting Haitians’ attention from the electoral crisis. He wants to put the brakes on mobilization by the organizations and political parties aiming at chasing Préval from power.  The French government and MINUSTAH [UN Mission to Stabilize Haiti] have participated in setting up this return.
Even before his arrival in court, everyone knew that the government was going to install him in a luxurious mansion in Port-au-Prince.  Yesterday, the Minister of Justice saw to everything: air conditioning, furnishings, a generator, etc. We should expect nothing positive to come out of this business.

3. When the old dictator Jean Claude Duvalier surprised us by returning after twenty years of exile in France, he was applauded by a crowd chanting slogans like “If Jean Claude had been here things would not be like they are.”

The political crisis that Haiti is experiencing goes back a long way before Préval.  A look at the current administration reveals the fingerprints of Duvalier all over it: what we are living through now is merely the sequel of the project of dictatorship of the Duvaliers, under the auspices of the U.S. for the massive destruction of the living sap of Haitian life.  Or, better put, for the re-colonization of Haiti by the U.S.

After having been slaves of the French we became slaves of the U.S., and paid a lot of money to show our gratitude.  Some of our Haitian brothers were sold into slavery to other countries by our governments, including those of the Duvaliers.

We must be aware that the Duvaliers were fine servants of the U.S., as they were of France.  After twenty-five years of political babbling, this return of the ancient Dictator of Haiti may be just more groping around by the international community to see if it can still count on its old watchdog in Haiti.

Friends in Haiti

Cancer Kills Comrade Who Fought Rulers’ Sick System

A very good friend and comrade who was once active with PLP died from brain cancer on January 20. He was in his early 60s and leaves a wife and two adult children. Ironically his professional work was research into both the many causes of cancer and methods of prevention. However, he knew that the primary underlying cause of all cancer is the miserably unhealthy environment that capitalism produces, as well as its horrible stress-inducing working and living conditions. Stress, among many other harmful effects, interferes with our immune systems’ abilities to defend us against cancer and other illnesses.

To me personally, his dying is very, very sad. It only goes to show yet again what a killer capitalism really is. The vast majority of cancers are preventable with healthy working and living conditions and environment. The horrors of capitalist health care are nothing compared with the horrors of capitalist health.

When another comrade was in her dying days from breast cancer over a decade ago, her husband commented on what a plague this cancer was. I think we still don’t comprehend just how much of it is caused by capitalism, and tend to assume — without meaning to and hoping to escape the pitfall — that since cancer preceded capitalism it is just a natural part of life. That just isn’t so. Before capitalism, science simply hadn’t yet discovered much about how the environment and conditions of life contribute to ill health. Of course, everyone has to die some time, but, under different circumstances, life expectancy can easily well exceed 100. Under the best of conditions in today’s world it is at least 20 years less than that, and under the worst it is at least half a century less.

As all of us age, more and more of our friends, family, and comrades are leaving us. Life and death keep evolving. I can only take some comfort in knowing that in PLP we are working toward those circumstances that will not only extend all human life but make it worthwhile and fulfilling. This indeed was the comfort that sustained our comrade through his illness.

Saguaro Rojo

Inspired to Fight Exploitation in Haiti

On December 7, violence, rioting, and police and UN terror in response to election fraud caused my trip to be rescheduled. So we ended up being there during a very historic time, on the anniversary of the earthquake. To be in Port-au-Prince on Wednesday, January 12th was a profound experience on many levels.

Profound was the connection I felt with the Haitian community and myself.  It discounted my belief that I could never relate with people from much poorer communities.  I had assumed that so-called Third World communities, having been through much more hardship and devastation than I would ever see, would not respect my own plight. It could not have been further from the truth, as we were both from working-class communities and had lots more in common than not.  It was a pleasure to collaborate with the Haitian student and union activists.

Profound was the devastation that still lingers from the earthquake. The UN and NGOs maximized their efforts not to reconstruct. Instead, they established 40 free trade zones so that multi-national entities can exploit Haitian labor.  With the state having very little power, Haiti has been left in the hands of international business interests.

Profound was the disgrace of how these business interests have left the condition of Haiti even one year later. Throughout the towns and cities, piles of rubble and trash remain, along unpaved roads. The tents that “house” over 1 million people are packed in tightly and resemble concentration camps.

