HAITIANS SPEAK OUT IN D.C. ON JUNE 5

By G. Dunkel

Washington, D.C.

Haitian organizations enthusiastically joined the June 5 demonstrations
to "End the Colonial Occupation in Iraq, Palestine, Haiti and
Everywhere" called by the ANSWER coalition. These organizations came to
express their opposition to the U.S. and French troops that are propping
up the government of former Macoute death squads, ex-army officers and
well-off U.S.-based businessmen now running their country.

But the groups showed a broader interest when a bus organized by the
Brooklyn-based Coalition to Resist the Feb. 29th Coup d’etat in Haiti
pulled up to the rally site. The people getting off the bus ran into a
small band of right-wingers chanting "Palestine doesn’t exist." The
Haitian contingent’s response was immediate, in English, French and
Creole: "Long live Palestine!" "Vive la Palestine!" "Viv Palestin!"
When the right-wingers fell silent, the contingent moved into the crowd
waiting for the speeches to start.

Yves Alcindor of the New England Human Rights Organization for Haiti,
one of the first speakers, pointed out, "Supporting the resistance in
Iraq was to support the resistance in Haiti."

Serge Lilavois, representing the Coalition to Resist the Feb. 29th Coup
d’etat in Haiti, also spoke. He said that the resistance in Haiti has
not been defeated, it is just lying low and gathering strength. Big
demon strations on May 18 in Port-au-Prince had brought
out tens of thousands of demonstrators, who stayed in the streets all
day, even after the cops, backed up by U.S. Marines, killed at least two
protesters. A major slogan, according to Lilavois, was "The only
solution is revolution!"

He ended his talk with these words: "Haitians are opposed to the
suffering of the Palestinians, Iraqis, and all other oppressed people,
as well as the suffering of their own people."

In a message to the demonstration that Jill Ives of the Haiti Support
Network read, Ben Dupuy, secretary general of the National Popular Party
(PPN), said that "U.S. military forces are stretched thin by resistance
to U.S. occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan. And that resistance is
growing in Haiti too."

He continued: "Now the U.S. is trying to pit Third World peoples against
each other. It has convinced the governments of Brazil, Argentina,
Bolivia, Chile ... and others to send so-called ’peace keeping’ troops
to Haiti. Even the corporate press has had to admit that the people of
these countries don’t support this mission."

He went on to say that even though a Brazilian has been named
commander,
the Pentagon would still be in charge of the military forces in Haiti.
"But using troops from the Third World better disguises U.S.
imperialism’s moves."

WHY THEY CAME

Asked why he came to Washington, Menouch Lambert, who is a backer of
Fanmi Lavalas, Aristide’s party, in Brooklyn, told Workers World: "I
came to support our sisters and brothers in Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan
and especially Haiti, suffering under occupation. We want Bush to stop
oppressing Haitians."

Pierre-Antoine Lovinsky, who was carrying a sign reading "George Bush
fascist—stop killing Haitians" with a Haitian flag taped to the top of
his pole, said in Creole he came to "denounce the criminal policies of
Bush and to demand the physical return of Aristide to Haiti."

Jean-Claude Monastime, who also comes from Brooklyn, where he is active
in the struggles of the Haitian community, said, "My country has been
invaded like Iraq and Afghanistan. I am marching with my sisters and
brothers to end this madness."

Larry Holmes, a member of the steering committee of the ANSWER
coalition, said: "It appears that there has been a significant turnout
from the Haitian community today. It is an important obligation of the
anti-war movement to ensure that their contributions and their struggles
are recognized."