The trip was nothing short of inspiring and I am excited to prepare for future projects in Haiti.

Student comrade

Red Ideas on Religion Moves Teenagers to Materialism

I recently had a conversation with two Muslim teenage students who were inspired by the recent article on materialism, religion and idealism. One was very interested in understanding the mind of an atheist, to which I replied I’m not just an atheist — I’m a communist.  I don’t just define myself as a non-believer of god, but by the understanding that there can be a society free of class, racism and sexism. 

We discussed the fact that religion is prescientific thinking — early humans’ attempt to understand the world. We discussed how religion forces people to be subservient since only a few prophets or priests have access to the “truth.” I wondered if they saw the relationship of god to man as a reflection of the boss-worker relationship under capitalism. 

Just as the state seeks to monopolize the legitimate use of violence, so to does all religion and spirituality seek to monopolize morality, whereas true morality comes from the collective understanding of necessity.

We discussed how Marx described god as a reflection of man’s best qualities removed from mankind and worshiped apart from humanity; how god was like the simple fetish mask or carving — our own creation that we worship; how Marx made two seemingly disparate and contradictory quotes that illustrated the two sides of why religion exists – it is the drug of the masses and the only hope in a hopeless world. Drugs provide warmth and hope for those addicts who live a painful existence on the edge of oblivion; the god-drug is just as powerful of an escapist drug as it numbs the alienating pain of life under capitalism. 

CHALLENGE helped this conversation to happen, moving several young Islamic students closer to the working class, a materialist philosophy, and revolution. Someday we will have a society free from the chains of religion, but for that to happen the PLP must lead a communist revolution. 

Materialist, and proud of it!

Rebellion Against Capitalist Exploitation

During the last two weeks, the continuing failure of capitalism worldwide resulted in many deaths in:

• Albania — 20,000 march, protest corrupt rulers;

• Jordan — Thousands march against economic hardships;

• Tunisia — Nationwide revolt to overthrow corrupt government;

• Yemen and Algeria — Thousands protest corrupt rulers;

• Egypt — Hundreds of thousands demonstrate in many cities against 30 years of Mubarak corruption.

Despite ornate palaces, imposing capitol buildings and gigantic pyramids to show off the capitalist rulers’ power, they have been forced by the rules of the system to open their countries to exploitation of land, resources and labor for the profits of foreign and domestic bosses. Starvation, malnutrition and disease are the causes of the holocaust images of people we see on the news, wandering over devastated lands that used to produce food in those countries but are now sucked dry for capitalist and imperialist profits.

Past protests against this misery have been met with thousands of police. They were equipped with the latest riot-control weapons and backed by an army with guns, tanks, helicopters and warplanes supplied mostly by the U.S., the largest exporter of arms worldwide . The U.S. calls this “foreign aid”; i.e., weapons to suppress people in exchange for the right to steal countries’ wealth.

The recent increasing volume of protests, rebellions, and revolts are starting to feed off each other and workers are sensing their growing power. As communists, wherever possible, we must give every support to this movement stretching across countries. We must stress to workers at every opportunity that it is capitalism that is destroying their lives and threatening their very existence and that putting different people in power without wiping out that murderous system is suicide.

The lesson to be learned from this suffering is that only by fighting for communism and workers’ power can we provide for our class’s needs.

Unemployed comrade

Not all Violence is Bad

I thought last issue’s editorial [Feb. 2, 2011] did a good job exposing the hypocrisy of politicians in general and Obama in particular. Out of one side of their mouth, they wail and moan about Jared Loughner killing six people in Arizona. On the other side, they give orders for Reaper drones to ìincinerate and dismember children.

However, I thought the article missed an important point: revolutionary violence is necessary. Capitalist violence, whether the work of an individual madman or an imperialist government, is wrong.  Revolutionary violence, wielded by the working class against the bosses, is the only path to a communist world. The bosses can neither be voted out of control nor can they be reasoned with. Every day, we witness the forms of violence the bosses use to secure their profits: racist police terror, dangerous working conditions, and poverty. These attacks will be sharpened as workers gain class-consciousness and realize that we can run society for ourselves without the blood-sucking bosses.

Workers must be prepared to fight for our society and to defend our revolution. We will use mass, revolutionary violence, not individual terrorism, to wipe capitalism from the planet and secure a better way of life for all workers.

A comrade